RockBlog

Wolfgang Staehle is a German artist from Stuttgart, Germany. He lives and works in New York currently. He is very prolific in the digital video/film medium. From 1995 – 2006, has been doing primarily video and photographic work. His works recently are video or photographs over a long period of time that are either time-lapsed or in real time. He takes photos and videos in regular intervals for periods varying from a day to a week or month. He has done work that is live, where he films something with a web cam and live feeds it to a gallery or computer. He most famously filmed the Empire State Building much like Andy Warhol. He films cityscapes, countrysides, castles, streets, and markets. An interesting project is an Untitled project of the New York City skyline before and during and after September 11th. An interview by him about him inadvertently capturing the 9/11 attacks shows him indifferent about the capturing of it on video he seems to not be changed by it. He ever expected it or wanted it, it just happened. He sees his work as capturing the attack a blessing and a curse, it helped get him known but also changed what the work means. Another project I find interesting is a project called Yano a, which is of a Yanomami village in the Brazilian rain forest. Some current projects are: Fernsehturm, which is still updating every 8 seconds, and Comburg, which is shown in real time via web cam. Some of his work seems to reference surveillance particularly in his work on cities, and intersections or alleys.

His work in the book is in the film, video and animation section. The book references his Untitled work in which the world trade center was attacked, it also mentions his video of the Empire State Building, with a few pictures included.

I am draw to the work of Wolfgang Staehle because I am interested in video as a fine art form. I believe he has made video that is really fine art. In particular I have been planning a project around camera’s capturing my apartment or an apartment anywhere that are very surveillance like. Which will address issues of paranoia, government/other surveillance. Which I feel like is symptom of a post-9/11 America. I believe that he deals with surveillance and this post-9/11 world in a way that inspires me even if he tries not to.

His website is www.wolfgangstaehle.info

His video of the 9/11 fiasco:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8KBiym4Yd8

Eastpoint one of his landscapes:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/mmedia/entertainment/092304-10v.htm

Warren Neidich was a neurobiologist before becoming the photographer and digital artist he is today. Because of his background his works deal alot with our perception of the world and how we process visual culture and the media. He first gained recognition in the late 80's for a project/book he did titled "American History Reinvented" in this he used actors to dress in the respective time periods clothing and he had them reinact historical events. In these photographs he had people of color stand in for the caucasian counterparts in positions of power and ownership. Then during the O.J. Simpson trial he had done a photography project where he photographed the media hype and the happenings going on around this case. In this project he wanted to show "in the sense that now reality looked like fiction rather than producing fiction that looked like reality."

I am drawn to his work because of is idea of trying to alter our portrayal of the "reality" around us. I enjoy his idea of trying to get us to quesion our surroundings and really try and understand why we percieve things the way we do.

His website is
http://warrenneidich.com

His beyond the vanishing point show
http://www.gandy-gallery.com/exhib/neidich/exhib_w_neidich.html

his 2005 show at steinberg fine art gallery
http://www.michaelsteinbergfineart.com/artists/neidich/neidich.html

Charles Cohen was born in New York City in 1968. He got a BA from the University of Chicago and a MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI. There is very little to be found about Cohen besides that he has been an active artist since 1998. Cohen has several interesting digital series. The largest series is of nearly pornographic images, however the figures are cut out and a white open space is left. If anyone has ever seen Kara Walker’s work, there seem to be some likenesses with her work. The cutouts, though only a little visual information is given the viewer can decipher of what is going on very quickly. Unlike Kara Walker’s work, Cohen’s are creating an absence and the scene they were apart of is just a normal place any of us would be in. I almost think it says something about memories and how vivid and truly inerasable they are?? Another one of his series is images of different advertising street signs. At first they seems boring and curious of what they are. The simplicity of this series causes me to look closer and be aware of the minuet differences in each sign. My favorite piece of Cohen’s is a white silhouette piece; this one doesn’t make me feel as uncomfortable as the others. There is a woman walking down a wooden trail. The woman that is walking is cutout but her shadow is cast down on the ground along with the unseen person walking with her. The simplicity and the composition of this piece are beautiful. Cohen’s work I think will influence my work because I am always interested in creating the simplest solution for something. The imagery doesn’t need to be complex in order to make something beautiful or say something.

