THE REAL THING
Type: Interactive Installation
Size : 7.5' x 7.5' x 26'
Location: Ipswich Art Gallery, Australia & National Museum, Singapore
Year: 2008
Status: Completed
![](https://jordanamaisie.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/JMDS_The-Real-Thing_01.png)
The Real Thing, is an interactive installation, currently held within the permanent collections of the Ipswich Art Gallery Australia and the National Museum of Singapore.
![](https://jordanamaisie.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/JMDS_The-Real-Thing_02.png)
The Real Thing explores the relationship between technology, physical space and the body. The installation employs interactive technologies to instigate the emotional participation of the audience and encourage a return to embodiment and awareness of physical space.
![](https://jordanamaisie.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/JMDS_The-Real-Thing_06.png)
The Real Thing continues JMDS’s exploration into the ways in which technology is constantly shifting the relationship between physical and digital space.
![](https://jordanamaisie.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/JMDS_The-Real-Thing_03.png)
In the installation, the user’s movement is captured in real-time; fed through a custom built software that fragments, mirrors and refracts the content, and instantaneously projects it back as abstract seamlessly transforming patterns.
![](https://jordanamaisie.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/JMDS_The-Real-Thing_05.png)
![](https://jordanamaisie.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/JMDS_The-Real-Thing_04.png)
The Real Thing leverages the power and novelty of the kaleidoscope, an age-old optical illusion that reminds us of the childhood awe of watching colors and shapes transform with the turn of a wrist. Conceptually, it conjures notions of seeing and a viewer that is both subject to, and implicit in, the transient nature of what is seen.
![](https://jordanamaisie.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/JMDS_The-Real-Thing_07_-1-1267x950.jpg)
As a metaphor, this enchanting mechanism evokes a conscious play with the viewer as witness, co-creator and interpreter of ‘truth’. The Real Thing has been designed with digital technology, but without the physical realm inhabited by the viewer’s body, it simply cannot function.
![](https://jordanamaisie.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/JMDS_The-Real-Thing_09.png)
Team
Installation Design : JMDS
Interactive Design : JMDS
Build: JMDS + Andy McDonell
![](https://jordanamaisie.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/JMDS_The-Real-Thing_10.png)