Interactive designers Jason Bruges Studio will create a field of mechanised flags that respond to passing race cars at the Festival of Speed at Goodwood in England next month.

The work, shown in this animation, has been commissioned by champagne brand Veuve Clicquot.

Consisting of over 30 computer-controlled flags atop 4m masts, the work will also be shown at other events in England this summer, including a polo match (second animation, above).

Here's some info from Veuve Clicquot:

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JASON BRUGES STUDIO FOR VEUVE CLICQUOT AT THE FESTIVAL OF SPEED

As the Veuve Clicquot artist in residence for 2008, Jason Bruges Studio has created an installation which explores the thrill of speed. Motor cars create an aural landscape at Goodwood, roaring along the track at amazing velocities. As a metaphor for speed, this sound will be transformed back to movement through the animation of silken flags installed by the Studio on the Veuve Clicquot lawn.

The impact of a passing car resonates through the array. The flags are individually controlled to point at the cars position on the course, and their collective behaviour generates a composition representative of the movement. Each time-trial creates a unique fabric notation which responds to the racing line and strategy of each driver.

Referencing the symbolism of racing flags, the atmosphere of Goodwood will emerge as patterns of motion as the cloth moves through the air, choreographed by speed.

This temporary installation will be the first part of a trilogy for Veuve Cliccquot’s Season. Following the Festival of Speed, it will next be seen watching the Polo Gold Cup at Cowdray Park. In September, it will return for the Goodwood Revival.

At 4m high, the flags form a matrix containing more than 30 individual nodes, each programmed to respond to specific variables of activity. The ephemeral array will sit within the scenery of seasonal events; of pennants, bunting and billowing flags. Event data is recorded, analysed and finally played back as part of a performance at the end of the tour.

Art work:

12mx20m

Motorised Computer Controlled Mast,
anodised aluminium,
aluminium stay,
vivid silk fabric,
wiring loom,
central control unit,
telematic tracking system

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VEUVE CLICQUOT’S BOLD NEW TWIST ON THE SEASON

Veuve Clicquot, one of the most prestigious and innovative champagnes in the world, is renowned for its long running relationship with the quintessential British summer calendar of events, The Season.

This year Veuve Clicquot will reinvigorate its presence throughout The Season and beyond with a strategy that will shape the brand as an integral and active partner in contemporary culture. The heritage and values of Veuve Clicquot will inspire contemporary installations and a series of creative interventions to form a bold new twist on The Season.

Starting with the appointment of Jason Bruges as Veuve Clicquot artist in residence – this up and coming artist/designer will create a series of installations to represent movement and pace at the forthcoming Veuve Clicquot Polo Gold Cup, The Festival of Speed and The Goodwood Revival. The installations will inspire guests and spectators to celebrate the speed, balance and fine control of these events in a new way.

Jason Bruges Studio has taken its inspiration for The Season from the language of banners and flags. Billowing emblems are evocative of summer events and sporting banners set boundaries on a landscape for pitches, courses and arenas. Through movement of fabric, the installations respond uniquely to each event, recording data, analysing and then playing it back.

The installation will be programmed to follow events, converting speed and activity into a landscape scale artwork. Moving it to accompany the pace, it abstracts real-time data into fabric form. Borrowing from the semiotics of banners and flags, Jason Bruges Studio will design a series of fabric pixels which will communicate in a similar way. Together they will create a composition, informed by Veuve Clicquot’s iconic yellow, a fabric tide responding to the motion of the event.