Digital Art: The Bonding of the Past and Present

A is for Apple

2007-10-15T02:13:00.000-07:00

The Issac Newton page from A is for Apple

http://www.aisforapple.net/main.htm

A is for Apple is an interactive artwork created by David Clark. It explores the various meanings and significance of the apple, following a series of interconnecting paths resulting in a large collection of information on the one sole subject. Themes explored include Adam and Eve, Apple Computers, the Big Apple and The Beatles. Each page involves some interactive click-able elements, with photographic and illustrated images complemented in some cases by music and sound, whilst a narrator speaks out the core information.

The Adam and Eve page from A is for Apple

The pieces are connected in a straightforward manner in most cases, with for example, Adam and Eve then leading onto Adam’s Apple and God. However information from more unrelated subjects are also interconnected in some instances. In one example The Beatles lyric “Let me take you down” from the song Strawberry Fields is flashed across the screen on the Adam and Eve page.

I chose this work because it investigates the importance of one object over history and it shows how one seemingly meaningless item can carry on incredible significance

Lost in Script

2007-10-15T01:41:00.000-07:00

Seed's Scene from Lost in Script

http://www.lostinscript.com/experi.htm

Lost in Script is a small collection of experimental flash works by Karthik Ck, involving interaction with organic like objects. The works provide a good correlation between nature and technology and also plays with light and space. One example of this has virtual grass like objects moving with the user’s mouse movements, creating an effect similar to grass moving with the wind.

I chose this piece because it is a simple yet effective example of interactive art

vdr4

2007-10-15T00:25:00.000-07:00

visualDPM from vdr4

http://www.visualdata.org

vdr4 is an interactive flash based website by Ronald Wisse, with a series of pieces ranging from interactive works, still images and animations. The imagery depicted is a mixture of futuristic sci-fi and modern day technology with a hint of nature. One piece in particular, shows a desert-storm tank surrounded by a sea of dead bodies. The user has the option of choosing different wallpapers to then cover the existing image, turning the tank for example into a battleship and the sea of bodies into literally an ocean, or in another instance a forest with the vehicle becoming a plant.

This clever use of colour to create the different illusions provides an interesting look at the changing face of a battlefield and the evolution of life. Other works of interest include alien like 3D animations as well as a robotic like human swimming through space.

The imagery of the robot once again provides a nice balance between technology and nature. The robot, which follows your mouse around the screen, obviously represents technology, yet its movements are much more natural then your stereotypical clunky robot. Also much of the robot's body is made up of particle or molecular like objects, suggesting a human connection

floatbot from vdr4, a swimming robot like object

I chose this piece because it sticks to the exhibition’s theme but provides a contrast to the rest of the works as it isn’t moody or atmospheric (save for a few exceptions).

Oculart

2007-10-14T22:07:00.000-07:00

pigalle 1913 from Oculart

http://www.oculart.com/

Oculart is a very atmospheric piece that seems to look at the relationship between nature and technology. The imagery is very obscure, with warped, often deformed take on objects and humans. The piece is complemented by a very encroaching soundtrack that tends to suggest a grotesque and unpleasant theme to most of the pieces, although the images themselves don’t always suggest this. Each image has some form of repeating animation to it, although there is no interactivity here (save for the clicking of links to cycle through each image).

I chose this piece because of the themes of nature and technology. With the current real-world situation of global warming, art with subject matter dealing with nature and technology are very much at the forefront of our subconscious. This piece also takes a less bleak look on things as compared to some of the other works presented here and it provides an interesting contrast.

monocle pulpit from Oculart

The imagery itself is quite varied; from a dark sepia toned Paris complete with a broken and bent Eiffel tower, to a deformed horse with a blinking human eye. It is often not all that clear what the imagery is suggesting, but the constant moody soundtrack gives each piece an underlying, if not quite understood sense of creepiness.

Answers

2007-10-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

Juilet Martin's Answers; the text is in the shape of an apple

http://www.julietmartin.com/oooxxxooo/Answer.htm l

Answers is a text based artwork by Juliet Martin. The work involves the viewer following a series of link paths through out the website and reading the cryptic information given on each page. When the end of the path is reached some kind of underlying message is given, usually in a one-sentence statement. The work references Adam and Eve but adapts the story to cover the creation of technology. Martin suggests the idea of cyber culture and computers being created in the same but a more warped way as mankind, implying the existence of a new reality and that the Internet and computers really are a new way of life.She refers to the Apple as being computer parts (“transistor”, “electronic bulb”) and the Serpent as the “Silicon Serpent.” The imagery she creates is very unwholesome and foul, for example she refers to sharp metallic objects mixed with flesh.

I chose this work because firstly as a text-based work it provides an interesting contrast to the other more visual pieces but more so because of the powerful imagery it evokes. Martin is cryptic, yet blunt and straightforward at the same time.

An abrupt and blunt conclusion, surrounded by binary

When the user follows a link path, information is given in small bits and pieces and it is often hard to ascertain what exactly she is portraying until the final page of the path is reached, where the work’s meaning is spelled out in one sentence (“This computer is your life”, “Apples poison the soul”). This makes the delivery quite powerful, because the viewer goes through a series of often quite long paragraphs, not sure exactly what they are reading until they see it right there in front of them in one statement.

This is both a strength and a weakness of the work as in one instance it works in that the blunt nature of the delivery creates quite a powerful message, yet at the same time it sometimes comes off as rather tacky as the work’s mysterious nature is what gets the viewer interested.

Guliveris

2007-10-14T18:54:00.000-07:00

II from Guliveris

http://www.guliveris.lt/en.html

Guliveris is a portfolio for a Lithuanian group or individual. The piece is made up of interactive hand painted images. Each image is very moody and contains quite creepy atmospheric sounds. The images contain some interactive components, for example in one image you can click on a cherry, which will cause it to explode! Crazy! In another image a group of eyeballs in the room will follow your cursor around, which is quite disconcerting.

The central theme to each image is rotten fruit. Some of the images seem to have religious connotations, for example one appears to be of Eve and the Forbidden Fruit. The paintings are all quite dark, and contain a very grimey, washed out sort of colour palette and are also quite textured.

I chose this piece because of the re-occurring theme of rotten fruit, and the metaphoric connection to Adam and Eve. What exactly the artist(s) are trying to convey is hard to know, but from viewing these works one can’t help but leave with a sense of unease, caused by the combination of the soundtrack, the dark fleshy colours and the jagged imagery of shattered glass and blades.

III from Guliveris

The use of fruit too is quite interesting. Fruit, usually is quite wholesome, colourful and healthy, but here it evokes the complete opposite. The interactive components of the piece complement the work by encouraging the viewer to explore. The interactivity itself is very simple; it just involves the viewer clicking on areas of each image with their mouse. In most cases the resulting animation is quite random (eg: a cherry explodes) and fairly irrelevant, but what it does is draw the viewer in, and create a sense of mystery and ambiguity.