thoughts on Brian Knep

I think is art work is very awesome I love how he mixes the organic shapes and quality with technology.

My favorite of his pieces are the healing series.  Which consists of large floor mats that change and heal as the viewer walks over them. I love how it is interactive, and that the viewer changes the piece. After each interaction it looks different, it never looks the same twice.

Another piece that I found interesting was Expand. This piece is an installation Where small creatures wander aimlessly around a dark wall until a viewer activates and spotlight. Then the creatures race to get to the brightest part of the spot light where they expand then shrivel and sink back to the dark where they start all over again. In this piece Brian Knep uses child like drawings to humorously explore the illusions that drive us. 

The media that he uses is very unique especially with the concepts he is exploring.  I think that to fully apperciate his work he must be viewed in person though. Especially because the viewer plays such a huge part in the outcome of the piece. 

Jim Campbell

I choose Jim Campbell to focus on for my new media artist.

He was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1956, and got his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics from MIT.

 He had a few solo exhibitions  including the most recent ones in 2005:

"Quantizing Effects" Site Santa Fe, NM

"New Work" Hosfelt Gallery, San Fransico, CA

"Material Light," Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery New York, NY

Public Art

White Circle, 2001

this is a public work of art by  Jim Campbell 

It is made out of custom electronics and Plexiglas. it is 15"x 12".

It displays a large image of a figure running in snow.

Memory Works

http://www.jimcampbell.tv/

Portrait of his mother and father

the photo of his mother slowly transforms to the rate of his breath  which was recorded over period of an hour. The glass infront of the picture fogs and de  fogs as if Jim was standing front of the picture breathing on the glass.

The photo of his father transforms to the rate of his heart beat over the period of 8 hours, which was recorded while he slept

Installations

Interactive Hallucination, 1998

 

Live and recorded imagery mixes on a monitor which creates a real time, real size mirror effect. The mirror puts the viewer on fire and  puts a virtual woman in the monitor to observe the viewer or effect their space.

Untitled (For Heisenberg), 1994-95

 at the end of a hallway there is a platform with life size people on it. They are stuck in a slow motion embrace. As the viewer moves on the hallway the video of the couple zooms in until the viewer is next to the platform the view is a close up abstract of the couple. and the camera moves side to side as the viewer moves side to side of the platform.

Ambiguous icons

Running, Falling

http://www.jimcampbell.tv/

Second Life

  I think Philp Rosendale's views on second life are incredibly distorted. I think that people will end up becoming more connected to the internet then they already are, if there is a imaginary utopia world that is  seemingly better than the real world available on the internet. Philip Rosendale was asked a question in the interview if  'people will prefer there avatar to their real self' I feel like he didn't really answer the question. He said that the Avatars will make us want to be better then our real selves. I disagree, It is so easy to make up an identity on the computer for yourself that you wish you were like, that people will prefer being there avatar on the computer than actually going out and being themselves in real life.  I fear that it will get out of control, and potentially people could lose all sense of physical contact with other people. 

Rosendale is aware that in the future these types of changes in human contact and interacting will occur, but thinks that the changes are for the better and they will allow people to communicate who other wise wouldn't get the chance. I disagree a couple weeks ago i was watching a reality  television show where they helped people overcome there fears of going out in public, reacting with people, being on stage, etc. One girl was so addicted to Second Life she didn't actually have any other friends in real life besides the people in the video game. Even her boyfriend was from Second Life. She was a musician and so used to playing her music over the computer into second life she was terrified of actually playing in-front of a real audience. As Second Life becomes more popular I fear that this situation will also become more common.

So I tried using Second Life  and I found it incredibly difficult to move around and to understand how everything in the program worked. I found it to be boring and frustrating, but I can see how it could appeal to a different type of people who aren't as comfortable in public or who don't have a Life.