Touchstone

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: 'Touchstone' is a public art work integrated into the new Community Hub building for the City of Casey. It is a digital art installation that employs sound, light, kinetics and interactive data-based systems to create new sensory relationships between people and place, building a sense of belonging to the larger community through the built environment. The 'Touchstone' project was led by Jordan Lacey, through the Augmented Landscapes Laboratory interdisciplinary design research team 'Augmented Landscapes Laboratory' at RMIT. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: 'Touchstone' comprises a conceptual design methodology for integrating a remembering artwork into the public realm using interactive design. It explores how an artwork could interact with the community, and which actively turns away from preconceived architectural solutions that determine and constrict behaviours. It considers new ways through which artworks might become place-making agents - as a means through which people and environment co-create meaningful community. In 2016, the research and conceptual design for 'Touchstone' was presented in the form of a poster to the Korean Institute of Interior Design's (KIID) 10th International Invitation Exhibition, where it received an award based on its interior design approach. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: The significance of this research is that it considers an artwork that remembers, and institutes relationships of care between people and environment, by encouraging community interaction, which consequently becomes an expression of community. Its value is attested to by the following indicators: its commission by the City of Casey with a $60K award; it being developed as a collaborative research project between RMIT and the Council; and it being the subject of a conference paper by Jordan Lacey at the 2017 Responsive Cities Symposium in Barcelona. 'Touchstone' was launched to the public on 18 November 2017.