having participated in two previous editions of street theater festival ‘imaginarius’, portuguese art collective moradavaga has been invited to create a site-specific public art piece with its signature interactive attributes that honor local football club centennial while at the same time engage the public in an urban-scale communication game. inspired by old posters and information boards used in sports, the studio has created ‘flip-it’, an interactive analogical pixel screen that can be used to display graphical messages like typography, patterns or simple icons on the main façade of the stadium.

 

like the football club’s history itself, bridging different eras, flip-it integrates into its conception a visual grammar based on a grid, common to both century old techniques as portuguese pavement or traditional ceramic tiled façades, and modern electronic displays or digital screens.

moradavaga flip it designboom
general view of the analogical pixel panel

 

 

moradavaga’s panel with 11.00 by 2.80 meters was assembled with 2500 independent square pixels 10 centimeters-long sides, distributed by 100 columns of 25 pieces each in reference to the institution’s one-hundredth anniversary, fabricated as custom-made plastic boxes with two sides: white and blue in agreement with the club’s identity. this interface acts as a new tool of communication between the club, the fans and the city, one in which everyone is able to leave their messages in an ever-changing and evolving urban dialogue.

moradavaga flip it designboom
passersby interacting with the piece

 

 

flip-it by moradavaga is an interactive pixel-like mural for portuguese street theatre festival
citizen leaving a message on the interactive billboard

 

flip-it by moradavaga is an interactive pixel-like mural for portuguese street theatre festival
detail showing the interactive façade’s binary rotative elements

 

flip-it by moradavaga is an interactive pixel-like mural for portuguese street theatre festival
perspective view of the grid like surface

 

flip-it by moradavaga is an interactive pixel-like mural for portuguese street theatre festival
frontal view with the textured effect produced by sun light

 

flip-it by moradavaga is an interactive pixel-like mural for portuguese street theatre festival
writing on the wall

 

flip-it by moradavaga is an interactive pixel-like mural for portuguese street theatre festival
partial view of the piece with low-case font example at sunset

 

flip-it by moradavaga is an interactive pixel-like mural for portuguese street theatre festival
witty pun message related to sports jargon

 

flip-it by moradavaga is an interactive pixel-like mural for portuguese street theatre festival
official club announcement

 

flip-it by moradavaga is an interactive pixel-like mural for portuguese street theatre festival
front elevation illustration

 

flip-it by moradavaga is an interactive pixel-like mural for portuguese street theatre festival
technical drawing of the modular pixel-like element

 

project info:

 

project type: interactive installation

location: santa maria da feira, portugal

date: may 2018 – may 2019

collaboration: joão dias-oliveira

commissioned by: município de santa maria da feira

structure: radical e positivo, lda.

pixels: inducorte – indústria de cortantes, lda. (mold) and vancal, lda. (injection)

 

 

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

 

edited by: maria erman | designboom