hizlik-LookingOutwards04

When I had seen this a few years ago (my friend had sent me a link) I couldn’t stop laughing. Why? Because in all the times I played Minecraft I’d forgotten just how ridiculous the idea of hitting (or punching) a block to gather resources was. To do anything in the survival mode, first thing you need is wood, which is achieved by punching trees. Need dirt to build temporary walls? Punch dirt (or hit it with anything). Seeing this in “real life” just made those silly actions become a reality, and for me this was just an emphasis of that feeling. The artist, Ben Purdy, made 3 of these videos (I originally only saw one) but it’s a shame he hasn’t done anything with it. This has great potential to be an public or education-based interactive artwork or exhibition. I can see this being used in very lower-aged groups, such as elementary kids (perhaps ages so young they haven’t even played Minecraft as a sort of digital/interactive-art building block or learning method.

Unfortunately I don’t find this particularly inspiring for my own work, however it is an enjoyable piece of interactive work that has obviously required some special thinking and meticulous work (such as managing to perfectly project onto the sides of the box using one(?) projector… I believe in the 3rd video he uses multiple projectors for even-sided projection.