Here is a link to his website: www.promulgator.com

Lynn Hershman has worked extensively in photography, video, film, installation and has pioneered interactive computer and net-based media art. Her groundbreaking work has earned her numerous international awards including the Flintridge Foundation Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts in 1998. She was also awarded The World Technology Network Award for innovation in the visual arts in 2002.Lynn’s artwork has been exhibited at over 200 major art institutions internationally and nation wide.
It wasn't until the late 1970s that Hershman started to work in the video medium which she used to explore the relationship of identity with social and cultural structures as well as with the media environment; the powerlessness of the female subject in these contexts; and the process by which personal power can emerge, using criticism as well as the media. She’s made about 30 videos since the 1980’s of all types.
Later on in life, Hershman explored interactive communication through the use of ‘intelligent agents’, software programs that automatically filter and customize information for us. Intelligent agents seem to be either hailed as the personal assistants that make us smarter or despised as the invaders who destroy our privacy. The agent as intelligent character is the focus of Lynn Hershman’s Agent Ruby (2000). Ruby combines aspects of artificial intelligence with agent software, and her behavior is shaped by the encounters and conversations she has with her users. You can reed more about this project on page 153 in your Digital Art book.
Earlier Lynn worked on a take of robotic extension with Tillie, the Telerobotic Doll (1995-98), an actual doll whose camera eyes can be controlled through a website. In the gallery space, the perception of being watched by an inanimate object temporarily ‘inhabited’ by someone else’s eyes pointed to the darker aspects of being the object of gaze. Read about this work on page 163 of your Digital Art book.
I especially enjoyed looking at her Hero Sandwich Series of silver gelatin prints. It was a series of sandwich prints of famous actors. It gave me some inspiration for a photography project I was working on in my photo I class.
Check out more on Lynn Hershman at www.lynnhershman.com. On this interactive site you can view many of her various artworks.

The artist I researched was Lillian Schwartz. She worked closely with scientists in the 1970s in the early stages of computer development, and developed one of the first rock music videos. She also made one of the first digitised films to be shown as a work of art, her video Pixillation showing diagonal red squares and other shapes such as cones, pyramids on black on white backgrounds. This video is regarded as one of the most important early works of computer film art. Later on, during the 1980s, Schwartz made many experiments with artworks manipulating images using computer technology and creating some artworks of her own. Her catagory in the book is under Digital Technologies as a Tool (Chapter 1). From the art I found my favorite was the one that caught my eye in the first place and made me choose to research her. It is called Mona Leo and it is a morphing and blending of the face of the mona lisa and leonardo davinci. A link to her official site is http://www.lillian.com/ and that offers links to see all of her art as well as awards and where her works are displayed (one listing is right here at the Tweed)

Charlotte Davies has broken many of the rules that make up conventional art. She has explored the digital world and even created her own. Virtual reality and augmented reality is her focus. "Only a few virtual-reality environments that completely immerse a viewer into an alternate world have been developed within an art context, and Canadian artist Charlotte Davies's Osmose (1995) and Ephemere (1998) are classics of the genre" (Paul, 126). Davies has been able to create a world while avoiding representational realism (Paul, 127). Although there are elements within her works that are recognizable, they offer ideas that separate them from any other virtual reality. Davies attempts to turn your world upside down and inside out, literally. She focuses on areas that an individual would never think of. Charlotte Davies combines art and technology in a way that offers an entirely new perspective.

Charlotte Davies has been exploring the ideas of nature, psyche, and perspective for over 25 years. At Bennington College, Vermont (1973-1975) she studied liberal arts (visual art, religion, anthropology, biology, and philosophy) and later received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Victoria, British Columbia (Ackers, 2). Charlotte worked with many different media and found her strength in 3D computer technology. Her expertise has been used for special effects in many Hollywood films including Jurassic Park and The Matrix (Ackers, 2). Davies later went on to start her own art and technology research company, Immersence Inc. She currently lives in Montreal and San Francisco.

