“The author of the work is both safely hidden behind his/her framing choices, and in complete, unilateral control of the experience of the viewer”
The Gate to the Enclosure
Tired of the old descriptions of the world,
The latest freed man rose at six and sat
On the edge of his bed. He said,
“I suppose there is
A doctrine to this landscape. Yet, having just
Escaped from the truth, the morning is color and mist,
Which is enough: the moments rain and sea,
The moments sun (the strong man vaguely seen),
Overtaking the doctrine of this landscape. Of him
And of his works, I am sure.”-Wallace Stevens, “The Latest Freed Man,” (excerpt)
The Gate to the Enclosure is a 4-channel, 360 degree video installation.
My experience of traditional cinema, both in fictional narrative forms and in nonfiction documentary, can be conceptualized as a keyhole view; the perspective of the audience is carefully controlled, their gaze directed, their experience thoroughly mediated and moderated.
This leads to a “vignette” experience. In cinematic language, vignetting is a technique wherein part of the screen is darkened (usually around the edges, but other creative treatments of this technique have been experimented with over the years) to further focus the viewer’s attention on a specific detail – in classic filmmaking, this effect was often used to mimic the experience of looking through a keyhole.
Vignette is also a term used to describe a narrative style, usually presented as a series of brief scenes that, taken together, convey some kind of larger significance.”
The Gate to the Enclosure challenges the practice of restricting televisual communication to keyhole or vignette dynamics, in which the author of the work is both safely hidden behind his/her framing choices, and in complete, unilateral control of the experience of the viewer.
I built a four-camera video apparatus that captures a 360 degree field of vision, and I have been experimenting with it in various environments, both as a static observer and as a form which can be manipulated in three dimensional space, moved with a certain degree of smoothness thanks to its fairly wide and symmetrical design.
The dynamics of the relationship between cameraperson, apparatus and filmed subject are very different than those at play in the traditional act of filming with a single camera – the keyhole, as an operative metaphor, is exploded. There is no solid door to safely delineate what is outside and what is inside the field of view, and we find ourselves, observer and observed, subject and object, stuck on the same side of the lens, as part of the same landscape.”
The Gate to the Enclosure will exist, in exhibition, as an arrangement of four projections on translucent screens eight feet wide, five-and-a-half feet tall, in a square configuration in a gallery at the Weisman Art Museum. The projected images will be visible from inside and outside the square; gaps of two and a half feet between the screens will allow passage through the center of the square, and around it on all sides.
Biography
Kevin Obsatz has been working with moving images since he first appropriated his family’s VHS camcorder at age 14. He graduated cum laude from the University of Southern California with training in classical Hollywood film production, but soon grew disenchanted with the industrial model of filmmaking, and left Los Angeles. His journey has led him through the realms of independent film, experimental film, documentary, web video art, collaborations with performing artists, and now, for the first time, a video installation piece and he’s thrilled by the idea of presenting video as a moving sculpture in three-dimensional space.
Obsatz uses the tools of cinema to explore the shape and scope of human interaction and interrelation how to we make meaning of our experiences, communicate emotion and share our stories with one another. He is fascinated and inspired by the dynamics of cinema as both a broadly populist and a deeply personal tool, which presents ever-evolving opportunities for creating connections that are both visceral and empathic, between individuals and groups in profoundly disparate contexts, across time and space. His work balances a desire to create beautiful imagery with a commitment to clarity, simplicity and transparency in communication, qualities encapsulated, for him, in the name “Video Haiku.” Rather than pursue a seamless and polished finished product that aspires to render its craftsmanship invisible, he prefers to leave fingerprints on his work, to incorporate into the finished product some traces of the process of creation.
Support
The Gate to the Enclosure is a commission of Northern Lights Art(ists) On the Verge program with the generous support of the Jerome Foundation and fiscal sponsorship of Forecast Public Art. The Minneapolis College of Art and Design supported the related symposium Experimenting With Art in Public Places. The Weisman Art Museum will exhibit the AOV commissions July 5 – August 23, 2009. Additional support for Northern Lights provided by the McKnight Foundation.
