Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Sabrina Raaf
Sabrina Raaf is a Chicago-based artist who works in both experimental sculptural media and photography. She is a producer of creative machines - machines that independently make art when cross-pollinated with human interaction. Her work has recently been exhibited in a solo exhibition entitled Roving at Klein Art Gallery in Chicago and in the eShow exhibition curated by Barry Blinderman at the Krannert Museum. In 2003 her work was shown at the Wynick/Tuck Gallery in Toronto and in 2002 in the Here and Now show at the Chicago Cultural Center as well as in Postflesh at California State University in Sacremento, CA, and Sense Data at the Painted Bride Center in Philadelphia, PA. She exhibited in the Sculpture in Chicago Now exhibition (2002) curated by Adam Brooks and Cory Postiglione and at the Block Museum in the Immersive Art Symposium,2001. In 1999 she exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, DC) and at the Chicago Cultural Center. She is the recipient of a 2002, Creative Capitol Grant in Emerging Fields and an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship (2001). She has been reviewed in Art in America, Contemporary Magazine, the Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine, Leonardo Magazine (MIT Press), , The Washington Post, The New Art Examiner, The City Paper, and The Chicago Reader. She received an MFA in Art and Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999. Sabrina is currently a tenure-track professor in the Photography Department of Columbia College in Chicago.
www.raaf.org
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Orphans of Beauty (the art of Paul DeMarinis)
Unmarketable inventions, often called orphan technology, are generally considered useless. Paul DeMarinis considers them precursors to art.
Silke Tudor writes a terrific review of this amazing artist who recently had a show in San Francisco. He has created installations where electrical fields modulate gas flames so that they in turn create sound. One of my favorites is an umbrella that plays “Singin’ in the Rain” when streams of water hit it.
He has also been featured on public TV station KQED’s Spark program. Check it out for broadband video of the segment.
Sunday, May 30, 2004
Luann Udell’s Review of the “Craft in the Digital Age” Conference
Check out Luann Udell’s blog for a great review of the “Craft in the Digital Age” Conference held in New Hampshire last month.
Luann Udell’s Durable Goods Blog
Anna Ursyn
Anna Ursyn, http://www.ursyn.com, Professor, Department of Visual Arts, University of Northern Colorado. Ph.D.1994., M.F.A.1988. Several grant awards for developing computer graphics technology. Over 20 single art shows, participation in over 80 juried and invitational fine art exhibitions, such as: Immaginando ‘97, Digital Visions of Etruria, (Honorable Mention), Grosetto, Italy, juried; ACM/SIGGRAPH Art Galleries: 1989,’90,’94,’95,’98,’99,’01,’02,’03,’04 ,traveling shows; Der Prix Ars Electronica 1988-2004; Eurographics 1991, 1996 (Artistic Merit award), 1998; ISEA 1990,’92,’94,’96; SCAN 1990,’92,’93; ArCADE (Brighton, England) 1995,’97, 2001, 2003; traveling shows. New York Digital Salon 1995,’96,’98; 20th Century Matrix, NTT Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2000 images and 5000 texts describing 20 C); Winner of BauBoden,, Geschäftsbericht, the cover and 18 color plates, invitational., & juried., "Computerkunst/Computer Art” ‘96,’98, 2002 Gladbeck, Germany traveling shows., IDMMAa, IDEAs, Art Show, International Digital Media & Arts Conference, Orlando, FL GRAPHITE 2003,Australia, 2004 Singapore, Awarded the SIGGRAPH ‘90 grant for educators., Colorado Art Ed. Association 2003 professional Development Award. Chair, Symposium and Digital Art Gallery D-ART Information Visualization Conference -IV 1997-2004 London; and D-ART Computer GraphicsImage Visualisation, Penang, Malaysia 2004.
