Electronic Art Summer 2006

Kim's New Media Artist: Ebtisam Abdul Aziz

The New Media Artist I found intriguing is Ebtasam Abdul Aziz because of her simple idea: take photographs of hands. She intrigues me because she studied math and science in the United Arab Emirates. The last thing I think of when I hear math and science is artist. So perhaps because of her background, she offers a very scientific/biological way of creating art.

There seems to be a method, or overall experiment, to her work. She takes photos of hands and labels them with the name, year of birth, country and profession. She seems to be collecting scientific samples for her laboratory. I imagine she could create a database and enter all her images along with the demographic information she collected and use that database to search for commonalities among her photographs.

Visit http://images.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=ebtisam%20abdul%20aziz&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi to see samples of her work.

I recently watched the French film, Amelie, directed by Jean-Pierre Jenuet, and found the detail and camerawork amazing. Film director Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a media artist that really plays with color scheme and special effects that are artistic and not overdone. For example, in one scene the main character Amelie, literally melts into a puddle on the floor. The special effect visually expresses Amelie’s emotion of shyness and desire to disappear quickly.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet is also well known for having a specific color scheme throughout the film. In his film, Amelie, the two contrasting colors red and green could be seen in every frame of the film. It really gives his movies the desired ambiance. Jeunet’s camerawork is noticeably well thought through as well. It seemed like every scene or frame was shot from an unexpected angle and sometimes had a distorted view, sometimes giving it a childlike or imaginative feel.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet on new film technology:

“I think we are entering a new period of filmmaking that’s analogous to switching from black-and-white to color, or from silent to sound. The medium is completely flexible now, and it’s not bound by anything. If you imagine something, you can do it.�

New Media Artist: Brody Condon

The artwork done by Brody Condon caught my eye and kept me interested. Most of his designs are based on video games and computer manipulation. His work has been mentioned in many publications such as: The New York Times, and Edge magazine.
He was born in 1974, obtained a B.F.A. - Sculpture in 1997 and a M.F.A. in 2002.

The project that kept me thinking a lot was titled “Need For Speed (Cargo Cult)� done in 2005. The piece is based on a Lamborghini car from the popular Need For Speed series developed by Electronic Arts. The frame of the car is done in cast urethane branches and presents the car as if it was really in front of you. There is the sense of being able to fill in frame with color with your mind while looking at it.

A sculptured piece named “650 Polygon John Carmack� is displayed in polygon form as if it were still in development. The person displayed is extracted from the virtual world but not touched up to be smooth. This gives the effect of something virtual being sized for the real world. The sculpture is based from the game Quake III.

The piece: “DeResFX.Kill(Karma < Ram Dass)� involves a self playing computer that displays the work when finished. The outcome of the titled simulation is a grayish and snowy background with 3D person models intersecting in the center. The models are simulating a game character death with selected frames saved into one image. The custom computer modification was based on Unreal 2003.

All of the projects mentioned above and more can be found on-line at Brody Condon’s website: http://www.tmpspace.com

I urge everyone to log into the website of Alredo Jaar.
http://www.alfredojaar.net

The opening sequence of images--a line drawing of recumbent man animating into a perambultory searcher standing on the precipice of the galaxy, then taking off in flight to planet Earth --presages
the the form and content of Jaar's work.
Planet Earth, and its discontents are the content the projects posted on his website. Naturally, the work is intended to educate,and the education is intended to engage the viewer intellectually and emotionally and propel them to action.
The Rwanda project is the lengthiest of work to access on line. Jaar's backdrop is a black split screen with white script providing a timeline of facts about the history and progress of the conflict in Rwanda. The mounting death count chronicled on the left side of the screen is accompanied by the action taken in the western world on the right hand side of the screen. A more "entertaining" version of this same information is presented by way of a split screen chronicling the mortality in Rwanda with cover images from Newsweek.
While hundreds of thousands of people are dying in Rwanda, Newsweek covers reflect the obsessions of the American public -- the unfolding events of OJ Simpson, the quest for anti-oxidants, the death of Richard Nixon. Not until the death toll in Rwanda has reached half a million does Newsweek cover the event.

Another intriguing project of Jaar's is a sculpture comprised of a massive amount of Finish passports. These passports are compacted into a block, suggestive to me, of a block of gold bars. The setting of this piece is in a room which has a vault feeling, or more accurately, that of a jail cell. The message of the work is meant to convey the result of a society which has a closed border policy.
Stasis is the overwhelming impact.

Another powerful project, chronicled in a short film, memorializes 3,500 people who have died trying to cross the border from Mexico to the United States. They are symbolized each by a white balloon, enmeshed by a net into a white cloud which blows on the wind, accompanied by musicians. At the end of the show, the net is opened and the balloons set free into the air. Sounds a little corny, but it is a profound image.

Please check out this artist, both for the content of the work, and the ability he has of presenting these ideas in a graphically provocative way.
It is inspiring in many ways.

I researched Annika Larsson as my New Media Artist. Annika Larrson is a native of Stockholm, Sweden, who now resides and works in New York. She received her Masters of Fine Arts at a fine arts college in Stockholm in 2000. She has since then been working on pieces using new media. She has done videos, photographs, installations and much more using new media.

In many of her works, Annika applies a very unique and personal style to give the viewer a distinct perspective of an image. Her images often consist of very intimate views of objects or people. I find this very intriguing because it gives you an up-close-and-personal examination of different parts of the body or objects that are sometimes overlooked in real life. Often times it takes the viewer a few seconds to realize what he or she is looking at. The images seem very simple to construct or very easy for a model to accomplish; but Annika manipulates the angle and lighting of the images which is effective in creating the intimacy she seems to be trying to convey. Annika also adds text at times to convey a deeper meaning to the image.

