downwardgazer

The World According to Vibeke

2009-03-15T22:13:00.000-07:00

Vibeke Sorensen is an artist and professor working in digital multimedia and animation, and Professor and Chair of the Department of Media Study at the University of Buffalo. She is considered a pioneer in the development of digital and 3-D animation software and helped to

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:

1. organized information; including networks and telecommunications
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

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

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:

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

This interactive architectural installation is multi-cultural and examines the sociological and physical construct of a "safe haven." Vibeke addresses the intersection of nature and the virtual. She writes that "It (the project) addresses the urgent problem of disappearing nature, species, and cultures, as western media and technology reaches cultures and places previously isolated." Vibeke believes that this problem can be partially solved by asking people to engage with the technological or the virtual with all of the senses so as to place the intangible within the realm of the tangible - thus making it more readily available and accessible for contemplation.

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.

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.

"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.

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

-LS

Love in the Telematic Embrace?

2008-12-12T10:08:00.000-08:00

I found the article "Is There Love in the Telematic Embrace" by Roy Ascot to be incredibly philosophical. I am not quite sure how to relate the ideas/aesthetic philosophies to my work yet. I am interested in however the idea of the viewer as an active participant rather than a passive recipient in regard to viewing/experiencing a work of art. Ascot explains his theory of the passive viewer (and artist as creator) on page 336. He states " This is the model that has artist as sender and therefore originator of meaning, and the artist as creator and owner of images and ideas, the artist as controller of context and content. It is a model that requires, for its completion, the viewer as, at best, a skilled decoder or interpreter of the artist's "meaning" or, at worst, simply a passive receptacle of such meaning." As a response to this statement I feel somewhat conflicted. On one hand, the idea of viewer as passive "decoder" is depressing. On the other hand, the idea of artist as sole creator seems legitimate. It seems that interactive art calls for a re-negotiation of "power" in the art making process - a sort of socialist view of creating. I don't have a problem with art being interactive, but I also don't have an issue with the artist taking control of his/her project in order to put forth an autonomous creative voice. The article did prompt me however to think about how I might make my work more interactive. In my studio practice I seem to be concerned about the messages my viewer receives via the clues/hints, whatever, I place within my work. This is somewhat unsatisfying to me and I would like the viewer to experience the work in a more free-form way and not be burdened by the task of "decoding" the messages I feel at times obligated to encode. I feel my video piece accomplished this task primarily because it was more straight-forward and immersive for the viewer. I think scale may contribute to this as well. When something is large and overwhelming, one is enveloped by the sheer massiveness and contends with this by succumbing to the "experience." When something is small and precious, we as viewers have the tendency to "look in" on something with scrutiny, as if it were under a magnifying glass. Obviously one experiences a Vermeer painting far differently than they experience the ethereal color fields of a Rothko. This will be something I feel I will contend with, in a positive way, for the duration of my career as an artist.

On Steve McQueen

2008-12-11T15:43:00.000-08:00

I was first introduced to the work of artist, Steve McQueen, last spring when I read the article, The Art of Darkness: On Steve McQueen, by author T.J. Demos. I find McQueen's work to be deeply psychological, evocative, enigmatic, and visually quite powerful. I had the rare opportunity to view one of McQueen's films at the Hirshhorn Museum during the first exhibition of Realisms in the spring and was immediately hooked. I say rare because McQueen's work is often very difficult to find online. The piece was called "Bear" and it was so visually beautiful that I couldn't help but stare up at the projected moving image, enthralled, as I sat on the cold museum floor in the darkness. It was the first time that I had ever seriously contemplated working in new media.

The film Bear toys with the relationship between flirtation and aggression that takes place between two African American nude men, who wrestle each other in a ring. The juxtaposing of aggressive behavior and flirtatious intent is fascinating. I found myself oblivious to the fact that the men were nude, their genitalia blatantly exposed, as they their bodies clamored together in total s

ilence. The visual appeal of the film aids in seducing the viewer into submission. Shot in black and white, the grainy footage feels archaic, as if it was from another time period. McQueen was greatly influenced by early silent films which comes across in his work. I think the poetic beauty of his work creates an interesting dialogue in relation to the subject matter. McQueen poses questions about race, masculinity, homoeroticism, and violence in the incredibly poignant piece. He also uses himself to play one of the two "characters" raising questions of whether or not the piece can be considered a self portrait.

