pave the way for digital and multimedia artists. She has spent the past thirty years working in and experimenting with new media and has been exhibited and published worldwide. She recently visited American University in Washington, DC where I had the privilege of attending her lecture on "abstract" digital animation and installation. Fortunately, Vibeke was able to critique the work I am doing in multimedia during a studio visit that was organized by the university Art Department. This essay will address the influences of architecture as a sensory experience on the work Vibeke Sorensen is accomplishing with digital animation and video installation.
Vibeke describes her unique relationship to architecture in the essay "Identity, Poetry, Memory, Nature." Vibeke writes that:
I developed a view of architecture as much more than static, physical structures. It is:
I developed a view of architecture as much more than static, physical structures. It is:
1. organized information; including networks and telecommunications
2. culture, and multi/trans-culturalism - the product of many cultural and historical influences; global
2. culture, and multi/trans-culturalism - the product of many cultural and historical influences; global
3. social spaces and structures, human scale, in support of human life, creativity, and communication
4. spaces and structures in harmony with nature and the environment
5. spaces and structures articulated by light and sound, smell and touch, multisensory/multimodal
4. spaces and structures in harmony with nature and the environment
5. spaces and structures articulated by light and sound, smell and touch, multisensory/multimodal
6. space-time relationships, space in movement and transformation, plastic and fluid, like music, liquid architecture
There are many ways to put these together
1. liquid architecture by organized information, or digital computers
2. multicultural liquid architecture networked using digital computers
3. multimodal social spaces in harmony with nature and multiculturalism
There are many ways to put these together
1. liquid architecture by organized information, or digital computers
2. multicultural liquid architecture networked using digital computers
3. multimodal social spaces in harmony with nature and multiculturalism
4. others
Vibeke uses this concept of "liquid" architecture to fuel the work she is doing with animation. She is obviously not an architect at the present, but was trained as one and thus has a strong reference point from which to glean information and ideas. In her essay she writes in depth about the interests she explored while growing up and the multi-disciplinary approach to life she has occupied. During her lecture at American University, Vibeke explained how her interests in dance, gymnastics, architecture, music, and art influenced her approach to animation, digital art, and installation. As a pioneer of digital and 3-D animation, it is important to understand her aesthetic and philosophical interests and how they helped to inform the digital world we live in today. Vibeke is extremely invested in creating multi-sensory experiences for the viewer that help to intensify or even challenge neurological associations and memory induced experiences. Her video installations serve as environments in which the viewer can become fully engaged with the work, and ultimately with their personal and shared experiences. To clarify, Vibeke writes:
Vibeke uses this concept of "liquid" architecture to fuel the work she is doing with animation. She is obviously not an architect at the present, but was trained as one and thus has a strong reference point from which to glean information and ideas. In her essay she writes in depth about the interests she explored while growing up and the multi-disciplinary approach to life she has occupied. During her lecture at American University, Vibeke explained how her interests in dance, gymnastics, architecture, music, and art influenced her approach to animation, digital art, and installation. As a pioneer of digital and 3-D animation, it is important to understand her aesthetic and philosophical interests and how they helped to inform the digital world we live in today. Vibeke is extremely invested in creating multi-sensory experiences for the viewer that help to intensify or even challenge neurological associations and memory induced experiences. Her video installations serve as environments in which the viewer can become fully engaged with the work, and ultimately with their personal and shared experiences. To clarify, Vibeke writes:
Frames of Mind: Memory Matrix, 1998"A complex process of association, linking and connecting sense information is always active. It layers it, and updates the relationships, which are constantly being changed. This means that meaning and narrative is always changing as the context changes. This is poetry. Association is poetry. As Alan Watts has stated, “The power of poetry comes from its associative rather than logical qualities.”
I feel here that "logical" refers not to nature - which is organic, but to man-made hierarchy and sociological structures. Vibeke abandoned classical music early on for the more free-flowing, democratic and often highly intuitive art form of Jazz. While listening intently to her lecture, it was clear that Vibeke is very devoted as an artist to bringing the logical and the mechanical back to nature. She stated that "everything is circular, everything returns to nature." I was a bit perplexed by her understanding of architecture existing in harmony with nature. My personal opinion has always been that architecture has somewhat disrupted the presence of nature for the self-interests of "man." In contrast however, I can understand how architecture has to at least acknowledge and take into account the characteristics and physical presence of nature. It cannot ignore it, but must live within it. People move in and out of the space, just as light and sound permeate the interior. Life undulates in fluid waves within the confounds of " permeable walls."
