Poetic Codings

A group exhibition that explores the relationship between art and technology through the use of wall projections, interactive installations, and tablet computer apps.

Poetic Codings is a group exhibition that explores new relationships between art and technology. While many contemporary exhibitions have presented code-based works, Poetic Codings is one of the first to juxtapose wall-based works with those made for mobile devices. The featured artists are based in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland (Oregon), New York, Montreal (Canada), and Graz (Austria). An essay by Art Historian Patrick Frank accompanies the exhibition.

Through projections, interactive installations, and iPad apps, Poetic Codings addresses the differences between public and private viewing experiences − positing that the experience of interacting with a digital work in a public place is vastly different from the more private experience of navigating an artwork on the small screen of a mobile device. While apps fill a small screen, installations are often immersive environments that envelop the viewer. When viewing an interactive installation or projected video, visitors experience a body awareness of how their movement can change their interaction. An artwork on a mobile device is often a private experience, where the viewer can get lost in the complexity of the interaction without regard to the setting and placement of the work.

Projections include Jody Zellen’s The Unemployed, a powerful visualization of worldwide jobless rates illustrated by roaming animated figures that culminate and move based on the viewer’s silhouette and actions. In the style of abstract expressionist painters, Jeremy Rotsztain’s Action Painting (Masculine Expressionism) digitally explores the visual language of the Hollywood action film trope. John Carpenter’s Dandelion Clock offers a celestial experience for the viewer as spores disburse and drift through space in response to the viewer’s movements. Casey Reas uses his custom software to edit and process appropriated material. In Signal to Noise, he scrambles segments of television content from a major U.S. network to construct new data structures, a process comparable to early 20^th-century collages built from media of that time and mid-20^th-century video collages.

Included in the exhibition are apps inspired by art historical references, as the ones created by John Baldessari. He is best known for combining photomontage, painting, and language, influencing generations of artists through his conceptual works and teaching. Artist/writer/curator Jody Zellen, employs media-generated representations for aesthetic and social investigations. There are also apps in which the user creates his or her own digital artwork or personal music. The artists in this category include Baldessari, Zellen, Scott Snibbe who is considered a pioneer in projector-based interactive work, and Lia, one of the first artist to create artwork for mobile platforms. Through the use of text, Jason Lewis creates apps for poetic expression and storytelling. And, Erik Loyer, an award-winning media artist uses tactile, performative interfaces to tell stories and make arguments. Rafaël Rozendaal and Jeremy Rotsztain create apps with abstract imagery, and allow users to control the speed and direction by which they are taken on a visual journey. Rozendaal is considered one of the foremost new Net artists whose work characteristically takes the form of standalone websites. Rotsztain looks at the history and practice of painting through a digital lens to create his animated compositions reflecting a painterly aesthetic.