INMYX: You recently premiered the Character Ride. Please tell us about this new Pictoplasma character experience!
Pictoplasma: The idea came to us while preparing the last conference, which was about characters coming to life and entering our world of 3D. We started thinking about the next logical step — creating a parallel character world that people have to enter into, something along the lines of an amusement park.
We also liked the idea of something very immediate, a “please touch” experience, and a rodeo machine seemed perfect, but without the beer-and-party, pseudo-western atmosphere. Instead, we wanted to have a very minimal environment. The machine looks very slick and smooth, and the whole design is based on very reduced facial characteristics.
INMYX: Why so reduced?
Pictoplasma: We approached Akinori Oishi to work on the project, because he is known for this very simple visual style that borders on typography. First, we wanted to personalize or emotionalize the machine with a character, but not with anything that looked too human or too goofy. It’s not about recreating a Disney experience. Then, we wanted a character look that could function as a communication interface.
Because the rodeo machine makes a lot of noise, there is meditative, mantra-like music playing in the background. The idea is to take away the sense of fear generated by the noise and also to give people a sense that something different is taking place. The Character Ride is not a sports event but more a kind of ritual experience. We even initially thought about people having to wear white suits and go in alone, but that got too complicated.
INMYX: That sounds almost spiritual. How do people respond?
Pictoplasma: Riders manage to stay on the machine anywhere from ten seconds to three minutes. When we presented the ride for the first time in a larger exhibition, people did not really realize what it was all about. For a general audience, it may seem like something between art and amusement, but what we are really interested in is creating a contemporary sense of ritual beyond the hyper happiness of most advertising and communication. We'd like to take this a step further and create an entire exhibition that functions the same way, so The Character Ride is just the start!
Links:
http://www.pictoplasma.com/exhibitions/character_ride/index.html
Character Universe in Hardcover
