Masaki Fujihata // Perry Hoberman
This presentation focused on two artists who work with interactivity in their art. I feel that interactivity is a key point to work with in digital art, especially in modern times when computers and digital ideals take up a large amount of the human mindset, especially when concerning art. Fujihata and Hoberman’s art dealing with interactivity and computers demonstrates this idea especially well.
Lynn Hershman // Marina Abramovic
This presentation featured two woman artists who work primarily with feminism in their artwork, and both rely on performance in order to bring their message across. Abramovic’s works are typically very controversial, and many include segments of self-mutilation, such as a piece in which she carves a star into her stomach. The gruesomeness of acts such as these serve to emphasize the pain she deals with. Hershman’s work dealt with isolation and loneliness, emphasized by the idea of the collision between man and machine.
Mattes // Jenik/Brenners
Lucy’s presentation featured two sets of artists whose work was centered around the idea of an ‘avatar’, a representation of one’s self in digital form. A good amount of the information and “art” shown appeared to be from early versions of avatar and chat systems, such as the ‘desktop theatre’ of Jenik and Brenners. These ‘theaters’ were not really visually impressive in the least, but that can be chalked up to the techonology of today being far more advanced and able to produce more than simple sprite images. Mattes’ work on “Second Life”, a 3D program in which one essentially lives another life with their avatar, is rather impressive, but I personally do not see much of an appeal in living a life as the ones shown through this program. Though, one of my favorite games of all time is Animal Crossing, which is similar in concept, so I suppose I’m being sort of hypocritical in that sense. Either way, I feel like these two ‘artists’ are definitely very similar in what they do, and in that way, this presentation was very effective.
Lillian Schwartz // Robert Lazzarini
Josh and Kristen’s presentation focused on two pioneers in the digital art world. Lillian Schwartz was in fact one of the very first people to create artwork in a digital medium. Most of her digital pieces were very experimental in nature, and lacked the technological sophistication we are used to today. Her pieces were commissioned by companies such as AT&T, and had to be programmed into the computer, rather than simply drawn in as we do today. They mostly consisted of lights and sounds, and most images were very vague. However, given the timeframe in which she worked, these pieces are very impressive. Robert Lazzarini’s work is also very impressive, and functions as an excellent combination between digital work and tangible art. He creates models in 3D on the computer and warps them digitally, and then recreates the warped objects as real sculptures. These pieces are visually stunning to look at, and blend the seemingly impossible concepts of digital art with reality. In this way,he has pioneered the transition from digital art to tangible art.
Teun Hocks // Ellen Kooi
Shannon and Cayte’s presentation showed two artists whose works combine reality with the surreal, with end results that may appear similar, but were brought about in very different manners. Teun Hocks’ works are typically photographs which are then painted over, blending the life-like images with impossible and humorous situations, such as a man losing his hat to the wind, except that in his case, there are multiple hats floating about. His works often deal with everyday life situations, so that we, as viewers, can relate to them, but they are twisted into surreality, adding to the humor of the situation. Ellen Kooi works with photography alone, and does not manipulate her images in any way, which makes them all the more surreal, as many of the scenes she creates and just as surreal and strange as Hocks’. She creates these photographs by carefully planning out and staging each shot, resulting in images that seem like they must have been manipulated in some way, but were in fact not. Thus, these two artists have similar end results but the works are created in completely different ways.
Rueben Langdon // Trisha Brown
Casey and Aaron's presentation focused on two artists whose works translated real-life movement into digital creations. Rueben Langdon's work as a motion capture actor is not necessarily "art", per se, but his extensive experience in the field of motion capture for video games and movies certainly makes him an important aspect to that particular branch of digital art. Trisha Brown's contributions to the field as a choreographer fit in well with the idea of motion capture, her three-year project combining motion capture and real-life dance certainly makes her an important figure to the field.
