Paku-Paku is an audio mash up machine disguised as a real world Pac-Man game. Customs circuits that convert audio signal into light illuminate an 8x8 meter recreation of Pac-Man's maze. Fed by local radio stations, these circuits produce light corresponding to the incoming audio frequencies, resulting in light that shimmers and pulses with the music. So as audience controlled hover Pac-Man, Ms Pac-Man and their sworn enemies the hover ghosts Inky & Clyde, travel throughout the maze, photocells under their chassis read this light and reinterpret it back into audio. So as they travel through the maze interacting with different light sources they act as cross faders, switching and swapping through various radio signals, creating audio collages reflecting the surrounding community, a random juxtaposition of snippets of music, advertising and talk back forming an aural zeitgeist.
Devised and Constructed by Lucas Abela
Programming by Severin Sieben
Electrical Engineering by Danial Stocks
Supported by the Australia Council of the Arts
Thankyou for Keg de Souza, Rory McKay, Helen Rose and Jim Gench for your help and support
video and images from exhibition
at Alaska Projects, Sydney 16-030514
