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The Ludic Fields sculptures are innovative artworks designed to encourage new interactions in public space. They are equipped with sensors to track movement and translate that movement into lighting effects. Each sculpture communicates the movement they capture to the other sculptures near them, but also across the city. The more the public interacts with them the more dynamic they become.
Ludic Fields is a new interactive art work for public space created by Artengine, Andrew O’Malley and Lateral Office for Architecture. Connecting three sites around Ottawa, by day, Ludic Fields provides playful reflections of the bustle of the city; come sundown the sculptures light up and respond to the rhythm of the night.
Supported by OC Transpo as an initiative to bring cutting edge public artwork to important spaces on the transit network, the City of Ottawa Public Art Program and Artengine are excited to present new interactive art works produced here in Ottawa. Nine Sculptures are connected over three sites at Ogilvy Square (next to the Rideau Center), Baseline and Blair Transitway stations.
The Ludic Fields sculptures are innovative artworks designed to encourage new interactions in public space. They are equipped with sensors to track movement and translate that movement into lighting effects. Each sculpture communicates the movement they capture to the other sculptures near them, but also across the city. The more the public interacts with them the more dynamic they become.
This project is a unique collaboration between Artengine, Lateral Office and Andrew O’Malley.
Artengine is a center for art, design and research in Ottawa led by Ryan Stec (Artistic Director) and Remco Volmer (Managing Director) with Eszter Gero as Ludic Fields Project Manager.
Lateral Office is a research-based architecture office based in Toronto led by Lola Shepard and Mason White with project participation from Brandon Bergem.
Andrew O’Malley is a light and sound artist based in Ottawa.
Design collaboration and fabrication by Jakob Lorenz of Generique Design in Montreal.
Interactive design and programming with the support of James Acres.
The project team would like to acknowledge the privilege of presenting this public art piece on the traditional and unceded territory of the Algonquin nation.
LATERAL OFFICE, founded in 2003 by Mason White and Lola Sheppard, is an experimental design practice that operates at the intersection of architecture, landscape, and urbanism. The studio describes its practice process as a commitment to “design as a research vehicle to pose and respond to complex, urgent questions in the built environment,” engaging in the “wider context and climate of a project– social, ecological, or political.”
LATERAL OFFICE is committed to an architecture that responds directly to the demands of the 21st century – and the subsequent new typologies made possible by an architecture that brazenly confronts today. Recent work and research focuses on powerful design relationships between public realm, infrastructure, and the environment.
Andrew O’Malley is a Canadian new media artist with a formal background in electrical engineering. He engages in painting, audio, and video practices, but it is sculptural lighting that draws the focus of his creative energy. His work has been supported by the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Ottawa, and the Corel Endowment Fund for the Arts.
He has exhibited widely in Ontario, and is currently the president of Ottawa artist-run centre, Artengine, dedicated to electronic art and its evolving relationship with society. He is also involved with New York based art/technology centres NYC Resistor and Eyebeam.
When working with his wife, Deborah, as an audio/video performance duo and for other artistic projects, they collaborate as The Latest Artists.