Ingrid Bachmann (Canada) is an interdisciplinary artist who explores the complicated relationship between the material and virtual realms. Bachmann uses redundant, as well as new technologies, to create generative and interactive artworks, many of which are site-specific.

Symphony for 54 Shoes is a kinetic artwork that involves 27 pairs of shoes collected from a variety of second hand and thrift stores. Each shoe has a toe and heel tap used in tap dancing attached to it. The shoes move or dance independently of each other. The mechanical motion of tapping is created using solenoids (tubular magnetic sensors) that move up and down when activated by a switch. Each switch, 52 in total, is controlled by a microcontroller and software that activates the sequence of the tapping of the shoes.

This project continues my exploration of non-screen based computer technology to create works that interact with, confront and/or incorporate the physical world. I try to bring the complexity of the real world and experience into the digital experience, to complicate the relations between the virtual and material realms, to create works that situate themselves in the world in rich sensory, tactile and sonic ways. I am interested in the idea of tender, even pathetic, technology, to use technology for ends that are not necessarily productive in the usual sense of the word.

wade is a public art project that is presented within an existing network of over 100 wading pools in Toronto, Canada. Sonar consists of a large sculptural cloud of mist in which the public is invited to enter. Sound is activated as people move through the mist and played back on speakers situated outside the perimeter of the wading pool area. These live sounds are amplified, modulated and delayed in real time.

The concept of this artwork is conveyed by its title Sonar – an apparatus that transmits high-frequency sound waves through water and registers the vibrations reflected from an object. In Sonar we invite the members of the extended Toronto community to re-experience these social spaces in order to reinvest in the notion of shared public experience.

Bachmann is the co-editor (with Ruth Scheuing) of Material Matters, a critical anthology on the relation of material and culture and has a chapter in a new anthology, The Object of Labor (ed. Joan Livingstone and John Ploof), published by MIT Press, 2007. Ingrid is a founding member of the Interactive Textiles and Wearable Computing Lab of Hexagram and is the Head of The Institute of Everyday Life. She is currently Associate Dean, Research and International Relations in the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. Bachmann is currently a guest on -empyre-.