Hidrazone - Digital Arts Reviews & News

Fabrica

3rd October to 29th November 2009

Tina Gonsalves’ Chameleon project has been a few years in the making with this exhibition being the second show in Brighton, the previous being a kind of workshop/process talk and exhibit at the Lighthouse. The structure of the piece incorporates some significant computer vision software developed at MIT – essentially a camera records the face of the observer, the software interprets emotional state and plays back sequence from pre-recorded database of actors expressing joy, sadness etc. As an installation, this worked well with the large scale back-projection creating a powerful sculptural presence in Fabrica (a de-commissioned church) and suggested that the project had moved on considerably since it’s previous outing. The project, which received support from a number of agencies, seems to sell itself on the art + science ticket which like many of these projects tends to end up being something that is both questionable art and bad science. I was left feeling impressed by the stature of material that went in though underwhelmed by the output – examples being the inorganic jumps between the emotional states of the performers – a dynamic 3D model would help create a fluid sense of responsiveness. This is probably something that the boffins at MIT would be very pleased with for, as explanatory PR for recognition software it is extremely effective though as an art piece it is unconvincing – perhaps next time.

28th to 31st August 2009

The 10th Anniversary Edition of FILE

Marcel.lí Antúnez Roca
Protomembrana

Perhaps the most intriging aspects of Roca’s performance in the Hypersonica strand and related installation is the way in which his aesthetic vision transcends the formal aspects of interactive production – we are invited into a world with such developed vision that the audience is taken beyond solely fetishing technological processes common to much of digital art. The performative piece (prefaced with a 12 certificate) works with polymorphously perverse imagery that is reminiscent of 20th century painters Dali and Picasso in terms of iconography while developing hand drawn psychedelia in the style of Barcelona graffitti. The level of performance and technical rendition is a seamless one man show – involving/humiliating members of the audience as we are taken on a journey through the processes of digital art creation.

Alexandra Dementieva
Drama House

Linking a series of bells with the view across the windows of two floors of apartments the user is able to “call up” the occupants, who will then recite their performance – the exact configuration being driven by the combination of buttons chosen on the black box.

To quote from the supporting material “Like in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Rear Window, the bright windows of the DH are both confined and multileveled: its stories and visual perspective are dictated by the interaction of the protagonist’s confinement in his/her apartment and the participant choice and position from which both he and the audience glimpse on the lives of the various tenants. Cheerful voyeurism affords a droll comic atmosphere that suddenly darkens when one sees clues to what may become violence.

The spectator’s involvement in the resident’s drama/comedy visible from his position is a by-product of both boredom and natural human curiosity. Video-artist is, in fact, a voyeur by trade: the stories are a mere pretext for the artist who is more interested in the implications of viewer’s perspective. The audience actually learns more about the lives of the residents watching them undetected: phenomenon that provides the other vital thread to the script. While the artist offering herself as a visual storyteller, she makes audience accomplices to spying. At deeper levels, Drama House examines issues of moral responsibility and emotional honesty in regards to strangers.”

It was as a user, difficult to discern any complexity in the relationship between the interactive design and the content of the projections beyond the ability to call up a particular scene – the work as a whole very reminiscent of the HBO Voyeur project which seemed to have been developed concurrently.

Christa Erickson

Climate Shifts

Sculptural metaphor ranging from the distinctly alogue which was described during her presentation

Audio

Andreas Muxel and Martin Hesselmeier

Capacitive Body

Nina Waisman

Between Bodies

Eunjoo Shin

Vocal Trio

Rivington Place

11th March to 25th April 2009