The Barbarian Group
The Barbarian Group is an internet technology firm. But let’s ignore that for a moment. What the Barbarians really are is a group of innovators: art directors, industrial designers, interactive artists, developers, animators, illustrators and more. They are very lucky, or very misguided, in the sense that much of what they do is of use to marketers and brands. At its core, the work is a creative, artistic enterprise. The Barbarians strive for the perfect marriage of creative and technology, with interactivity as their canvas. They found fame with their uniformly compelling and innovative web projects: The Subservient Chicken for Burger King, Become an M&M for Masterfoods, The Beer Cannon for Milwaukee’s Best Light, Comcastic for Comcast.
This work has represented itself in some strange ways. They make websites. Viral marketing. Television spots. Software. Interactive Films. Installation art. Ah yes, installation art. The Barbarians have been dabbling and working in this field for some years. They’ve received critical acclaim for some of their more well-known installation art work, including work for Nokia with Universal Everything for their Hong Kong showroom. That work has become the core of their first collaboration with McLeod Residence, a limited edition art piece called McLeod Mirror Series 1. A joint release between the two organizations, McLeod Mirror is a timeless product brought into the modern age. That means it is slightly more interesting, dynamic, compelling but also perhaps pointlessly complex and significantly less useful. But hey, it’s art. With a limited edition of 100, the first mirrors hang in McLeod Residence and the Barbarian Offices.
The Barbarian Group also found early interactive success with their work with Goodby, Silverstein and Partners and Obscura Digital on the Saturn Greenline Nextfest Booth. Shortlisted for the Clios, and recently highlighted in Communication Art’s interactive installation survey, the piece was a unified vision of the marriage of technology, interactivity and accessibility. The Barbarians, for their part, created the interactive, motion sensitive video wall that simultaneously posted user-submitted messages, and rippled and waved in response to the movements of the visitors.
In a different twist on interactive art, the Barbarians recently released a beta of their iTunes visualizer Magnetosphere. Perhaps the most anticipated and well-received visualizer since the launch of the original G-Force, their magnetosphere page has received literally millions of visitors. The beta of the software launched in April of 2007, and development is ongoing. This marks the Barbarians’ first foray into interactive software as art.
The McLeod Residence installation marks the first pure art installation the Barbarians have ever undertaken as an organization. They are honored to exhibit here, and excited to be invited to this space.
