We are now in week six and our art class is taking a look at digital arts and interactivity. Our guest lecture speaker for this week was John Park who is one of the new members of the digital arts program at the U of O. His slide show was different then the other presentations that we have seen, not based on the art but how we can interact with digital media. We went over the different problems that we face when working with digital media. John spoke of four problems that arise with digital arts and they are the screen, commerce, zombies and art itself. I found all the material that was shown in the presentation to be helpful and enlightening. The material that intrigued me the most were the examples of how technology can be interacted with art and humanity. An example from his slide would have to be the Volkswagen innovation video. Someone designed a trashcan with a motion sensor to make the trashcan seem endless inside. The sound that the trashcan produced made people gather more trash off the ground just to hear the sound again. I liked how this simple piece of technology could make people more interested in picking up litter. Its little things like that that shows the power of digital arts. Another example that was presented was “reactable”, a piece done by the Pompeu Fabra University. This piece is a screen that has blocks on top of it. Now the blocks and the screen work together to create music. I personally love music, as I am sure most people do, so I was really interested in this technology. The blocks on top of the screen could be moved around and twisted to produce different sounds and beats. A piece on the slideshow that I found eye opening was the piece called “I want you to want me”. In this digital arts piece we can see a bunch of balloons, red and blue, blue for males and red for females, these balloons symbolize people trying to find relationships across the Internet. I was blown away at how the design of the program was formed and how well the finished product looked. I really enjoyed learning about different ways problems could be solved in digital arts. I loved all the examples and came out of the lecture with a smile on my face.
The readings this week discuss how art can be interacted with humanity. This was something that was truly cool. It can be sometimes boring looking at art but when the piece needs to be handled by people, I find that really awesome. The readings look at the work done by David Byrne, Paul Pfeiffer, and Janet Cardiff. Each artist has their own unique style of allowing the audience members to interact with their art. First up we have David Byrne and his musical building. David hooks up an organ player to an abandoned building but instead of hearing typical organ sounds, we hear the different sections of the building being played. I wish that I could try this out; I mean how many people wish they could just turn their house into an instrument. I really enjoyed this piece and the video of the children playing the instrument; I found it really funny because that would look like the reaction I would have had when trying to figure out this organ. I thought it was really cool too how the participants had the power and control over the art piece. Our second readings were on the work of Paul Pfeiffer. I thought that his work was very bizarre and different, yet fun. It was cool watching the video of the boxers but just seeing ghosts. It’s something that I was a little tripped out on at first but as I kept watching his other work I found myself being more drawn in. I was also amazed at how patient he is while working. He needs to photoshop or edit during each frame, which I find time consuming but he finds meditative. I think that is cool how he can stay so calm in a form of art that I would just be really frustrated with. I also like the Stanley cup piece because I was just trippy seeing the trophy float around instead of someone holding it. I like his work because he takes something that we are all familiar with, such as sports, and makes in unusual. Our third artist for this week is Janet Cardiff. She likes to take different approach to interacting the audience with he work. For example she uses audio to connect people to her artwork. For her installations I watched the video “ The Killing Machine”. I didn’t really know how to react to this installation but I found it very eerie and mesmerizing. I especially liked how the robotic arms would move around giving the machine life. We had to listen to one of Janet’s audio walks as well. I chose to listen to a walk titled “Her Long Black Hair”. I was really not looking forward to listening to these pieces because I thought that they would be really boring but I was wrong. I thought I was a really creative way to get people involved with her art. It tripped me out a little because the audio tracks were so well done that it felt like I was walking around with her. Some parts even got me to jump a little bit because since we can’t see what is going to happen next, the new sounds seem to just jump out at you. Another installation that I thought was really cool and different was the “Storm”. Even though we watched this in class I still wanted to write in my blog stating that it was one of the most profound installations I have seen.
The artists that were chosen for this week I thought were beyond exceptional. The way they would create art that at the same time works with human interaction is beyond me. I would have to say though that my favorite artist from he three would have to be David Byrne. I say this because his piano playing building was just phenomenal. It was something that I would love to still try and/or create one day. What ties these artists together I think is humanity. They all could have done artwork that resembles all the others but they chose to step outside the boundaries and push the limits. A piece that John showed us in his slideshow was graffiti work drawn by a human eyeball. A man lost control of his entire body but still has a well functioning brain and with the use of technology he was still able to draw and then project his work all across the city. I thought I was just really cool how powerful art can be with human interaction involved, especially to that degree. I thought that all these artist were extremely talented and I’m glad that I was able to witness some of their innovations in art.
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