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Video from the Opening Talk at FGCU Art Gallery, Sept 2011.
Video Works: Hybris Journeys 9, White Wall #1, Circadian Rhythms.
Videogame: CallofFableDutyCreed
“This exhibition brings together work from two areas of Mike Salmond’s research; interactive art and reflections on tourism. The work spans over a decade of travel in imagined and postmodern physical spaces. Most tourism spots are as engineered as any videogame environment or space. They evolve from a perceived need for entertainment and connection with the country’s culture. Game spaces are also designed spaces that fulfil a need for a goal-based player. Both spaces can engage, astonish and excite us; the main difference being the physical spaces demand a rite of passage (airplane, boat, car etc.). This rite focuses the traveller and creates a level of expectation that generates a lens from which we view the space. The game space is often viewed at speed, we are travellers in virtual realms but are not tasked with this same focus or concentrated lens.
There are parallels here; many travellers visit the sights of a city or country so that they can reinforce the concept of being there and perform the function of a tourist. The psychology of play and travel is dictated by many factors and it is these concepts, behaviours and cultural tropes that Mike explores in his works. By travelling on Buses through tourist areas, using public transport or by creating virtual lands where the only interaction is to view the space you are in, his work explores these created, imagined and evolving spaces as a reflection of how they change us and how we change them.”
Images from the works ‘White Wall’ (video), ‘Hybrid Journeys'(video) & ‘CallofFableDutyCreed’ (videogame)