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Interactive Public Art for the Whole Family

by Amanda Freerksen

If one more museum guard gives you the evil eye because your preschooler is giggling and imitating dance moves in front of a Degas painting, then it’s time to take a new approach to art appreciation. San Diego is brimming with interactive public art — you just need to know where to look. Here’s your guide to installations around the county that invite participants to sit on, play with, touch, look and listen to art.

Fault Whisper at Fault Line Park

While you’re downtown visiting the Central Library, make some time to stop by the new Fault Line Park in east village San Diego. There you’ll find the usual suspects: grass, play structures and benches, but something entirely unique is the art installation called Fault Whisper by artists Po Shu Wang and Louise Bertelsen (Living Lenses).

The piece, comprising two 7-foot stainless steel spheres with a mirror finish, brings together seismology and interactive art. Firstly, the spheres are separated by a fault rupture belonging to the Rose Canyon Fault System. Participants view the east sphere from the west sphere, and if the east sphere is not centered in the viewfinder, that will suggest fault movement.

Additionally, an accelerometer installed deep below the west sphere detects the Earth’s movements, which are translated into music. The music streams out of a speaker at the west sphere, and anyone around the world can access the music. (Click here to “eavesdrop” on the Earth.)

1433 Island Ave.
San Diego, Ca
Online: sandiego.gov

Photo: Lenya McGrath

Did we miss your favorite interactive public artwork? Tell us about it in the comments below.

— Amanda Freerksen (photos too, unless otherwise noted)

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