Wonder Women :: Art & Technology

As I was going through the Nash Gallery still set up for the Spark festival, I found myself trying to interpret every piece of art I saw to find its "real" meaning. With the 3 cages with nests inside and a constant scroll of animals being projected onto the floor, I decided that meant these animals are all caged inside their homes and not allowed to be free. Perhaps this is more of a burden than anything, because I sometimes find it hard to just stand there and take in the art for what it's worth and enjoy its message and beauty. I cite this visual journalism class I took last year as being the reason why I examine art so throrougly. The class had us watch just one scene from a movie, and then comment on every single frame of the scene (all 85 of them, in detail). This exercise taught me that every element of a work of art can have some significance to the overall piece, even the slightest lighting element or way of filming something. Overall, I was very impressed with the variety of art the Spark Festival had to offer, whether it was Blendie or growing mold. One installation I had trouble understanding was the dinosaurs drinking water? There were two robotic "things" that moved toward this pool of something. It looked like a lot more things on the installation should've been moving or doing something, so I'm not sure if it was broken or what. If anyone has any thoughts on that installation, I'd appreciate it!
I regret not writing down the name of the installation+artist that did the nest art, for that was one of the most interesting pieces I saw in the Nash Gallery.

Posted by fjest003 at 06:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

*I just wanted to let you know that I posted my reflection of the Spark Festival in the wrong location...

It is under "Reflections" and it's combined with my reflection of the MIA exhibit.

Posted by matth120 at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For the Spark Festival I had planned on attending Paul Demarinis’ lecture on Friday afternoon, unfortunately, I ended up leaving Minnesota on short notice for the weekend, but I would still like to share some information about his work since I find it intriguing. Paul DeMarinis is an electronic media artist and he has created numerous performance works, sound and computer installations and interactive electronic inventions. Much of his work involves speech processed and synthesized by computers. More of his exhibits can be viewed at this website, http://www.stanford.edu/~demarini/exhibitions.htm, but I was particularly was interested in “A Light Rain” produced in 2004, which allowed viewers to take an umbrella, walk under a projected rainbow, and hear music played by streams of water. He did something similar to this in 1998 also in an exhibit titled “RainDance / Musica Acuatica” which included 20 falling streams of water, modulated with audio signals, create music and sound when intercepted by visitors' umbrellas. I think it is always interesting to hear what artists have to say about their own work after I have already looked at it and come to my own conclusions. Here is a quote from him on the subject of his own work, “My work often traverses the untrodden areas of communication technology where the interplay of meaning, materiality and encoding dance round in figures that suggest the uneasy struggles and yearnings that underlie our officially sanctioned notions of utility, efficiency and consumer desirability. I mean to pose questions about the world we have created , to ask how material devices weave their way into our personal relationships, our understanding of the physical universe and our origins, as well as our notions of possible futures.” I hope that I will be able to experience one of his exhibits in the future, I really enjoyed looking at all of the concepts he’s played around with and how he’s incorporated some of the earliest technology in history with the most recent.

Posted by beckx214 at 05:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For the Spark Festival, I attended on of the Nitelife concerts at the Nomad World Pub where I saw Freida Abtan, Gregory Taylor & Tom Hamer, and Soren Knudsen perform. The focus of the artists was to use computer technology to manipulate certain sound bites and create unconventional rhythms and dissonant tones. Freida's work reminded me very much of the music and sound used in evoking pictures of machines and industry, especially in Anime cartooning (i.e. Ghost in the Shell). Though the sounds themselves were the opposite of organic, the arrangement of the sound was techno-organic in that the artist let music grow in a way that made sense to them. Along with one of the pieces Freida also created a visual film component and was using the computer to manipulate those images as well. These I found to be reminiscent of the dancer Loie Fuller who used vast swaths of cloth in her dance work back in the 1890's. Freida's computer work seemed to emulate that flow of cloth by creating a new flow of the pixels that make up the image of a human on the screen. The other artists, like Knudsen, experimented more with incorporating musical instruments to create a blend of instrumental riffing typically done in jazz and computer generated sounds. All of the work was very intriguing and interesting to experience, but it is not music that compels your body to move. Or, we have simply not found a way yet for our bodies to move to this arhythmatic expression of sound. I had a difficult time keeping engaged in this music due to what I perceived as randomness and general noise. I'll probably be yelling at my kids someday and asking, "what ever happened to the electric guitar?"

Posted by remu0019 at 04:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Write a review of the Spark Festival event that you attended:

You are free to develop your own format for this review.

You may also include why you chose this event, what you expected, what you experienced and how you would describe this event to a friend.

Posted by Diane Willow at 10:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I really enjoyed Andrea Stanislav's installation at the MIA. My first impressiong was literally, "What is going on?" because people were standing on rocks with their shoes off and the room was dark. As I began soaking in all of the tings that were going on in the installation, I really began to appreciate the art.

I really liked the use of mirrors and reflection used in the second room with the headless horses. There was a beautiful contrast between the darkness of the room and the reflections from the rotating horses. I really liked the use of mirrors and reflections in general because I think it made the people looking at the art more of a part of the art. You can't look at the mirrors without seeing yourself, so your reflection and the reflection of those behind/around you become a part of the art.

When I re-entered the installation, I was able to stand on the pond and watch the entire video. (There were a lot of people in there before). After taking in everything that was going on in the installation the first time I saw it, I was able to look for the deeper meaning in the artwork the second time around. I liked that you couldn't hear the sound of the video unless you were standing on the rocks. This also really brought me INTO the piece. I felt like I was a part of the installation when I re-entered. One thing that really stood out to me was the fact that the horses connected the two separate rooms because their heads were shown in the video after the explosion. It kind of clarified why there were headless horses when you saw the video.

If I were to describe this installation to my family...I would describe it as a beautiful installation that contrasts light and dark. There is not a lot of color and it isn't your "typical" sculpture or paintings. It's very abstract and it allows the viewer to take what they want away from the art. It is interactive and you really need to become a part of the installation in order to take away the most.

Continue reading "Reflections: MIA Visit and The Spark Festival" »

Posted by matth120 at 08:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I went to the Nomad World Pub on Friday night for what was called "Nitelife 3" in the Spark Festival schedule. It was an electronica concert with 5 or 6 musicians/groups of musicians, and I hope some one else chose to do this as well because it was really cool. The night started out with just one guy mixing music on his Apple, and over the course of the night, as different groups came out, the atmosphere got more and more involved. There were more people, louder and faster music, and the screen behind them, which had previously been a plain white screen, began to show old cartoons, like Betty Boop and some crazy dinosaur called Fido, and abstracts cityscapes. I wasn't really sure about the relationship they had to the music, but it was great. As for the music itself, I loved it, but then electronica is one of my favorite genres. The sounds and beats have a way of completely taking you in, absorbing you into the scene.

Posted by Kari Volkmann at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)