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February 28, 2007

The Art Collective @ Art Matters

Phase 3 of our Interactive Bunker Project takes place Tuesday March 6, 3 to 7 p.m., in the lobby of the Visual Arts Building at the corner of Crescent and René-Lévesque. We’re adding a middle layer to our imaginary underground world, filling in the space between the two layers worked on so far in interactive sessions in November-December and in February.

Then don’t miss our two special events next week:

Monday March 12: A drawing/video event on Monday March 12 (noon to 5 p.m.) in the vernissage space of the Faculty of Fine Arts Gallery on the ground floor of the EV building. Read details below for this not-to-be missed event and if you would like to be involved as a co-ordinator for this event, please let me know. Last year’s event like this involved participation by about 100 people.

Tuesday March 13: Come and draw with UQAM students at their Café des arts, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. This is the third year Concordia and UQAM students have done collaborative art-making during Art Matters at the Café des arts (like our Café X). A one-week show of the work produced has its vernissage on Thursday March 15, 6 p.m., at Café des arts, and the names of participating artists will be posted on our website.

Below is more information about the above events, Art Matters and two shows that are worth checking out.

Art Matters, Concordia University’s high-profile student-organized arts festival that presents the best work of Concordia student artists to the art world of Montreal and beyond, led by Celia Perrin Sidarous and Jim Verburg, the festival’s co-producers and artistic directors. Click here for more information about the festival: http://artmatters.concordia.ca/index.html

You can also check out the Art Matters myspace section at: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=144248126

Friendly Fire is a strong Art Matters show at Art Mur, curated by Montreal artists Joshua Barndt and Ed Janzen, a fibres student who is president of the Fine Art Student Alliance. Ed made the first mark at The Art Collective's April 2006 interactive show at Concordia University's Visual Arts building. http://artmatters.concordia.ca/evites/artmur.jpg

More on March 6 event: At the March 6 event in the VA Building lobby, come and fill in a room with your vision of what’s happening underground when life becomes too difficult on the surface. And take a look at the network of dozens of fascinating interconnected drawings that look at how life underground is evolving in the imaginary future scenario.

More on March 12 event: get ready for an interactive drawing and video event in the space just outside the excellent Faculty of Fine Arts Gallery, on the ground floor of Concordia University’s EV Building, 1515 Ste. Catherine St. W. Not-to-be missed videos of interactive installations will be shown and fresh video will created and shown by leading-edge visual and video artists. Drawings drawings will be put up on the walls and windows of the space, just outside the Gallery with its not-to-be missed LiveLifeLab show by Bioteknica artists Shawn Bailey and Jennifer Willet, who explore the crucial concepts and issues linked to fast-advancing biotech research.

http://fofagallery.concordia.ca/bioteknica.html

The Bioteknica website is definitely worth a visit:

http://www.bioteknica.org/

The Bioteknica show at the FOFA Gallery follows the excellent futuristic show presented by Montreal artist Bill Vorn. Red Light, a reactive robotic installation, provided a unique window into the mysterious interaction between living things and technology.

http://fofagallery.concordia.ca/vorn.html

PROJEX-Mtl show: Eliza Griffiths and Susan G. Scott, two Concordia teacher/artists, are presenting work at the PROJEX-Mtl gallery in a show that focuses on the portrait. It continues until April 1.

Here is information about the show:

http://projex-mtl.blogspot.com/search/label/%27Visages%27%2021%20f%C3%A9vrier-1%20avril%202007

Here is Eliza Griffiths’ website:

http://www.artengine.ca/elizagriffiths/

The show also includes work by Concordia artist and teacher Susan G. Scott
http://www.susangscott.com/
PROJEX-Mtl Galerie is at 1000 Amherst, suite #103, in Montreal, facing the Radio-Canada tower. Open Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 5:30. For information: 514.570.9130. See information below about the show. See more information below.
Robert Winters, co-ordinator of The Art Collective

