GHz
the Post Analog Object in L.A.
Gül ÇAGIN
Developments
in microprocessing are having obvious and profound effects
across global society and certainly in the arena of
visual culture. Increasing numbers of artists are deploying
monitors, projectors and computers as sculptural elements
and signaling the shift in cultural and social dynamics
created by the digital technologies displacing the analog
ones on a mass scale.
However, it would be a mistake to think this "new
media" art as the naked display of cables and circuitry
and the development of monitors, projectors, and computers.
GHz the Post-Analog Objects in L.A exhibition at the
Williamson gallery in Pasadena, California claims that
"new media art" needs to include object that
do not bear the look of technology but that would be
inconceivable without the digital tools. GHz examines
this subject through the works of Wendy Adest, Sue Dorman,
Cindy Kolodziejski, Patricia Moisan, Linda Nishio, Jason
Pilarski, David Schafer and George Stone.
"David
Schafer's multiplication tables map out part of the
cycles of endless repetitions."
These artists extend their art-making process by incorporating
new techniques such as system for rapid prototyping,
computer numerical control (CNC) milling processes,
laser etching and other rendering methods based on 3D
modeling. Use of computer applications both enables
the artists to develop their ideas in 3D and make the
certain manufacturing process less costly. Machines
can now realize computer-generated objects in semipermanent
and nonpermanent materials without high production cost.
The curators of the show Stephen Nowlin and John O'Brien
are initially motivated what they perceive as a lack
within the new media genre of a satisfying corporeal
resolution of simulated digital objects. So many of
these new media "digital objects remain within
the realm of the virtual and are primarily viewed as
flat images projected or displayed on a screen. The
artists in the exhibition take a step further to bring
corporeal resolutions to simulated digital objects.
Unlike digital photography, which homogenizes the creator's
differences, the objects in GHz cling on to their specific
poetics. For some of these artists the new tools changed
the way they think about object making. For others,
there is continuity with their previous work. The choice
of materials is individual and reflects the artistsí
personal interests in various materials in realizing
their work. Echoing Jeff Koon's polished consumption
objects, the art works in GHz embody the quality of
precisely finished industrial objects, the machinelike
perfection. David Schafer's multiplication tables map
out part of the cycles of endless repetitions. Schafer achieves a dynamic relationship within his floor installation
by utilizing contrasting color, yellow and plain poplar,
and two different sizes. The eyes restlessly move from
yellow table cluster to the poplar table cluster reading
them both as an abstract pattern and a table pattern.
Wendy Adestís giant morphed musical notation
is a continuation of her minimal surreal studies. The
works represented in GHz exhibition reflects certain
use of digital tools and it poses further questions
subject to other investigations.
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