Hard Drivin’
Kinetic installation
Ivan Twohig
Benjamin Gaulon
Brian Solon
Thursday 25th to Sunday 28th of February 2010.
The title of the piece references Hard Drivin' a video game released in 1989. The game featured the first 3D polygon driving environment. The installation involves radio controlled (R/C) cars that physically react to short messages ('tweets') sent through the popular social networking site Twitter. Anyone can participate by telling the cars to begin following another user, by sending a simple command inside a tweet.
This project can be seen as a Media Archeology Installation as well as an exploration of Hardware Hacking Art practices. Media Archeology as defined by Erkki Huhtamo, is "the study of the cyclically recurring elements and motives underlying and guiding the development of media culture," and "the 'excavation' of the ways in which these discursive traditions and formulations have been 'imprinted' on specific media machines and systems in different historical contexts, contributing to their identity in terms of socially and ideologically specific webs of signification" (1996).
The installation was visible to the public 24/7 and located in Exchange Dublin Gallery
in Temple Bar. The installation reacted to its own reference in twitter.
harddrivin.com