In working on my own film project, Balance, I felt the influence of McQueen's work who I am heavily inspired by. I was interested in creating dynamic juxtapositions to construct a sort of visual rhetoric in order to communicate with the audience. I wanted to create a visually appealing moving image as a foil to a seemingly "ugly" subject matter; a dancer's foot. I suppose I also wanted to uphold and dismantle the idea of grace simultaneously. Like McQueen, I employed the tool of large-scale projection on a flat wall in an enclosed space. I saw this as a way of enveloping the typically passive viewer. McQueen uses the same tactic as a way to enact self reflection in the audience. The absence of sound in his work also plays a vital role. McQueen states that "The whole idea of making it a silent piece is so that when people walk into the space they become very much aware of themselves, of their own breathing...I want to put people in a situation where they're sensitive to themselves watching the piece." McQueen isn't interested in the passive viewer, he very much wants them to take part in the experience he creates via film. McQueen has completed a collection of films which decisively employ specific tactics that serve his agenda as an artist and filmmaker.

Quote courtesy of: Tate Online.

Bear, a ten minute piece completed in 1993, was an early project in the timeline of McQueen's career. Besides the use of black and white and the implementation of silence, McQueen enjoys the process of interrupting the viewing process or exposing the mechanical limitations of the camera. For example in the film Catch, completed in 1997, McQueen and his sister toss and camera back and forth outside. At each interval, the camera is turned outward to focus briefly on the individual across the short distance, and then tossed into the air. The camera tumbles and all that is captured is blurred chaotic motion. The camera in unable to catch the motion that occurs between the physical catch of it, itself. McQueen repeats this tactic in the content heavy film Western Deep, 2002. The film is about the perils of South African Mining operations. Western Deep opens with an appropriate sequence. The film begins in total darkness with only the mechanical sounds of the mining equipment

serving as a soundtrack. The darkness serves as a metaphor for the way the minors spend their lives.

It is also yet another interruption of the viewing process and serves as commentary on the function of the documentary, which is in fact to document. McQueen is also careful to never actually show the product of the mining industry, gold. Instead, he shows the real product of the industry, which is the effect it has had on the people who live it.

I found the notion of interrupting the viewing experience

to be intriguing and employed it in my own work. In

Balance I interrupt the gaze of the audience on the feminine form as a way of placing the power back into realm of the subject, and not the viewer. I feel in my case it relates more to feminism than it does of course in McQueen's, who is more interested in undermining the idea of documentation and creating a metaphor for political repression. The act of "looking" or gazing is a sensual experience and there is something very tangible and alarming about dramatically interrupting it. Looking is also such an important aspect of assessing art and to interrupt it seems to undermine an academic, and patriarchal system for assessing beauty, success, and purpose.

McQueen has been an important source of inspiration for the development of my work. I continue to be fascinated with him and his voice as an artist in today's society. I hope to continue exploring new ways of expressing my voice in multimedia and have McQueen to thank for opening a door that I never knew existed for me as a means of artistic expression.

Below is a video of the artist talking about his most recent film Hunger for which is received the Camera d'Or award at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. It should be noted that McQueen is also the recipient of the Turner Prize, which he was honored with in 1999.

Cat and Mouse

2008-12-07T13:41:00.000-08:00

The article titled "Responsive Environments" written by and about the digital artist, Myron W. Krueger, examines the evolution, trajectory, and applications of real-time interactive digital environments. I found the work, and more so the aspirations and philosophies of Krueger to be extremely interesting, despite any logical fallacies and conceptual holes in the work. Krueger is desperately seeking a dialogue and philosophical aesthetic for interactive media. He reiterates that the work is neither about the visual or audial characteristics and displays of the work, but rather the interactivity that the work elicits between "artist" and participant. On page 379, he even outlines that the number of participants should be limited so as to control the amount of interaction that may take place between participants, delineating further that the interaction should take place between artist and participant.

Why shouldn't the interaction take place between participants as well? The interactive "relational aesthetic" artist Tirvanija, constructs a type of an environment in a gallery to elicit responses in the participants. He cooks food which fills the normally sterile

environment with rich inviting scents and

provides food to the participants to eat and enjoy. Socialization is elevated as people become more relaxed and distracted by the sensuality of the experience. Kreuger is careful not to put too much control in the hands of the partic

ipant, which I feel is limiting to not only his research but the true character traits of human behavior - people are social creatures who seek companionship and camaraderie. Human beings are also naturally resistant to an overbearing sense of control - which is perceived as dangerous and limiting.

