[ summer 2014 ]
Created as a gateway to the 2014 Seattle Design Festival, To Change Is To Move asked attendees to actively engage in its development and transformation over the two days of the festival’s opening block party, creating a playground for all ages.
The project began with a simple belief—that change is only possible through movement, and movement is the root of change. To change places, to change our minds, to change our lives, we must be willing to move. Change is the beginnings of progress, development, acceptance, and even the smallest decision to move has immense power. Through simple interactions with the installation, the audience is encouraged to move, and reminded that collective small changes can be the beginnings of a revolution.
Born from these convictions, To Change is to Move turned passive festival-goers into collaborative artists. The energy and movement created by each individual interaction transformed the pristine, almost sterile, semi-invisible set of extruded letterforms into a tangible, evocative, living installation.
The interaction itself was designed to strike a delicate balance, in order to captivate, include and draw people from all walks of life into the festival grounds. One that was simple enough for children, yet engaging for adults. Fluorescent flagging tape was provided with simple instructions to tear some tape, wrap around the installation’s pegs, and repeat, thus evoking a childlike sense of wonder and play.
By the end of the weekend, only a day-glo ball of energy remained, showing not only a visual, analog record of the festival happenings, but also the collective impact of hundreds of individual decisions to move.
