NYAB Event - "Orbis Pictus - Play Well" Exhibition

"Orbis Pictus - Play Well" Exhibition

Czech Center New York / The Bohemian National Hall

This event has ended.

The Czech Center New York presents "Orbis Pictus - Play Well", a series of site-specific installations in which artists and children will collaborate to create experiences in visuals, sound and motion. Over the course of sixteen weeks adults and children alike will come together to stage happenings - both freeform and through a series of events, workshops, and concerts that draw upon the instinctual play’s ability to spark imaginative growth and unite disparate individuals through non-verbal communication.

The title refers to the seminal pedagogical textbook Orbis Pictus by the 17th century Czech scholar John Amos Comenius, known as the first educational picture book for children. From the Latin “The Visible World in Pictures”, the work embodies the ability of visual stimulation to aid in learning. His later essay Škola Hrou (School by Play) espouses the potential for group play to stimulate cognitive development among children, and in turn ignite the sense of their belonging to a greater whole. From these ideals the original Orbis Pictus exhibition was launched in Prague in 2007 to great acclaim, where it eventually toured throughout Europe.

In Orbis Pictus - Play Well, the Gallery of the Czech Center New York will become an artistic workshop and sonic landscape, where through direct physical contact with the artworks participants will create a symphony of light and sound. Each work is interactive - and will only operate through interaction - with the goal of having multiple participants take cues from, and play off of one another.

As one example, visitors will be greeted by Marianna Stranska’s The Marble Slide, a large, tangled system of transparent tubes that envelops the gallery’s spiral staircase. Participants are encouraged to drop marbles into the work, which will react to a series of lights and mirrors arranged throughout the work to create a dazzling series of reflections and distortions, fulfilling a childhood dream of the artist.

Further along, Tom Kotik’s Crowd Control presents a large sculpture reminiscent of a ping-pong table featuring a ribbon speaker in the center with two pull handles protruding from either side. As viewers interface with the handles a recording of sounds from live sporting events emanating from the speaker become distorted, allowing the participants to control the sounds of the “crowd” by distorting the physical shape of the speaker. In so doing, children learn about the relationship of physicality to their perception of sound.

As a final example, Chair to be Strummed by Michael Delia provides a large wooden “harp-chair” featuring a series of strings running along a back that doubles as a sound board. As one participant sits with their back against the soundboard, a second strums the strings, allowing the sitter to physically feel the reverberations of sound waves transmitting through their body, replicating a sensation one experiences when viewing a marching band or through loud bass speakers, yet in a more soothing, intimate fashion.

Orbis Pictus - Play Well organized in conjunction with the exhibition Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000, curated by Juliet Kinchin, which will take place at The Museum of Modern Art in New York from July 29, 2012 through November 5, 2012.

The exhibition will feature a robust schedule of events and workshops; all events are free and open to the public.