Learn more about the work of Tiravanija here: http://www.artnet.com/artist/16665/rirkrit-tiravanija.html

Control is obviously necessary to some degree however. Given the constraints of the technology, certain parameters have to be in place for the project to succeed. I suppose I find the idea of "cat and mouse" to be quite interesting and applicable to my work, though in the abstract sense. In Krueger's "Maze" participants are lured into navigating the projected maze to only discover that their journey was somewhat in vain. The maze transforms to avoid any "end Point" or success of completion on behalf of the participant. There are also consequences - if the individual steps out of "bounds", the maze reacts antagonistically to produce a type of penalty. The participant ultimately realizes that the point of the maze is simply to get the individual to interact with it - and not to create a sort of challenge that can be overcome. I like the idea of "luring" the individual to participate though I find the maze to be overly deceptive which may only increase one's resistance to technology as the feeling of being "tricked" be a machine permeates the human psyche. However, the idea of seduction is applicable to my work.

The idea of "luring" made me think back to the first exhibition of Realisms at the Hirshhorn Museum. Crowds of people clung to each other as they navigated the dark corridors of the exhibition, waiting eagerly to find what was just around the corner. I remember remarking that people were treating the exhibition like a "funhouse," giggling and bumping into each other as they stared with mouths agape at the moving images projected onto walls in black, chilly rooms. While reading the article, I thought about how I could display my work so that individuals were enticed to come and see what was producing a certain noise, or where an inviting glow illuminated from. In theory it seems quite difficult to get people to venture into a dark room and watch something of which the outcome is unknown and the subject matter is undisclosed. How long can one entrap an audience? So often people abandon multi-media pieces, especially films, before ever seeing the end of the piece. I wonder how I can lay claim to an audience for the entire duration of my film, which is fairly short in length. I suppose I have started to do this by creating an aesthetically pleasing visual piece. I wanted the film to seem as though it were from a different time period - which I find increases one's curiosity about the origin of the work. People are so curious about the past, about the way things were rather than what they will become. I hope to exploit these notions further as I take into account the importance of audience and the idea of directing audience as my project evolves.

"Changing Space"

2008-10-28T13:13:00.001-07:00

The article "Changing Space: Virtual Reality as an Arena of Embodied Being," written about the work of artist, Char Davies, opens new doors for the blending of art and technology. I found the article to be incredibly interesting and kept wishing that I could experience what the participants, or "immersants" experienced while navigating through the world that Davies and her team created. I was intrigued by the fact that Davies started out her career as a painter and later came to technology and the world of virtual reality. As an artist, I do feel the need to create a type of reality, whatever it may be. Davies took her creative need to world build to a new level by creating spaces that could physically, through the use of virtual reality, be inhabited by its participants. Though the work I am doing in class is far different than the environments that Davies creates, I am interested in researching and hopefully employing the immersive aspect of her work.

Prior to reading the article, I had contemplated the final format of my piece "Balance." I want the piece to be projected onto a large wall so that viewers feel almost overcome by the sheer size of the image. The legs in the piece should appear massive, as if they belonged to a Greek god walking across the sky. I am very interested in how new media can affect the viewer. It's something I have been thinking about intensely. While reading the article I found that I was most excited about and intrigued by how the participants reacted during and post immersion. Davies strives to change the perception and subjectivity of her audience. She quotes from Bachelard's The Poetry of Space "By changing space, by leaving the space of one's usual sensibilities...we change our nature." (p.294)

I thought the emotional responses "Osmose" evoked were incredible. It must be extremely rewarding for the artist to create such visceral work. Coming out of Freudian school of thought, I kept wondering what blocked avenues or locked doors could be opened by immersing myself in an environment such as Osmose.

The author states that "many of their (immersants) responses are surprising in terms of emotional intensity, ranging from euphoria to tears of loss."

