Signal Lumineux

Photo taken by user Alice  on Aug 2009

So I wanted to learn more about Takis' Signal Lumineux that was mentioned on page 63 and I could not find any more info on it.  I was looking for videos to see the piece in action but no dice.  It seems so interesting though.  Shanken states that the enviroment, especially the wind and ground tremors, have unique affect on each wiry sculpture.  The best I could do was to view pictures of the art in different seasons.  I was very interested in this kinetic piece because it was herald as the first to incorporate music into the visual arts.  In one of my first post, I mentioned Gatis Kurzemnieks, a multimedia artists, as an innovative artist who has incorporated visual art with music.  I would think, without Takis, Kurzemnieks would not have found proper influences for his piece.

In the textbook, the photo seems too blurry to make out a clear aesthetic of the artful scenery.  According to orbit.zkm.de, each sculpture are different height and form, and they all vary in energy emission and code transmission all randomize in timing and orientation.  So here are more pictures of Signal Lumineux in various angles and seasons.

Photo taken in Nov 2008

 Photo taken by a Flickr user in Feb 2010. 

Photo taken by user ewka in June 2008

Devotion Part 2

Last post I talked about devotion using an artist who was doing self portraits while on drugs.  It was all about art but no technology.  This time around I found another example of devotion with art and technology combined.  His name is Francis Tsai.  Francis Tsai  is a concept artist and a comic book artist.  He was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease in 2010.  When he lost the use of his limbs, he still had the passion for creating art so he used the Brush app on his iPhone and mastered the app with his toes.  Then when he lost his ability to use his toes he got help to continue his art by way of computers.  He rigged a device where he could draw with his eye.  Using the technology brand Tobii's eye tracking device, Francis Tsai was able to draw with his eye movements.

Not only is his story inspirational, but this exemplifies devotion. Francis Tsai didn't wallow in sorrow or stopped doing art altogether.  Much like the disabled athletes who continue their sports, he was resourceful and adapted to all obstacle, devoted to his work.

These are some examples of his eye-gazing drawing:

More can be found and bought on his website store: http://francistsaistore.storenvy.com/

For any aspiring musicians who might need some inspirations, Jason Becker is a guitarist who also has Lou Gehrigs disease but continues to compose music with adapting technology.

Devotion

I always dig devotion.  I use to have it.  Sometimes I have spurts of devotion for a project or learning something new but I can't keep it up at all times.  I use to play basketball everyday when I was younger.  I use to exercise at least four times a week.  I would practice speaking Japanese almost every other day.  I would try these things but I couldn't always keep it up, at least to a point where it becomes a habit.  I still practice these things but not as much as I like to.  Everytime I drive and its raining or snowing and I see a person running I think to myself, "That person is devoted."  Just recently, there was a story in national news about a personal trainer, Drew Manning, who purposely gained 100 pounds just to experience being obese and lost all the excess weight in a span of a year.  He did this to try to understand how people get obese and the body reacts to losing all that weight just so he could get a better perspective of his target customers.  That right there is devotion.

The reason I bring this up is there is an amazing story about an artist, Bryan Saunders, from Washington DC who devoted himself to his art.  Bryan Saunders has committed himself to doing self portraits while on drugs.  Not just one kind of drug, but basically any drug he could get his hands on, only when given to him whether they were from friends or prescribe by the hospitals.  He has drawn a self portrait while being on every drug known to man one at a time.

Here's just a few samples:

Bath Salts

Cocaine

Lighter Fluid

They say being on drugs makes you creative but this is beyond creative.  This is devotion to the craft.  It is a deep inside look to the psyche of a man affected by drugs. Bryan Saunders has put it upon himself to be the guinea pig of a very thoughtful experiment that could help society have a better understanding of drugs.  This may be dangerous but you can't stop devotion.  This is ongoing experiment and may never end since there are endless supplies of drugs and there are always new drugs created.

Take a look at the rest of his work here.

