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"Digital Cotton"
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2/9/2005  ATLANTA — The Savannah College of Art and Design presents "Digital Cotton," a mixed-media group exhibition that examines the aesthetics and cultural power of digital art, Feb. 9–March 19, at Savannah gallery, 3096 Roswell Road. The exhibition is free and open to the public and features interactive sculpture, Web art, video, photography and interactive environments by internationally renowned artists as well as SCAD faculty and alumni. One of the highlights of the exhibition is Internet-art pioneer Wolfgang Staehle's Web-based "Midtown." The piece features live video of midtown Manhattan projected in real time to savannah gallery. The captured images are epic yet mundane, playing with the notions of time, place and reality as they can appear to be still life scenes or dynamic video, depending on the time of day. The piece represents the evolution of image-making by comprising both a traditional portrait and the latest digital video. Staehle may be best known as the creative force behind thing.net, one of the world's first bulletin board services focusing on new media art. He most recently exhibited at London's Tate Modern in the group show "Time Zones" and in the solo exhibition "2004" at Postmasters Gallery in New York.  Gallery visitors become a part of the exhibition in the interactive sculpture "Device for Real Time Recollection" by Matthew Akers, chair of the SCAD sound design program. The piece features custom algorithmic software and live video compositing that allow those in the adjacent gallery space to "play" the sculpture as a musical instrument by using simple body movements. If there is no human input, the computer plays a composite of previous performances that follow an established algorithm to create a new harmony. "Counter-Strike" by Dutch artist Katrin Korfmann is a sound-free, six-channel video that features the faces of six young boys, each projected from wall-mounted monitors, who appear to look through the spectator while playing the Web-based game "Counter-Strike." Although the boys are playing against one another, all communication is channeled solely through the Internet. The viewer watches as the boys' faces intently contort in silence as they move closer either to winning or losing to the other players. Each video piece ends when the featured player loses. These "video portraits" explore the concept of human connection and the effect technology has on how we communicate with one another. In conjunction with the exhibition, SCAD will present two live performances that explore the use of technology as a medium of self-expression. SCAD art history and new media professor Tim Jackson will team with members of the Toronto-based Synth/ops art collective to stage an interactive Web-based art performance Feb. 17, 8 p.m., at SCAD-Atlanta, 1600 Peachtree St., NW. The performance will feature a composite of rotating sky images taken from the United States and Canada that are controlled by the movement of those in the exhibition space. Jackson will be on hand for the performance and members of Synth/ops will communicate from Toronto via the Internet.  SCAD-Atlanta is the college's newest facility to offer classroom instruction and exhibition space. The college will begin offering courses on a quarterly basis in March in several areas of study. For more information on SCAD-Atlanta, visit www.scad.edu or call 877.722.3285. On Friday, Feb. 18, 8 p.m. at Savannah gallery, Matthew Akers, Roberto Lange and Jay Wynne, audio artists from the college's sound design department, will spin records in a series of improvisational performances to accompany featured artist David Ellis' video piece "Daily." The audience will have the opportunity to watch the time-lapse video several times during the evening as each deejay interprets the piece through his spinning. Both performances are free and open to the public. Other artists exhibiting in "Digital Cotton" include Paul Davies, Carlos Motta, Eric Payson, Carla Diana, Judge Dylan, Jessica Schnebel and the husband-and-wife team Leonardogillesfleur.
View recent Past Exhibitions
SCAD hosts annual Georgia High School Drawing Competition - 1/5/2008
Gallery Hop features emerging Korean artists, photography - 11/9/2007 ‘Inside Outside’ highlights married artists’ different styles - 10/11/2007 |
