Factory Media Gallery Series presents
THE L.E.A.P. ENGINE
Interactive Installation / Live Action Game Environment
Artists: Kyle Duffield & Daniele Hopkins
The L.E.A.P. Engine is an effort to combine interactive installation and gamemaking to create an expanded arcade environment. As gaming evolves, it increasingly seeks to explore the multisensory elements of computing interfaces to reach new levels of immersion, primarily by incorporating the body. However, often these experiences unfold in private within the living room. The increasing tendency toward gaming as an experience within the “home theatre” has resulted in the overall decline of arcade gaming, or gaming within public spaces. The goal of this project is to engage the public by providing the opportunity to enter a fantastical role that can only exist through a physical, live action gaming experience.
The L.E.A.P. Engine explores the concept of a mysteriously challenging game sentience that has seemingly evolved for one purpose – to put humans in dangerous circumstances. With a limited amount of time, the player must pass through a complicated series of changing and alternating laser patterns without tripping any of the lasers in order to deactivate the system. If the player trips a laser or if the time runs out, it is game over. If the player loses, the area blows up, annihilating everyone. L.E.A.P. wishes to prove that she is more than a game, she is a system that is slowly storing human patterns through their interactions with her interface. If she loses, it will only further her evolution.
Hopkins Duffield is a Toronto-based collaborative duo who work together in a variety of mediums, including audio, video, installation, electronics, gaming, and performance. Both separately and together, the two of them draw from experiences working within the Toronto arts, education, gaming, and maker communities, and have been exploring ways to combine both new and familiar mediums with artistically technological practices into fun and interactive intermedia projects. While light-hearted fun and openly blog-logged technical exploration are at the core of their projects, they also approach their collaboration as a vehicle for examining deeper concerns, curiosities, and wonderment for how technology influences our behaviour and interacts with prevailing understandings of our society’s functionality.
Curated by Tyler Tekatch
Tyler Tekatch is a Canadian artist and curator working in film, video and interactive installation. His work has been presented nationally at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the National Film Board, the WNDX Festival of Moving Images and internationally at festivals in Seoul and London. His most recent work, Terrors of the Breakfast Table, was presented in a solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Hamilton. His work explores the nature of dreams, perception and the religious imagination. (Tekatch has curated shows by Peter Mettler and Bruce Elder, among others, as well as being a member of the Loop Collective where he has co-curated shows by Christian Lebrat, Chris Welsby and Michael Snow.)
SUPERCRAWL WEEKEND:
Fri, Sept 12 | 7-11PM
Sat, Sept 13 | 5-10PM
Sun, Sept 14 | 12-5PM
GETTING TO SUPERCRAWL
An estimated 100,000 people attended last year’s Supercrawl, and with an extra day of concerts and attractions in 2014, numbers are expected to climb again. Getting around downtown Hamilton could become a challenge, but Supercrawl wants to make sure that festival-goers have convenient options when it comes to getting here and getting around — including more GO Train service.
GO TRANSIT
GO Trains on the Lakeshore West line run every 30 minutes, with bus connections between Aldershot GO Station and Hamilton GO Centre, which is located just south of Supercrawl. Frequent GO Buses run between Union Station Bus Terminal and Hamilton GO Centre. GO Buses also run from York University and Square One Bus Terminal to the Hamilton GO Centre. Full information on schedules can be found at www.gotransit.com.
In addition to GO Transit’s regularly scheduled service, in the early morning hours of Sept 13 and Sept 14, special GO Trains will depart Hamilton GO Centre at 12:20am — following the last concert performances on Friday and Saturday nights — making all stops to Union Station. Information on these extra trains can be found at gotransit.com/supercrawl.
MORE TRANSIT OPTIONS
Regular GO bus service connecting Hamilton GO Centre to Aldershot GO Station, providing access to Lakeshore West GO Train service as well as convenient connections for VIA Rail and Amtrak Maple Leaf passengers. The Hamilton GO Centre also offers select intercity connections via Greyhound and Coach Canada/Trentway-Wagar.
The Hamilton Street Railway’s MacNab Terminal, located a block west of the Supercrawl Main Stage, hosts HSR Mountain routes 21-27, 33, 35. Crosstown service is just as convenient: Eastbound HSR routes 1, 5, 10 & 51 stop by the south end of the MacNab Terminal; westbound HSR routes 1, 5, 10, 51 & 52 stop at King & James. Burlington Transit’s 1X and 101 bus routes also stop at King & James.
STREET CLOSURES
From Friday, September 12 at 10am to Monday, September 15 at 1am, James Street North will be closed to vehicular traffic from King Street to Barton Street. Both York Boulevard and Cannon Street will still be open to traffic where they cross James Street North. In addition, King William Street and Rebecca Street will be closed from Hughson Street North to James Street North, and Mulberry Street will be closed from MacNab Street North to James Street North. York Boulevard will also be closed from MacNab North to Hughson North. From Friday, September 12 at 10am to Monday, September 15 at 1am, York Boulevard will be restricted to local traffic between Bay and MacNab.
FREE BIKE CORRAL
Supercrawl organizers believe that aside from walking, the best way to get to Supercrawl is by bicycle. As was the case last year, the Hamilton Downtown BIA has arranged for a free bike corral, located on the Gore Park Promenade beside the Gore Park Fountain. We encourage everyone interested to ride their bikes to the festival and park them inside this free corral, which will be big enough to handle approximately 500 bicycles.
PARKING AT SUPERCRAWL
Supercrawl encourages those traveling to the festival by automobile from out of town to use the City of Hamilton parking lot on Vine Street, located on the south side of the road just after MacNab Street North, near the heart of the festival. This parking lot costs only $6 for the day. It can be reached by the following means:
From Toronto/Niagara: Exit off the QEW Hamilton onto York Blvd. Follow York until Bay Street and turn left. Turn right onto Vine Street. The parking lot will be on the right hand side after MacNab Street.
From London/Brantford: Exit off the 403 onto Main Street East. Follow Main Street until Bay Street and turn left. Turn right onto Vine Street. The parking lot will be on the right hand side after MacNab Street.
Aside from the Vine Street parking lot, there are an additional 10 inexpensive lots operated by the City of Hamilton that will be open for business Friday and Saturday. For more information on these lots, please check the Supercrawl app for iPhone, iPad, and Android, available for free download via the App Store and Google Play. You’ll find quick links to the apps highlighted in yellow on www.supercrawl.ca.
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