Game Art: Jairo Gutiérrez' "Spring" (2012)
This is quite intriguing. Just don't call it Flower. This is a remarkably different experience, with a powerful, political subtext. Cuban artist Jairo Gutiérrez took part in the exhibition Cuban Virtualities (2013), curated by Rewell Altunaga and Liz Munsell at The Tufts University Art Gallery at the Shirley and Alex Aidekman Arts Center. Currently living in Koln, Germany, Jairo Gutiérrez describes Spring as:
"[A] peaceful landscape in spring time, in which float in the wind many Dandelions´s seeds. With a modified police baton that is connected through Bluetooth to the game, is possible to hit those seeds. When they are beaten, several scores are shown which value equals in numbers to the quantity of persons that were damaged by the repression of police or military forces in popular protests in several countries, since end of the XVIII century until our days. The illumination of the scene get slowly darker and the flying seeds disappear. After a moment in darkness and without any more targets to hit, the whole ambience recover the original status and the seeds of dandelion continue flying in the air, ready to be beaten again." (Gutiérrez)LINK
Submitted by Matteo Bittanti