Hello all - I am pleased to join this month's very active dialogue. It
is interesting and pertinent that a discussion launching off the theme
of 'Audio-Visual' should go into such detail with regard to theories and
examples of computing and programming... One thing that strikes me, with
regard to a range of contemporary, new-media/audio-visual - art, is the
propensity that the work has, for both front-end and back-end
aesthetics. Front-end often inferring something visible or tangible,
along the lines of interface... back-end often inferring something
behind the scenes which is more often than not - invisible. My
engagement with artists working in this domain, who are creating
new-media and/or audio-visual work, is often inspired by a discussion
regarding underlying concepts, rather than the materials or methods
employed on there own. Personally, I do tend to be most interested in
work that demonstrates a detailed relationship to concept, which follows
through in some way from the front-end to the back-end. I don't need a
detailed understanding of, or be able to write Java, to appreciate a
thorough and invigorated concept, but perhaps I need a certain type of
appreciation for practices embedded in media and technological forms in
order to understand how a programme (in computation terms) can indeed
have an aesthetic and conceptual underpinning. When the function and
aesthetic of a work is in harmony with a clearly defined concept, it
tends to be evident through the success of the work over all.
Further than the visible boundary of the work itself, its interface or
object-ness - these conceptual and aesthetic concerns can run right
through to platform, delivery, experience, distribution and time-base,
both within the work itself and between the work and its associated
audiences and architectures, encompassing social, political,
technological and physical contexts.
I wanted to draw attention to a work currently being exhibited in the AV
fest by Gina Czarnecki, titled 'Spine', it in part seems exemplary of a
type audio-visual work, common today, employing collaborative and
interdisciplinary methods that aim, to not only visualise what a spine
might look like, but further seek to represent in fact, what a spine is
- and what it might become. The work has been developed by Gina in
collaboration with biotechnologists, computer programmers, dancers and
sound artists.
And below - another example of a hybrid audio-visual practice, taken
from the biography of Carsten Nicolia (also performing as part of AV
Fest this March).
Carsten Nicolai is an artist using various media, such as sound, image,
sculpture and computer, as hybrid tools in order to research the
"codification of the world". Nicolai's work questions creativity,
coincidence and artistic creative power. A lot of his works are directly
linked with the natural sciences. The physics of oscillation in
particular are a frequent means of his work and are not limited by
audibility and visibility, but trying to make natural phenomena visible.
Scientists like the Physicist Ukichiro Nakaya, who researched snow
crystals in his studies, were an inspiration to Carsten Nicolai for his
"snow noise" installation. The joint collaboration with scientists,
search and research, will combine scientific experiment with artistic
sculpture. In "snow noise", the laboratory becomes the exhibition space,
the activity of the audience makes it a part of the sculpture itself.
I would be interested to hear responses from the group on the notion of
the visible and invisible or front-end and back-end aesthetics -- and
would certainly invite further comment from those who may have been in
Newcastle for the AV festival, who could comment further on the work of
these two artists, in light of having had the real life experience...
I will pick up further on the notion of interface, distribution and time
base - between artwork/s, audience/s and architecture/s in a later post.
Regards
Kelli Dipple
Webcasting Curator
Digital Programmes / Education & Interpretation
Tate
www.tate.org.uk/onlineevents
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