The Art of Play

When ENESS’ Creative Director goes back through twenty years of art and technology, he’ll tell you the laughs, shoves and silent stares are some of the most fulfilling reactions to his work. Nimrod Weis owns new media design studio ENESS, which explores the more emotive, playful ways to integrate technology and art into space. His eye is always drawn to the young and young-at-heart. He’ll share the time an elderly man hugged him after seeing a work, or the time kids ran up to the bubble, prodding at the material.

ENESS’ work connects people and place. They combine interaction design, sculpture and architecture to build interactive public art installations. They work closely with the architect to make works that invite a new level of intimacy, or create installations that reinforce the architectural intent. Their playful connective works bring a new level of human engagement to our urban world. And when you see their works, you see objects realised in their most surreal form.

Works like kinetic sculpture Bunjil translate an elaborate cultural narrative through a stripped-back form. The giant bubble rewards human impulses to prod, brush and squeeze. Each work is so well built that interactive technology and fabrication disappears, allowing people to focus on connection. Their most recent installation at Cabrini Hospital Malvern hints at the future of materiality, embedding interactive visuals into walls of the new Children’s Centre.

Their work also turns strangers into friends. Works like their interactive seesaw involve two people, creating a throwback experience to when we were kids and didn’t mind who was on the other end. Public art can be touchable and relatable, you feel that when experiencing an ENESS work.

Interactive art has the power to connect people and immerse them in a memorable shared experience.

Learn more about ENESS at their website.