Research and pedagogy interests include integrated instruction in art, science, and computer art graphics. Publications: LEARNING AND INSTRUCTION, 1997; LEONARDO, Planks, Programs and Art 1993, Art as Information 2002; Creativity and Cognition, Loughborough, England, 1994; ERIC Doc. ED 374 773; COMPUTER GRAPHICS, 1991 (SIGGRAPH ‘91 and ‘97 Panels); YLEM, 1990, 1996, 2002; 2003, 2004. COLLAGE,1996-01, Information Visualization ‘97. Colorado Art Education Association 1996-2004, National Art Education Association 2000, ‘01, ‘03, ‘04. Biographies in various Marquis Who’s Whos, International Biographical Centre, Cambrigge, GB
Derek Sajbel’s “What is Circuit Bending?” Documentary
Derek Sajbel, LA-based “Absurdist”, has been working on a circuit bending documentary for over a year. You can find out “What is Circuit Bending?” in a short on his website, as well as see some raw footage clips from the upcoming documentary and other works by the artist.
http://absurdity.biz
http://absurdity.biz/CircuitBending/Bent.htm
Rob and Nick Carter
Rob and Nick Carter are a married couple who live and work in London.
Nicky Carter graduated from Goldsmith’s College in 1991. They started working together in 1998 and have developed a totally unique method of creating artwork using light and light sensitive paper. Working in complete darkness the images are gradually built using added increments of coloured light. Each piece is unique and unrepeatable. Their work also includes computer controlled colour changing lightboxes.
Exhibitions include The Museum of Neon Art in L.A. and The Nottingham Museum as well as several solo shows in London and with The Mark Moore Gallery in LA. Group shows include Index of Colour at The Leeds City Art Gallery and Art Futures with The Contemporary Art Society.
The Carters work can be found in the Corporate Collections of 19 Management, Sainsbury’s, Reuters and The Virgin Group as well as the private collection’s of Sir Elton John, Simon Fuller, David and Victoria Beckham, Philip Treacy and Matthew Williamson.
Rob and Nick Carter
Multi-Coloured Spiral VI, 2003
Unique Cibachrome
28"x36" Mounted on Aluminium and framed
Sylvie Robert
Sylvie Robert was born in Paris in 1964. She was exposed to art early due to her family’s interest in antiques and fine art. She was raised in a home full of paintings, sculptures and fine furnishings. Sylvie followed her mother Nicole in appreciation of collections covering the most important art auctioneers such as Sotheby and Christy’s. Her love develops mostly in the areas of figurative Art (realism), first classic then contemporary.
Although degreed in business administration, Sylvie has accelerated her passion for art thought the use of modern computer technology. Refining her classical and esthetic taste she has developed a fantasy vision that would make Salvatore Dali jealous as she continues her experiments in digital imagery.
Her works are a fusion of dimensional speech that evolve thought time and space covering “expressionism ipormali” (ipoformal expressionism) and post realism.
She mixes emotions of the purest esthetics with the timeless recognition of the evolution in technical landscape reaching the ultimate in contemporary digital expressionism.
For the unfamiliar in this new art form, Architect Vittorio Viglianesi will give a brief description ...
DIGITAL ART
Digital Art is simply a newest method that contemporary artists use to express his or her creativity through the medium of the computer, which renders traditional art to a superior degree.
This computer medium highly expands the normal use of color and brushes.
Millions of colors, shadows, fine details, dimensional exaggerations make it the ultimate tool for expression.
The traditional methods of canvas and brush will soon be passé and only used in reference to ancient art history.
This computer medium brings the future closer to an unbelievable and unimaginable frontier of beauty.
For the conservatives refusing to understand this reality surely means a narrowing of Their psyche and art/life experience.
These critics usually comment, “This art is not real art because it is done with A computer”.
Let us think and reflect for a while between the two mediums, in the first case a painter creates a design on a canvas and paints it utilizing brush and colors.
In the second, the digital artist designs with a mouse (electronic brush) onto the computer screen finally passing it from digital screen to canvas.
Who decides that one form is more acceptable and the other less?
Both forms carry to canvas the fantasy, taste and talent of the artist.
At the same time that we debate let us understand that by giving a person a brush, the palette and canvas he or she does not immediately become a Dali.
This also holds true for the Digital Arts. Acquiring a computer and a graphic program Do not make one an “artiste”.
