The Decode exhibit (V&A museum until 11th April) is a wondrous collection of interactive and visually stunning exhibits. Sold as a showcase of “the latest developments in digital and interactive design” it’s full of beautiful, immersive installations.

The exhibition features some of the world’s premiere ‘interactive artists’, including Golan Levin and Aaron Koblin, and it has certainly attracted a lot of attention. I went along to check out what all the fuss was about. These are my favourites.

Body paint

Mehmet Akten’s virtual painting installation is unlike any painting you will have ever attempted before. The piece works by sensing motion allowing intrepid artists to splatter, smear and spray paint over the large virtual canvas. The result is inevitably a messy smear of vivid colours but that doesn’t matter; it’s the interaction that counts.

Body Paint (via Ben J Gibbs)

The real-time tie between the user and the canvas is fascinating, with a flick or the wrist you can spray a flurry of pink up the canvas. It’s like begin child with poster paints again, except this time you can do it all day without any mess and still claim artistic integrity.

Dandelion

The concept here is pure simplicity; allowing users to blow away the seed of a dandelion. This being a virtual interactive piece however both the dandelion, and the wind which affects it, are virtual.

The installation was created by Sennep; a London-based design studio specialising in creating digital experiences. It’s another child-like activity brought into the virtual world as an adult’s plaything, but it’s that simplicity which makes it so delightfully engrossing.

Dandelion (via Pixelthing)

Exquisite clock

This piece, created by the Italian group Fabrica, is one of the only exhibits to allow participation from the wider world (rather than just the viewer). The piece is a clock, but of course it’s interactive! For months anonymous online visitors have been able to add their images on the exquisite clock website, each user adding a photograph of (or representing) a number, thereby building a database full of number images. This database is then plumbed by a live updating clock displaying each digit as a different image.

The beauty in this piece is that it can really be contributed to by anyone, it’s a truly crowd-sourced application reliant on willing users. A live updating version of the clock can actually be seen on the website. Why not submit an image yourself and wait to see if it comes around?

There were of course many more amazing pieces in the exhibit, from a virtual (but real) tree to an interactive wall of bubbles. The whole exhibit was great fun, I’d thoroughly recommend a trip to see it before it closes. For more information and tickets visit the V&A museum website.