MOBILE ART

A series of mobile applications and installations exploring the intersection of technology, public space, and civic engagement. Each app transforms the smartphone into an artistic tool — for protest, defense, memory, and self-immolation.

SELF-IMMOLATION VOLUNTARY KIT

App, installation, website, 2014.

Self-Immolation Voluntary Kit is used to carry out a public act of virtual self-immolation. The kit consists of a mobile application and a portable folding podium. Final demonstration can be done anywhere. To do this, spread the podium at the selected point and stand on it. Run the application, raise your hand above you and point the camera at yourself. Stand motionless and be proud having the moment of importance in mind. Photo of self-immolation will be triggered automatically and shared with people all over the world through selected social media. Final demonstration can be done only once a day. Be responsible, consciously choose the acting points in public spaces.

Exhibition: “Sobreexposition”, MAC, Chile, 2016. Exhibition: “Close Stranger”, 2015.

PROTEST

Mobile app, website, public space actions, 2015. LCD installation, 240x120 cm, 2016, Wyspa, Gdansk.

Protest app is a tool for expressing your civil revolt opinions. Use it for creating a peaceful virtual demonstration. Type a slogan, record video wherever you want and share it with others. Your protests will be available on the “Protestline”. You can preview nearby protests in Augmented Reality mode.

The way to sort it out is to express your support or opposition to the protest. As mentioned in the declaration: protests are not eternal — your support or opposition changes the protest life value. More support increases the protest lifetime, more opposition decreases it. Your opposition could be the one killing the protest. On the protest-line you have an option to filter out and view only the protests you are supporting.

RSO — REGIONAL DEFENCE SYSTEM

Mobile application, installation, 2015. Installation at St. John’s Church, Gdansk, 09.2015.

This is a test designed to practice your behavior during war.

In light of recent events in Ukraine, we should consider preparing Poland for possible military invasion by the Russian Federation. The war is 2000 km from Gdansk, which makes us aware that we must be ready for a sudden attack in the Baltic Sea region. This specially designed mobile application helps test ways of responding in case of direct threat resulting from war or terrorist attack. The application, based on the user’s location in the city, provides advice and commands, indicating the direction to go. The main objective is to reach a shelter within the designated warning time — this is the time the user has from the moment the enemy fires a weapon to the moment of its explosion in the region. Current version works only in a specified area of the city of Gdansk.

Instructions:

Check how long it takes to reach the nearest shelter.
Choose a shelter location depending on available time.
Prepare the shelter.
Use the RDS app to practice for a crisis situation.

WATER MEMORY

Android application, public space, Gdansk, 2013.

“Water Memory” is an interactive art project that uses a specially designed app for tablets, through which the viewer is transferred into a parallel reality. The inspiration for this art piece was a pseudoscientific hypothesis stating that water has an ability to collect and store information. “Water Memory” offers viewers a sentimental journey into the history of Gdansk, Poland and the area of Osiek, which will be rediscovered when wandering its streets. With the resulting application, the real image captured by the camera tablet is layered with an imaginary underwater world, full of memorabilia and signs of the past. Water becomes a perceptual filter through which the viewer is visually and audibly “immersed” in a non-linear narrative created by the artist.

Concept, design, script, 3D — Piotr Wyrzykowski. Sound — Krzysztof Topolski. Programming — Jakub Zloczewski.

MOBILEPHONE

Performance, Gdansk, public space, 2013. Video projection, mobile phone, wireless transmission, augmented reality, light.

Action based on a leaked document: a set of keywords used to identify potentially dangerous phone conversations. The performance took place in a building condemned for demolition due to its alarming condition. Inside the building, stickers with keywords were placed. Each sticker was an individual marker with an assigned video file, playing in augmented reality and visible on the phone screen.

On the building facade, a video image from the phone camera was projected. The phone served as a camera, flashlight, transmitting device, and marker reader. Walking through the interior of the empty building, I searched for hidden stickers activating video files. The interior of the building was superimposed on its facade. During the performance, a man illegally living in the building came out and turned off the power to the devices.