Artists
V&A Talk on the Digital Pioneers: ‘Chance V Control’
Feb 4th
The MA DMA students were treated to a talk at the new V&A Digital Pioneers Exhibition with Honor Beddard, last week. Digital Pioneers celebrates the impact of the computer in art in the last 50 or so years.
Digital Pioneers is one of the outcomes of The Computer Art and Technocultures Project, which is a major study of the history of Computer Art, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. As computers became more accessible after WW2, the scientists and programmers who had initially been the operators of computers have been joined by artists and designers in exploring the computers creative potential.
Homage a Paul Klee, 1965, Frieder Nake
What became apparent to me during our talk is that in the production of most digital artwork , there is a large aspect of chance vs control. Using programs, algorithms and random variables, these early pioneers were producing beautiful experimental imagery that, in my opinion, still looks fresh and quite stunning. The fascinating ‘Homage a Paul Klee’ by Frieder Nake, 1965 may look simplistic, but is one of the most elaborate pieces of algorithmic art for its day. Roman Verosko’s plotter drawings such as ‘Manchester Illuminated Turing Machine #1′, 1998, are just beautiful and well worth seeing in a gallery setting.
'Manchester Illuminated Universal Turing Machine, #1', Roman Verostko, 1998
What’s interesting is the geometric, minimal aesthetic defined initially by the limitations of the technology more than 50 years ago, is a preferred and proven aesthetic by many designers and artists working presently. A lot of work produced in Open Source programs such as Processing, or Nodebox, or simply using Photoshop alpha channels and transparency settings, features very delicate, subtle imagery.
I know in my own practice, using Photoshop I’ll have an idea of what I want to achieve but I’ll allow Photoshop to process my images in unexpected and interesting ways. Like traditional artistic methods it is the ‘happy accidents’ that can be the most exciting.
AARON Digital Print, Harold Cohen, 2003
Further more, another aspect I have enjoyed exploring the digital artists, past and present, is the link between digital and traditional art processes and ideas. Harold Cohen, a painter, began experimenting with computers in the 1960’s. He concentrated on developing a programme known as AARON to generate works of art, with very painterly results. AARON was Cohen’s way of exploring whether successful imagery, underpinned by a codified system
Artist James Faure Walker’s ‘Dark Filament’, 2007 uses a mixture of digital technology in conjunction with physically painting on the canvas. He will manipulate imagery digitally, project it onto canvas, paint, scan and rework the image. Walker’s uses this process to achieve a layered, somewhat chaotic but, again, painterly effect.
It is was really good to finally see a coherent exhibition describing the history of computer/digital art and putting it in context with today’s digital art practice. It has also whet my appetite to explore further the relationship between traditional and digital artistic processes as well as the development from art of the past and it’s influence on the digital and contemporary works of art, today.
Thoughts on Playful Interaction and Digital Inclusion
Jan 18th
At last Tuesday’s lecture with Chris Hales, Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Interactive Film at SMARTlab, we explored the idea of interactive cinema and the interactive film narrative. Analysis of audience response to many of these films formed part of his practice-based PhD ‘Rethinking the Interactive Movie’ (2006). Chris also explores the wider historical context of interactive cinema which dates back to the Kinoautomat of 1967.
Using the movie as the interface, Chris showed us some of his works including the very amusing, slapstick inspired ‘Jinxed’ which utilizes an effect for hot spots in the movie eg a slight bulge appears on the protagonist’s nose or the slippery soap, and if the user clicks on the bulge, some rather unfortunate event is triggered. Another piece, ‘12 loveliest things I know’, based on interviews with children, explores more subtle ways of linking. Chris wanted to test whether colour and movement of the objects could hint at how to proceed to the next clips. Small movements as triggers for small events and sensations are also used in his landscape pieces Sketchbook and kesä.
I found the playful element and reaction of people in the room really interesting. These somewhat ‘unsophisticated’ show reels produced by a one man band in Director and After Effects were triggering reactions and laughter within our group and engaging people. With a keen interest in experience and emotion around digital technology whilst thinking about possible research topics for my MA, this lecture whet my appetite to explore the concepts behind interactivity further.
What do we mean by interaction design? What makes for a good user experience? How can we better that experience or make it more accessible to people with disabilities for example? How can we use the digital environment and technology advantageously and perhaps therapeutically? Although innovative technologies have provided substantial benefits to society today, there are still a large number of people who cannot enjoy them due to the lack of accessibility features.
I’m really encouraged and inspired by some of the projects at SMARTlab including InterFACES which utilises assistive technology. InterFACES includes projects that look at tools for tracking eye movement as a control mechanism for communications by people with little or no other voluntary muscle movement. This imaginative use of technology has allowed James Brosnan, journalist and music fanatic, to use his laptop to jam with musicians, despite having cerebral palsy and being in a wheelchair.
I’m also still inspired by Martha Lane Fox, Digital Tzar, who spoke at Lucky Voice In Brighton a few weeks ago and the importance of bringing digital media to socially disadvantaged groups with the Race Online 2012 Campaign. Teaching has made me particularly aware of people who frankly find technology intimidating. My approach to teaching is encouraging experimentation and play which seems to frighten people at first! As a passionate advocate of technology and digital media, the importance of user centered design and and good HCI to encourage this experimentation and curiosity, I believe should be high on the list of any designer or developer working in digital media.
Following on from these ideas, another blog I have come across today is Andy Polaine’s, Playpen. Andy Polaine co-founded the award-winning new-media collective Antirom and his interests include play, interactivity and interaction design, experience and service design, creative processes and collaboration, online teaching and learning and emerging cultural technologies. He spoke at last years Flash on the Beach in Brighton about play and the interactive experience:
Over the past few years play has become a common theme in designers’ presentations. It’s no wonder – play is a pre-verbal, powerful and universal activity and is our starting point for interacting with the world around us. Play can lead to some of the most pleasurable and intuitive interactive experiences. With a plethora of interactions demanding our attention, the playful ones are the ones that will survive. It’s not for nothing that the iPhone’s icons do a little jiggle dance, after all.But why does play feel so natural and intuitive and how can we use it in interaction design? What is play and why is it so hard to pin down?