Links
Avye Alexandres, Once
“[An] immersive installation that functions as a memory might”
Once
My body would try to locate the position of its limbs so as to deduce from this the direction of the wall, the placement of the furniture, so as to reconstruct and name the dwelling in which it found itself. — Marcel Proust
Once is a mixed media, immersive installation that functions as memory might. Placing the viewer on the precipice of control over an ephemeral space, it aims to incite questions about the placement, origins, and malleability of our memories.
An image, buried deep in the mind is always perfect – until it is sought after. An image deep in the mind sleeps until it is woken. Or perhaps it trips, catching its sleeve on the banister or stumbling over the floorboards. Upon which it springs into action, its chemistries shifting, multiplying, riffing. It assumes characteristics of all it passes on its way, and appropriates aspects of ideas it aspires to be. Transforming, it wonders “how did I get here?” and yearns for simplicity. It imagines itself in its perfect form – the form now lost, shed over many miles – searching for its way back home.
Biography
Alexandres presenting her proposed project at the Experimenting with Art in Public Places symposium.
Avye Alexandres is a multidisciplinary artist born in Athens Greece currently living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her work often integrates both new and traditional aspects of performance and media and meditates on themes of place, memory, body, perception and reality.
Alexandres received her BFA in Theatre with an emphasis in directing and a minor in Photography from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, where she first discovered her interest in creating original and cross-disciplinary work. She has studied and employed traditional and alternative photographic processes as well as performance methods ranging from Stanislavski to Linklater to Tim Miller to Anne Bogart’s Viewpoints.
Since moving to Minneapolis, Alexandres has created original performances for the Minnesota Fringe Festival, Red Eye Theatre and the Soap Factory as well as exhibited photographs at various local and national venues. She received the Garland Wright award for Directing from Southern Methodist University and is a two-time recipient of Red Eye Theatre’s Works-in-Progress program Fellowship.
Support
Once is a commission of Northern Lights Art(ists) On the Verge program with the generous support of the Jerome Foundation and fiscal sponsorship of Forecast Public Art. The Minneapolis College of Art and Design supported the related symposium Experimenting With Art in Public Places. The Weisman Art Museum will exhibit the AOV commissions July 5 – August 23, 2009. Additional support for Northern Lights provided by the McKnight Foundation.
Links
Andrea Steudel, Mobile Shadow Projection Theater
“A portable projection system tailored for shadow puppetry and live-drawing”
Mobile Shadow Projection Theater
Andrea Steudel has collaborated with numerous artists to assemble and deploy a portable projection system tailored for shadow puppetry and live-drawing. Critical to this venture is custom performance software created by Ali Momeni. It is deployed ubiquitously in the public sphere; on city structures and landscape.
The culmination of the Mobile Shadow Projection Theater includes the performance of Triquetra,, a work with theater artist David Steinman and local musician John Keston at the Weisman Art Museum, as well as video documentation of other urban performances over the course of the fellowship.
Biography
Andrea presenting at the Experimenting with Art in Public Places symposium.
Andrea Steudel is a member of the acclaimed Minneapolis Art on Wheels ensemble headed by Ali Momeni and has performed with them in San Jose, Grand Rapids, Beijing, Budapest, Istanbul and a number of other cities around the United States. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Experimental and Media Arts program.
Support
Mobile Shadow Projection Theater is a commission of Northern Lights Art(ists) On the Verge program with the generous support of the Jerome Foundation and fiscal sponsorship of Forecast Public Art. The Minneapolis College of Art and Design supported the related symposium Experimenting With Art in Public Places. The Weisman Art Museum will exhibit the AOV commissions July 5 – August 23, 2009. Additional support for Northern Lights provided by the McKnight Foundation.
