ART 245
Moving to another artist and his works, Eyewriter, Lieberman is an artist and a computer programmer. He considers himself as a researcher as well because he thinks creating art works is like doing a research. Lieberman has been active in the fields of interactive art, digital art, programming, and video. His primary goal is to use technology playfully and make it deliver particular effect to viewers. Morever, his works often emphasize the reinforcement of the ability to use our bodies to communicate. Originally, he studied drawing, so his works also involve drawing a lot. One of his famous projects is Drawn, which won award in CYNETart competition in Novermber, 2006. Lieberman developed the software that can make drawings "come to life". When viewers try to tap the images drawn on a piece of paper, the projector will show them being moved on the screen. The drawings are not only alive, but also able to interact with people. Drawn is a fascinated project dealing with how our bodies can communicate with technology. Coincidentally, it presents the similar idea Sobecka always focuses on: how we interact with the world we create. More projects linked to drawing are Messa Di Voce, IQ Font, Paint with Your Feet, and Night Light. However, I will more focus on Eyewriter.
Professor Peter Whittenberger
Apr 27, 2014
Communication With Digital Art
Beginning in the few years ago, human and technology have explored a new field in art, digital art. Instead of drawing on paper or wall, multiple medias, such as computer software, electronic lights, digital images, video, photograph, and etc., have involved into part of the process to create art. Artists who have attracted by this amazing field also started to combine digital art with other arts. Here the other arts refer to not just visual art, but the different art forms include music, film, dance, and so on. Today, digital art is already one of the most popular art subjects to be studied worldwide. And its popularity drives installation art and interactive art to be more commonly applied. As many digital artists do, Karolina Sobecka and Zachary Lieberman focus on the relationship between people and digital media and emphasize it in their works. Besides just forming communication with digital art, Puff and Eyewriter, created by Sobecka and Lieberman respectively, also tend to change the world we live. The following parts I will introduce these two artists and their projects, then analyze the similarity and difference between Puff and Eyewriter.
Karolina Sobecka is a digital artist who works in various fields like animation, design, computer games, interactivity and more. During her graduate in CalArts, she studied experimental animation. Her primary focus is how we interact the world we create, so most of her projects are shown in public space and allows views to interact with them. When looking at her projects, it seems that Sobecka enjoys using animals as theme. Those works include Birdplay, the Call, Wild Life, Sniff, and All the Universe is Full of the Lives of Perfect Creatures. I asked her on email about why she tended to relate animal to her projects frequently. She said it is because she thinks animals are an interesting way to perform the interactions which are not based on language but on "embodiment, phenomenon, and empathy".
Even though Puff is not one of her animal works, it is the first work under Amateur Human project, created by Sobecka herself. Amateur Human had received 2011 Special Project Award from Princess Grace Foundation. The goal of this big project is to explore things between physical and psychological value. In other words, it studies the connection of technology invention with humans and nature. Sobecka has created many projects for Amateur Human, such as Clouds, from Both Sides, Project Sky+, Cloud Machine, and Puff. Puff is an accessory shaped like a cartoon style cloud. It consisted of few cardboards and a lamp for detecting how much of waste gas a car has emitted. On Sobecka's website, the page of this projects describes it as "a personal emissions visualizer". When being placed near a car's exhaust pipe, it shows significant colors to indicate the level of air pollution. On a normal condition, the lamp has a bright green color, which means emissions are low (about under 0.2 lb. CO2 per minute) and the car burns its fuel successfully. However, if the rate of emissions increases, the color will start turning to yellow, orange, and red, eventually. Red is usually also shown when a car is driving in a high speed. It means over 1.2 lb. CO2 is exhausted in every minute. Besides the lamp, drivers are allowed to check the color changing from the iPhone app. The app also records the total amount of emission and the exhaust composition (CO, CO2, hydrocarbon, nitrogen oxides, and etc.) released to air.
