Lost in the Fun House
There is, however, one big difference between traditional “flat” art and sculpture, and IT art. The difference lies in the visceral nature of IT art. It always involves touch of some sort, even if the touch is only with the sound waves made by the audience.
Several interesting pieces relied on sound waves, which made the art visibly react. Carlos Gomez de Llarena’s piece, which was in a dark room, was made of two bright green florescent strings that bobbed and swung when someone spoke into the accompanying microphone.
Eric Green and Christina Wong made a more subtle and aesthetically pleasing work along similar interactive lines. It was made up of two identical pieces, each about four feet in length, hanging about two feet from each other down one side of a hallway. Each segment appeared to be a made of a softly glowing blue lamp, stereo speakers, a fish bowl, and mosquito netting. The water in the base of the hanging lamp/speaker vibrated gently and made interesting fractal patterns. Green explained that when someone interacted with one of the hanging pieces, the other changed frequency in response. The point of this work was to encourage interaction between audience members, a goal which was shared by many less successful pieces. What made this work stand out from others with similar intent was that not only the conception of the idea, but its execution, was interesting and well done.
If an overall critique of the exhibit can be made, it is that too much emphasis was placed on the ideas behind the works and not enough on the techniques used to express those ideas. Many pieces suffered from because they were housed in roughly nailed plywood boxes, or used cheap, badly fitting plastic parts. The Designing Experience class made an attractive, shiny fountain that talked about different sins when you pulled out various glass drawers. But the drawers were so heavy and poorly balanced that some were impossible to budge.
My favorite piece was in a room full of goodies, where each artist seemed to give at least some consideration to atmosphere and aesthetics as well as technology. There were nicely scented candles and carefully draped swathes of fabric. And right in the center was Jody Culkin’s heart, a heart knitted from steel wool and stretched on a soldered rack. The heart was delicate and doll-like, conjuring images of grandma and jewelry. It rested on
Latest Articles