WED 09/03/2016

Living in cities is not as fun as it should be. It is true that urban areas do enable us a lot of activities, ranging from enjoying cousin from all over the world to visiting exhibitions. However, these are mainly tailored for consumer oriented society with very little or no engagement. Commercial centers have become the new public spaces to socialize and hang out.

Yet, cities of the future might make the difference – smart and sustainable urban design along with futuristic, technologically equipped public art is altering the meaning & use of public spaces in urban communities.

Luminothérapie festival transformed Montreal from an ordinary city to a huge playground for everyone. The usual steel jungle became a colorful interactive place where passers-by were able to interact with art on the streets. Festivals like this one, in contrast with museums and galleries, situate artworks in public spaces and inevitably engage a broader public. Importantly, those art installations on concrete walls offer much more than just a decoration.

Iregular crew, founded by PLATOON member Daniel Iregui, one of the festival’s participants, presented Balance – a five piece video project, projected on five different buildings. Exploring the concept of balance, the idea was to get the people engaged with the interactive visual world placed on the streets and make a city more inspiring, interesting and alive – a very tempting way of getting people out of their cosy homes even at low temperatures (in January, the average temperatures in Montreal are -9°C).
Living in cities is not as fun as it should be. Yet, smart and sustainable urban design along with futuristic public art might make the difference. Photo: Courtesy of the artist.

Living in cities is not as fun as it should be. Yet, smart and sustainable urban design along with futuristic public art might make the difference. Photo: Courtesy of the artist.

Photo: Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Courtesy of the artist.
Balance unfolds a new unlimited world on a place what used to be just a boring grey wall or a billboard. Suddenly, we get a different perception of a place, relate more with our surrounding and people who experience the same sensation. It enriches the community and it gives a sense of inclusiveness.

For Daniel Iregui and Iregular, public spaces feel like home. With their installations they influence people’s perception and stimulate their imagination. Art pieces fighting the daily dullness and hyper-busyness empowers us as citizens, all equally treated. Due to the imperative of chaotic individualism of the present, creating an interactive, social playground available for all is very much needed – there is no better time than now.

BALANCE is a 5 piece video project made to be projected on 5 different building in Montreal. Each video explores the concept of BALANCE depending on the building it was projected. All the visuals where made with code, and we developed a software to sync to the music very accurately allowing us to visualize as many details in the sound as we wanted.

Iregular was part of this year's Luminothérapie in Montreal.