Though I do not wish for my audience to be affected so strongly in terms of emotions, I do want them to feel immersed in the environment I create and seduced by the physical appearance of the moving image. I hope to alter the audience's perception of grace and femininity so I am not so far removed from Davies' goal to alter one's subjectivity. You can read more about the work of Char Davies by visiting http://www.immersence.com

Recombinant Theater, Plato, and DNA

2008-10-07T13:03:00.000-07:00

The chapter title "Recombinant Theater and Digital Resistance" seemed to comprise far too many topics to achieve true comprehension on behalf of the reader. I find that the analog vs. digital dialog however to be quite interesting. The author describes the "analog" as order produced by chaos and the "digital" as order produced by order. The author strives to relate the digital back to the human body by analyzing the visual structure of DNA. Information for the creation and replication of cells in the body is stored in genes that operate using a genetic code. Cells are created via genetic transcription in which the transferring of information (or code) takes place. The parallels to computer technology (mainly code) are unquestionable. DNA would of course correlate with the author's idea of the digital, or order from order. I question the notion of order from order and argue that DNA as well as computer code operates using simply a different kind of "order" and that order and chaos are actually synonymous and indiscernible. The states of order and chaos are dependent on one another for existence in the physical, or even metaphysical world. It is a highly philosophical topic not dissimilar to the idea of "good" and "evil" which also exist in a co-dependent relationship. The author makes an argument for the digital and creates (in my opinion) a hierarchy between the analog and the digital. The analog is relatable to the "hand" or the artist, while the digital is posited as the manifestation of perfection, not unlike the work of a metaphysical grand creator. The digital is mechanical, and repetitious while the analog is unique and prone to flaw. However, the author pointedly examines the correlative relationship the analog and the digital have with class identifications in society.

We as a society have an interesting relationship and understanding of the analog and the digital. I began to ask myself whether I am a digital artist or an analog artist. I have to say that I am without doubt an analog artist. I appreciate the imperfections in my work and the feeling of my supplies on my hands. Flaws can be beautiful and unexpectedly delightful. The flaws or even grand mistakes are often the very things that lead to break-throughs and necessary transitions. The author points out that people in general appreciate hand made goods such as fine embroidered cloth and hand carved wood details. One of a kind pieces are priceless and art as well as well as haute couture clothing are no exception. Our perceptions of goods and products vary vastly from our perceptions of people and class. When I tell people I am an art major, they ask how I plan to earn a living. Fed up with this response, I once told an elderly gentleman I was a biochemical engineering major. His eyebrows lifted and he nodded, obviously impressed. Feudal society is an excellent example of how we have modeled our understanding of class and work ethic. Those who worked with their hands to make goods were viewed with slightly more regard than peasants, who worked the land. Those who studied law, science, and philosophy were viewed as intellectuals and far removed from the world of earthly sin. The philosopher Plato would argue for the digital as his view of aesthetics was highly antagonistic. Plato suggested that the contributing of art was logically flawed and did nothing for the bettering of our understanding of the world. Art is highly subjective and dependent on the senses for perception. The senses, which naturally vary from person to person, are inconsistent as transcribing mechanisms and thus also flawed. Plato was concerned with the "real" and how can art be truly "real" if the perception of an art piece varies so wildly from person to person. It is not fixed in the world like numbers and scientific facts. It is free floating, and thus dangerous. How can we understand something that doesn't exist?

The digital is capable of mass production, free of variation or flaw. Art created digitally, out of ones and zeros, would be created using the pattern of order from order. I wonder if this artwork, being fixed and somehow concrete, would pass into the world of the logical, a world inhabited by Plato. Would the artist of a digitally created work of art somehow be regarded as an intellectual and not a "craftsman?" Am I regarded as a craftsman (a term we artists seem to shudder at) or simply a person who makes things? There has been resistance to digital art within the world of fine art simply because of the lack of hand, the lack of human touch or essentially flaw. I mean, afterall, who are these "intellectuals" high on their totem poll, who have invaded my turf? Artists have spent centuries climbing their way out of the mud and striving to put to rest the term "starving artist" and the looming guise of the academy. I wonder, finally, are class and value strongly relatable to the terms "analog" and "digital?" If so, how will the digital affect our society's understanding of the working artist? Do we make class distinctions between digital artists and analog artists? If so, is this reflective in the art market (digital art often resisting the idea of commodity since there is often no physical "object" for sale). This reading brought about a lot of questions I have about our society's construction of ideals and class distinctions as they relate to the production and consumption of goods, and ultimately art.