Links
Christopher Baker, Murmur Study
“New messages containing variations on common emotional utterances”
Murmur Study
Murmur Study is an installation that examines the rise of micro-messaging technologies such as Twitter and Facebook’s status update, which have become a kind of digital small talk or contemporary coffee klatsch. But unlike water-cooler conversations, these fleeting thoughts are accumulated, archived and digitally indexed by corporations. While the future of these archives remains to be seen, the sheer volume of publicly accessible personal often emotional expression might give us pause.
This installation consists of 30 thermal printers that continuously monitor Twitter for new messages containing variations on common emotional utterances. Messages containing hundreds of variations on expressions(?) such as argh, meh, grrrr, oooo, ewww, and hmph, are printed as an endless waterfall of text accumulating in tangled piles below.
Versions of Murmur Study were presented at the 2009 Spark Festival and the Experimental and Media Arts exhibition at the Nash Gallery.
Murmur Study is an ongoing collaboration with Márton András Juhász and the Kitchen Budapest. Baker, a former research scientist, is a graduate of the University of Minnesota’s Time and Interactivity program and currently has a residency fellowship at The Kitchen in Budapest.
HPVS (Human Phantom Vibration Syndrome), 2009
HPVS (Human Phantom Vibration Syndrome) is a kinetic sculpture that considers the subtle, often-subconscious ways that mobile communication technologies shape our senses. The title references the recently discovered Human Phantom Vibration Syndrome a syndrome wherein mobile phone users become hyper-attentive to their mobile devices, often experiencing phantom ringing sensations even in the absence of incoming calls or messages. This work carefully orchestrates the vibrations of over 500 mobile phones to produce a familiar yet quietly disturbing cacophony.
Artist Statement
My work is fundamentally concerned with the complex relationship between society and its technologies. Trained first as a scientist and only recently as an artist, my practice represents an uneasy balance of eager technological optimism, analytical processes, deep-rooted skepticism and intuitive engagement. Much of this practice is inspired by the interconnectivities visible and invisible – present in the modern urban landscape. I am energized by the diversity of human expression that continuously activates our vast communication networks. I am awed by the scale and varied histories of the built environment and urban infrastructure. As technologists make daily promises to improve our lives by uniting these physical and digital worlds, I attempt to make work that examines the practical implications of our increasingly networked lifestyles. Primary to this task is an exploration of the ways we imagine and represent ourselves before (potentially massive) audiences and the ways we navigate and abide in public space. Thus, architecture and place figure heavily into my often site-specific practice. With these interests at heart, large-scale video projections allow me to create works that fuse existing physical spaces with more ephemeral digital elements, resulting in revelatory and sometimes disorienting forms.
Biography
Christopher Baker is an artist whose work engages the rich collection of social, technological and ideological networks present in the urban landscape. He creates artifacts and situations that reveal and generate relationships within and between these networks.
Baker’s work has been presented in festivals, galleries and museums internationally including the forthcoming exhibition FEEDFORWARD: Angel of History at Laboral in Asuturias, Spain, The Soap Factory, Form+Content Gallery, The Minnesota Museum of American Artists, The Minneapolis Fringe Festival, the Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art, Millenaris Park in Budapest, Hungary, Huset i Magstre in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the Pixelache Festival in Helsinki, Finland. Christopher’s print work has been published in ID Magazine and the book Data Flow: Visualizing Information in Graphic Design.
Baker completed his Master of Fine Arts in Experimental and Media Arts at the University of Minnesota. He is currently the senior artist-in-residence at the Kitchen Budapest, an experimental media arts lab in Hungary. In his previous life as a scientist, Christopher worked to develop brain-computer interfaces at the University of Minnesota and UCLA.
Support
Murmur Study and HPVS (Human Phantom Vibration Syndrome) are a commission of Northern Lights Art(ists) On the Verge program with the generous support of the Jerome Foundation and fiscal sponsorship of Forecast Public Art. The Minneapolis College of Art and Design supported the related symposium Experimenting With Art in Public Places. The Weisman Art Museum will exhibit the AOV commissions July 5 – August 23, 2009. Additional support for Northern Lights provided by the McKnight Foundation.
Links
AOV1