Liquid Cohesion, 2012

Michael Alstad - Toronto, Canada

Interactive Video Installation

Nestled between Toronto’s financial district bank towers, Commerce Court will be transformed into a utopian aquatic playground through a choreographed video projection. Uniting human and marine life, Liquid Cohesion will be projected onto the shallow circular pool surface creating an open-ended virtual aquarium. The site-specific video projection will infuse a colourful and random whirlwind of nature as a counterpoint to the stark simplicity of the geometrically defined modernist courtyard designed in 1994 by Zeidler Architects. The video also takes cues from Derrick Hudson’s nearby public art sculptures – a work that transposes a majestic elephant family onto the austere urban plaza.

The visual effect of Liquid Cohesion, an integration of human and aquatic forms, suggests a temporary suspension of the delineated boundaries between humans and the natural world. Building on artist Michael Alstad’s ongoing engagement with urban space and public memory, the work integrates architecture and environment to pose an alternative history and meaning of the urban landscape, an imagined time and space beyond visible surroundings. Participant movement along sections of the video projection’s perimeter will activate a particle animation layer suggesting fish swarm behavior.

The work of artist and independent curator Michael Alstad encompasses a diverse range of media including video, installation, photography, networked art and research based practice with a focus on architectural and public space. His web, video, installation, and photo-based works have been included in many international media arts festivals, on-line exhibitions, galleries and public sites. Michael is a founding member of the Canadian artist collective Year Zero One where he has curated numerous projects in the past decade.

This project is outdoors.

Commerce Court Central Courtyard & Fountain, 25 King Street West (Access via Bay Street or Jordan Street)