Intermedia

2008-09-25T13:56:00.000-07:00

The article "Intermedia" by Dick Higgins examines the advent of intermedia art primarily throughout the 20th century. Higgins explains that intermedia art exists somewhere between media rather that identifying with any one particular art form, such as painting. It is the blending of not only media, but forms of communication as well. Higgins suggests that we are approaching a classless society and that the art world should run parallel to said societal advances. According to Higgins, the only way to escape the perpetual rigidity of academicism is to break down the barriers between media, emblematic of the breaking down the barriers of class identification.

When has our society ever been classless? While I understand the parallels between class and the tiers of the art world, I don't agree that the two movements are at all synonymous. I wonder how much of this article is political propaganda for a socialist society. In a classless society, individuals seem to cease to exist. Personal self worth and motivation are channeled into energy toward a common goal. I find myself wondering how artists would retain their individual identity in an entirely intermedia art world? The idea of being a printmaker,or a painter, or a sculptor are very much a part of the artist's identity and sense of place in an ever increasingly convoluted world and market. One also takes pride in producing work within a particular media and advancing their relationship to that media. I find that this article fails to take into account the idea of the individual and its relationship to productivity and longevity.

Project Proposals

2008-09-23T14:16:00.000-07:00

These are the four projects I included on my syllabus:

"Balance"

For this film I would like to manipulate time. "Balance" will concern primarily the everyday balance and juggling act I find myself and other women participating in and often time the absence of grace in the process. Women supposedly possess better balance than men though I am not sure whether this trait is inherent. I hope to film this piece in a gymnastics studio. The focus of the film will be on the gymnast's two feet as they curl and bend around the balance beam to hang on during a routine. The piece will be in black and white and will be slowed down to capture every possible nuance of motion and every curl of a toe. I would like the film to be completely silent and grainy in appearance. The final product should be slow, silent and visually beautiful.

I was influenced by Steve McQueen's piece, "Bear" here.

Mcqueen's work is minimalist and visually quite poetic. I think this piece will touch on the aspect of repulsion and seduction I am trying to achieve with the Playboy series I am presently working on in the studio.

"Reaching"

This film will manipulate reality (the audience may have difficulty discerning whether the actions taking place were staged). The film will be conceptually quite simple. A solitary female figure will sit blindfolded in a chair with her hands tied behind her back. There will be dramatic lighting overhead. This film will also be rendered in black and white to heighten the dramatic effect. The room will be fairly dark save for an overhead light.The woman will stretch her neck to receive the empty offerings of a spoon that is placed near her face. The figure feeding her will never be seen in his entirety. The spoon will grace her face but she will never get the satisfaction of grasping it with her mouth.

I think this may speak to the sadistic undertones of human nature and the yearning for the "ideal"

Project 3

This film will manipulate sound and the idea of storytelling.T he film will be in color. I loved the technique of blacking out the background that was used in "Mother's and Fathers." I would like to have a woman (removed from any background) telling a very private and even painful story to the camera. The woman will get visibly upset throughout the short film, crying and shouting about something very painful that happened to her. However, the audience will hear no sound coming from her mouth. Instead, there will be either a song playing or an alternate dialogue that can either serve as a substitution or a metaphor for what the woman is trying very desperately to tell the audience.

Project 4

This piece will again employ the use of a solitary woman and will also be shot in color. A young woman will sit in a chair and comfortably talk about a childhood story or pleasant memory she holds very dear. The camera will never grace her face. Instead it will pan over her figure slowly, stopping in places for the audience to observe. She will appear as a specimen. The audience should feel uncomfortable at times at the length of the pauses the camera takes. This piece will attempt to employ the viewer as voyeur and will provide commentary on the materialization and compartmentalizing young women are often subject to in the media.

This project coheres nicely with the ideas I am working with in regard to our culture's materialization of the female form (Playboy and the media).

How to make the bridge?

2008-09-23T13:10:00.001-07:00

For the past year my work has concerned the female form and feminist theory. The American feminist philosopher, Judith Butler, whose writings on gender performativity, monogamy, and the construct of heterosexuality have greatly influenced the development of my work. (Her book, Gender Trouble, analyzes these issues in depth). I began to examine what roles I perform in my everyday life and what aspects of myself, as a woman, may in fact be inherent. During the same time I was researching Judith Butler, I was exposed to the work of the artist Mary Coble. Coble's work combines performance and video documentation. Her performance piece, "Binding Ritual" inspired me to make "Squeeze," which was part of a portrait series I was working on at the time.

