Mine-Control
613 Baylor
Austin, TX 78703
(512) 476-6053
www.mine-control.com
info@mine-control.com
Mine-Control is an artistic collaboration
between Zachary Booth Simpson, and several
other programmers including Ken Demarest,
Adam Frank, Jim Greer, Julian Harris, and Brian
Sharp —all current or former computer game
developers.
Mine-Control creates
interactive installation artwork
with natural and scientific
themes for museums worldwide.
Photo by Mel Lindstrom courtesy of The San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation
At Mine-Control, we believe
that art can be both playful and simultaneously thought-provoking. Using
unique technologies incorporating the entire body, a broad knowledge of
science, and a long history of game development, we turn viewers into
participants and teach them something along the way.
"[Mine-Control's] eerily interactive Shadow Garden... little short of a Tesla
coil hooked directly to your cerebellum will blow your mind any further."
– Austin Chronicle, 7 March 2002.
"It was fantastic! Adults loved it and so did kids... I loved that it inspires
people to work together."
– Peggy Monahan, Exhibit Developer, San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation
"The Shadow Garden is a big success! We eventually chased the kids out today
and played with it ourselves"
– Bas van der Linden, Interactive Organizer, Cinekid, Amsterdam
"One of the most crowd-pleasing artistic installations in Barcelona."
– Carmen Claramunt, Owner, Galería Claramunt, Barcelona
Permanent Installations
Children's Museum of Richmond
Permanent Collection
Richmond, Virginia; July 2005
Chicago Museum of Science and
Industry
Permanent Collection
Chicago, IL; September 2004.
Tampa Bay Museum of Science and
Industry
Permanent Collection
Tampa Bay, Florida; July 2005
Chicago Children's Museum
Permanent Collection
Chicago, IL; December 2003
Musée Le Vaisseau (Children's
Museum of Strasbourg)
Permanent Collection
Strasbourg, France; December 2004.
University of North Carolina at
Greensboro
Permanent Collection
Greensboro, NC; December 2004
Abt Electronics
Permanent Collection
Glenview, IL; November 2004
Sony Wonder Technology Lab
Permanent Collection
New York City, Late Summer 2003
Barcelona Museu de la Ciencia
(Barcelona Museum of Science)
Permanent Collection
Barcelona, Spain; September 2004
Santa Ana Discovery Science Center
Permanent Collection
Santa Ana, California; April 2003
Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for
Children
Permanent Collection
Dallas, Texas; October 2003
The San Jose Tech Museum of
Innovation
Permanent Collection
San Jose, California; Opened 24 May
2002.
Upcoming Exhibitions
22 to Watch
Austin Museum of Art
Austin, Texas; August 20 to October 30, 2005
22 to Watch
Galveston Art Center
Galveston, Texas; November 26, 2005 to January 8, 2006
New Art in Austin
Dallas Center for Contemporary Art
Dallas, Texas; March 31, 2006 to June 10, 2006
Cittá dei Bambini, Porto Antico di Genova
Long-term lease
Genova, Italy; until July 2015.
Past Exhibitions
SIGGRAPH 2004
EmergingTechnologies
Los Angeles, CA; Aug 8-12 2004.
Bruce Sterling's AMODA Christmas
Party
December 2002
Information, Silence & Sanctuary, Guest
Artist
Univ. of Washington, School of
Information; May 2004
San Jose Institute of Contemporary
Art
Night Moves
San Jose, California; 22 May - 13 July
2002.
Pixel Gallery
Toronto Ontario; April 2004
Gallery Lombardi
Solo Show
Austin, TX; 30 Jan 2004, 8-11pm.
Neiman Marcus Christmas Catalog
Fantasy Gift, Christmas 2003
SIGGRAPH 2002
Art Gallery
San Antonio, Texas; July 22-26 2002.
Game Developer's Conference
San Jose, California; March 2002.
Austin Museum of Digital Art
Austin, Texas; March 2002.
Eyebeam - Shadow
Artist in Residence with Adam Frank
New York, 21 Nov 2003 - 13 December
2003
Gallery Lombardi
Electricity and Me
Austin, Texas; March 2002.
Armadillocon
Austin TX; 13 Aug 2003
I Love NY-Art Benefit
San Francisco, California; November
2001
Gallery Lombardi
The Musikshow
Austin, TX; 8 March 2003, 20 March 2003
Cinekid 2001
Interactive Art Festival.
Amsterdam, Netherlands; October 2001
Pixel Gallery
"Escape"
Toronto Ontario; 21 March 2003
Galería Claramunt
Barcelona, Spain; September 2001
TED Conference
Monterrey, CA; 26 Feb 2003
"La Navaja en el Ojo"
A collaboration with La Fura dels Baus
Valencia, Spain; June 2001
North Carolina Film & Video Festival
Keynote Speaker
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Greensboro, NC; 19 Feb 2003
Espai 22ª
Barcelona, Spain; May-June 2001
College For Creative Studies, Detroit MI
Exhibition and Workshop
Detroit, MI; 11 Feb 2003
San Antonio Chapter of SIGGRAPH
Monthly Lecture at SaySi, 1414 South
Alamo 6pm
San Antonio, TX; 29 Jan 2003.
"La Navaja en el Ojo"
A collaboration with La Fura dels Baus
Valencia, Spain; June 2001
Espai 22a
Solo Show
Barcelona, Spain; May-June 2001
Moderation
This work draws its inspiration from Princess
Mononoke by the legendary anime director
Hayao Miyazaki. Participants step through a
shallow stream and their presence triggers a
magical flowering of life. They must tread with
care though, for as the title implies, over
aggressive demands on the environment have
unintended consequences.