These ideas took me back to the Decode exhibition at the V&A (see my Decode blog) as well as the myriad of websites whose purpose serve no real function but allow people to simply explore, experiment and perhaps be inspired. Polaine’s blog led me to the magneticNORTH website – a fun portfolio website with a playful interface. I’ve been admittedly bah humbug about this sort of interaction design but found this website mildly additive. I shall now return to my Flash project with renewed enthusiasm.
Evolving Ideas and IxD
Oct 28th
Many thanks to Andy Field, artist in residence at Blast Theory for speaking to the MA DMA students at the Lighthouse in Brighton, yesterday. Andy is a London based artist and theatre-maker specialising in interactive experiences. Andy crosses the boundary of art and theatre and creates encounters in unusual places in unusual ways with quite unusual outcomes…Andy is also co-director of the Forest Fringe, an artist led community making space for experimentation and play at the Edinburgh Festival ‘and beyond’. Andy spoke with enthusiasm and certainly opened my mind to something quite different that involves interactive/digital media. The participatory element of his encounters are especially interesting although I have to admit at getting slightly lost and rather amused at the toy soldiers, spy camera and torch concept – perhaps that’s just a ‘boy thing’.
For me what is relevant is the interactive ‘experience’ and following on from last weeks post about my interests in art therapy and psychology, this week has seen those ideas evolve into the areas of interaction design (IxD) and HCI (human-computer interaction). Interaction design involves the relationship between people and the systems they use from computers, to mobiles, to household appliances etc. These relationships will determine a positive or negative experience for the person involved. The interaction design discipline produces products and services that satisfy specific user needs, business goals, and technical constraints.
IxD involves many principles of cognitive psychology. As a result I’ve been delving into the concepts of gestalt therapy and phenomenology, with a certain manic enthusiasm. I’ve also now discovered SxD, social interaction design. Many of our computing devices have become networked and have begun to integrate communication capabilities, applicable between users as well as users and their devices. These are thoughts in progress so more on this to follow…
In the meantime, this weeks inspiration lies with the ‘rediscovery’ of John Maeda. Searching the web and looking at various websites on my quest for IxD info, whilst clearly there is a lot of talent out there in the virtual world, there is also a lot of pointless dross. Overcomplicated flashy sites, might be clever and aesthetically pleasing but they can be nauseating and annoying too. Organising complex ideas and processes is clearly quite an art and many designers seem to lose site of the users at the end of their creations.
John Maeda addresses the complexity of simplicity in his book ‘The Laws of Simplicity‘ and as a designer makes (of what I’ve read so far) an interesting read. Briefly the ‘laws’ are as follows:
- Reduce – the simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction
- Organise – organisation makes a system of many appear fewer
- Time – savings in time feel like simplicity
- Learn – knowledge makes everything simpler
- Differences – simplicity and complexity need each other
- Context – what lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral
- Emotion – more emotions are better than less
- Trust – in simplicity we trust
- Failure – some things can never be simple
- The One – simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.
My second inspiration this week, is the following gorgeous video (still from video above)….ahhh will I ever be able to achieve something like this?
SURFACE TRAILER from silo1 on Vimeo.
Missed Opportunites
Oct 14th
OK, so here I am looking forward to throwing myself in the MA in Digital Media Arts…I’m raring to go. Our first lecture is at the Lighthouse, with Roman Verostko a digital art pioneer who recently received the ACM SIGGRAPH distinguished Artist Award for a lifetime achievement in digital art. Except, as I was about to excitedly board the train to Brighton, stuff happens, life gets in the way and I couldn’t make it. Grrrr ….
So instead I have tried to rectify the situation and my disappointment in some small way. I’ve delved into the internet archives to find out a little more about Roman Verostko.
- Born in 1929, Verostko’s art emanates from the tradition of early 20th Century pioneers who sought to create art using pure visual form. “The theory and practice of Mondrian, Kandinsky and Malevich led me to explore what Henri Focillon identified as “the life of forms” in art…I have sought to create original forms that are unique realities without reference to other objects or images.”
- In 1970, through a programming course at the Control Data Institute in Minneapolis, Verostko experienced the form-generating possibilities coding procedures coupled with computing power could realise. “Clearly the dreams of the pioneers could be realized! With this technology we could create instructions for generating visual forms; we could now compose the “score” for drawing!” This discovery along with the continued development and sophistication of personal computers, Verostko began writing elementary drawing instructions, or ‘algorithms’. Verostko has become known for his algorithmic pen and ink drawings.
- Algorists are ‘artists who create art using algorithmic procedures that include their own algorithms.‘ The term was introduced in 1995 to identify artists who employed original algorithms in the process of creating their art. For more info read Verostko’s ALGORITHMIC ART, Composing the Score for Visual Art
- For over 30 years a set of drawings lay unused, that he had created for an ‘Upsidedown Book’ in the 1970’s (later released in August 2008). He used these upside down drawings as a mural for the Fred Rogers Centre on the St Vincent College Campus in Latore, USA. Inside the main entrance of this impressive center the Upsidedown Mural rises over two stories.
For further reading on Roman Verostko’s fascinating work check out the following
On the man, www.verostko.com
On the algorists, www.algorists.org
On those beautiful dancing ‘Miroesque’ figures www.upsidedownbook.com
Interesting Verostko Essay digitalartmuseum.org/essays/verostko01.htm