Thanks to this medium a great artist would produce an amazing results to the eyes and mind.
To those who have seen the future they understand that the medium has already Revolutionalized the future of Art.
Sylvie Robert has joined the elite class of those in this field.
Her elegant use of color combined with fluidity of forms and her originality of backgrounds (neoclassic and futuristic) will delight even the hardest critic.
Owning a painting by Sylvie Robert is not only a good investment and pleasure but also a glimpse into the world of fantasy and good taste.
Laura Cesari
BA, Visual Arts / Interdisciplinary Computing Arts, University of California at San Diego
Laura Cesari is a multimedia artist & designer, and an instructor of drawing and multimedia courses at the Art Institute of California at San Diego. She has exhibited artwork at SIGGRAPH, Burning Man Festival, UC San Diego’s Center for Research in Computing Arts (CRCA), and various other venues.
Geoffrey Thomas (Storybeat)
Storybeat houses experiments in interaction, animation and narrative. The site encourages surf-and-skim viewing modes, mixing interactive moments with linear narratives and combining abstract and representational imagery. Many of the site’s stories explore psychological states and shifting emotions. These explorations are often filtered through the culture of technology.
Geoffrey Thomas has worked as a programmer, animator, interaction designer, and university professor. He has trained in the fields of fine art, animation, and multimedia. His work has been exhibited and screened at SXSW 04 Interactive, File2003, Mad 03 Net, Fluxus 2003, Siggraph 2002, Kunst Aus Strom, Popcorn Incident, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Chiangmai First New Media Art Festival and featured online at ArtMedia2002, DIAN-network.com, Mediatopia.net, Rhizome.org, SoundToys.net, and Turblence.org.
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Karin Kuhlmann
Karin Kuhlmann was born 1948.
She studied photography and graphic design and has been a commercial artist for many years, working for such firms as Bertelsmann, Radio Luxemburg, Nobilia, and as a freelancer. She discovered the computer as a personal artistic tool in 1994, and her digital work has won Corel and other international digital art awards. She lives and works in Verl, Germany.
Since the beginning of working on digital art (1996) she has always been fascinated by fractals, which are the visualized solution of a complex mathematical problem, describing natural phenomena with similar structures like the branches of a tree or the arteries of the blood circulation. Viewed in isolation of mathematical questions they are graphic patterns as a snapshot of the infinity.
Like the early surrealists and some abstractionists Karin draws her inspiration from the technique. For that reason she prefers to utilize “Automatism” for her creative processes in order to release her inner pictures. She usually generates a series of inspiring and associative organic shapes on transparent layers and combines them to form subtle arrangements of glowing transparent areas of colors, including the light behind it. The selection of forms, their editing and coloring is based on what psychologists refer to as “subjective perception”. Mathematical Art is - although it seems to be a contradiction in terms - a very intuitive and inspiring kind of work. Karin aims to explore a higher conscious towards self mapping of personal and social conditions.
digitalworlds@karinkuhlmann.de
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
What is Afrofuturist Art?
Afrofuturism is not a school of art, a movement, or a dogma. Instead, it is a way of looking at the world.
I hadn’t heard of this term before and find it an interesting perspective.
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
The LIBRIé Electronic Display For E-Books
Last month, a joint press release from Royal Philips Electronics, Sony Corporation and E Ink Corporation announced Sony’s new e-Book reader, the LIBRIé, as the world’s first consumer application of an electronic display module. The screen is black and white and has the resolution of newspaper. It is scheduled to go on sale in Japan later this month and Forbes has an updated story on it. The image above is courtesy of E Ink (http://www.eink.com). This is just the beginning of portable devices for visual media and I’m excited to finally see them arrive on the scene.