Calder
Using new infrared sensing
technology (patent pending) on a
rear-projected screen, participants
simply draw a Calder-like mobile by
touching the canvas. When they
hold a beam, the mobile comes
alive, moving around in 3D with
realistic physics. Experience
Calder mobiles the way Calder
meant you too: by playing with
them.
Mondrian
With the same technology and
in the same spirit as the Calder
piece, this work permits
participants to simply sketch
out and edit compositions in
the style of the great
abstractionist Piet Mondrian.
Create your own composition in
10 seconds!
Interference
As participants place their hands on the
canvas, light emanates in the direction
their hand is facing. When a second hand
is placed, the light beams interfere with
one another creating brilliant and beautiful
interference patterns. The simulation is
actually an accurate scientific visualization
of radio-frequency interferometry, and by
the time one has played with it for a few
minutes one can't help but intuit the
meaning and beauty of Euler's equation
even if one has never heard of it!
“Shadow” with Adam
Frank
Eyebeam Artists in
Residence, New York
A disembodied shadow
wanders around alone
in a corner. When the
participant enters, the
figure reacts by
running away.
Aggressively chasing
the figure leads only
to his fear and escape. When the participants stay still the figure gains trust
and steps closer, finally engaging in an embrace.
Marble Marshal
Can you marshal the group of red
and blue marbles into two distinct
groups? It's harder than it looks
because the marbles tend to stick
together. You'll probably have to
use your whole body and have
some help. Before long it might
seem like you are playing a game
of twister.
Molecular Bubbles
An impossible fluid reacts to your shadow
forming long polymer chains and loops.
Although exotic, the action of the bubbles is
surprisingly intuitive. Connect the chains to
the color generators and brilliant colors
emerge from diffusion.
Fractal Zoom
Fractal Zoom allows participants to
explore the Mandelbrot set. By forming a
loop with their fingers, they are able to
create a kind of magic magnifying glass
with which they can zoom into any part
of the set. In the top corner, the scale
factor is related in familiar dimensions;
before long they have zoomed-in such
that the original image is bigger than an a
football field, then a city block,
Manhattan, Connecticut, etc. until within a few minutes they have reached
the size of the solar system. In this subtle way, the participants learn about
the power of exponential growth while being fascinated by the complex
beauty of this fractal.
Moles
Moles is an interactive molecular simulator. The
participants are presented with a threedimensional box into which they can add ions and
electrons,
the
combination
of
which
spontaneously form molecules. Using an intuitive
gesture interface, participants are able to
conduct simple chemical experiments exploring
the effects of heat, electric fields, and
compression in this almost magical atomic-level
microscope.
Mariposa
A swarm of butterflies
circles as if looking for
something. When your
shadow enters nothing
appears to happen at
first; eventually, if you
remain very still, you
gain their trust and
they begin to land on
your hand or shoulder
to rest. If you make a
sudden movement they
will scatter as even the slightest twitch sends
them into a panic.
Fire
The screen is blank white until you move in front of
it, when trails of swirling flame then follow you.
The effect is both gentle and violent. Mostly
soothing, a little scary.
Reflecting Pool
In an alcove, water flows into a pool
surrounded by plants. The water trickles
down the wall and ripples in the pool.
You reach to touch the water, and it flows
around your shadow. Many people are
surprised when they touch the water and
discover that is is dry.
Flower Garden
A diversity of flowers bump and bustle as if on
the surface of a pond. Over time they fade and
die, unless you encourage them to grow with
light — a flashlight hangs from the ceiling for
this purpose. Give a flower enough light and it
will burst into children flowers. Most of these
children will be similar but not identical to the
parent; others will be wild mutants. Over time,
the garden grows and adapts to your taste and
mood. (Note that the background patterns on
these pages are all created using this
algorithm.)
Light Smoke
Smoke swirls around your flashlight
beam like insects around a light or
maybe perhaps more like a galactic star
cluster around a black hole. Create
interstellar dust clouds and mix them
up in a blender.
Shadow Harp
with Julian Harris
"Shadow Harp" is a digital instrument
that envelops the participants in a
musical playground. Participants use
their shadow to create intriguing music
with no more knowledge than their
natural inclination to dance
Save The Baby?"
"Save the Baby?" appears to
be a large-scale video game,
however, the audience must
discover the objective on their
own, and as they do, there are
some important surprises!
The piece forces the
participants to question why
and how they choose to solve
problems -- in games and real
life.
La Navaja en el Ojo
We have at times used our interactive
systems in large-scale theatrical productions
such as the Valencia's Biannual of Art and
Fashion.
Fish Swarm
A swarm of creatures scoots
about, schooling like fish. As
your shadow enters, the
creatures rush towards you
and hide inside your
shadow. You move and
reveal them behind you,
crowded together and
squirming like insects. If you
pay attention, you may
discover that, whether you
understand it or not, you
are an integral part of their
ecosystem.
Sand
A stream of liquid sand flows from above and
reacts with your shadow as if it were solid.
Its hypnotic motion conjures childhood
feelings of playing with water or building wet
sandcastles. Like making shadow puppets,
you can easily construct concave structures
with your hands to catch the sand and then
you can pour it from hand to hand or maybe
into your friend's mouth. Play with it long
enough and you might discover some of its
many secrets.