Art & Technology #8: Random International

The “falling rain” captivated visitors. Has the convergence of technology and art finally reached a point of manifesting imagination into reality? Random International brought to life what was nothing short of extraordinary, presenting visitors with the visceral experience of a downpour—the hall was even filled with the sounds of torrential rain—completely immersing viewers in the experience. The feat of the installation was achieved by using 3D tracking cameras, which were installed to follow visitor movements and relay information to a contraption that blocked the rain from people’s paths. The installation elicited a fantastic interactive relationship between light, water, sound and human movement. Random International is a British contemporary artist studio interested in exploring associations within the natural phenomena of behavior, responses and intuition. The creative ideas imagined by the three designers are brought to life through varied combinations of art, design and state-of-the-art technology. Through this process of manifesting ideas, the collective presents well-polished viewer-participation installations in terms of technology and art.
As such, Random International works from a digital platform, stimulating the immediate and vibrant relationships between people and their surroundings, introducing the latest developments in cognitive science and new media into their works, and regarding viewer participation as the most important. The rainfall in the installation itself is visually stunning, the deluge of streams and droplets an impressive effect nothing short of fantastic. But it is only when a visitor steps through the curtain of downpour that the studio's work is finally completed.

Recently, Random International has been studying the meaning of life as found in increasingly machine-dominated society. What it Isn't(2014) was the outcome of such research, focusing on the viewer's physical presence as a whole and presenting a new dialogue between visitor and installation. The installation creates an audible reaction to the visitor's physical presence in the space. Hundreds of narrow glass vials, each containing two small brass cylinders and a vibration motor are suspended from the ceiling. When the installation senses movement within the space, the motors cause the cylinders to collectively buzz with a light rattle. The hum of the cylinders and the intensity of the sound it generates vary according to the viewer’s location and actions. The human brain is extremely well conditioned to accurately pinpoint the position of sound-emitting objects, and sound is one of the most effective ways to send and receive signals to communicate. By generating sound as a response to movement, What It Isn’t generates an ambiance of vividness around viewer, and presents a sensory experience that provides a spatial awareness of the self.
In an age where machines are a fundamental and intrinsic component of life, addressing the man-machine relationship from the perspective of art raises questions of human identity and autonomy. At the core of Random International’s artworks is not only engagement through movement, but employment of the senses to draw in the audience. Their works are playful and explorative, requiring participants to connect with all senses firing.

Random International is a British contemporary artist studio. The founders and directors, Stuart Wood, Florian Ortkrass and Hannes Koch, studied at the Royal College of Art in London and established the studio in 2005. Héloïse Reynolds is responsible for Communications and Dev Joshi is Creative Technologist. Designers are Satoru Kusakabe, Callum Brown and Adam Wadey, and Tom Stacey is in charge of Design Engineering. Studio Manager is Victoria Covell and Production Manager is Jamie Tunnard. They have shown at the Ruhrtriennale, V&A Museum, Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art and the Wellcome Trust.