KWIRKI is an emissary dispatched by the worldwide community of trees. He has come to Vienna to ask the inhabitants of the city for help: KWIRKI and its fellow trees are asking the humans to reconsider their actions and stop doing things that harm trees. Directly on site, passers-by can help to preserve and create new forests by supporting the ecological reforestation projects of the Jane Goodall Institute Austria with a donation via QR Code.
The interactive multimedia sculpture by Böhler & Orendt, carried out by the “The Lichterfelde Club of Hope”, reacts “emotionally“ to climatic influences and interactions with passers-by. A five and a half meter high oak trunk transforms into the anthropomorphic cyborg actor Kwirki. He addresses passers-by and asks them for donations for ecological projects and he “reacts“ in a similar way as the electronic toy “Tamagochi”, to digital interactions of its human counterpart: to donations via smartphone and QR code. An algorithm selects sound and video snippets to play in the “digital face mask” depending on current weather data and the volume of donations. In addition to these donations, current weather data for Vienna retrieved online also has an influence on KWIRKI‘s “emotional life.”
Curator and production management: Barbara Horvath
Technical realization: Hüttinger Interactive Exhibitions, Stahl & Form, Direct Mind, Zone Media
Donation cooperation partner Jane Goodall Institute Austria
Funded by KÖR Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Wien, Otto Mauer Fonds, Kulturkommission der Bezirksvertretung Floridsdorf
all pictures on this page © Iris Ranzinger, Böhler & Orendt
