If you’re walking on the Quartier des Spectacles, brace yourself.
You will encounter a bowling bowl free-falling from metres high and a machine that reads your likelihood to do good.
Those are just two of the 22 art installations spread throughout the Quartier des Spectacles, all part of Km3.
Km3 is one of Montreal’s 375th birthday celebrations and it’s being billed as the largest outdoor temporary public art event ever presented in the city.
The goal is to show longtime Montrealers their city through a different lens and of course, introduce the city to newcomers.
The artists are for the most part Quebeckers but there also are some artists coming from other corners of the world.
The Colossal Wave
Marshmallow Laser Feast is one of those teams of artists.
They’re a studio from the U.K.
Along with Montreal artists James Patterson from Presstube and Nicolas Roy from Dpt, they’ve created an interactive, multi-site virtual reality project.
Essentially, “The Colossal Wave” starts with a tower located at the corner of Clark Street and de Maisonneuve Boulevard.
People can go to the top of the tower and drop a bowling ball into a gong.
Meanwhile, others are standing at the bottom of the tower, wearing virtual reality goggles under metal umbrellas.
When the ball hits the gong, it triggers a virtual colossal wave that washes over those wearing the goggles.
At the same time, part of the experience is being “imagined” by people at the PHI centre.
“At the PHI centre, there’s a digital interaction and people sing and create 3D digital artwork that we designed,” said Marshmallow Laser Feast’s director Robin McNicholas.
“We want the tower to be kind of a naughty kid magnet.”
The installation is a gift from the British council to Montreal on its birthday.
The Compassion Machine
How likely are you to do a good deed today? That’s what the Compassion Machine is trying to figure out.
It’s located a block away from The Colossal Wave, just outside the Saint-Laurent metro station.
The machine uses security algorithms that are normally used to predict crime to analyze your likelihood to do good.
“We decided to twist and hack algorithms that are normally used by anti-terrorist organizations or airports. We flipped it to its side and tried to find the compassion potential in people,” said the co-creator Jonathan Belisle from the Ensemble Collective.
All you need to do is stand in front of the machine’s TV screen. A few seconds later, the facial recognition software will analyze your facial expressions and suggest a kind action to do that day.
The installations will be on display until Oct. 15.
Some of them will stay in the city while others will travel around the world.