Grand Text Auto

by goyo

Imagine entering a dark gallery space at the Laboratorio Arte Alameda, in Mexico City, Mexico and experiencing a multi-dimensional sound scape. The lights behind you cast a shadow of your body against a brightly lit wall. Your shadow joins dozens of others in a space where your every movement is monitored by scanners. Behind the scenes, a vast array of radios, transmitters, antennas, amplifiers, mixers, and an assortment of electronic devices input your data and output it as a “mash up” broadcast. The effect is similar to what happens when you push the scan button on your car stereo. A steady stream of snippets consisting of traffic reports, pop music, video, advertisements, and news tickles your ears.

When we consider art, specifically visual art, the term can conjure a variety of images. For most people, art can be represented by classical art: drawings and paintings, such as the Mona Lisa. But with the development of technology, visual art begins to encompass new mediums and styles. An art student might begin by learning drawing and composition, then proceed to develop skills in charcoal or watercolor. Computing transforms this paradigm altogether. Digital artists today can paint through tablet interfaces, or illustrate with vectors.

In today’s society, we rely heavily on technology to keep us connected, organized, and entertained.  Yet, how does technology work in the field of the arts? Some find it utterly disturbing and detrimental to the essence of artistry, while others see it as an exciting new tool that unlocks another world of possibilities.  So this leaves us with the question, is technology in the art world our friend? Or is it our foe?

In today’s society, we rely heavily on technology to keep us connected, organized, and entertained.  Yet, how does technology work in the field of the arts? Some find it utterly disturbing and detrimental to the essence of artistry, while others see it as an exciting new tool that unlocks another world of possibilities.  So this leaves us with the question, is technology in the art world our friend? Or is it our foe?

How can art be used to raise awareness of problems in society?  There are many methods artists can pursue to address social issues, but for Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung, the answer lies in animation and digital collages.

Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung

I have always thought no connections existed between art and subjects like biology, mathematics and chemistry. I thought these subjects to be independent of one another. It was not until I read about the early experimentation of American artist Charles Csuri or the artwork of Joseph Scheer that I realized I had been creating art in classes like biology and chemistry. Charles Csuri used wave functions to digitally modify the reproduction of landscape, while Scheer used a scanner to scan the bodies of moths. When I first saw the artwork of Scheer it made me think of Lepidopterists, scientists that studies butterflies and moths, or even a collector.

Imagine that you could make a person suffer, and no one would ever know. Would you do so? Were you to pose that question in person, few if any would claim to exercise such a power. But wipe away any identifying factors, and give the respondent total anonymity—how will they respond?

What is interactive art? I’ve always thought art was something one admires from the perspective of a passive observer. But recently, I’ve learned that there is a category of art called new media art which challenges this traditional framework. “New media art” is a term used to describe  nontraditional forms of art that have evolved with technology. One of the most interesting types of new media art that I have read about is “interactive art,” which allows the audience to physically interact with art pieces to create some sort of effect. Interactive art usually involves the use of digital technologies that were not present until the past few decades.

We are still discovering the possibilities that “new media” art can contribute to our art culture. With new media, which is distinguished from other art by its dependence on, or integration with technology, one attribute that has completely consumed me is the interactivity of some new media art.  In my “New Media Theory and Practice” course at Dartmouth College, we observed different works where interactivity was the main component of the piece.  For example, one artist projects video footage into people’s shadows who are walking around in a town square.  Camille Utterback and Romy Achituv ‘s 1999 work  text rain incorporates participation: people stand in front of a screen with falling letters that, once caught on part of one’s shadow, begin to form words.

Most users of the Internet by now know about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), or House Bill 32611, and the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 (PROTECT IP Act or just PIPA), or Senate Bill 9682– after all, when English-language Wikipedia blacks out people are going to notice. Joining Wikipedia in the act of protest were such sites as Reddit, Google, Mincraft, and many others. At this point it would be quite a feat for any wired member of the English-speaking world not to know that, for once, the Internet community at large has rallied around a cause.

Often, artistic pursuits are described as abstractions. They are interpretations of material. Rarely are they thought of as scientific pursuits. However, there are many new media artists who take it upon themselves to bridge the gap between what is seen as science and art. Especially when dealing with digital art, where so many computations are made to display the graphics we see, science can often be not the medium but also the subject of many artworks. Joseph Scheer and Andreas Müller-Pohle each have different takes on what scientific art entails.

To immigrants, Tijuana marks the frontera, or last stop before entering the United States. To American tourists it’s known as “T.J.,” a place to get inexpensive pharmaceutical drugs, dental work and plastic surgery. If you’re a visitor you become acutely aware of the “safe district” and the “not so safe district,” depending on how you see it. But few visitors venture beyond Tijuana’s main drag known as “Avenida Revolución.”

Women workers in maquiladora factory

A New Avenue for Change

It turns out you don’t have to camp outside in a tent in frigid climes to pitch a successful protest. The Electronic Disturbance Theatre has been doing them comfortably since 1997. Using simple technologies such as E-mail, HTML, and Java, the EDT has managed to launch a series of “denial of service attacks” on corrupt regimes from the Mexican Stock Exchange to the World Trade Organization. These attacks focus not on the places themselves, but on their websites.

The Medium Involved