Artist Category Week 7: Deep Space

Deep Space, ARS Electronica

Deep Space is a current exhibit at the ARS Electronica building. The technological heart of Deep Space consists of eight 1080p HD- and Active Stereo-capable Barco Galaxy NH12 projectors. The images are projected onto mammoth 16x9-meter displays mounted on the wall as well as in the floor. A great vantage-point view and a dizzying shift of perspective is available from the Deep Space Platform set up at an altitude of about five meters. The possibilities for display in the space are endless and currently feature a wide variety of artist works featuring innovative graphical techniques and create storytelling mediums, recreations of architectural and art historical spaces, and images shot by top of the line cameras.

Deep Space, for me, represents the irreversible cohesion between science and art that has emerge through the development of modern technology. The resources available today to visual artists allow them to create works that break the two dimensional, sight-dominated format of traditional artists works that it is hard to image them as working within the same discourse anymore. The space created in Deep Space submerge visitors in an all-encompasing experience of sight and sound, and most importantly: space. The technology seems to be similar to that of Imax, in that you can surround your viewers with visual image and sound in order to more fully engulf them in a viewing experience. However, Deep Space creates an opportunity to utilize this technology for mediums beyond that of film, creating an interactive, overwhelming new artistic medium.

While much of what is projected in the room would traditionally be considered the work of science - intense, high resolution images of nature, delicate recostructions of historical sites, explorations into macro- and micro-visions - the venue allows for this work to presented as a kind of art. The presentation of this imformation in the space is not for the sole purpose of imparting scientific knowledge on viewers: the creators designed the space so that viewers will be engaged in an experience. This is the overlap I see emerging between art and science through the use of technology: science provides the format and mechanisms through which this information can be presented, as well as providing more advanced ways of imaging nature, while the actual conveyance of information is conducting in increasingly superfluous and creative ways that move beyond pure information transfer.

Alphabet Project: Critique Response

After discussing my ideas in class, I think I am going to latch onto the idea of using the symbology of B as a blueprint for the compositional basis for my image. M's assosiation with questioned identity will be the unifiying message of the poster. C's relation to the staff sling, and movement will form mostly a navigational design element in the poster, though I may try to integrate it visually with the association of "leaving the house" through the use of the blueprint.

Now I just need to make Illustrator bend to my will to graphically create what I can see in my head!

Journey Project: Critique Response

One of the most intriguing things I found in looking comparatively at the class's interpretations of the Journey project was the way in which certain students tried to create a visual landscape that the viewer was engaged with and moved through, while others went for a more intellectually focused journey that was linked by thoughts.

My conception of the journey project was very much centered around a physical journey that viewers could follow through virtually. This was much more pronounced in the "real" side of my journey as opposed to the "imagined" journey, but the use of arrows and directional symbols on almost every page of the project were a reflection of my visualization of actually traveling through this digital space. Viewers were obviously not treading the real path I took when gathering photos for the project, but I tried to provide a wide, encompassing view of what would actually be see in each step of the journey. The act of clicking on icons in order to reach the next page is not the same as actually walking through an environment, but the movement of clicking the mouse in order to be presented with a new landscape was intended to mimic the act of travel (as much as that can be conveyed through a computer screen).

I had not concieved of the project in this way, but Stephanie's page was a good example of moving through a space based on thought processes. The locations she presented were physical places that did require travel to reach, but the connection between them was more of a mental connection rather than geographical proximity. To a certain degree, this is the approach I took for my imagined journey - going from one place or image to another based soley on trains of thought. Though I did not verbally state it on the page, my imagined journey was related to the journey you go through when you open a book and engaged with a written process. You do not physically leave the space you exist in, but your mind is able to jump from one environment to another because of mental processes and associations.