Collaboration

On page 51 of the textbook, Shanken discussed how difficult it was for artists who wanted to collaborate with other artists to work  on electronic media art as it was getting noticed in the 1970's and 1980's.  Regular mail and landline calls just made the logistics of collaboration unbearable plus the lack of information on other talents in the growing medium made it harder for artists to find each other.

My, how we come a long ways without the internet and social media.  It just seems like it was centuries ago when we couldn't get in contact with another person or find out specific information instantly.  Nowadays, if an artist wanted to work with another, they can just send a message on Facebook or Twitter.  I think that method is even faster than just calling on the mobile or sending a n email.  And if the artist did not want to agree to work with each other, what's to stop the requestor from just appropriate the requestee's work, given the work is in electronic format.  I know these are obvious observations but being an artist is much more simpler now than ever.  One just has to look in Youtube to find remixes of electronic art.  Everyone from their elementary school kid to their grandma have been posting photos and pictures on Facebook, Instagram, Flickr or even to their own website.  Art is subjective but it has become much easier to do and share.

Back to the collaboration discussion.  I find it great that if I want to work with someone on a project whether its a report or art I could easily get in contact with that person.  I can only imagine what our historical artists might of been if they had internet. Collaborations by Spanish artist Picasso and Australian indigenous artist Paddy Bedford and American artist Georgia O'Keefe might have been as unique as the Korean/American duo team of Young Hae Chang Heavy Industries.  If only Al Gore created the internet as we know now 60 years ago.

Cinemagraphs

Truthfully, I did not know what cinemagraphs were.  I first encountered a cinemagraph when I saw a fellow DTC student working/creating one last year but I didn't know that was what it was called.  I thought they were just movable .gifs but they look much more crisp and artistic than most gifs I've seen.  Anyways, cinemagraphs are still photo where a particular portion of the picture has a subtle motion giving it an illusion of watching a video.

These are a few cinemagraphs I've enjoyed:

The reason why I brought up the topic of cinemagraphs is I think it would be a great addition to my Norman Rockwell project:

My idea would add a sliding motion on one of the phones or maybe the Kindle Fire screen and a short clip of the Gangnam Style YouTube video on the iPad mini.  I think that would add even more juxtaposition (if that's even possible?) of modern technology and Norman Rockwell's image of Americana. I would have to make this an ongoing pursuit after the submission of the original assignment.

Video Games as Art

In the section titled Simulations and Simulacra of the text book (pages 42-43), Shanken touched on the idea that video games are considered art.  For example, artists like Mary Flanagan began using game engines to create her work.  Doing a quick Google search, I discovered that the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) has added 14 video games to its collection in their Department of Architecture and Design.  Looking through the list, it seems to be a timeline of the progress of video games.

In this post, I would like to mention three games games that were probably considered art in the brainstorm stage before they became video games.

Flowers (PS3 2009)



In the essence of Van Gogh's Starry Night, the player controls the wind, blowing flower petals through the air.  Vivid in color and majestic sceneries, this game features no text or dialogue.  The narration is implied through the visuals and emotional cues.

Journey (PS3 2012)



This beautiful game captures loneliness in a vast desolate world. Created by the same company that created Flowers, the player controls a robed figure in a vast desert, traveling towards a mountain in the distance.  Exploration can be done on land and in air.  When floating in air, that is when the player sees all the great detail the creators installed, giving a meaningful experience in a magical world.

Braid (XBox 360 2008)



The game has a cult following as an indie hit.  In this game, the player controls the hero through various stages solving puzzles to progress in rescuing a princess.  Not a very original concept but the gameplay is.  Using time manipulation, the player can learn from his mistake and solve the puzzles.  The puzzles are not extremely complex but they are thoughtful and intriguing.  The stages in the game are reminiscent of the Robin Williams' movie, What Dreams may Come, with its unique use of the the color palettes.  It is a very beautiful game that allows the player to get lost in the artwork and gameplay.

