Art to be Fooled With at UCSC Digital Media Display

The sign on the one-night display of art projects by Digital Arts and New Media students at the University of California, Santa Cruz should have read: Please Touch.

But Friday night at , no sign was needed. People knew immediately that this was art meant to be fooled with, interactive art that seemed almost like a new age video game parlor.

You could get on a DataSurf surfboard and ride to a movie that moved along with you. It was sort of like a mechanical bull with 3-D graphics.

Then, there was a Vjacket you could wear that created sound and movies based on how you touched it (directions on how you can make your own, at the link) and a Light Board skateboard that lit up based on how you turned. Another exhibit asked you to record your saddest song.

A little more down to earth, literally, was a plant-grafting exhibit called Guerilla Grafters that displayed novel grafts of fruit trees with urban ornamental plants.

See the art for yourself in the pics here.