From synthetic worlds and post-apocalyptic futures to human labs and digitally stimulated plants, BioLogic: A Natural History of Digital Life takes both a serious and playful look at what happens when nature and technology combine. This juried exhibition showcases recent projects by eleven artists representing ten countries. All of the projects are kinetic, most are interactive, and many are large installations that immerse the viewer in fantastic environments of quivering tendrils, singing strands of hair, and fuzzy, cloud-like surfaces that respond when stroked.
"The artworks chosen for this exhibition explore what can happen when biological forms and life processes encounter digital code and devices," stated Elona Van Gent, SIGGRAPH 2009 Juried Art Chair from the University of Michigan. "Tags associated with the exhibition include extinction, landscape, fragile systems, growth, and augmentation. The complex technologies and intriguing topics encountered in the exhibition offer viewers a compelling survey of ideas and issues that characterize contemporary life; a tangle of digital devices, natural processes, and us."
Works exhibited in the BioLogic Art Gallery will also be published in a special issue of MIT Press's /Leonardo/, The Journal of the International Society of the Arts, Sciences, and Technology. Also to be published in this special issue are the peer-reviewed SIGGRAPH 2009 Art Papers. Printing of the journal will coincide with SIGGRAPH 2009 in August.
The BioLogic jury was compromised of Marcia Tanner (CA), Sabrina Raaf (IL), Suzanne Anker (NY), Cezanne Charles (MI), Sascha Pohflepp (DE/UK), and John Marshall (UK/MI) - contact media@siggraph.org for complete biographies.
Highlights of the SIGGRAPH 2009 BioLogic Art Gallery Include:
Hylozoic Soil Philip Beesley, University of Waterloo
Hylozoic Soil is a visually arresting and complex installation. Quivering to life as viewers enter into its midst, this beguiling piece is a network of micro-controllers, proximity sensors, and shape-memory alloy actuators. Building upon simple motions embedded within individual elements, turbulent wave-like reactions are produced. Using its tendrils, fronds and bladders to lure visitors into its seemingly fragile web of laser-cut acrylic matrices, this work blurs the distinctions between organism and environment. Operating at the intersections of architecture, design, electronics, engineering, informatics, and art, this installation is a visceral experience exploring the nuanced relationship between the biological and the artificial.
Post Global Warming Survival KitPetko Dourmana, Artist
Post Global Warming Survival Kit is a low-light, infrared installation set in a post-apocalyptic world where a nuclear winter condition has been created as a radical solution to the problems of global warming and climate catastrophe. Viewers are initially confronted with a space seemingly empty except for a lone dwelling. Only after using the night vision devices are viewers able to perceive the desolate coastal landscape displayed as an infrared video projection. In this world the sun's life-giving rays are unable to reach the surface of the Earth, resulting in permanent twilight. Without the aid of technological augmentation, we would be blind. Survival aids and communications technology have been provided. The suggestion is that this coastal outpost is one of many.
Electric Eigen-PortraitsArthur Elsenaar, Nottingham Trent UniversityRemko Scha, Collaborator
Electric Eigen-Portraits shows the human face in a state of externally triggered resonance. Eight facial muscles are subjected to a simple on/off stimulation pattern with a repetition period that varies gradually between 2 seconds and 100 milliseconds. This work turns a computer-controlled human face into a medium for kinetic art, shown in a video projection. As the human face is controlled by a digital computer instead of a neural brain, it can be made to perform in ways that are often unusual and surprising.
Growth Rendering DeviceDavid Bowen, University of Minnesota
This is a kinetic installation that captures the growth of a pea plant over a 24-hour period. Suspended in a nutrient-rich hydroponic solution, the pea plant growth is recorded during the length of the exhibition. After each new drawing is produced, the system scrolls the roll of paper approximately four inches to make way for the next drawing cycle to begin. As the name suggests, the focus is on growth-a complete feedback system between machine and plant-however, what the machine may also record is the decay and demise of the plant. Drawing marked parallels to Gregor Mendel's work on inheritance in peas, Growth Rendering Device seems to ask whether both the machinic and the artistic parents will leave their mark on their offspring.
OneYoon Chung Han, Gautam Rangan, and Erick Oh, University of California, Los Angeles
One is an interactive art installation that immerses the viewer in an animated fantasy. This work blends 2D and 3D animation that is generated by input from sensors connected to a micro-controller. The artwork resists the need to taxonomize (associated closely with the practice of scientific illustration/visualization) and instead offers an opportunity to consider the reflexive condition between observer and observed. It also provokes the viewer to experiment in order to get the results they believe are positive and beneficial - those which are visually pleasing. In the end the message is simple. It is not the tagging, classification, or observation of life that will lead to greater social responsibility, but an appreciation of the oneness of all things.
Complete details on the SIGGRAPH 2009 Biologic Art exhibit can be found at http://www.siggraph.org/s2009/galleries_experiences/biologic_art/. For detailed information on the SIGGRAPH 2009 dynamic program or to download a copy of the SIGGRAPH 2009 Preview Video, visit www.siggraph.org/s2009.
SIGGRAPH 2009 will bring an anticipated 20,000 computer graphics and interactive technology professionals from six continents to New Orleans, Louisiana, USA for the industry's most respected technical and creative programs focusing on research, science, art, animation, music, gaming, interactivity, education, and the web from Monday, 3 August through Friday, 7 August 2009 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. SIGGRAPH 2009 includes a three-day exhibition of products and services from the computer graphics and interactive marketplace from 4-6 August 2009. More than 200 international exhibiting companies are expected. More details are available at www.siggraph.org/s2009.
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.
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