Eyewriter was used to help a friend of Lieberman at first. The friend is Tony Quan. He is a Los Angles graffiti artist and writer. In 2003, he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ALS is a disease of the degeneration of motor neuron. Because motor neuron is unable to function normally, it would causes the muscles stop working progressively. Later, Quan's body is almost paralyzed except his eyes. In order to help his friends to be able to draw again, Lieberman and his collaborators developed an eye-tracking software. There are two parts of this software: one part is to join the software and the eye-tracking device attached on a pair of low-cost glasses together; another is a drawing software which draws lines on screen based on the movement of eyes. More than just letting Quan to draw again, the team also showed his works in public by projecting the drawings on the wall of Kyoto City Hall in Los Angles. According to the official website of Eyewriter, currently the main goal is to build a international network for people, who have participated in developing Eyewriter, to make eye art and connect with each other. Even though Lieberman did not respond my email about more details and thoughts of the process, I watched a video of his presentation at PopTech in 2009. He mentioned Quan's feeling for this project, and this is how Quan responded, "That was the first time I've drawn anything since 2003! It feels like taking a breath after being held underwater for 5 minutes.”
Sobecka and Lieberman both concentrate on human behavior in their works. In contrast, to Sobecka it means how we use technology to connect with nature, society, or ourselves; while to Lieberman it indicates the interaction between human and technology. Because they both express the common ideas by different ways, Puff and Eyewriter share some similarities but have their own unique characteristics as well. By using the gas detector, Puff applies technology to our daily life. It shows a way how we can communicate and improve the environment. If we look at Puff with Lieberman's idea, it connects human with technology, even though it didn't display certain body communication. Moreover, the concept of cartoon style cloud lamp kind of matches his aim about performing technology in a playful way. As it mentioned previously, body communication and drawing are often involved to Lieberman's works. Eyewriter not only emphasizes body communication with technology, but also makes us rethink how our eyes can do more than just looking. Similarly, we see Sobecka's idea of using technology to communicate is presented in Eyewriter. But the relationship is the user and his or her body. It does not have obvious intention to connect to outside objects.
Puff and Eyewriter were both created to help the world become better. In general, they both form the communication between art and technology. However, there is a slightly difference about their purposes. Puff mainly supports on the side of improving natural environment, and Eyewriter focuses on helping people to draw by the movements of their eyes.
In my opinion, this is why digital art is fascinating. From the past decades, art and art works used to be just hung on the walls for looking or appreciating. Gradually, artists started to contain some messages or thoughts into their works. Until 1970s, computer and other digital technologies have provides more tools for us to practice art. Digital art started to form and grew in an unbelievable speed around the world. As a result, art is more able to connect with our social events and us. When I was doing the research of Puff and Eyewriter, I realize how art can already interact with people, and most important of all, to help the world we live. The purpose of making art is often to express artists' thoughts or transmit certain messages to viewers. Because of digital art, artists are allowed to use multiple technological tools to emphasize the meaning or effect of their works. Moreover, as the time goes by, technology is more available and capable to spread information internationally. If we keep putting effort to apply digital art in a good way to nature, society issues, and our daily lives, our world may become better as the consequence.
Reference
"Karolina Sobecka." Creative Capital. alias, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.
"Puff." Nephologies. Karolina Sobecka, 13 Oct. 2009. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
Lieberman, Zachary. "Interactive Art." PopTech. PopTech. 2009. Web. Mar 28. 2014.
Lieberman, Zachary. "The Eyewriter." Vimeo. Evan Roth, 2009. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
Lieberman, Zachary. Thesystemis. WordPress. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
Sobecka, Karolina. "Re: Questions about Your Projects." Message to Jessie Lien.13 Apr. 2014. E-mail.
Sobecka, Karolina. "Puff." Vimeo. Amateurhuman, 2013. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
Sobecka, Karolina. Gravitytrap. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
No comments:
Post a Comment