Angry House

HMC Interactive created and developed the software behind Angry House by David Bickerstaff, winner of the competition “Your Art @ the Big Chill” for The Big Chill multi media festival in the Malvern Hills.

The idea behind Angry House was to create an interactive, performance-based installation, where the notion of the ‘emotional’ house is played out. The house looked like a wooden, cute backyard playhouse, appearing innocent and calm. When no one was around, the house sleept… all aws quiet, except for the wind chimes hanging above the door.

But the house is sentient. Proximity sensors embedded in the front of the house, detected the distance and movement of visitors. As they got closer, the house stirred, getting angrier, it growled and the door banged from inside. Sometimes, a bright light shot out of the small windows, projecting shadowy figures onto the adjacent trees. The house appeared to be alive and active, attracting attention with its internal, flickering light and nightmarish chimes.

I enjoyed the enduring enthusiasm of the HMC team as they helped me create my Angry House for the Big Chill Festival. When things got tough, the team pitched in with good humour and delivered creative software solutions under difficult circumstances.David Bickerstaff — Artist & Founder, AtomicTV