The Pool by artist Jen Lewin has been exhibited around the country, including at SXSW Interactive 2013.
By Janis Fontaine
The city of West Palm Beach is going to make a big splash with its latest production.
Summer In Paradise is a month’s worth of activities planned around The Pool, artist Jen Lewin’s interactive outdoor exhibition. From now until the last fireworks fade away closing West Palm’s famed 4th on Flagler, The Pool will take over the Great Lawn at the West Palm Beach waterfront complex. From 7 to 11 p.m. every night until July 4, you can jump in The Pool.
Lewin describes her work this way: “Imagine a giant canvas where you can paint and splash light collaboratively.”
What it really is is 106 lighted disks about the size of manhole covers, laid out in a huge grid. These disks, called pucks, change color at varying speeds. When you step on a puck, it changes. Then your puck “speaks” to an adjacent puck, which “listens” and reacts. Then, when your friends step on their pucks, each movement creates a brand new ever-changing piece of art.
Sybille Welter, the Art in Public Places coordinator for the city, thought the Boulder, Colo.-based artist’s work would be a good fit for the waterfront. Welter had seen The Pool at Burning Man, an annual seven-day art event in Black Rock Desert in Nevada, where participants create Black Rock City, “a temporary metropolis dedicated to community, art, self-expression and self-reliance.”
The Pool was “a huge hit” there, Welter said.
People like to see their energy spread out like ripples on a pond. With just a few people, it’s almost like a dance. With more people, the colors collide into chaos, or colorful patterns emerge. The color palette can be changed, as can the amount of pressure it takes for a puck to react. The light varies by color and by intensity, the size of the rings, the speed and the number of pucks you can influence. Each person’s ripple is unique.
In a way, it’s computerized light art, except that The Pool has no single master computer and does not use a router to route or control connections.
“Each pad is independent and simultaneously interacts and listens to its environment based on user feedback,” Lewin says. “Together, the 106 pads create complex, surprising and unpredictable color arrays with their user participants.”
The way the pucks react really does make it seem like they are communicating. The Pool can be as small as 40-feet-by-40-feet or as large as 100-feet-by-100-feet. Since 2012, The Pool has been seen by thousands of people from San Francisco to Singapore.
“Art is not a stagnant form any longer,” Welter said. “Visitors participate in and play with the sculpture.”
And for a family event, what could be better? Instead of hearing “don’t touch! Don’t touch!” the kids will be hearing, “Please touch the art! Better yet, jump in.”
After you hop, skip and jump through this artistic maze of pucks, you can play glow-in-the-dark games, including mini-golf with glowing golf balls, holes and clubs at the Glow for It nine-hole course. Golf is offered from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily through July 5. The fee is $2.50 per person per round with a $2.50 refundable ball and club deposit.
Visit Palm Beach, the source for water-sports rentals in West Palm Beach, will be offering full-moon paddles in July and August for $35, including kayak or paddle board rental. Glowing Catamaran Cruises are offered on Fridays and Saturdays, from June 5 to Aug. 29, for $40, including beverages. Check it out at visitpalmbeach.com.
And Summer in Paradise has still more to offer in June: Clematis by Night will celebrate its 20th year providing outdoor entertainment with two bands and $2 domestic beers every Thursday through August. Sunday on the Waterfront on June 21 will feature a Michael Jackson tribute. The new Northwood Village Mango & Music Fest, a tribute to the beloved fruit with music, art, entertainment and mangoes, takes place June 26-27, and the annual 4th on Flagler celebration, which is pretty much synonymous with Independence Day, will feature a weekend of patriotic fun.
Other events include Screen on the Green on June 12, when they’ll screen Jurassic Park, and The Northwood Village Art Walk, which takes place June 13.
“Just because it’s not season doesn’t mean exciting things aren’t happening,” Welter said. “It’s going to be a fun summer.”
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