Collaboration — Public Art, TU Graz — Kinderbüro
Participatory work in public space
Aquatopia was a public space intervention in the form of an interactive submarine structure for children, aimed at raising awareness around global water issues.
Eight artists from Graz and abroad were invited by a curator each to develop rooms within the vessel. In team work with the Finnish artist Tuuli Kunden-Uusimaki I developed the Kajute, or sleeping cabin. The idea was to create seating or lying comfortable and secure structures where visitors, especially children, were invited to dream of/about water.
The Kajute was then a portal to the magical content of the sub water world, a window to the unknown. Seven stories were created, each taking a mythical and bizarre water creatures as a theme. These were silk-screen printed and illustrated on Perspex discs hung on tubing from the ceiling. A cushioned marine environment was created within the space.
In order to generate the stories, I toured around the country making workshop on story-telling and water awareness. The resulting products where used as inspiration for the stories and as developmental research for the construction of a safe environment for kids.