Over the summer I began thinking more about ideals, cultural approproation, and the transformation of human flesh over time. Ancient Greek scupltures served as the physical embodiement for cultural ideals. "Perfect" human beings were carved out of marble and placed on fluted columns. They were gods among the masses. However, these imposed figures were highly deformed, anatomically unrealistic and disproportionate. I began to wonder, are these arhetypes any different than than the modern day superhumans we aspire to be like today? Has anything changed and will we ever escape the self depricating cyle? How do we as a culture take and borrow to suit our own sadistic needs? Playboy entered the picture and I began researching the anothology that covered fifty years of publications and the gross metamorphosis of the female form over time.

It was apparent that as the decades passed, the image of "woman" and what construes the Playboy Bunny, became more plastic, more cold, and more sexually explicit. As the appearce of flesh diminished along with tan lines, cellulite and freckles, the women became more like hollow statues, not so different than those created by the Greeks centuries ago. So where have we arrived at as a culture? How have we transformed aesthetic ideals into products? The materialization of flesh and the commericalization of the female form ignited my interest in cultural appropriation and how we as a culture find ourselves attracted to and manipulating cultures and ideologies we know nothing about. I have just recently begun comining images of appropriated cultures (embodied by landscapes) and images of women from Playboy publications.

I'm not exactly sure how I will marry my ideas and source material for my work in the studio with the work I am doing in multimedia. I hope to create a correlation between the two, or at least work that supports each other.

A Season in Hell

2008-09-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

The multimedia installation "A Season in Hell" created by Randall Packer, John Anderson, and Charles Lane blurs the line between reality and fantasy. The piece criticizes the political regime of President George W. Bush, referring to his reign in office as a "Season in Hell." Elements of myth, political speeches and televised news reports are combined to weave an alternate reality, or a "hyper-reality." The character "Orph" takes us (the audience) and ultimately Packer through the depths of hell on a mythic journey. Interestingly, "factual" events are interwoven with the fantastical to create a sense of disorientation. One does not know what is fact and what is fantasy, thus illustrating how illusive and disconnected our government is with its citizens. News reports, which are supposed to offer unbiased information, are really just another way of confusing and ultimately controlling the public. Times of true crisis become sensationalized plot lines for the next blockbuster film. The piece left me questioning what it is I really know about the topic at hand, and whether truths and facts can actually exist once circulated through the circus that is the media.

"The Art of Noises"

2008-09-04T14:03:00.000-07:00

Luigi Russolo, a futurist painter (1885-1947) suggests that we (the public) abandon our preconceptions of sound, and investigate the musical/lyrical quality of Noise. He distinguishes between sounds and noises. I had thought that sounds and noises were of the same "stuff" though one does have a feeling or reaction to the word "sound" versus the word "noise." For example, someone might say that there is too much noise and thus they cannot concentrate. It is rare that someone would say that there is too much "sound." A musical hierarchy definitely exists. Noises are strange, irritating, annoying, and bothersome. Sounds are pleasant, appealing and evocative of emotion and feeling. "The sounds of nature," not the noises of nature. Russolo argues that we abandon our archaic preconceptions of sound. Perhaps it is not the noise of cars on a city street, but the sound of their engines roaring in rhythmic undulations. I think that Russolo makes an excellent case for sound or more specifically, noise, as material for an art piece.

Noises build pictures where visual literacy fails. Our eyes serve as tools for taking in information and our brains are trained to process the images - often in learned patterns that result in judgements. Our ears work with our eyes and all too often serve the visual. Walking through the metro station blindfolded would result in an entirely different experience than walking through it with your eyes wide open. One would hear things they had most likely never heard and thus make entirely new associations- even visual associations. Perhaps we can call them sound images. It is incredibly important for people to re-interpret their environment in order to avoid creative stagnation.

My question regarding Russolo regards his motive. Russolo was after all a Futurist and Futurism was a historically very political art movement. He champions the noise of machines and even suggests that before their existence, nature was silent. Perhaps silent of noise, but not silent of sound. How can one truly distinguish between sound and noise without giving into cultural prejudice? If Russolo was really making a case for sound as noise or noise as sound, he would make no distinction whatsoever. Russolo is obviously championing the futurist movement and the need for the mechanical in all aspects of life. I wonder how much of this article is really about the art of noises, and how much of it is about the movement of Futurism. Is is all propaganda?

