Background Research and Context :
[ Experience the world
from a totally different aspect ]
[ Artist create experiences within which people’s imagination functions
]
[ Child-like open mindedness ]
[ Electronic medium of television as a new communication
medium ]
[ Technology as an open resource for the extraordinary ]
:::::::
Whether or not we work in isolation, artists are very much a part of society.
As a member of our society, artists are in a unique position to influence
and affect positive social changes since we create experiences within
which people’s imagination functions.
Therefore, it is my belief that a creative person such as an artist or
musician should take up an active role for improving and making positive
progress. In order to accomplish such a feat, exchange of thought and
active contact with each other must exist.
I think the only way to step forward into the future of advanced mass
media for better communication is to go back to our child-like open mindedness
in interacting with each other. These are some of the ideas I give free
reign to as I embark on my project to decrease the boundaries of communication.
What are the tools that could perhaps benefit those that have not yet
seen the possibilities and potential of individual contributions to the
process?
After graduating from Parsons, for the past couple of years, I have been
working as a motion graphic designer for TV commercials. During this time
I have dealt with many technical and design issues of visual communication,
but I have been feeling the limits of what can be expressed inside this
box. My interest in interactive installation began to mature when I met
one of the graduates of ITP who was working at my company. Through him
I was exposed to the work of Camille Utterback, whose conceptual work
explores the interaction between physical and symbolic spaces. I saw "Wooden
Mirror" by Daniel Rozin and was moved by the meeting of the real and representational.
Needless to say, many art works from ITP are inspirational examples to
my thesis project.
There are also two other outside of ITP artists, Toshio Iwai and Nam June
Paik who I have been influenced by.
In the summer of 2001, a friend of mine called from Japan to ask me if
I could help his friend with his exhibit at PS1 in New York. Surprisingly
it was Toshio Iwai, a leading media artist whom I admire. One of his works
shown on the exhibit was called SOUND-LENS (2001), a device to convert
light into sound. SOUND-LENS, a portable device resembling a Walkman,
converts high frequency transitions of light directly into sound, creating
an amazing fusion of light and sound, in other words the integration of
sight and hearing. On the exhibit, the participant is given a SOUND-LENS
receiver and headset. They can then walk around the exhibit with the headset
on and the SOUND-LENS receiver held in the hand. The maze-like exhibition
space is comprised of a number of hallways and rooms, where various types
of light sources are fixed on the walls and ceilings. When the SOUND-LENS
receiver lens is held up against the lights, numerous sounds that are
hidden in the lights can be heard through the headset.
The interactive fusion of image and music has long been the artist's theme
over the past years. SOUND-LENS - the fusion of light and sound - is the
culmination of this theme at a more fundamental level for the integration
of the visual and auditory senses. Moreover, as opposed to listening to
composed music on a Walkman, this artwork presents the possibility of
discovering new sounds and new ways of music through picking up unexpected
sounds from an infinite number of lights in the city.
The world that we humans see and hear is very different from, for example,
that of dogs and bats which are able to sense ultrasound. If our eyes
or ears were able to perceive ultrasound or electric waves, it would open
up another world. Similarly, when we listen to light using the SOUND-LENS,
our sensory organs can enter another dimension, allowing us to experience
the world from a totally different aspect.
After I met Toshio Iwai, it became very clear as to what I wanted to create,
namely, interactive installations that help to educate people in communicating
with each other on an intuitive level with broad perspectives. This relate
to my interactive audio-visual installation that allows people to create
one musical composition in cooperation with each other. He also showed
me his previous works, which further allowed me to see beyond
the technological aspects of our implementation but offered a new take
on the nature of perception.
My contact with him gave me a window of opportunities and possibilities
that would facilitate communication on a level unreachable through ordinary
means. I was deeply inspired by his work; at last I had found a medium
with the potential to communicate on a level beyond the media I had been
accustomed to.
Certainly, video art (using television sets) plays an important role within
my installation too. The combination of the moving image and sound always
fascinates me. Film was very narrative, whereas there was something elusive
about video; you never quit knew what was going to happen. Video art is
intriguing in that the medium itself becomes the message. Anyone could
easily use video. The sense of anarchy, which video still has, was very
attractive. The first video art works weren’t made by typical video artists,
but by individuals far better known as visual artists, such as Nam June
Paik and Wolf Vostell. Especially Nam June Paik’s usage of video and TV
sculpture was a big influence for me, consciously and subconsciously,
because we share same cultural background. In many homes the television
set still dominates the room it occupies, often droning from morning till
night. The transformation of television into a post-modern art form came
about through Paik’s understanding of the social presence and meaning
of television. Paik used the electronic medium of television as a new
communication medium. Television became the centre of Paik’s art through
which he explored visual, performance, and sculptural ideas. Paik’s later
installations were to transform our customary view of the medium by creating
powerful and witty metaphors out of its elements. These include the monitor
itself, the viewer’s relationship to it, and imagery created for the screen.
Paik transformed entire viewing process, removing the medium from its
customary contexts and functions.
Nam June Paik, himself, is a small modest man who isn't afraid to laugh
at himself. Coming out of a tradition of challenging conventions, Paik
also challenges the traditional reverential attitude taken towards artists.
Approachable and honest, Paik still entertains and offends people today,
after the debut of "TV bra for Living Sculpture." He maintains his positive
attitude towards technology but still remains critical. Paik says: "Like
[Marshall] McLuhan says, we are antenna for changing society. But not
only antenna - we also have output capacity, capacity to humanize technology.
My job is to see how the establishment is working and to look for little
holes where I can get my fingers in and tear away walls."
From Toshio Iwai and Nam June Paik’s innovative vision and aesthetic,
I learned that the real issue implied in 'Art and Technology' is how to
humanize the technology and the electronic medium and help combine the
physical and the virtual into a new interactive experience.
References
- http://www.paiknamjune.org
- http://www2.gol.com/users/iwai/PS1data
- Art & Design magazine, World wide video, Great Britain, Academy Group
LTD, 1993
- Edition Cantz and the authors, Nam June Paik (video time-video space),
Harry N Abrams, 1993
- Barbara London, Video spaces, New York, Museum of Modern Art, 1995
..