Bruce Asbestos's digital project The Eye of Newt is a playable interactive artwork for iOS and MacOS that extends the characters from his courtyard commission, OK! Cherub!
The project features a yellow worm called Rest and green frogspawn known collectively as The Community. The artwork plays itself, so you can interact as much or as little as you want. It asks an audience to take time out and stop playing, countering the addictive interfaces that are prevalent within screen cultures. The longer you don't play, the more is unlocked.
You can also play as Rest: pressing the left and right arrows to move the worm and control the direction of the falling frogspawn. The sounds and features will change once the balls have hit all the panels.
Controls
- Left arrow: press to move the worm Left
- Right arrow: press to move the worm Right
- Stick: Drop one stick.
- Bomb: Reset the game
- 1/2/3: Change the speed of the falling balls
This is the first release for the app. Further updates will take place over the coming months. For more information, feedback and app support, click here.
iOS 12+
MacOS
“The work references the ‘Eye of Newt’, an ingredient used by the witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, I was thinking of a symbol that was quintessentially British and perhaps wondering whether artists are a sort of cultural witch, who might be able to produce alternative ideas for our post-covid problems, this watching-eye artwork is our first ingredient.”
