David Em
David Em was born in Los Angeles, CA in 1952,
and was raised in South America. He began working with oils, then he started to
create his own paints. He experimented
with plastic paints that he used to create 3-dimentional works. In the mid to
late1970's, inspired by the images of space being produced by JPL (Jet
Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, CA)scientists, he began producing digital art. He
utilized the computer labs at JPL, before personal computers were available, to
"create worlds of my own. (Em)"
Later, he was the Artist in Residence at JPL for 10 years. According to
his artist's statement on the Digital Art Museum (DAM) website, Em states that:
Early in the evening of January
6, 1975, I visited PARC for the first time. I had never been in a computer
research lab before, so everything was new to me. Computers were everywhere.
Alvy showed me how to run his paint program, which consisted of an electronic
stylus that could create lushly colored and exotically shaped electronic brush
strokes on a color computer screen. Moving the stylus across a digitizing
tablet controlled the location and movement of the electronic brushes on the
screen. Up to this point no one from a fine arts background had sat at the
controls of the system. But the stylus and tablet setup were easy for me to
adapt to because of my traditional painting background and my familiarity with
video tools, and an hour later I had created my first computer image. (Em)
In the
1980's, Em states that while others were working on animating their work, he
was focusing on "creating paintings with electronic light." He also
took programs that were used for scientific purposes (such as recreating the
rings of Saturn)and applied them to his works, creating images that look like
they come from another world.
Em took a year off from working with computers, but when he
returned in 1985, he noticed that the technology had changed, and he had a
new-found perspective on digital media:
While I was away from the
high-tech lab, I became extremely conscious of how much the tools we use
determine the physical and social environments we live and work in, and how
much these factors influence our perceptions and ideas. How tedious and time
consuming it must have been for Rembrandt's studio assistants to grind up a
tiny quantity of paint for the master's daily work, compared to more recent
times when an artist like Jackson Pollock, alone in his studio, could take
advantage of drums of commercially produced paints to develop new creative
directions. Now, by eliminating paint entirely from the initial creative act,
the computer is pushing the envelope of imaging a little further, opening the
way to a vast new and unpredictable visual territory.
I chose "Turner" (1985)as my representative work by Em.
As a kid (and now!), I too, am fascinated by the pictures
that come from space. Images of planets, stars, and colorful nebulas can, as Em
stated, inspire one to want to create their own fantasy world, with no
limitations but their own imagination.
In this piece, I see sunset on the planet Turner. The color and swirled nature of the clouds
suggest that there are gases present in the Turnerian atmosphere, creating
cloud formations similar to those found on Jupiter. The rocky surface looks much like the red
surface of Mars, and I am sure much of that look is attributed to Em's
knowledge and use of the technology he utilized at JPL. His works, which have been featured in magazines
such as Newsweek and in collaborations with companies like Apple, are in
contrast to those of Perry Hoberman.
Perry Hoberman
Perry Hoberman was born in
1954 and attained his Bachelor's degree at Bennington College in Vermont from
1974-77. From V2, Hoberman's work is
described as," an installation and media artist who works with a variety
of materials and technologies, ranging from the obsolete to the
state-of-the-art, from low-tech to high-tech and nearly everything in between.
His work has variously taken the form of installations, sculptures, multimedia,
performances, concerts, plays and uncategorizable spectacles." His works
are more than visual: visitors need all
five senses to experience some of his installations. He has also published essays, exploring the
issue of mistakes and accidents while using digital media, and whether or not
these "accidents" have the same effect on art as they would in the
"real" world. Hoberman's works
often require action to create a reaction in the piece, such as "Timetable" and "System
Maintenance"; one is triggered by other imagery reflecting onto the piece,
the other is triggered by visitor interaction.
Hoberman has also worked with stereoscopic media: a technique that was invented in 1838, in
which a 2-dimensional image is positioned in such as way that the brain
interprets what the eye sees as 3-dimensional, with no glasses or other
external devices.
The representative
work I chose by Hoberman is called "Bar Code Hotel" and it also a
piece that requires direct interaction. This full-scale installation received
the top prize at the Interactive Media Festival (Los Angeles, 1995). Hoberman
describes this installation by saying it "recycles the ubiquitous symbols
found on every consumer product to create an multi-user interface to an unruly
virtual environment (Perry Hoberman).
Each barcode creates a sound, video, or action which can last for a few
seconds or longer. Visitors are given 3-D glasses and a wand to scan bar codes
placed throughout the installation, so visitors are ultimately responsible for
their own experience in the installation.
"Bar
Code Hotel" is interesting to me, because it asks visitors to interact
with something they are involved with on a daily basis: those UPC bar codes on products. People who work in the retail field,
including myself, know that these little codes make your life easier, since you
do not have to input information in each time a purchase is made. Package designers loathe them, since they are
required on all packaging, and a design has to work around it. The only thing some people see them as, is
the annoying little beep it makes as a product is scanned; that beep elicits
memories of supermarkets, or reminders that we live in an automated world. By letting the visitor take control of how
the bar code is used, scanning it or not scanning it (or even scanning it over
and over), the visitor can have control over their own automated world. The mundane bar codes are now usable and are
capable of output.
Here is the link to Bar
Code Hotel .
Comparing and Contrasting
the Works
Em
created his art with existing technology to create new works that he learned at
JPL. His chosen genre is visual art, and
he can reach millions of people with his art, since it has been published in
magazines and books, and he has produced art for many companies. Hoberman, too,
has used existing technology in his art in his works that use the stereoscopic
technique. However, his works are more
than just in the visual genre: he uses
visual, auditory, tactical and kinetic media in his works. Visitors to his shows can expect noise and
movement, as well as becoming a part of the show themselves. Rather than creating works for magazines, he
creates installations that incorporate the visitor in the art.
Relating The Artists to the Readings
In our reading, Digital Divide by Claire Bishop, she
states that digital artists should make a commentary about digital art in their
works using digital media. In our class
discussion, an example was used about quilters making quilts about quilting and
the social implications of such. Em's
works use digital media, but he did not create any interplanetary worlds that
were of planets dying because of their use of digital media. In this way, he
has not met Bishop's need for digital media to be commentary and reactionary to
the viewer.
In our reading of The Work of Art in the
Age of Mechanical Reproduction, I
noted that the author, Walter Benjamin, states that works produced by artists
need to be able to be viewed in real-world space--simply going online to view a
gallery show is not enough, and the viewer will not have the same sort of
encounter with the work as the artist intended.
"Bar Code Hotel" is unable to be reproduced: even if the installation were rebuilt, it is
the visitor that creates the experience, so no two visits are alike. You may be able to watch the video, but this
installation requires human interaction to make everything work. Besides, it no fun just to sit there and
watch everyone else making things go.
Sources
Bishop, Claire. Digital Divide.
March 2013 < http://www.scribd.com/doc/115513943/Bishop-Claire-Digital-Divide>
Benjamin, Walter.
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. February 2013.
< http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm>
Dana, Jenny and
Jaime Radwan. ACM SIGGRAPH. 14 April 2013 <http://www.siggraph.org/artdesign/profile/David_Em/portfolio2.html>
Hoberman, Perry. Bar
Code Hotel. 15 April 2013
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvVJnhwGb0s>
Hoberman, Perry. Perry
Hoberman. 13 April 2013 <http://www.perryhoberman.com>
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