"Play?" was an interactive artwork created and commissioned for Inside | Out Festival by In The Open Clonmel and South Tipperary Arts Centre. “Play?” consisted of a bespoke wordsearch, taking inspiration from the artwork’s location adjacent to Kickham Barracks, it contains unique words from Charles J. Kickham’s work ‘Knocknagow : Or, the Homes of Tipperary’ which was published 143 years ago in 1879. with the words manually placed and hidden within the artwork.
The piece utilised a purpose built font, created by Nocht Studio, to enable text to be placed within text within text. Whilst appearing simple at first, the complexity of the piece reveals itself as the viewer gets closer to examine it more. It engaged viewers at different scales and levels of movement i.e. passing in a bus, car or on a bicycle, waiting on the bus at the bus stop as people board, on foot while waiting at the bus stop or schoolchildren walking past.
Inspired by retro video/arcade game bitmap fonts, the work juxtaposes a style synonymous with indoor digital gaming activity and places it outdoors for an analog play experience. As with any public displayed work, there is a risk that vandalism will occur. Anticipating this, the proposed work has been created so that it actively encourages it through the participatory nature of a wordsearch.
