Slashdot Mirror
Crazy/Nerdy Computer Art Installations
Gernot Ziegler writes "After having read a report on the fusion of Art and Technology, I somehow ended up on Perry Hoberman's page. I don't know this guy, but I've always been fascinated by techno art, and these ones are clearly intriguing.
There is the Workaholic, a pendulum with a bar code scanner over a carpet with bar codes and an attached projector that overlays images on the carpet, or the ZOMBIAC (Zone Of Monitor-Based Inter-Amnesiac Contact) that lures the visitors into thinking that the machines react to them directly. You might also want to have a look at this weird auction (that's where I got this link from) ! :)"
Check out this band - it consists of old 386DX computer having a SB... :-D
The music is quite fun, as it consists of classics rendered in the adlib-style sounds and top of that the SB speech synthesizer is singing the vocals.
As can be seen in the pages, they have done many "live concerts" which could be defined also quite nice computer art installations - just the computer sitting on street, playing out its music.
--
In the old days, art copied things - but as photography came about, the necessity of that dropped away, and art began to *comment* on things.
One thing that art looooves to do is to comment on art itself. (basically one generation of art comments on the previous generation: e.g. post-modernism art being mostly comments on the modernism, etc (for the nit-pickers - i really forgot which "ism" comments on modern-ism, so if the fact is a little off, don't flame, ja?))
What it really boils down to is that for many years now, art has been very seclusive stuff - stuff commenting on previous stuff which were themselves comments on ever earlier stuff. For the non artist, besides the above as a background, one very, very important word of caution - unless you intend to keep track of what is the current subject of comment, and understand all the crap that came before that, I'd seriously recommend against spending money on the stuff. Besides very few items that eventually ends up famous for famous' sake (Mona-Lisa, for example, is viewed to be "famous because of it's fame" - that's another thing I got out of the class, btw), all you will be receiving in the end is a comment without any context to go with it, kinda like spending money for a single comment of slashdot, without knowledge of all its beowulf cluster of running jokes, previous stories with evil bits set, and you bought it just because it was moderated highly.
anyway, for decoration purposes, there are many decorating art you get at even malls these days. let me repeat: don't ever spend money on what *real* artist produces, unless you are very sure of what you are doing. (this in response to the auction site)
not to mention, most of the real art nowadays are crap anyways...
My life in the land of the rising sun.
I never really understood the pricing for a lot of art, I mean I can understand why a really nice picture might be worth a couple hundred dollars -- prints cost money, mounting them costs money and the artists needs to make some money on it. I could easily see paying a couple hundred or more for a picture I really like. Some of these though are ridiculous. Like this print, it says retail price $1200!!! Besides the fact that I can't imagine anybody actually wanting to own that picture I just don't understand where that value comes from. Anybody could make a picture of a Windows XP dialog box saying something like that... it's not even an original idea! Things like that are put up on the web all the time! This one's just as bad and it's $2000.
That's ridiculous.
This is an interesting fact which I learnt the other week.
The word "Techno" actually MEANS "Art"
Therefore Technology is infact "The study of art." I was distraught when I learnt this, since I am an engineering student and despise those lowly arts students...
I am not stubborn. I am right!
by Arthur Ganson
Interesting... I don't have a disdain for the arts (art itself that is) but arts classes at universities. AKA the "Bachelor of Attendance." I fail to see the relevance of most of the drivel that exists in those classes. But I think that my greatest complaint with an arts student happened in my first year. In the first fortnight to be precise. At this time I was doing 30+ hours a week at uni, and this bloke was complaining about all of the hours he was going to be spending in class. It transpired that he was an arts student, and had to do a whole 10 hours a week. He dropped a class because he just could not take the pressure of all that work. That is probably where my disdain for the arts comes from. That was really off topic
P.S. Leonardo DaVinci, one of the greatest artists ever to have existed in the world, and one of the most intelligent and insightful, was infact a millitary engineer by profession.
I am not stubborn. I am right!
..what someone will pay.
Nothing more, nothing less. If you like good art, there are better places to look - chances are if you ask around you can find someone who paints who would be flattered if you wanted one of their pictures.
..don't panic
Everyone knows that when presented with an inexplicable piece of "art", one must immediately feign understanding, lest he be lumped with the great mass of society who can't understand either. You are, of course, better than the rest of society, yes? And if you can't "understand" art exhibitions, you might as well be an animal or a redneck or a cracker! If you don't want to be one of those, make up an explanation of why you think this artwork is deep and immensely thoughtful. And better yet, publish this opinion where others can see it, so that ye may better be recognized at parties as the guy who understood the piece of art that nobody else could appreciate!
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Bah. So hate that guy, don't generalize about the people working and educating those in the field. My girlfriend is a recently-graduated Art History major, with a secondary focus in studio art, specifically sculpture. She worked HARD for her degree, at a state school, in the art department...and got a good education under professors making a pittance and working in one of the most underfunded departments in the US. (Colorado state school art depts.)
I've seen her put more hours toward a sculpture piece than I ever put toward a program in the CS curriculum at the same school, one that is reasonably well-respected. I had the same disdain, until I found that most CS students were rock-stupid slackers, and most art students were rock-stupid slackers...
You'll find lazy people everywhere. Keep that in mind.
interaccess in Toronto is an amazing gallery.
The Seemen and SRL in San Francisco will blow your ass up.
xraylab in Seattle/Chicago/New York does some great interactive work.
Norm White has been kicking art/tech ass for since before you were born.
David Rokeby's work is totally amazing too.
Beige Programming Ensemble in Chicago/St. Louis/New York can make your Atari/C64 do backflips.
And for some amazing reading... Stephen Wilsons information arts book has no comparison.
rhizome.org is a pretty good site for all things art/tech (esp. web art)
And for validation by the mainstream art world check out the whitney's artport.
enjoy!Heil Sig! -Rob
http://www.somalounge.net/obsolotron.php
Neat idea.
- David Rokeby
- Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignonneau
- Simon Penny
Who are yours?if you sail on over to lowtech.org you can see a group in the UK using redundant technology both in art and in society.
the group a2rt (www.a2rt.org) are also starting up something similar as well.
The reasoning behind using lowtech computers in art and social projects was given by James Walbank the founder of the lowtech project in this speech to an arts conference with the theme of revolution. James correctly pointed out that you can't have a revolution with a price tag of over £1000.
favourite pieces include redundant array, and the video wall that was reprised in even better fashion here at fort lux
Art is what you make it, found art is what you find and what you make it, lowtech art is finding art in skips.
sparkes
blog and junk
interaccess in Toronto is an amazing gallery.
The Seemen and SRL in San Francisco will blow your ass up.
xraylab in Seattle/Chicago/New York does some great interactive work.
Norm White has been kicking art/tech ass for since before you were born.
David Rokeby's work is totally amazing too.
Beige Programming Ensemble in Chicago/St. Louis/New York can make your Atari/C64 do backflips.
and for some amazing reading... Stephen Wilsons information arts book has no comparison.
rhizome.org is a pretty good site for all things art/tech (esp. web art)
And for validation by the mainstream art world check out the whitney's artport.
Heil Sig! -Rob