One set of images that interest me in particular are the hockey images. She captures shots from all parts of the game: the players face, the gear, the referees, the rink, the coaches. They’re very simple and very real images but put together it makes a great summary of what the game is like. To view these images, click on this link. It also leads to Annika’s personal home page. http://www.annikalarsson.com/hockey03.html

Hayao Miyazaki creates entire fantasy worlds in his films. He is able to push the creative envelope when it comes to storytelling because animation has very few restrictions.

He uses this medium with such style that he's earned worldwide recognition and praise, thanks to Disney who dedicates to showing this man's fine work around the world. Ironically, Miyazaki was never really a fan of Disney movies' storytelling. In the end, he has proven that there is still room for fresh ideas and creativity in the medium of animation.

He has been noted for often using female characters for his adventure stories. He seems to think that a male character on an adventure is one dimensional, but when a girl is doing all sorts of heoric things, a whole different tone of the movie takes effect.

Wih his movies often reared toward children, he fills the stories with optimism and hope because he truly believes that's what children should be seeing. It's not uncommon though to see adults really appreciating his movies because even they start seeing hope whereas before they may have not. There's also a sense of nostalgia older people feel when seeing a Miyazaki film, and people remember what it was like to be a kid again.

His love for nature and animals really comes forth in a few of his features especially when they have such an interactive role with the characters. These ideas can roam free with animation and Miyazaki openly pursues these kinds of opportunities.

Though he has often hinted at retirement over his last few movies, he always seems to come back. I have a feeling we'll be seeing him around for a while longer. His unofficial fansite can be reached at:

http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/

Bre’s New Media Artist: Char Davies

Originally a filmmaker and painter located in Canada, Char Davies made the transition into 3d digital media in the 80’s. Through her work she explores contradictions of embodiment, through human and nature, in immersive virtual space. She works with transparency, luminosity, spatial ambiguity, implicit meaning, and temporality, while she embraces the mediums paradoxes. The aspect of her art, which is why and how I was drawn to her in the first place, is how she uses the physically body in virtual space.

She has now been involved with the virtual environment for over 15 years, painting and constructing three-dimensional computer graphic still images. In Europe, North America, and Australia, her series of 3D images have been shown, all wining numerous international awards. She has now recently moved to a new company, Immersence Inc., to continue pursuing her artistic research.

"I'm using the computer as a tool. It doesn't define the art. The graphics was developing in my work as a painter 15 years ago. For example, an oil painting I did in 1981 was full of lights and flecks. The reason I got involved with computers is that the content that I wanted to express as an artist and the aesthetics that I developed to express that content are isomorphic. At one point, painting was no longer adequate as a medium for expressing what I wanted to say. I wanted to describe an enveloping space. How do you describe an enveloping space on a flat plane?" –Char Davies

Adam Philips started off as an animation tester for Disney in Australia, but switched to Disney’s Effects department for three years, after which he became a supervisor for Disney’s Effects department for three years. He now pursues his own interests while working for Disney as a senior Special Effects animator. His works include the following:

Effects Supervisor
*An Extremely Goof Movie
*The Little Mermaid 2
*Lady and the Tramp 2
*Peter Pan 2

Effects Animator
*Alladin and the King of Thieves
*Beauty and the Beast: Christmas Belle
*The Lion King 2
*Jungle Book 2
*Lion King 3
*The Three Musketeers

Through his personal pursuits, Philips is an award-winning Flash animator. Most known are his works on Brackenwood, a fantastic world he created in which Bitey, the main character, roams the land and encounters many interesting creatures. Many months pass between each of his larger animation projects, so expecting updates often would be in vain.

His animations: http://www.biteycastle.com/content/animation.php

Sarah Nicole Philips is a Brooklyn based artist that combines traditional media, new media and science to create interesting and compelling pieces. In her piece “Heliotropia�, Sarah creates a solar powered digital photo that is connected to electric motors that rotate artificial plants. When sunlight hits the photo foliage starts to spin. When light is removed, the motor is deactivated and the rotation ends. The same effect is created when a strong artificial light source is exposed on the picture. Heliotropia is the motion in plants as they respond to light.
For her piece ‘Fools Rush In’, Sarah writes words in sand, as they would appear on a karaoke machine. Beginning slowly with only chosen phrases then picking up a pace and ending, as the lyrics would appear on a karaoke machine.
Sarah Nicole Philips works incorporates new media in interesting and compelling way.

For my new media artist I choose David Lynch.

Mel Brooks said of David Lynch, "He's the only artist we have (in Hollywood)." What is it that makes Lynch an artist and not others (no matter how serious Brooks was)?

It certainly doesn't hurt that Lynch is extraordinarily talented, but it his focus and sensitivity that seem to put him on an upper echelon. Lynch is a listener and an intuitive person, he's famous for working with mistakes on set and turning them into material for the film. And all of his film's, no matter how bizarre are relevant to our lives in strange ways.

His early films, Eraserhead and Elephant Man give us a sense of Lynch's two type of films he makes. Most of his films are like Eraserhead, dark, arty and searching of the psyche (which is easier for novelists than filmmakers), plus views of the modern predictament. The poet Charles Bukowski called Eraserhead his favorite movie, as did Stanley Kubrick.

Elephant Man shows Lynch being more "Hollywood" but (as often happens when he goes Hollywood) the humanist in Lynch comes out like a lion (his other film like this is "The Straight Story").

I recommend all of Lynch's films (though some are offensive, there is irony to be found there), I think there is linearness to it chronologically.