I was curious how much of Vibeke's work is autobiographical. During an interview I conducted with the artist via email, I asked the following question:
Q: (LS) So much of your work involves memory and associative thinking. You write in depth about your upbringing in your essay and what led you to making the work you are making now. I imagine like all artists, you draw somewhat from personal experience when creating a new work of art. How much of your work is at all autobiographical and do you see the work becoming more personal in the future?
A: (VS) All works of art are to some degree autobiographical. It is always a reflection of how we see and understand the world, even if we are trying not to make this the content. There is always some decision involved in making the work that reflects the individual. However, having said that, in most of my interactive work, in particular, I try to leave decisions for the users/collaborators/audience to make, by structuring in freedom through improvisational openings in the work. I also try to background the technology and foreground people and nature. My model is that of jazz, where each musician plays together with others in an ensemble, and each performer is an individual who improvises a solo at some point in the work. It is fundamentally democratic. There is not a conflict between the individual and the social.
Likewise, in my work I often use personal and autobiographical elements together with cultural and non-personal elements. One thing that interests me is how cultural memory and personal memory become mixed in the mind (as in language). Surely you have had the experience where you wondered if something you remembered really happened to you (primary memory) or if it was something you read or saw on television or on the internet (secondary memory). So primary and secondary memory are in constant flux, changing as the environment, or context, changes. As life takes each of us on our own personal adventures in the world, it will find its way into our artworks. I will always embrace this. Also, I do not see human beings as the center of all life. Instead I think of human beings as part of an ecological system, and therefore it's difficult for me to view my own personal experience as so terribly important, given this larger context. But just as I said previously, there is no fundamental conflict between the individual and the social (so long as we behave responsibly), and individuals, especially those who may be most sensitive and least aware of their importance, are needed as links in an ecology. So if my own experience can provide some insight into the larger human condition or that of the world, or contribute in some way to improving the lives of others, then this would be valuable. Surely, the fact that we are alive means that we express ourselves through our thoughts and actions, including in our artwork, and they have consequences. I can only hope that this is done in a way that provides greater awareness and generosity, and a smaller consumptive 'footprint'. To be more self aware today means to be less self centered. In short, yes, I expect that my work will engage more of my own experience and self-awareness but in a way that reflects greater conscience and consciousness, and a larger network of life at the same time.
It is interesting how Vibeke has addressed the autobiographical elements in her work. Going back to her relationship with architecture, it is ostensibly evident that Vibeke has been strongly influenced by the relationship that architecture has with nature and the multi-sensory experience elicited within its presence in space. One "experiences" architecture, they do not passively observe it as a spectator. This relates also to the way one processes information and stores information in the form of memory and cognitive associations. Vibeke's video and animation installations such as "Morocco Memory II," and the more recent "Sanctuary"employ this ideology.
Vibeke describes Sanctuary below:
"Sanctuary is an alternative vision of how technology can relate to nature and culture. Similar to Morocco Memory II, it uses real objects within an architectural pace. Live plants are involved, as well as organic objects such as shells, stones, etc, and will also engage the entire body and most of the senses, including vision, hearing, touch and smell interacting with them and the physical-virtual space...The space itself is made of wood, and there are 4 skins or walls in an open temple-like design meant to bring outside and inside together for contemplation."
Sanctuary, 2005
Morocco Memory II, journal, 1995
I responded to this notion by asking the questions:
Q: (LS) What is your relationship with technology? At times is seems you have a very complicated relationship with the ideas associated with technology. Are you trying to subvert the mainstream antagonistic viewpoint of technology as something that is in constant battle with and/or threatens the validity of nature?
A: (VS) While I recognize that we are all part of nature, and I deeply respect nature and life, I also see human understanding of nature as potentially a good thing and not necessarily in conflict with it. For example, disease is part of nature. Human medical knowledge and technology has in general helped us, as well as our fellow animals and plants, to overcome disease. But my view is that we need to have a strong ethical foundation to inform what we do with our knowledge, to make sure that it supports life, and not just for ourselves but for others too. Certainly, we know from history that medical knowledge has been used in unethical ways (using disease as a weapon in war, for example). I am concerned that our computer technology, especially entertainment-oriented war games proliferating over the past 10 years, has increasingly isolated people from nature, normalized anti-social and sadistic thinking and behavior, fostering a society that regards war and armed conflict as inevitable, acceptable, and worse, something to be welcomed. It has made a militarized society.