robertwinters@videotron.ca

On the PROJEX-Mtl website, you can find this description of the ideas involved in portraiture:
In accessing the visage, there is certainly as well an access to the idea of god. »
Emmanuel Lévinas, ‘Le Visage’ Ethic and Infinity.
The origins of the portrait can be traced in the primitive masks. These masks were believed to literally ‘bring’ the traits of the spirits to the living, hoping to facilitate the fascinated spectator’s own passage in the beyond. The blank surface of the canvas also starts as a ‘blank mask’, and will possibly in due time tale the appearance of a portrait more or less individualized. This operation will enable the interiority of the visage to hopefully come through. The exhibition ‘Visages’ explores the symbolic space emerging between the fascination of the mask and the appearance of an interiorized visage.
From the quasi mortuary masks by Marlene Dumas and Michel Denée to the poetic portraits of Sylvie Bouchard to the expressive and loaded images of Eliza Griffiths to the impressionistic portraits of Susan G. Scott and the cold melancholy of the photographic portraits of Thomas Kneubühler, and the cosmetic coldness of Alex Katz this exhibition will take another look at this timeless theme in the midst of the stylistic implosion characteristic of our contemporaries.

Associate member Philomène Longpré in Montreal

Montreal artist Philomène Longpré, who was invited to teach Introduction to Art and technology at the School of Art Institute of Chicago where she received her MFA, has returned to Montreal for two high-profile shows, one which just ended at the Parisian Laundry and a new one that recently opened at the Galerie de l’UQAM at Université du Québec. Philomène, an associate member of The Art Collective, has followed the project’s work since its founding in mid-2004.

For information about her UQAM show, which continues until March 31, 2007:

http://www.galerie.uqam.ca/#basculer

Philomène’s work involves the creation of life-like individuals who reside in a dark space, through a projection system that allows them to come to life and interact with each visitor to the space. The reaction of the individual character varies with the movements of the viewer, using an interactive system of sensors that lead to different reactions by the onscreen person, depending on the movements each viewer makes in the dark space, which uncannily seems to be inhabited by at least the spirit of the projected individual character, which is played in each case by Philomène.

When the visitor enters the space where the character waits, it is usually peaceful as the character waits, moving slightly, watching. It becomes more animated as the visitor moves into the space and has the distinct impression that there is an uncanny relationship with the character, which takes on a life in the viewer’s imagination that goes far beyond being merely a projection.

You can read more about Philomène and her fascinating work at:
http://www.philox.net/en/home

To read more about Formica, the disturbing character who was living in the cavern below Parisian Laundry this winter, click here:
http://www.hour.ca/visualarts/visualarts.aspx?iIDArticle=11424
http://www.molior.ca/communiques/comm_paris_formica_2007-01-05_eng.pdf

The Parisian Laundry site has information about Philomène’s show as well as about many other excellent shows that have been there.
http://www.parisianlaundry.com/exhibition_archives/philomene-longpre

To read about an earlier project by Philomène, called Octopus, click on the page below. You can also watch a short video of Octopus, including an other-worldly soundscape, by clicking the second link below:

http://www.molior.ca/video.php?projet=11&vid=octo1.mov&width=240&height=190
http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/2004/010804/philomene_longpre.html

Here is how Philomène’s career is described on her website:


Philomène Longpré received an MFA degree in Art and Technology Studies from the School of Art Institute of Chicago. Her graduate studies were funded through two merit-based awards: the Art Institute’s Trustee Scholarship as well as the FQRSC Quebec grant for research in Society and Culture. She also completed a BFA degree specializing in Electronic Art at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. During the course of her undergraduate studies, she took part in a one-year student exchange program at the University of New Mexico and also she participated in a six-month granted art project in South Asia.
Her interactive video systems have been shown in international electronic art festivals such as BUDi05 Busan (2005), FILE Sao Paulo (2004), Digifest Toronto (2004), Nexus Bangkok (2004), FIFCA Moncton (2005), Promo4.3 Montreal (2004) and has exhibited in several contemporary art galleries in Canada and the United States. Ms. Longpré also has the distinction of being the recipient of the Hexagram's Prize of Excellence of New Media (2003), the Judith Hamel New Media Award (2005), the Pinsky Medal (2004), the Studio Arts Concordia (2004), the New Millennium Scholarship (2001), the Stanley Mills Prize Purchase (2001), the Golden Key International Honour Society (2002), the CVM Culture Merite Award (1999).
Here is how Galerie de l’UQAM describes Philomène’s career:

