[-empyre-] interpreting datasets from science and natureinanimation (Richard)

[Simon Biggs]

I saw the Decode show. I think it is a good case in point here.

There were a small number of works that were conceptually and contextually
intriguing enough to demand more than a few seconds contemplation. Sadly
Golan Levin¹s piece was broken so I don¹t know if that was one of them. I
liked a mirror piece where you gradually appeared the longer you were
stationery ­ except I saw the same thing done far better, with real visceral
and disturbing impact, by Romy Achituv in a show in Macau a decade ago.
Lozzano-Hemmer¹s kissing wallpaper piece was of some interest but far from
his best. Casey Reas piece was a Reas piece - a well known one at that.

I know the show was at the V&A and its remit extends to design and the
decorative arts as well as visual and other arts and crafts. However, much
of the work in the show did not rise above the simplistically decorative. In
the case of Lozzano-Hemmer he was happy to present his work as wallpaper,
which was at least honest. What was disturbing was how many of the people
presenting their work in the show sought to inflate it to the status of art
when most of it was closer to ambient noodling, environmental design or,
well, wallpaper. It might look appealing in a club or foyer where people
will not pause to consider what the work might signify but to present it as
art was hubris. In those cases where the work was clearly a design
prototype, such as a text/data zoetrope piece, things worked far better and
evoked interest within the intended framework.

I have only seen Ikeda¹s work in documentation and heard his music. He would
have fitted into the Decode show very well.

Best

Simon


Simon Biggs

s.biggs at eca.ac.uk  simon at littlepig.org.uk  Skype: simonbiggsuk
http://www.littlepig.org.uk/
Research Professor  edinburgh college of art  http://www.eca.ac.uk/
Creative Interdisciplinary Research into CoLlaborative Environments
http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/
Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice
http://www.elmcip.net/



From: Corrado Morgana <corradomorgana at blueyonder.co.uk>
Reply-To: soft_skinned_space <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:27:32 -0000
To: 'soft_skinned_space' <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] interpreting datasets from science and
natureinanimation (Richard)

Ikeda's work at the recent Decode exhibition..loved it (again), felt like I
was a the starship captain I've wanted to be since boyhood ;-)
I think the data was actually starcharts but visualised in 3 separate forms.
Not sure what the animation was actually for though (sequentially selecting
star proximity from a fixed point?)

Surely though most visualisation is tweaked towards some form of aesthetic
quality either for clarity of purpose/readability or 'wowing' an audience


Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC009201


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