Forbes - The Next Chapter In Electronic Books
Sunday, April 18, 2004
History of Computer Graphics and Art - Call for Participation
The aim that guides this call is an intention to assemble a data bank of computer graphics and art which viewers can use to compare mutual influences on computer related disciplines. The goal is to document the evolvement of computer graphics, art, and the thought about art in relation to the progress of technology, thus creating a collection of images and essays created by artists, scientists, art historians, people shaping the museum and gallery display and those who influenced these disciplines, which reflects the unfolding of computer art due to technical achievements (hardware, software, languages, etc). With this approach, computer art and graphics are related to the history of inventions in concurrent periods of time. This treasury will be augmented by the artists’ web sites along with the existing materials cumulated in various collections and will become a part of the ACM SIGGRAPH resources. There is no sole comprehensive resource describing the influences and inventions in computer graphics and computer art from a historical perspective. The “Birds of a Feather” gathering at the SIGGRAPH 2002, San Antonio, Texas (organized by Anna Ursyn and Anne Morgan Spalter) generated a helpful feedback to this project.
Those who feel their work contributed to the field of computer graphics, art, and the thought about art are requested to describe their areas of action and accomplishments. Since this approach calls for interaction between people representing various fields, we ask to participate anybody involved in the progress of these fields, from software/hardware programmers to scientists, historians and artists. Being a part of this project may be interesting both on a personal level and because it involves a great potential for new approaches in teaching and provides materials for visual learning. It would be greatly appreciated if you could forward this link to anyone you feel could contribute to this project.
http://www.siggraph.org/education/cgHistory/history.html or simply at http://www.siggraph.org
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Alexandra Fede Scientific Stylist: when science meets fashion…
Alexandra Fede has a unique role in the fashion system. She is virtually one of the only stylists actively researching and technology transferring to fashion, the research and the innovations of many scientific areas for over ten years.
Her experimentation started within the Haute Couture and then extended to prêt a porter.
She is a consultant for Du Pont de Nemours, Mitsubishi Materials Corporation and Ermenegildo Zegna.
She has been global Ambassador for La Scala di Milano restoring with hi tech systems, over 5000 stage garments for this world famous Opera House.
The philosophy behind all this research is not only the stylistic beauty but also the functionalities of garments along with the protection and well being of the person.
Her style and her life philosophy have introduced new aesthetics where the application of Hi Tech doesn’t exclude the interest for natural shapes and fibres.
In November 2003 Alexandra Fede has organized in Paris the i-WEAR show within the European Science & Technology Week 2003 presenting garments engineered for the European Space Agency and creations from her catwalks like BodySculptor™, StressLess™, TecnoGold™, JoyDress™, LightDress™, AntiViolence®.
In March 2004 Alexandra has been a special guest at the CTIA Wireless Fashion in Motion in Atlanta.
April 26th to 28th 2004 she will present her collections at the Intertech Flexible Displays & Electronics in San Francisco.
Sunday, April 11, 2004
Teddy Lo
Starting at a young age in Hong Kong, Teddy Lo realized the value and fascination of modern technology due to his family background.
Lo’s decision not to go into family’s business in his adolescence has led him to the vast world of art and design, where he began to look at the value of visual communication.
At age 16, Lo became frustrated with the advertising in Hong Kong and devoted 10 years to learning the craft and aesthetics of western art direction and advertising.
He moved to CA, and after acquiring a visual communications degree from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandizing, he applied to the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA and was accepted into the Advertising program. It was there, in Los Angeles, that Lo really focused on communication arts aesthetics and modern art.
While at Art Center, he surrounded himself with artists in numerous majors and was introduced to his mentor/ instructor – Roland Young. Roland’s method of thinking struck an interest and was the most influential in Lo’s studies. Roland stressed the importance of the central concept and the reasons why the idea always comes before the design. That thinking really intrigued him in creating LED art pieces.
After graduation, Lo headed up numerous design and advertising projects for his family business and other technological companies and that’s when he decided to produce art with LED as his medium. He found another outlet to inspire the world visually.
In 2002, Lo moved to New York City to pursue his career in advertising and contemporary art.
LED art piece show dates:
2003 9/20–10/19 (Debut) Morphology @ Studio Dimodica, Soho, NYC
2003 11/22 Traffika @ Boundless2003, Queens, NYC
2004 1/15 – ongoing Q @ Photonics Center, HK Science Park, Hong Kong
2004 2/29 – 3/1 The ArtExpo 2004 @ Jatviz center, NY