These three games are just some simulations and simulacra that defends video game as works of art.  There are many more games that can be considered art but these three are hands down astonishing and awe inspiring much like films by Akira Kurosawa and paintings by Monet.  Very cool stuff.

Nokia 3D

This article was an interesting read.  3D printing has been a controversial gadget and also has been praise as a wonderful step to the future of technology.  In the article, Nokia, the former worldwide number one cell phone maker, has added 3D templates into the new Lumia 820 smartphone. The templates allow 3D printer owners to be able to customize and print out a case for the phone.  Now this may sound like a gimmick that may not be very useful, like Siri for Apple and Pop up Screens for Samsung, but it does contain an artful and expressive potential.  I'm sure we will see a lot of camouflage (for boys) and Hello Kitty (for girls) cases being manufactured at home with 3D printer owners but their will be a few out there that will come up with an original case for the phone, something Picasso-esque or Dali inspired.  Now it might be a baby step to allow Nokia users to print out their own cases for their phones but in the last quote of the article, John Kneeland, a Nokia Community and Developer Marketing manager, states ”You want a waterproof, glow-in-the-dark phone with a bottle-opener and a solar charger? Someone can build it for you — or you can print it yourself!” 


That customization feature seems like it is blurring the lines of commercial technology with art expression.  We're not far off from having our cake and eating it too.  

Interactive Art

As I was reading the assigned pages of the textbook, Nam June Paik was mentioned on page 34. He is an inspirational multimedia artist and was cited as the first to coin the term "Electronic Superhighway."  In the text book, Paik was quoted (discussing about his artwork Good Morning, Mr. Orwell), "...the best way to safeguard against the world of Orwell is to make this medium interactive so it can represent the spirit of democracy, not dictatorship."

Though he was talking about Orwell's novel 1984 and the concept of "Big Brother" watching your every move, I find the quote about the "spirit of democracy, not dictatorship" liberating.  I like artists that push the envelope, see art with there third eye, thinking outside the box, coloring outside the lines, and whatever other cliches that describes being an artist that finds freedom in their expression of art instead of the constricting parameters of traditional art.

In this Youtube video, Gatis Kurzemnieks, who is a multimedia artists, motion designer, and graphics programmer.  In this embedded video, he created an interactive painting that displays various versions of the same painting with appropriate music assigned to each version.  With artists like these, art, especially multimedia art, will progress into its own historical achievement much like the Renaissance and Pop Art.  Kurzemnieks has grab the baton that has been passed on by the likes of  Paik and Mark Napier.

First Post: David Medalla

As I read Edward Shanken's Art and Electronic Media, I noticed a Filipino artists by the name of David Medalla on page 20.  I was very intrigue to learn more about him because there are not that many famous and culture-fulfilling Filipino icons that I know of.  Filipinos are celebrity gossip addicts and most of their celebrities are mixed-raced Filipinos.  I cannot relate to this media trend and find it an insult to non-mixed Filipinos that are misrepresented in the media.  When people name famous Filipinos, whether they are Filipino themselves (including myself) or not, they can usually name two: Jose Rizal, a freedom fighter who help the Philippines gain its independence, and Manny Pacquiao, the champion boxer.  It is refreshing that I can add David Medalla to this list.

According to several websites, including Wikipedia, David Medalla, attend Columbia University (a very prestigious university) at the age of 12 (a very young age).  That alone is impressive.  He is a multimedia and conceptional artists, using, to name a few mediums, bio kinetic sculpture, metal installation, and oil paintings.  He has rub elbows with the likes of Mark Van Doren and Marcel Duchamp.  He has founded many galleries like Signals Galleries, which presented international kinetic art, and has influence and collaborated with other multi media artists in Exploding Galaxy which he help initiate and was a huge factor in the London hippie movement.  He also has lectured in many world renowned universities to spread his art knowledge.  It's amazing that he has accomplished so much and influence kinetic art but is not well known to many Filipinos (or maybe it is just me).  Either way, I want to say thanks and pay respects to a new iconic Filipino figure that can be added to the short list of famous Filipinos.