Le coffre à jouets dégivré: Skating Into Childhood

Hugo Laliberté — This is the third or fourth joint project for Ottomata and Doki, so we know each other very well. And we really like each other, so we get a lot of pleasure out of working together. We wanted that bond to be reflected in the work. When we sat down to develop a project for the rink, our initial ideas were super fun and a little crazy. Above all we wanted to have fun, and we had plenty of it right from the start. 

Stefano Gemmellaro — These are long-term projects that take months or even years, so if you aren’t enjoying the process it can become a real drag. That doesn’t happen with us. Our close working relationship and friendship sparked our imagination. And you can see that now on the ice. The final product is a reflection of that energy and of that freedom we gave ourselves. 

Hugo Laliberté — It’s also important to note that the Quartier des Spectacles put their trust in us. They let us explore our crazy playful ideas without many limits. They knew we were going off the beaten path, and they were fine with it. We wanted to create a joyful and accessible work that inspires everyone to play, not only the public today, but ourselves during the creative process. 

Stefano Gemmellaro — When we sat down at the start, we agreed on one very simple proposition: many public digital artworks explore weighty themes that are sometimes rather dark—politics, the environment and so on. We wanted to take a different path.  

Hugo Laliberté — Above all, we were looking for games involving the body. At Ottomata, our work is always closely tied to physicality. In this case, interaction requires moving, skating, sharing the space with others. It isn’t an experience you have alone with a screen. The game had to unfold spatially, through the body, with a group dynamic. From there the three segments took shape, each one inspired by a different kind of game but all connected by that idea of shared pleasure.

Stefano Gemmellaro — Despite our different cultures, there’s common ground in our childhood games. Schoolyard games, pinball, video games. These are references that transcend borders. No matter where we come from, we’ve all raced, avoided the floor, made something bounce. 

Hugo Laliberté — We’re also more or less the same generation, so we share similar kinds of memories. Whether it’s marbles, pinball machines, racetracks or arcades, it’s a universal language. We told ourselves if we used these simple, instinctive game mechanics, people would immediately understand what to do. There’d be no need for explanations. That’s why we’re able to connect with skaters of all ages, levels and backgrounds.

Stefano Gemmellaro — The first is called Autoroute zéro-gravité—the zero-gravity freeway—and it’s a floating, almost inflated track. Skaters trigger light trails, capture stars, make vehicles take off. Everything’s weightless and always in motion. 

Then there’s Monde néon (the neon world), inspired by pinball machines. The balls carom around, the counter goes nuts, the visuals transform as the balls move. The more people interact, the more intense this world becomes. 

Finally, Le sol est en lave! revisits a legendary childhood game, The Floor is Lava. A volcanic island appears on the ice and snow cannons try to restore balance. It’s the most chaotic of the segments, and it’s also truly spectacular.

Hugo Laliberté — Yes, it’s very challenging. When it comes to interactivity on ice, we’re still in the early exploratory stages, especially in Canada. There is mapping, of course, but a truly interactive work designed to be activated by hundreds of moving skaters is an extremely rare thing. For us, it was both very exciting and highly demanding, because there aren’t many precedents to learn from. 

Stefano Gemmellaro — The rink becomes an enormous canvas—a living and unstable canvas. We didn’t include interactivity just to be able to check an item off a list. We didn’t want it to be just a gadget.

Hugo Laliberté — The rink is a very large surface with several projectors. There can be hundreds of people skating at the same time, and the interactivity takes multiple forms. The challenge is to maintain coherence on every part of the ice. That’re where the idea of zones, a little like different divisions of a schoolyard, was crucial. Some interactions are highly localized, while others cover the entire rink with more sweeping effects. The hardest part was maintaining overall coherence, to make the work readable as a whole despite its many possible interactions and levels of engagement.  

Stefano Gemellaro — We also had to think about traffic. People tend to skate laps around the rink. Here, we’re asking them to change it up: to interact with other people, take new routes, understand that there are different play areas. It’s like a schoolyard where not everyone is playing the same game in the same place.