One of the other major disctinctions I saw in the way this project was approached was the kind of links students provided in order to guide users through a page and onto new pages. Certain projects, including my own, were based on visual links that required some background knowledge of common symbols and associations in order to understand the kind of movement that they would take you through. The other approach used by most of the class was a text based one that either explicitly stated where you were going, or provided a hint. Both methods could produce similar effects in how the pages were interacted with, but they again reflected a difference between a physical journey and a mental journey. Because I was looking to recreate the experience of physically moving through a space, I used mostly icons that were familiar on road signs or symbols such as footsteps that are easily recognizable for determining how to move. This was a reflection of the idea that when walking, you are generally not provided with a narrator explaining the places you are going - there are common symbols and objects that people will recognize and make their own associations with. As much as the project was my own journey and structed so that visitors will follow the links I have provided them with, I wanted users to be able to interpret how this journey would feel and be experienced by themselves as individual without any written guideance for how it should be viewed.

Letter Project Take 2

In considering the history and imagery related to the letters of my initials, I have some preliminary plans on how to construct a poster based on them.

When I imagine the idea of a poster, it is often to advertise something or introduce an idea and they do not often serve a purely visual and none intellectual function. Due to this, I have been playing around with the idea of creating a slogan to use as the basis for my poster. I am very intrigued with the concept of questioned identity that is proposed by the letter M, particularly because the letters I am using are based on my own name and identity. I don't have a concrete slogan just yet, but the one I am currently bouncing around is "Who aM I? What Can I Be?" The message is not as important as much the fact that it is a question that features the letters I am dealing with. These letters will play a prominent visual role in my poster. I plan to incorporate some evolutionary visual element with each of my initials that will feature many of the symbols and letters that led to their current form. I have been collecting a visual history of each letter and will use these mainly as a compositional element rather than a conceptual one.



I also plan to use imagery of blueprints as a basic layout for my poster. The letter B's main ideological history relates to the image of floorplans. Floorplans are also a way of attempting to identify and construct a space, much as my poster will be attempting to identify and construct an indentity for these letters.



In regards to C, I am latching onto the idea of a boomerang. The letter has a history related to both camels as well as sling staffs, which are similar to boomerangs. I would like to use the trajectory and pathway of the boomerang as a visual path or guide through my poster. I will also likely include the imagery of water, in the form of ripples, that comes from the letter M as a compositional element in the poster.

Artist Category Week 6: Floating Points 6

Floating Points 6: Games of Culture/Art of Games, 2009

Floating Points 6 is a film screening, symposium and workshops with Asi Burak, Anita Fontaine, Jesper Juul, Friedrich Kirschner, Marcin Ramocki, Jason Rohrer, Adriana de Souza Silva, Mushon Zer-Aviv that will take place March 20-21. The symposium is designed to address how the popularity of video games has affected almost every aspect of our lives in the digital age, including art. Issues that will be addressed are how games provide inspiration but also often function as advertisements or for consumer engagement and employee productivity. How deeply ingrained in our society have video games become?

Video games have a narrative quality that has altered how we percieve and engage with stories in a way that is far beyond any other medium on the market. Films served in a similar revolutionary way when they allowed viewers to see actors in a more intimate way than ever before through a feat of technology that was unprecedented. Video games have also introduced a new element to storytelling that was never pursued to such a degree before: interactivity. The influence of video games on culture, youth, and particularly in how they alter the moral functions of users is a constant issue of debate. What is also of interest is how they have altered how art that uses digital elements is constructed and imagined on the part of the artist and the viewer.

This symposium seems particularly relevant in light of the digital artists we have been investigating. Almost every New Media artist has incorportated some interactive aspect into their work that is either conciously or unconciously influenced by the advent of video games and would likely not have been concieved of if this new medium had not taken hold of popular culture in the way that it has. How far can we go in labeling a video game as a work of art in the same way that a movie or a novel is considered in this category? It is interesting to see how video games have altered how films and written works are now considered. Also, will these older forms of technology become obsolete in the future as everything is converted into digital format? This seems particularly prevelant with the new versions of blackberries and Ipods that advertise reading books and watching movies on your phone. It is almost terrifying to think of the day that the book is no longer in use, although it may be fast approaching due to the convience of new technology.

