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Blurring the Lines Between Art and Tech

Blurring the Lines Between Art and Tech

           

          In a world where the human mind is almost physically assaulted  by an overwhelming onslaught of computer monitors TV screens phones and advertisements, how does someone draw the line between technology and art? The Oxford English dictionary defines art as “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.” Now this makes sense in the most basic concept of a painting. A painting is generally beautiful and displays a level of craftsmanship and creativity, it is easy for someone to make the jump to saying that this is in fact art. On the other hand the use of CGI in movies can be beautiful, display craftsmanship and be creative; Is this art? That is why i chose my two artists/ group of artists. They turn the elementary idea of an artist on its head and blur the lines of simple technology and creative genius.  

Round and Round

The first artist i chose to research is a woman named Giny Vos. She studied sculpture at Amsterdam State Academy of Fine Arts and now creates conceptual installations of light and video in the Netherlands. This merging of light and video is what spiked interest in me. Light is something that is used in very basic art. When painting one of the first thing an artist must learn is how to portray light and dark to create realism. This building block of art, combined with the new media of video is an interesting idea. The piece of work i chose for Giny Vos is entitled Round and Round. This installation is made up of over 4000 LED light bulbs stretched across a completely round wall. Each LED is housed in an individual translucent box approximately a foot by foot. This creates a very pixelated image of light and dark considering each LED can illuminate to the entire 256 gray-scales. After integrating pre compiled videos into the LED system clearly recognizable images can be made out of the very abstract patterns. The viewer is literally inside the artwork, surrounded in every direction by the artwork itself. The only light in the room comes from the Art making it so the individual viewing the piece will find it easy to become lost in the artwork.

Round and Round

I find this piece interesting because it personifies one of the topics discussed in class, the idea of new and old media. However, where this piece takes it to a whole new level is the intersection of old and new media created by Vos. Vos uses very elementary media (Light) coupled with new technology (LEDs and Video). To follow the rabbit hole even deeper i find that the pix-elated image could be saying something about our culture. Pixels are now the centerpiece of the human existence. Every screen we look at is just a generation of tiny pixels, thousands of them. Pixels are an entirely new media, yet the videos displayed in Vos’s work are grey-scale, another easily recognizable form of old media. Another intersection of old and new.

I do not presume to enter the mind of Giny Vos. However, i find myself intrigued by her use of contrasting elements. Whether she meant to or not, Round and Round begins to blur the lines of technology and art.

My second artist/artist group chosen is also from the Netherlands. They are called Nuformer, Nuformer isn’t what you would call artists, I’m not even sure they would consider themselves artists. They are one of the world's best at 3D video mapping. An innovative group with many years of experience in the field of creation and bringing to life of various digital solutions, using film and video productions, combined with 3D and 2D graphic design. Nuformer specializes in 3D Mapping on buildings, they have worked with some well known companies such as Ford, BMW, Volvo, Sony and 2k Games. The technology Nuformer uses is relatively new media. However, each projection is custom built to show off a building’s architectural features. Architecture is one of the oldest media there is. This combination of the new and old media, again, creates a unique art style that transcends the more well established forms of art.

The piece I chose for Nuformer was one of their original 3D mapping that was not a contracted job. This was appealing to me because an artist is unable to be creatively free unless he or she is producing the art for his or herself. In this piece Nuformer displays their ability to absolutely bring a building alive. They seamlessly integrate the architectural features of the buildings into the special effects of the show.  I enjoyed most their ability to use light and dark, similar to Vos’s work. Also similar to Vos’s work i find that Nuformer’s 3D Mapping completely immerses the viewer in an almost tangential reality. When viewing their work it’s easy to forget that what you are seeing isn’t real.

To understand how Nuformer uses technology to create these beautiful projections it’s necessary to understand what the technology is. 3D Video Projection Mapping is a fascinating projection technology that allows the artist to create dynamic displays out of any surfaces. High Tech software is used to distort any projected image in order to fit perfectly the uneven shaped screens. This technology coupled with the creativity of Nuformer creates an impressive display of video, sound and special effects. 

Nuformer’s work personifies what it is to live in the modern world. Advertisements are everywhere and over-stimulation is a given. However, through the use of simple projection of light on an interesting canvas can create advertisements that aren’t only appealing to the eye, but absolute works of art that seamlessly combine tech and art.

The two pieces i chose are similar in that they focus on new technologies combined with the old standard of light and dark. I think that Vos’s work is more true to established ideas of art, whereas Nuformer focuses on the more contemporary direction of new media. Both use technology in new and inventive ways, creating immersive works that pull the viewer in entirely. I contacted both groups, however, I did not receive any responses.

 

 

 

Works Cited:

http://www.nuformer.com/

http://www.ginyvos.nl/home

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/art

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texture_mapping

paper (presentation)

nuformer:
http://www.nuformer.com/
3d video mapping:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDHfa03XzaM&feature=player_embedded
 round and round:
http://vimeo.com/36410429
making of:
http://vimeo.com/36860533
ruis:
http://vimeo.com/39400030

discussion questions 4/23

My first question is:

Are curators going to disappear in the new age of new media?

My second question is:

Does crowdsourcing ever have a limit, where the art becomes the property of the contributors and not the artist who conceived the idea?

crowdsourcing

For my first crowd source i chose the johnny cash project. i thought it was a really interesting idea to use massive amounts of people to do each frame of a music video for you!


http://www.thejohnnycashproject.com/#/explore/TopRated/cdbdda2252ea5d558b9c215bf7e30e22ee5166ed

For the second crowd source i did the young me
now me project. I thought it was a really cool way of exhibiting the human condition. Plus i was a cute baby.

I chose this picture because i spend a lot of time gaming now and as you can see i did then too.

 For my own crowd source i decided to do something that would help make the world a better place. In the modern world it is becoming harder and harder to get people to read anything, especially when it comes to a web page. Alternatively, in today's society if you want to get anything changed the best course of action is to create an online movement.

For these reasons i want to create an online visual petition site. Where the user can interactively see the thousands of people who also want change and decide to add his/her picture to the collage. It would also be possible to scroll over each picture to see the profile and any comments on the petition.

Youtube Mixer

statement: In setting out on this project i wanted to analyze the interplay of gamer and gaming world. I find the simpleness of the gamer sitting there compared to the massive amount of action going on in the virtual world very interesting. It just goes to show the ingenuity of the human mind that you can sit there, without moving, and so much can be going on inside your head.

3/26 discussion

1) By the standards presented in the reading aren't most projects tactial media? why is a certain project tactical media and not the next?

2) Is it really possible to evoke such strong political and social conversations with a video game? (will explain more in class)