FLTR 6.0 <semi-automatic version>
[12.13.01]
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{offline exhibit}
1. web wizards: design museum london
{semi-automatic}
2. ROSE.DCR: yugo nakamura
3. ||b + ||c: josh davis
4. pagan poetry + hideaway: james patterson/ amit pitaru
5. bits and pieces: daniel brown
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1.
web wizards: design museum london
http://www.designmuseum.org/httpd/digital/digital.php?id=3&pt=1
This show is subtitled "designers who define the web." It features all the
artists featured in this issue of FLTR. I haven't been to the physical
gallery, so I can't review the show. If you go, you can email me your
assessment. I merely mention the show since it is the catalyst for the rest of
this issue.
The fact that this is a design exhibit is pertinent. Although other net
artists have exploited the network more cleverly, or have exploited
interactivity more cleverly, or have exploited narrative more cleverly, these
artists make pretty-looking stuff. And it's not static pretty. It's not
painting on line, nor is it linear animation online. It's reactive, although
sometimes just minimally so. Hence "semi-automatic." Add a modicum of
interactivity to beautiful abstract motion, and that's good enough for me.
Local mileage may vary.
Note that there's not much to say about these pieces. They are what they are
without allowing for or encouraging a whole bunch of conceptual or historical
or contextual blah-blah. Interesting art that spawns uninteresting criticism
is still interesting art. Great for the art patron; lousy for the art pundit.
As it should be?
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2.
ROSE.DCR: yugo nakamura
http://yugop.com/ver3/stuff/31/
Of all the pieces featured in this issue, ROSE.DCR may be the only piece that's
also actually featured in the "web wizards" exhibit as well. How the heck
would I know? It's a morphing metallic-looking conglomeration of melded planes
that gradually changes when clicked to a morphing metallic-looking
conglomeration of melded rods. Between the plane stage and the rod stage is a
disconcerting half-and-half stage. Mouse position rotates the blob.
The entire piece has a real cool, cheezy, early VR/ Tron vibe too it. Enjoy.
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3.
||b + ||c: josh davis
http://www.praystation.com/2001/11-02-2001/
http://www.praystation.com/2001/11-03-2001/
joshua davis is a great big rock star web deisgner who needs no introduction.
You know him as the winner of prix ars electronica, hell.com alumni, and recent
participant in Alex Galloway's "carnivore" project. Ladies and gentlemen...
joshua davis.
Here are a couple of "sweet, tight, sick, [insert admiring ds9r dood adjective
here]" 3D interactive Flash experiments. The interaction is minimal; the
cursor position merely controls the rotation of the sharding blob. These
pieces may be seen as less interactive minimalistic bauhausian versions of
yugo's above piece (although these pieces probably came first).
Pretty.
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4.
pagan poetry + hideaway: james patterson/ amit pitaru
http://www.showstudio.com/projects/031/031_interactive.html
http://www.mickjagger.com/momentum/ [click on the hideaway globe]
James Patterson runs presstube <http://www.presstube.com>; Amit Pitaru runs
pitaru.com <http://www.pitaru.com>; and together they make insertsilence
<http://www.insertsilence.com>. Patterson started out using Flash as it was
originally intended -- as an animation tool. Nevermind that his animations
look like cave paintings as viewed by a hallucinating Aztec medicine man
hopped-up on peyote. Pitaru (evidently) provides the more advanced scripting
that catapults patterson's mere animations into semi-automatic weapons.
Interestingly, both the pieces selected here are what you might call "web music
videos." Don't think lo-res thumbnail quicktime movies of linear MTV videos.
Think interactive, synesthetic, net art interpretations of pop songs, with the
pop songs themselves providing the audio. Pagan Poetry is a Bjork song;
Hideaway is a Mick Jagger song.
How do you acquire the rights to use entire hi-fi versions of copyrighted pop
songs in your work? Get hired by the artists themselves to design their web
sites. Yep, that'd do it.
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5.
bits and pieces: daniel brown
http://www.noodlebox.com/bitsandpieces/main.htm
Daniel Brown has been making cool interactive director stuff at noodlebox
<http://www.noodlebox.com> since the early days of the web. Noodlebox was
always regarded more as a "shockwave site of the day" joint, simply because of
its playful interface and lack of pretension. But there are some gorgeous,
well thought out pieces there.
bits and pieces is like a more mature, artsy version of noodlebox. The menu
interface (which looks like a bunch of floating, overlapping picture frames) is
a semi-automatic piece of work itself, and the pieces (and bits) linked
therefrom are a lot more floating/lilting/ethereal (and consequently less
slap-happy) than some of the original pieces at noodlebox 1.0.
Daniel's stuff is smaller, more minimalistic, less grandios than the work of
his fellow "web wizards." These pieces are more like studies and experiements
(hence "bits and pieces"). A semi-automatic sketchbook if you will. At any
rate, it's nice to see noodlebox.com come out of the toy chest and into its own
artistically.
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FLTR is filtered by Curt Cloninger <curt@lab404.com>.
FLTR is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization, or
institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor
opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay creatively sober and help
others to achieve creative sobriety.
Back issues of FLTR are archived at <http://www.lab404.com/fltr/>.
FLTR -- less sporadic; more emphatic. singing the body electric since two
thousand aught one. |