Q: (LS) What is your relationship with technology? At times is seems you have a very complicated relationship with the ideas associated with technology. Are you trying to subvert the mainstream antagonistic viewpoint of technology as something that is in constant battle with and/or threatens the validity of nature?
A: (VS) While I recognize that we are all part of nature, and I deeply respect nature and life, I also see human understanding of nature as potentially a good thing and not necessarily in conflict with it. For example, disease is part of nature. Human medical knowledge and technology has in general helped us, as well as our fellow animals and plants, to overcome disease. But my view is that we need to have a strong ethical foundation to inform what we do with our knowledge, to make sure that it supports life, and not just for ourselves but for others too. Certainly, we know from history that medical knowledge has been used in unethical ways (using disease as a weapon in war, for example). I am concerned that our computer technology, especially entertainment-oriented war games proliferating over the past 10 years, has increasingly isolated people from nature, normalized anti-social and sadistic thinking and behavior, fostering a society that regards war and armed conflict as inevitable, acceptable, and worse, something to be welcomed. It has made a militarized society.
It seems to me that we urgently need to use our knowledge and technology to restore our ethics and empathy, which arise from living in a world connected with nature and people, and use it to create alternatives that redirect destructive human behaviors and technologies, replacing them with positive and productive ones. Technology is something we make and invent. Generally speaking, we can choose to make creative technologies or destructive technologies. Are there more creative than destructive inventors in the world? We need more critical, careful, empathic, and ethical people developing and using technology. So yes, in this sense we need to subvert technology and the mainstream antagonistic viewpoint you mentioned.
To clarify, I asked specifically about the project at hand:
Q: (LS): This question is in response to your project "Sanctuary." You state that "It addresses the urgent problem of disappearing nature, species, and cultures, as western media and technology reaches cultures and places previously isolated." How do you get these ideas across to cultures where technology is limited to more privileged economic groups? How do you create change where access is so limited?
A: (VS) One way, as I did in Sanctuary, is to employ elements in the artwork that are not normally considered 'high technology,' such as plants, water, and other natural and organic materials, including everyday objects and handcraft. Another way is the use of images and sounds such as documentary photography and video, and traditional musical instruments from cultures around the world that also are typically not included. My goal was to welcome people from all walks of life and include nature into the artwork in ways that do not objectify, disrespect, or otherwise exploit them. Instead I tried to create an inclusive, ethical, 'open' and cooperative environment. It's true that globally technology is expensive and exclusive and that implies a class difference. It also implies a utilitarian prioritization that is associated with dominant and dominating cultures. By making technology as inexpensive and flexible as possible, by using it in ways that foster cooperative and peaceful social activity (rather than competition and violence), that are lateral rather than hierarchical, it is possible to democratize it more and provide alternative ways to bring entry to those who have been excluded. There are technologies today that bridge more and more people in indigenous communities, who do not otherwise go to museums and galleries. Public art, work exhibited in everyday and 'vernacular' settings, online environments and alternative networks, including cell phones, social networks, and the ‘$100 per laptop’ initiative, are among the best ways to connect with people. That is part of the methodology. The medium is the message, partly. But bringing social and cultural content into the technology is of course best done by the people themselves. However, one cannot expect this from our animal and plant population. As people, we need to bring this content directly into our artworks. Many more people today know that animals and cultures are disappearing especially those who are themselves part of ethnic minorities. But we need to show the connection between diversity in cultures and diversity in nature as a way for people to understand the process and reverse it. ‘Green IT’ (ecological and sustainable information technology) is a growth area that reflects this.
As an artist, my way is to make a multisensory, inclusive, multicultural experience that directly connects nature and technology in peaceful ways for contemplation. Fundamentally, media art is an alternative form of education. But there are other ways to communicate these ideas, including through more traditional and didactic education structures. Overall, we need to find ways for people living close to nature all around the world to tell their own stories about their relationship to their environment, and in their own ways. One way is through experimental animation, dynamic visual thinking. Another is through sound and world music. It is the delicate and fragile things that need a place in our consciousness, for it is they who are disappearing, and so they are the most important to protect. So we need to make more sensitive technologies, and make ourselves as human beings and social creatures more sensitive and compassionate towards them. We need an attitude change: a global mind change. This is a huge process, step by step, as we bring more of the people of the world into dialog with each other and nature, sharing their lives, and helping each other to solve problems of survival of all creatures, large and small. It is through this kind of engagement with people and nature, including by making art and using computers, that we can do this. There is no one right way, there are many ways. Each person can contribute their own.