One specific work that caught my eye was from Osmose. The frame is called Rose Tree. I really enjoyed the color harmony and the subtle silhouette of the tree. The diagonals also give the piece a lot of complexity and movement. It amazes me how she was able to include so many small details in her work. Another piece that I found interesting was also from Osmose. The frame is called Forest and Grid. It reminded me of a lot of the images used in the Matrix. It was fun to learn about her work and be able to tie her work to other pieces I have seen. Her work influenced me to continue to learn and not be afraid to try new things within my work.

www.immersence.com

http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/osmose/

www.immersence.com/publications/2003-OGrau.html

Alexander Apostol was born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela in 1969 and now lives in Caracas, where he studied art history at the Central University of Venezuela and photography at the Ricardo Armas School. Alexander has had solo exhibitions in Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Guatemala, Ecuador and the United States, and his photographs have appeared in group exhibitions throughout Latin America, Italy, and the United States. He has been artist-in-residence at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Maracay, Venezuela; and participated in workshops on photoengraving in the state of Vermont in the U.S.A., photography painting in Caracas, and fashion photography in London. In 1991, Apostol received the Young Artist/AICA award from the International Association of Art Critics in Caracas (Museum.oas.org). Just like Charles Cohen, he erases part of pictures to create a whole different scene that subverts the images original function.

One work of his that really caught my eye was his Residente Pulido: Royal Copenhague. In the picture, it is of a building, but with no windows and no doors. I took the time to google the building as it is, and the mood as well as the building itself are completely different. The building itself looks alive, and almost as if it has character, while his work makes it seem like it is just a big work of architecture with no purpose other than to just look upon it, and makes it seem almost dead. I love the way his style of art can completely transform the mood of something so large with such a simple method. Looking at these and his other works, i would like to try and use some methods of erasing simple and everyday parts that we would normally take for granted from pictures and look at the outcome as well as see the way the mood changes.

http://www.artnet.com/artist/1577/alexander-apostol.html

http://www.sicardi.com/Artists/index.cfm?artistid=78

Scott Griesbach is a artist that is very unique in his own liking. As you look through his images you see many different topics being hit. Many of them being social, pyschological, and many of them relating historical times to modern day equivalents. When looking at his work you are trying to learn what is needed to be learned from his images.What from history didn't we learn that we should arleady know and prevent from happening again. The work shown in our texbook and much of what is on his website, is photography with digital imaging and digital collaging; a lot of digital imaging of old iconic images with new snapshots. With my digital art, a lot of it is surrounded and based in photography and very minimal digital imaging. I really like seeing a professional artiist who can stay away from all the digitalization and work in older and traditional techniques like photography. Each image has a central lesson to be learned or feeling to be felt. And that is one of the biggest goals to achieve as an artist.

http://www.scottgriesbach.com/index.htm

Stream of Consciousness/Interactive Poetic Garden
By David Small and Tom White

The garden is the symbol of man's control over nature. This project attempts to bring the computer into the garden in harmony with stone, water, and plant materials. The computer is used to drive a video projector, creating the illusion of text floating on the surface of the water as it flows through the garden. This relaxing computational environment lends itself well to several open ended active and passive modes of interaction.

I like this piece because the viewer is able to interact with it by touching and swirling the water thus manipulating the words. I also like that the words flow continuously down a drain and then back up to the top of the waterfall.

David Small’s work is influential to me because it emphasizes spiritual awareness and relies a lot on text. It has shown me the importance of text in a piece and makes me think about having a more underlying meaning in my work.

The majority of work that I found by David Small is all collaborated with other artists. There wasn’t really a lot out there about him.

Here are a few links…

http://portal.acm.org/results.cfm?query=author%3ADavid%20Small&querydisp=author%3ADavid%20Small&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=21851843&CFTOKEN=55201497

http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/correct/296258

Chris Finley was born in Carmel, CA in 1971. He then received his B.F.A. in 1993 form The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena CA. His works are made form a range of media from, digital printmaking, painting, drawing, collage and, interactive sculpture. Some of Chris’s works are Goo Goo Pow WoW 2, and Buddhacreaturetwirl I like the one found in the book the most because of the color he uses and also just how it is mostly chunks of color organized in a war to create a coherent image. I think I can take some of his style and apply it to my work in the future because his work look quite free and I need to loosen up a bit when I make work. Chris’s work is found in Chapter 2, Digital Techniques as a Medium. Most of his digital prints are done with a mix of print and paint on canvas.