Activate the Park
Butterfield Park, south end of OCAD building 100 McCaul Street
Thursday March 30, 3-6pm
If you have a some free time on Thursday afternoon, you should check out the OCAD Interaction Design students’ presentations — 15 interactive public space projects are to be displayed in Butterfield Park (under the OCAD “tabletop”).
First year interaction design students at the Ontario College of Art and Design have been charged with the task of “Activating the Park.” Nestled underneath architect Will Alsop’s now-famous “tabletop” is Butterfield Park, a new and beautiful urban park, but one people don’t linger in — it’s a space to pass through, not stop and reflect on the space or interact with others. Each of 15 classes has created a different dynamic environment.
• Interactive graffiti walls
• Communal music making
• Radio controlled homage to Pimp My Ride
• Human Statues
• A food fight
• A peepshow in the park
• A pià±ata in the park
• Paint hockey
• Giant movable cubes
• A Toronto memory map
• A race with a “randomizer”
• Giant toys
• And more…
The entire park is the canvas, and passersby are the subjects. With the recent interest Toronto’s public spaces, these student projects represent what happens when young people look at our city’s communal spaces and say “How can we engage people there?
