Socially Engaged Art and Digital Practice – ITP / IMA Winter Show 2018

Jordan Rickman

A Minimalist installation that transforms a laptop screen into a light art and sculptural object.

https://itp.jordan-rickman.net/macbook-display-minimalist-piece/

Description

We live our lives in front of computer and cell phone screens, but we do not look at these displays. We look through them, seeing only the images they render. We look through those images and see only the information they represent. The screen itself becomes invisible to us.

11 & 1/4 inch by 7 inch LED-backlit LCD Display, 1280 by 800 pixel Resolution is a Minimalist electronic installation that catalyzes an encounter with the object of the screen itself. A sheet of vellum diffuses the light of the display, rendering the text and graphics illegible. Thereby, the screen comes into focus as an object in itself. A script loads a series of randomly selected webpages in a fullscreen browser. Here the Internet, as a collection of abstract information and human meanings, is no longer accessible. Instead it appears as an infinitude of patterns of light across a matrix of over a million pixels. In fact, it has only ever appeared to us this way.

Classes

Socially Engaged Art and Digital Practice

Casey Conchinha, Mark Lam

Exploring how a simple line can be individually expressive while also acting as a segment of a communal artifact.

https://communalline.markofthelam.com/spiral-control.html

Description

Sparked by the surrealist art game exquisite corpse and the rule based drawings by Sol Lewitt, this project to explore how individuals can make something as minimal as a line while allowing for individual expression. This project uses digital tools to create a primal experience for those inside the installation and the audience outside.

This project explores how individuals are able to draw a line with tight constraints. When a line is completed it is joined with the previously drawn lines into a gestalt communal artifact that represents a history of all those who have drawn before. The shrouded environment creates a hyper-personal ritual for drawing a line but creates a collective experience. The mathematical concept behind the project considers properties of a continuous line that grows with user input.

Constant Lineation asks how a person can contribute to history given tight constraints.

// Technical aspects

Sofware: This project uses P5.JS drawing tools to save vertices to Google Firebase. Drawers are able to draw a line to connect two points on a canvas using their fingers or a vocal input. Their individual line is appended to the community line which spirals around the installation environment and ambient music notes are generated from the line data. The output resembles a constellation which is further pushed by the physical components.

Physical: The physical installation creates a cave like environment consisting of a 2.5 ft x 2.5 ft x 5 ft shrouded structure which has a spiral line projected on the top and sides of the enclosure. The material is translucent allowing for double sided projections so both the drawer and passerbys to view the drawing. Inside the structure is a tablet for people to draw a line via touch interface or audio recording and speakers to play back sounds generated from line data.

Classes

Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing, Introduction to Physical Computing, Socially Engaged Art and Digital Practice