Come Again

2014, computer-controlled installation

Custom computer applications, motors, microcontrollers, air compressor, modified electric scooter, pneumatic robot, video projectors

Mini Mart City Park and Sutton Beres Culler are proud to present 'Come Again', a site-specific installation created by Artist-In-Residence Brent Watanabe. Taking inspiration from and reacting to the abandoned gas station on the park property, Watanabe will reanimate the structure with mechanical and computer-generated vermin, garbage, and squatters.

Computer generated mice swarm the exposed rafters overhead, scurrying in a video game frenzy of eating, multiplying, scoring, and dying. Below them on the bare cement floor, a robotic dog struggles to pull itself through a hole in the back door, chained to lawn furniture in the back yard. A pneumatic cat hisses and lunges at a window, running through it's 9 lives again and again, while a plastic take out bag wheezes amidst garbage strewn about the space. Atop a large drift of garbage in the corner a holographic bird hovers and tugs, tied down and unable to pull free. 'Come Again' works like a large video game. Each character's computer-controlled behavior affects the entire show. A particularly bad mouse plague can throw the cat into a frenzy, which will cause the dog to struggle even more to get in, which frightens the bird, which...

Venues

Mini Mart City Park, Seattle, WA