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all images copyright Fiona Bowie 2009-2023 with the exception of pre 1920 archive images (use granted for Flow), copyright City of Vancouver Archives.
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Flow at 1 Kingsway was Vancouver's first photo/media-based long-tenured public art work. Commissioned by the City of Vancouver, the work is situated at street level at 1 Kingsway, a new civic centre housing a library, community center, residences and a games room (where the work is installed).
It has been running continuously since it's opening in November of 2009.
Flow at 1kingsway (2009-2023), projected into a bank of Switch Glass windows 30'long x 13' high, was a continuously changing tableau in which hundreds of photographic portraits and altered landscapes, shot by Fiona Bowie are blended as scenes. The scenes change every two to four minutes. Due to the proprietary software created by Sidney Felt and Morgan Hibbert, no image has been exactly replicated in its 14 year run. When viewers inside came in close proximity to the image, those portions of the switch glass changed from screen surface to clear glass, opening portals into the room from the street. The transitions from one scene to another are so slow that a face is sometimes barely discernable over a background - prompting several people to characterize this aspect of work as having a dream like or hallucinatory quality.
Flow recieved an Americans for the Arts (AFTA) award in 2010, jurors Fred Wilson (USA) and Helen Lessick (USA).
Fiona Bowie and Sidney Fels were awarded Best Interactive Art Paper "Flow", ACM, Florence, Italy 2010
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Over the course of the day and night, Flow shifts between live and constructed tableaus. During daylight hours, Flow's dynamic glass projection surface creates viewing portals: framing details the activity inside and provides individuals inside with shifting views and details of the street (these views change according to their proximity to the street).
During the early morning and after dusk Flow transforms into a continuously changing tableau in which hundreds of photographic portraits and altered landscapes, shot by Fiona Bowie between 2006 and 2009, are blended and projected onto the changing surface. The scenes change every two to four minutes. The transitions from one scene to another are so slow that a face is sometimes barely discernable over a background - prompting several people to characterize this aspect of work as having a dream like or hallucinatory quality.
During this time, the special projection material causes portions of the imagery to disappear as the projection surface switches from translucent to clear, fragmenting the image and frustrating it's coherence.
A system custom-designed by Bowie and Sidney Fels allows figures shot at different times to appear as if they simultaneously present, with a core group of these figures or actors recurring in a manner that implicitly suggests they're part of a larger narrative. Images that are linked (or 'friended' to eachother) embrace unlikely combinations: disparate F-stops combine the blurred edges of portraits upon clear backgrounds and purposefully contrary lighting schemes.
The host of characters have been arranged into social groups: a core of main characters appear more often than most and more often with other main characters.
Because of varying likely hood of appearance, some will become more familiar than others over the months and years to regular visitors to 1 Kingsway. The core group have more focused (willful) countenances than the general population: they were shot as if engaged in dialogue/interaction. The general population are often far more candid in nature.
In the daytime, when the projected image is off at the site and continues on the project's website, the glass at 1 Kingsway becomes the focus. The projection surface, made up of computer controlled glass, creates portals into and out of the building. When translucent the glass blocks the view, and when clear - provides a view. In the morning and after dusk the opposite occurs: the translucent surface holds the image, the clearing of it fragments the image and frustrates it's coherence.
The online component of Flow allows viewers to see the work unfold during the day when the site image projectors are off and the site glass is the active component. Visitors are encouraged to engage with the work by clicking on the "Put words in our mouths" link to play with dialogue and attribute phrases to characters pictured within the work. Over the course of the day, the work refreshes every two minutes, so if there is an image that captures the viewers imagination, they may capture it and choose from a number of phrases penned by Fiona Bowie and excerpts of lyrics by The Residents, The New Pornographers, Spores, SLickerslacker and Chopper. This collection of phrases is dynamic and will be added to over time.
Once an image is chosen by the viewer, they can then attribute dialogue to the characters* captured within the mis-en-scene. This dialogue will be available to them in the form of pull down menus. After choosing the phrase(s), it will be saved and be permanently attached to the uploaded image in the Flow archive.
Click here for Flow 24/7 Online (2023-)
all rights reserved/copyright fiona bowie 2023
All images, sound and text are the exclusive copyright of the artist and may not be used or duplicated without the expressed permission of the artist.
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