Andy Best and Merja Puustinen
Andy Best was born in the south of England, 1963. Since 1988 he has lived and worked in Helsinki, Finland. Merja Puustinen was born in Hamina, Finland, 1963. They have collaborated together since 1993. Both have a background in sculpture, video and installation art. They were amongst the first online web artists, and during the mid to late 1990's worked with virtual multiuser 3D worlds on the internet. With their company Meetfactory they developed a 3D multiuser community platform and virtual pet or tamagotchi for mobile phones. They now concentrate their artistic activities on large scale installations and interactive works. Best and Puustinen also run the Digital Arts degree course at Turku University of Applied Sciences. Merja Puustinen is completing doctoral research at the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki.
Andy Best spent December 2008 in Ulverston, developing new ideas and engaging with the region's creative community. Through the relationship built with Andy and Merja during the 2008 residencies, folly was delighted to be able to commission Too Much of a Mouthful, a new inflatable sound sculpture for Portable Pixel Playground in the form of a shark, body parts and alien. As you roll and climb around on the sculpture, sound is generated by sensors attached the sculpture, enabling you to create a soundscape with your own movement.
Read more about this piece and the playground at www.portablepixelplayground.org. Lanternhouse are key partners in folly's Portable Pixel Playground project, and have hosted a number of these family friendly events in Ulverston.
During his time in Ulverston, Andy was involved in the first Digital Lunch event at Lanternhouse. Developed out of Andy's interest in questions of play and human computer interaction, Digital Lunch was an informal opportunity to meet Andy, and get together with other regional artists working in a similar field, to discuss and develop ideas about engaging with physical interactive installations. Andy's new piece Too Much of a Mouthful, was also available to view and was a good stimulus for discussion, along with pieces brought by other invited guests.
The event was very successful, kicking off interesting new avenues, shared discussions and collaborative working relationships with the artists who attended. folly and Lanternhouse continued to develop a programme of events like these with resident artists in 2009/10.
In December 2008 Lanternhouse also welcomed students and staff from Beaumont College, to experience Too Much of a Mouthful. Read more about this at Andy and Merja's website. Beaumont College, Lancaster, caters for residential and day students, aged between 19 and 25, with a broad range of physical and learning impairments.
Andy and Merja's family self-portrait 1+1=5 was also installed on the roof at Lanternhouse throughout Andy's stay. You can read an account of the local community's reaction on the artists’ site here and here.
Images: Too Much of a Mouthful at Portable Pixel Playground events (left) at Lanternhouse, Ulverston (right) at Chester Performs (photo by paulreadphotography.com)
Residencies hosted by:
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