[-empyre-] October on -empyre-: Welcome Eugenie and Troy on Anamorph/Semiomorph: Playspace/Playlife

[Christina McPhee <christina112@earthlink.net>]

>From the -empyrean- heights of gameland two artist/scholars appear in the
soft-skinned space to introduce some new morphs of play space and play life.

 Please welcome Eugenie Shinkle and Troy Innocent who join us, in part, on
the occasion of the upcoming  Plaything Symposium, Sydney, October 10-12,
2003  <http://www.dlux.org.au/> --  presented in partnership with, Sydney
College of the Arts and the Media and Communications Faculty at the
University of Sydney.  Troy and Eugenie will be presenting work at the
symposium, so those of us lucky enough to be in Oz this  month may catch
them live.  



Anamorphosis. from Greek, from anamorphoun to transform, from morphe form,
shape]


a      an image or drawing distorted in such a way that it becomes
       recognizable only when viewed in a specified manner or through
       a special device
b      the process by which such images or drawings are produced
2      the evolution of one type of organism from another by a series of
       gradual changes



Eugenie ponders affect and anamorphic in the rave-like world of touch based
computer games where Cartesian space loses ground to special devices of
touch and vision; and imagines an entranced VR that takes on the materiality
of the technology of vision, and the affectivity of looking.'



Troy explores 'semiotic morphism, a "systematic translation between sign
systems" in which signified messages can be mapped onto various signifiers,
multiplying and mutating instances of semiosis. The term captures the
shape-shifting plasticity of relationships between sound, image, text, and
users in virtual worlds; the interactions through which meaning is made,
transformed and remade dynamically and synaesthetically in real time.'




For some of their recent writing on these topics,  please see
<http://www.fineartforum.org/Backissues/Vol_17/faf_v17_n08/reviews/reviews_i
ndex.html>

----
Eugénie Shinkle first trained as a civil engineer and worked as a waterflow
control systems designer before leaving the profession in 1989 to study fine
art and critical theory. She completed a BFA in photography and art history
and an MA in photography, art history, and landscape anthropology at
Concordia University in Montréal, Canada, before moving to the UK in 1997 to
attend the Slade School of Fine Art, where she obtained a PhD in critical
theory and fine art media practice. Prior to joining the University of
Westminster¹s school of Media, Arts and Design as a lecturer in photographic
theory and criticism in 2000, Shinkle worked as a radio broadcaster and film
researcher, and has been exhibiting internationally as a photographic/video
artist since 1993. She currently researches and publishes in the areas of
digital culture, contemporary photography, fashion photography, and
landscape aesthetics.


--------

Troy Innocent has been exploring new aesthetics enabled by computers since
1989. Deconstructing and understanding the endemic properties, language and
nature of the digital realm has been the underlying theme of his work.
Trained as a designer and practising as an artist, he has moved across media
in works involving computer animation, installation art, interactive media,
synthetic images and sound. His work has been exhibited widely at national
and international galleries, conferences, and symposia. 

Typically, these works involve the construction of artificial worlds that
explore the 'language of computers'. In his work, Innocent explores the
dynamic between the iconic ideal and the personal specific, the real and the
simulated, and the way in which our identity is shaped by our language and
communication. 


Innocent is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Multimedia & Digital Arts
at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. He is currently producing
lifeSigns, an eco-system of signs and symbols. Other recent works include
Semiomorph (ISEA02, Nagoya, Japan) and Iconica; trans'forms (Tolarno
Galleries, Melbourne, Australia). 


Welcome to you both.

Christina
-- 


<www.christinamcphee.net>
<www.naxsmash.net>