As an artist, my way is to make a multisensory, inclusive, multicultural experience that directly connects nature and technology in peaceful ways for contemplation. Fundamentally, media art is an alternative form of education. But there are other ways to communicate these ideas, including through more traditional and didactic education structures. Overall, we need to find ways for people living close to nature all around the world to tell their own stories about their relationship to their environment, and in their own ways. One way is through experimental animation, dynamic visual thinking. Another is through sound and world music. It is the delicate and fragile things that need a place in our consciousness, for it is they who are disappearing, and so they are the most important to protect. So we need to make more sensitive technologies, and make ourselves as human beings and social creatures more sensitive and compassionate towards them. We need an attitude change: a global mind change. This is a huge process, step by step, as we bring more of the people of the world into dialog with each other and nature, sharing their lives, and helping each other to solve problems of survival of all creatures, large and small. It is through this kind of engagement with people and nature, including by making art and using computers, that we can do this. There is no one right way, there are many ways. Each person can contribute their own.
"Sanctuary" obviously borrows many aspects from architecture to heighten the physiological experience of the viewer. The walls are not closed but rather open, welcoming the viewer or participant into the space. The participant may then walk around the installation in order to view the projections on each side of the four screens. Images and animations transport the participant to a more introspective and meditative place while the sound creates a soothing and immersive environment (borrowing from the musical traditions of diverse cultures).
Video clip of Sanctuary installation
Vibeke invokes sensory experiences and reactions with her animation and installation work. She challenges our normative ways of thinking and associating images, sounds, and motion. The concepts behind "liquid architecture" have led her to making the work she is presently creating and ultimately "bringing everything back to nature."
In closing, I felt it was imperative to inquire about the direction of the artist's work and future plans in multi-media:
Q: (LS) You always seem to be ahead of your time. While in my studio you spoke about the frustrations you experienced with software - wanting to construct something before the tools were invented. Where do you see yourself in five years and what are your hopes and aspirations for multi-media art?
A: (VS) Thanks for your comments. In five years I hope to be working even more with world arts and cultures than I have in the past, and more than anything else, to have contributed to making the world a more peaceful place, and that includes reversing (or at least slowing down) the climate crisis. I hope that the field of media art will be at the leading edge of this movement. If making a place for other artists to do this is a form of creativity, then creating a world center for media art connected to the ecology and the idea of sustainability would be one of my most important projects! As an individual, I would like to work more with natural phenomena of the planet, making works that help us understand our connection to the natural environment. I would like to make works that connect the complex rhythms of nature (biorhythms), for example, with media (including 'games' and social networks) and the mind (neuroscience), so we can see ourselves as instruments in a huge symphony playing together and in a huge cooperative conversation with so many other instruments. Media art is not only a window to the future, but to the present. It is part of a system of real-time feedback between us and the environment. Physical and mental well being are indicators of whether or not we are living in or out of balance with nature, as well as whether or not our environment is clean and safe. This is also expressed as esthetics. My view is that ethics is esthetics, and the purpose of ethics is to make a more just and responsible world.
Q: (LS) You always seem to be ahead of your time. While in my studio you spoke about the frustrations you experienced with software - wanting to construct something before the tools were invented. Where do you see yourself in five years and what are your hopes and aspirations for multi-media art?
A: (VS) Thanks for your comments. In five years I hope to be working even more with world arts and cultures than I have in the past, and more than anything else, to have contributed to making the world a more peaceful place, and that includes reversing (or at least slowing down) the climate crisis. I hope that the field of media art will be at the leading edge of this movement. If making a place for other artists to do this is a form of creativity, then creating a world center for media art connected to the ecology and the idea of sustainability would be one of my most important projects! As an individual, I would like to work more with natural phenomena of the planet, making works that help us understand our connection to the natural environment. I would like to make works that connect the complex rhythms of nature (biorhythms), for example, with media (including 'games' and social networks) and the mind (neuroscience), so we can see ourselves as instruments in a huge symphony playing together and in a huge cooperative conversation with so many other instruments. Media art is not only a window to the future, but to the present. It is part of a system of real-time feedback between us and the environment. Physical and mental well being are indicators of whether or not we are living in or out of balance with nature, as well as whether or not our environment is clean and safe. This is also expressed as esthetics. My view is that ethics is esthetics, and the purpose of ethics is to make a more just and responsible world.
Many thanks to Vibeke for participating in the interview and providing such thorough and insightful responses!
Learn more about the artist by visiting her website