Letter Project

The Roman letter "M" originally had its origins in the Egyptian hieroglyph "N" and Proto-Semitic M, both carrying the meaning of water, "stream of water" or "wavelets on the surface of the water". M also has lineage with the Hebrew letter mem "ם", which also carried connotations of water or waters. Throughout its history, the letter M has garnered a number of derivative meanings including the of movement or dynamism, which relates back to the idea of a current. Interestingly, M also relates to the idea of an "unanswered question" or "questioned identity" through the word mayim which consists of of two mi's. The vertical mi is a theological interrogation aimed at God, "Who are you?" The horizontal mi is anthropological: "What are you, what person are you? What are your origin and roots?" M is thus also related to the question of origins as well as the purifying aspect of water. M is the 13th letter of the alphabet and also carries the numerical value of 40.



The Latin letter C was originally a G, represented by the Hebrew gimel "ג" or Phoenician
gimel, both carrying the original meaning of camel. The original connotations for the letter included "carrying the primal power beyond" and "outside the domestic setting". The derivative meanings include "outgoing" or "break" and the meanings perpetuated by the Hebrew language include "release oneself, break away from" and "severance, weaning". The last meaning is part of an extensive symbology involving aleph, or primal strength, and beth, the place made for aleph. Gimel represents the opportunity for primal strength to go out and express itself. C is the third letter of the alphabet and carries the numberic value of 3.


The Latin letter B traces its origins back to the Egyptian hieroglyph for
cottage. The original form for it in proto-sinaitic also means "plan of dwelling", "large room with or without a hearth" and "door open to some extent to the outside". The association of B with a house or dwelling even carries through to its Hewbrew manifestation in the letter beth "ב". In this form, the opening of the house is turned towards the letters to come and represents an opening to the future. The original meanings include "internalization", while derivative meanings have extended to associations with "food", "intimate", "celestial vault" and "family life". B is the second letter of the alphabet and carries the numerical value of 2.


Of interest to me is the fact that B represents an internalization and C is almost its complete oposite in terms of its associations with the idea of "outgoing" or a break. I am also particularily interested in the idea of questioned identity contained in the letter M, in addition to its associations with water.

Artist Category Week 5: Experiments in Touching Color

Experiments in Touching Color, Jim Campbell, 1998-1999

Experiments in Touching Color consists of rear-projection video screen mounted horizontally on a pedestal inside of a small dark room. The video screen shows a photograph, which the viewer then touches to produce a sound related to the image. The entire screen fades to a solid color based on the shade of the pixel being touched by the viewer's fingers. The sound fades up when the image fades out.

This project brings up a number of issues of the multi-sensory interactivity of New Media art. The photographs themselves are pieces that would be displayed in a gallery and viewed on a solely visual level. The influx of new technology allows for those photographs to participate in an artistic experience that involves senses of touch and sound as well, moving them beyond their traditional assosications as purely visual stimuli. Because the experiment plays with more than one sense, it brings the photo "to life" in a way that actively engages the viewer in its narrative. The project is also interested in how it combines and overlaps the results of using various senses - touch now produces visual and audible effects in an unexpected way. The title of the project seems to convey this conflation of the senses. Color is generally viewed as an idea that is not tangible - we can recognize and describe it but we cannot hold it, while Experiments in Touching Color attempts to overcome this boundary between sight and touch.

Jim Campbell's project, like the previous few works I have examined, does require the viewer's partipation to become active and function in its capacity as a work of art. The work simply does not exist as the artist intended it without the viewer there to engage with it. However, this project does not react as much to the viewer's sensibilities as the previous few have. The same visual reactions and sound associations with be produced regardless of who the viewer is or what specific actions they take. Experiements in Touching Color is very much an experiential artwork, but it functions more as a lecture from artist to viewer rather than a dialouge between the two.