Philomène Longpré détient un baccalauréat en arts visuels de l’Université Concordia et une maîtrise en art et technologie de la School of Art Institute de Chicago. Son travail juxtapose des écrans vidéo robotiques, des personnages et des sons abstraits, pour générer de nouvelles communications entre les visiteurs et leur environnement. Depuis 1999, elle a réalisé plusieurs « œuvres-systèmes » fonctionnant principalement via le langage gestuel et émotionnel. Ses projets ont notamment été présentés à la Parisian Laundry (Montréal, 2007), à Oboro (Montréal, 2004) et à la Société des arts technologiques (Montréal, 2003), ainsi que dans de nombreux festivals internationaux d’art électronique dont Digifest (Toronto, 2004), FILE (Sao Paulo, 2004) et Nexus (Bangkok, 2004). L’institut de recherche Hexagram lui décernait en 2003 son prix Excellence. Elle a participé à un programme d'échange d’un an à l'Université du Nouveau-Mexique ainsi qu’à un projet de résidences en Asie du Sud.

Philomène’s show at UQAM is at Pavillon Judith Jasmin, Room J-R120
1400 Berri St., at the corner of Ste. Catherine St. E., in Montreal. Métro Berri UQAM
It’s open from Tuesday to Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. Free admission. Information: (514) 987-8421.

At the UQAM show, you can also see work by Montreal artist Frédéric Lavoie, who played a key role in helping The Art Collective present its one-week interactive show at UQAM’s CEDx Gallery in May 2006.

To read an article by Robert Winters, co-ordinator of The Art Collective, about a Parisian Laundry show by Concordia University master’s students in 2005, click here:
http://ctr.concordia.ca/2004-05/may_05/26/

Robert Winters
co-ordinator of The Art Collective

February 27, 2007

Interview with Philomène Longpré

By Robert Winters

MONTREAL - Philomène Longpré’s fascinating art is an attempt to explore the relationship between physical reality and the virtual world that increasingly intersects with it as technology becomes increasingly sophisticated and expands its reach into the fabric of our lives, and our imaginations.

“I’m always trying to connect the virtual world to the physical world,” Philomène said in an interview while visiting Montreal to present two compelling shows in early 2007 at two leading-edge galleries, one at the Parisian Laundry and the other at Galérie de l’UQAM, which continues until March 31.

One influence of Philomène’s work has been Carl Jung, who explored the universe of images in the subconscious mind and developed a system for understanding archetypes in the individual and collective consciousness.

In her Illusio installation at Galérie de l’UQAM, “which explores the language of colour,” the character “is trapped by the shadow of its environment,” she said, adding that “the character takes form and represents the colour the visitor triggers.” This installation “is a metaphor for being over by its own environment,” she added.

When visitors arrive, various colours are triggered, with light coming through 365 two-inch holes. The installation is described on her website as “an interactive video system where visitors trigger different emotional stages of a virtual character. The installation explores the character’s predicament of being trapped by the shadow of its own environment.”

Her Formica installation, which was shown at Parisian Laundry, explores “the process of communication, including the multiplication of all the links that everybody builds up.” The piece seeks to trigger “memories and links we have with our history,” she said. The character in the video projection system is played by Philomène in costume. She filmed herself with a remote control using a video camera on a tripod. One goal of the interactive video system is “to create emotional inks with a virtual person,” she said.

In fact, a visitor to Formica’s dark cavern below Parisian Laundry had an uncanny sense that the character was alive and could respond in unpredictable ways to movements within her space.

“My pieces are not complete without the viewer,” she said, adding that her research is about non-conventional screens that become the environment for virtual characters.”

The next step for Philomène is to develop systems that communicate among themselves, rather than only with the visitor.

During her recent MFA studies at the Art Institute of Chicago, Philomène was advised by three key artists: Tiffany Holmes, chair of Art and Technology, Eduardo Kac and John Manning. It was an exciting environment, with visiting artist graduates returning to the school to interact with the students, she said.

Philomène’s website is at : http://www.philox.net/en/formica


February 14, 2007

Interactive event/shows by David Elliott, Bill Vorn, Philomène Longpré/YouTube PDA items/Juliana Espana Keller's website/artist Alexis Rockman

This newsletter from The Art Collective includes news about Phase 2 of the Interactive Bunker project, our latest interactive show, which takes place this Monday and Tuesday (Feb. 12, 13) in the lobby of the Visual Arts building. Come and draw your vision of what future life underground might look like; event is co-sponsored by Concordia’s Fine Arts Student Alliance.

