Conductive Circuits

A touch-based craft and play activity for kids and adults. Presented specifically for Family Day at the MCA, 2018.

As many project start as offshoots of other ideas and explorations, Conductive Circuits was no different. Colin Mosely and I, as a performance art duo, had been exploring the performative potential of touch-based interfaces, and how we might enable ourself and audience members to interact with plants in fun and novel ways. We were asked by MCA to participate in their Family Day event shortly after our performance, Sensitive Plant – so we designed hub-like interface installation objects, that allowed anyone with alligator clips and anything conductive, to extend the installation (and interface) through their own creation.

We designed the activity to be approachable by all ages, from babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, adults, and elderly. Thus the materials had to be accessible, and the installations as approachable as possible.

The interactive hubs acted as instruments, connected to our own custom audio sampler machine (made using Max 8). We offered cut custom shapes of paper stock, tons of copper conductive tape, play-doh, plants, and customized thick glassware objects lined with conductive tape, for participants to play with as they chose.

The event was facilitated by myself, Zoe Stergiannis, Colin Mosely, staff, and volunteers from the MCA.