Britta Evans-Fenton’s Bright Smiles

This piece by Britta Evans-Fenton is currently in the works for Nuit Blanche Ottawa. An interactive installation, this project will respond to people’s smiles. As Evans-Fenton describes,

“The crystal-like stars will light up when a person smiles, and the more people smiling the more lit it will be. It is a collaborative work with a maker in the community (Darcy Whyte), and will be presented in Artscourt.”

When asked about the art process for this piece, Evans-Fenton describes it as a two-part process: The electronic and the structural. “The first part is the program.  This is still a work in progress, and Darcy and I are working on two different programs simultaneously to see which in the end will serve us better.  Then there is the structure. This is something I started experimenting with more recently using acrylic (the generic name for plexi glass) and different light sources like LEDs and lasers. The whole idea for Bright Smiles came from the feeling I had when thinking of Nuit Blanche’s theme ‘life is beautiful’.  I really wanted to capture that feeling and give it to my viewers, so this idea evolved.”

For our previous posts on Evans-Fenton’s work click here, and here. For her portfolio page, click here. 

- Lee Jones