There is also news about these points (take your time, there are lots of links to explore):

Key shows by David Elliott, Philomene Longpre and Bill Vorn.
YouTube videos about shows by the Painting and Drawing Association, which has collaborated with the Collective at art-making events.
Two New York Times stories about Monet’s pencil and pastel work, and post minimalist art.
Features of the website operated by Juliana Espana Keller, guest curator of the Collective’s CDEx show at UQAM in May 2006.
A key influence on our Interactive Bunker project: artist Alexis Rockman, whose work shown in Canadian Art magazine was recommended by Montreal artist Adrian Norvid, visiting professor of painting and drawing, who is advising the Collective this year. You can see images from Rockman’s work on our website.
1) Feb. 12 and 13 is Phase 2 of The Art Collective’s Interactive Bunker project, takes place this Monday and Tuesday (Feb. 12, 13) in the lobby of the Visual Arts building at the corner of Crescent and René-Lévesque in downtown Montreal. Come and draw your vision of life underground in an imaginary future world where the surface is no longer habitable. The first phase took place Nov. 30-Dec. 1 and the new phase takes us further underground.

2) Concordia University Studio Arts chair David Elliott’s not-to-missed show at Joyce Yahouda Gallery, an excellent gallery in Montreal's Belgo building, which opens Feb. 17 and runs until March 17. (see details below) David has provided invaluable advice and support to the Art Collective as it operates in its third year of exploration of collaborative art-making.

The Collective, which operates in collaboration with the Studio Arts department, thanks Concordia’s Fine Arts Student Alliance for its ongoing support and funding of the Interactive Bunker project, including FASA president Ed Janzen, who made the symbolic first mark at the collective’s Strings show in 2006.

Hélène Brousseau, FASA's vice-president finance, placed the symbolic first mark on Phase 2 of the Interactive Bunker project on Feb. 12.

Philomène Longpré’s show at Parisian Laundry, which ends Feb. 24: http://www.molior.ca/artistes.php?section=bio&artiste=7&lang=0&cc=1

This cutting edge show is especially recommended for those who were able to visit Bill Vorn’s excellent show, which just closed at Concordia’s leading-edge Faculty of Fine Arts Gallery. See details below about this show by Bill, who gave excellent advice and support to The Art Collective in its key second year of operations, while he served as acting chair of Concordia University’s high-profile Studio Arts Department.

http://fofagallery.concordia.ca/upcoming_exhibitions.html

To read a story about Hexagram, a Concordia project that Bill Vorn has played a key role in developing:

http://ctr.concordia.ca/2004-05/jul_28/03/index_d.shtml

1) Interactive Bunker project:

See images from the first phase on our website’s gallery page, at:

http://gallery.theartcollective.net/

2) See info below about shows by David Elliott and Bill Vorn.

3) Check out a YouTube video from the 2006 Concordia University Painting and Drawing Association show last January at L’Espace gallery in Montreal. The video, by Ztron, includes images of a piece about wartime identity by Robert Winters, the collective’s co-ordinator, starting at the 45-second mark. The clip is titled FASA Vernissage at l’Espace. The video includes a few words from artist Nathalie Quagliotto, who worked on two large-scale collaborative pieces done by The Art Collective during its show at the VAV Gallery in November 2005, in collaboration with the Painting and Drawing Association.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XziuyEdcZDA

Ztron also has a short video on YouTube from the PDA’s recent show, called Study in the City, FASA show 2007 Vernissage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WRqictGzKk

4) Attached to this note and posted on our website, you can read two excerpts from recent New York Times art stories: the first is about a show called “The Unknown Monet: Pastels and Drawings,” which will be at the Royal Academy of Arts in London from March 17 to June 10, and at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., from June 24 to Sept. 16. The second, “A Promise that Never Bloomed, a Post-Minimalist You’ve Never Heard Of,” by New York Times art writer Holland Carter, is about alternative art spaces in New York and a post-minimalist that the art world skipped over. You can read more excellent arts coverage at: http://www.nytimes.com/

http://Robert Winters, co-ordinator of The Art Collective

robertwinters@videotron.ca


5) One artist’s website worth visiting belongs to Juliana España Keller, a Montreal artist and curator who curated The Art Collective’s one-week interactive show in May 2006 at the high-profile CDEx gallery at Université du Québec à Montréal, which presents work by UQAM’s master’s level students.

