fighting for
freedom of facial expression
freedom of facial expression
BioLogic: A Natural History of Digital Life
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA | 04.08.2009
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).
More info:
⇒ SIGGRAPH 2009 BioLogic Art show
Works on display:
⇒ Electric Eigen-Portraits and ⇒ Face Shift
BioLogic and Generative Fabrication
Panel + discussion | 06.08.2009
Computer-based technologies initially performed an assistive role, as tools that enhanced existing practices in functionalist ways. However, according to Tanya Harrod (The Applied Arts and the Politics and Poetics of Digital Technology, 2002, www.pixelraiders.org/), the claim that the computer is only a tool is a cliché. She states that the computer is not just a tool and that use of computer-based technologies affects the thought processes of practitioners.This panel discussion is an opportunity to hear a selection of practitioners participating in the BioLogic and Generative Fabrication exhibitions talk about how they have employed computation beyond an assistive role in their work and discuss how technology has influenced their approach to creative practice.
Moderation:
John Marshall
Panelists:
Philip Beesley, Arthur Elsenaar, Gautam Rangan, Jenny Sabin
More info:
⇒ SIGGRAPH 2009 BioLogic Panel