Runa Islam: "Tuin"

2008-09-01T18:00:00.000-07:00

Runa Islam's film titled "Tuin" (1998) recreates an intimate moment between two strangers from Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1973 film, "Martha." Islam's recreation is captivating and an incredibly effective piece from Realisms at the Hirshhorn Museum. It's easy to stand in the middle of the dark room, hypnotized, watching the footage of the camera dance around the two actors. The strangers approach each other while crossing what appears to be a college campus. As they near their eyes meet and lock while the camera swoops in, spinning around the two actors who exchange a silent intimate moment. It is unclear what the two individuals are thinking as they look intensely at one another. The "movie" footage appears on the screen in color while the actual documenting of the scene appears in black and white, as if to make it appear more factual - like a headline in a newspaper.

A screen is suspended in the middle of the room, inviting viewers to walk around it thus mimicking the circular motion of the cameras that are operated on a dolly. Islam places the viewer right in the middle of the action and ultimately in the very intimate moment between the two strangers. It is as if the audience is invited on set to observe the film crew intently watching their monitors to ensure that the scene is "just right." My reaction to "Tuin"was somewhat muddled. Islam's exposure of how the camera crew filmed the scene from the movie could take away from the intimacy of the experience, or heighten it. The grainy film footage of the camera crew and the silence that hangs in the room as the camera spans round and round spins a sort of poetic tapestry that the audience can engage with. The piece can also be viewed as a sort of deconstruction of the seemingly contrived romanticism present in so many pop culture films. The source for "Tuin" is after all a film that touches on the sadomasochistic tendencies of monogamous relationships. I ask, does the documenting of the filming of the re-enactment add or take away from this very private, intense scene? If so, then what could be the secondary read?

Candice Breitz' "Mothers and Fathers"

2008-09-01T17:23:00.000-07:00

The piece "Mothers and Fathers," included in the Hirshhorn Museum show, The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality, and the Moving Image, confronts the pervasive stereotypes that help shape the American "family portrait" you can purchase at Sears for $29.95. What is the identity of "Mother" in modern day culture anyway? Isn't it just a compilation of stimuli you've been choking down since the day you were born and received your first baby doll? The "Mothers" room resonated with me far more than the "Fathers", but perhaps this is because "mother" is a role society eventually expects me to fulfill. The "mothers" of the piece seemed desperate and lonely, whereas the "fathers" seemed insecure and selfish. One "father" repeatedly shouts "what about me?" while another longs for the affirmation that he is indeed a good father to his children. Both rooms buckle at the seems with absurdity, hilarity and frightening discourse.

The effect if achieved via de-contextualizing the dialogue of well known American films such as "Postcards from the Edge," "Mommy Dearest," and "Father of the Bride." Most of the films borrowed from I have seen several times or even own. Breitz extracts various segments, gestures, and exacerbations from the films and removes any background from the scenes to further distance the dialogue from its original context. The actors seem to engage in a disconnected conversation with each other. Some of the most heartfelt and emotional scenes are transformed into a circus of ticks, huffs, and crying spells. What remains are not genuine people we can empathize with, but hollow wooden puppets dangling on a string. Who however, holds the metaphorical string? Who is the grand puppeteer? Is it the artist or the media? Who illuminates whom? The piece obviously exaggerates the stereotypes the media enforces on the public by compiling them all together in an all over assault. However, the artist could be construed as another pawn on the game board, simply re-enforcing what the media has already achieved, albeit much more insidiously.

It is clear that the piece "Mothers and Fathers" renders the actor's emotions and words disingenuous, thus removing any validity to the stereotypes. I walked away from the piece feeling quite negatively about both motherhood and fatherhood. Then again, I feel the same after I watch yet another mind numbing commercial featuring a stressed out parent and their need for stronger paper towels in an increasingly chaotic life (because children are obviously the root of insanity). I suppose my question is, is this piece just as, if not more absurd than the stereotypes perpetuated by the media that we, the American public, encounter on a regular basis? Is it at all enlightening in regard to the role of the media? Or is it simply about deconstructing the modern day myth of "Mother" and "Father?"

Course Expectations

2008-08-26T15:52:00.000-07:00

I would like to use the multi-media course to execute certain conceptual ideas and problems I have had in the studio. I am interested in feminist ideas and hope to bridge the gap between the work I am doing now (primarily drawing) and the work I hope to produce throughout the duration of the course. In addition, I would like to gain a greater understanding of the technology and software that is both relevant and applicable to the projects I wish to work on.