http://www.julianaespanakeller.com

Images from the CDEx show can be seen on our website’s gallery section, at:
http://gallery.theartcollective.net/

Here is the site for the CDEx gallery, which is administered by Barbara Wall, of UQAM’s master’s program: http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/cendif/

This section below is from Juliana’s listing at: www.lightstalkers.org

Juliana Espana Keller is an interdisciplinary artist who brings art and life together. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing (2000) and a Masters degree in Sculpture (2003), both from Concordia University in Montreal. She explores and experiments with all contemporary media. She has recently curated two exhibitions in Montreal this year at Galerie Articule and Galerie Art Mur and her own work has been presented in many international venues; most recently at the Ice Box Project Space as part of the Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe, Philadelphia, USA, Galeria Nina Menocal, Mexico City, Mexico and Muu Gallery in Helsinki Finland. Her second solo exhibition with Galerie Art Mur opens in Montreal in October. More info. on this project can be found at: http://www.artmur.com.

A link to The Art Collective’s website can be found on this page:
www.julianaespanakeller.com/links.htm

Following is a description of an artist whose work was referred to by Montreal artist Adrian Norvid, who is advising The Art Collective in 2006-07, in discussions that led to this year’s Interactive Bunker project, which provides an imaginary look at what life would be like if it was forced underground because of an inhospitable surface environment.

If you go to The Art Collective’s website, at www.theartcollective.net, Alexis Rockman piece, from Border Crossings in November 2002, was one of the artworks used as a reference in our Interactive Bunker project in 2006-07. This project attempts to show how life might evolve if it was limited to underground spaces, faced with an inhospitable surface environment.

The following is from Rockman's listing in Wikipedia:

Alexis Rockman

Rockman's Manifest Destiny

Alexis Rockman (born 1962) is an American contemporary artist known for his paintings depicting the precarious relationship between man and nature. He has been exhibiting his work internationally since 1985, when he received a BFA in fine arts from the School of Visual Arts. His artworks are information-rich depictions of how our culture perceives and interacts with plants and animals, and the role culture plays in influencing the direction of natural history.

Believing that the past provides clues to the future, Rockman’s 8-by-24-foot mural, Manifest Destiny offers a view of the Brooklyn waterfront after catastrophic climate change. Consulting with experts in various fields, Rockman shows the haunting outcome 3000 years in the future past the ruins of the Brooklyn Bridge, following a sea-level rise caused by global warming. Included are the wrecks of a Dutch sailing ship and a 20th-century submarine, tropical plants and animals, and a two-tailed salmon resulting from genetic manipulation. Rockman's project suggests what the remote geological, botanical, and zoological future might bring, predicting the ecosystem of the area thousands of years ahead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_Rockman

This image is a section of Alexis Rockman's "Manifest Destiny" (8x24 feet, oil and acrylic on wood, 2004). Consulting with experts in various fields, the artist crafted a view 3000 years in the future past the ruins of the Brooklyn Bridge, following a sea-level rise caused by global warming. Included are the wrecks of a Dutch sailing ship and a 20th-century submarine, tropical plants and animals, and a two-tailed salmon resulting from genetic manipulation. Roughly 2/3 of the mural is shown here.

http://www.aip.org/history/climate/xRockman.htm

"Alexis Rockman is a native of New York City. Born in 1962, he grew up in and around The Museum of Natural History. He is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts. His work has been exhibited internationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and is in the permanent collections of several prominent institutions, including Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Brooklyn Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Baltimore Museum of Art."

David Elliott

Phantom Engineer


17 février - 17 mars 2007

February 17 - March 17, 2007

Vernissage : samedi le 17 février, 15h –17h

Opening: Saturday, February 17, 3 – 5 pm


David Elliott crée des univers carnavalesques où animaux, étoiles, l’homme et divers signes se côtoient. Il s’intéresse à des signes iconographiques qu’il peint sur un fond blanc, les faisant avancer dans l’espace. Elliott s’applique, dans ses dernières œuvres, à la formation d’une grille sous-jacente à ses compositions où l’on reconnaît la structure de l’abstraction formaliste. Ainsi, leurs compositions ressemblent à des jeux de cartes, des calendriers, des agendas et des équations mathématiques.


David Elliott creates carnivalesque orchestrations of animals, stars and people. This recent body of work explores the nakedness of the white gessoed ground, letting the visual events sit more bluntly on the surface. Elliott has self-consciously employed the grids and stripes of formalist abstraction, giving the paintings the look of playing cards, calendars, agendas or mathematical equations.

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Le travail d’Elliott a été exposé dans divers lieux de diffusion nationaux et internationaux depuis 1974. En 1993, le Musée d’art moderne de Mexico a organisé une rétrospective de son oeuvre. Ses principales expositions sont True North: The Contemporary Canadian Landscape, au Musée des Beaux-arts Kaohsiung à Taiwan (1998), Instant Karma au Centre Saidye Bronfman de Montréal (2002) et une participation à la Deuxième Manifestation de l’art internationale qui a eu lieu à Québec en 2003. Il écrit également sur l’art, notamment pour la revue Canadian Art , et il enseigne à l’université Concordia.

Elliott’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally since 1974. In 1993 the Museo d’arte Moderno in Mexico City mounted a retrospective of his work. Other exhibitions include True North: The Contemporary Canadian Landscape at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in Taiwan (1998), Instant Karma at the Saidye Bronfman Center in Montreal (2002), Deuxieme Manifestation de l’art internationale, Quebec City (2003), He also writes about art, contributing regularly to Canadian Art magazine, and teaches at Concordia University.


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Galerie Joyce Yahouda Gallery

372 Sainte-Catherine Ouest, #516

Montréal,QC H3B 1A2

514.875.2323

info@joyceyahoudagallery.com

www.joyceyahoudagallery.com

Artistes / artists:

Alain Benoit, Jacques Bilodeau, David Elliott, Massimo Guerrera, Flutura & Besnik Haxhillari, Corine Lemieux,

François Morelli, Alana Riley, Stephen Schofield, Andrea Szilasi.

+ oeuvres de plusieurs autres artistes / + artworks of various artists.

Heures d’ouverture : mercredi au samedi, 12h – 17h et sur rendez-vous.

Opening hours : Wednesday to Saturday, 12pm – 5pm and by appointment.

Bill Vorn’s show:

January 11 – February 9
BILL VORN: RED LIGHT
RED LIGHT: A Reactive Robotic Installation by BILL VORN

Photo: Bill Vorn

Bill Vorn’s cybernetic, feral creatures inhabit a highly theatrical space that evokes the sensation of imminent danger. The moving, twitching machines instantly sense any human intrusion into their environment, emitting loud metallic sounds and flashing lights, and further reacting to human presence in unpredictable, menacing ways. By confronting such complex robotic creatures, the visitor learns to anticipate their erratic behavior, to negotiate a space of coexistence, and perhaps even to empathize with them. Since 1992, Vorn has explored the “aesthetics of artificial behavior” in various robotic art installations. RED LIGHT is his most recent reactive robotic environment.

The red light flooding the gallery space already alerts one to beware. Stepping into the RED LIGHT area, one finds oneself in the midst of eight strange, gesticulating bodies, consisting of long pneumatic and mechanical tubes with sensors. Six of these tentacle-like creatures are hanging from the ceiling, seemingly watching two others convulse on the ground. Immediately, they sense the presence of a visitor. Their tubular muscles contract and conflate, generating a wild play of strobe lights and hissing sounds. They move towards the visitor in a seemingly random, chaotic fashion. But even while they are drawn to the presence of the human intruder, they appear to be secretly communicating amongst themselves – or perhaps conspiring. Once one has entered their strange RED LIGHT habitat, one can no longer remain a passive, detached spectator. Whether choosing to interact with the robotic creatures by touching or moving around them, or whether remaining immobile, one inevitably finds oneself engaging with these animate machines, and by so doing, one becomes an integral part of the RED LIGHT spectacle.

Setting up a space where such human-machine interactions are played out is the goal of the artist, Bill Vorn. While wishing to explore the techniques and technologies relating to “parallel mechanics” and pneumatics, his primary aim is to create a space for human and machine behavioral interrelationships. This is a space where the human qualities of machines and the machine-like character of human beings “are intermixed” and where any behavioral distinctions between them “become blurred.”


http://