P2526197 – Reece Hill
Artist Statement
P2526197 – Reece Hill
Artist Statement
Technology has taken over the image and changed it’s function. Travelling through networks in the form of digital data, it has multiplied and reproduced. Now expanding beyond the screen, it is becoming a part of the real and of the physical world.
‘pixels in orbit_’ provides a platform for the audience to experience this first hand, with the digital image becoming a part of their physical environment, projecting into off-screen space. Utilising new media techniques, the work features three-dimensional artwork and computer-generated effects, highlighting the potential of digitalisation and postproduction. It is in this experience where the audience can react and draw their own conclusions. What will this mean for the quality of the image? For art as we know it? How will this affect us all?
The installation uses projection as its main component, where the content focuses on new media techniques such as digital manipulation, virtualisation, and computer generation. Utilising projection imagery as the core installation component, the viewer is encompassed in a ‘part-digital’ reality using three-dimensional artworks and computer-generated effects.
Drawing ties to algorithmic art, a digital image is transformed using javascript so that pathfinders independently trace their own path, reading the colour data of each pixel and altering their course based on set rules. Depending on the set rules, the image is traced using various line modes: (point, square e.t.c). This results in various animations of expanding patterns. These are of chromatic colour against a black background, highlighting the capability of digital manipulation on the image. The process is recorded as a video file, which is then imported into a virtual environment using a creative platform. This enables computer-generated effects such as three-dimensional artwork and animation. A 360 panorama of this environment is recorded as a video and projected into the installation. This enhances the video immersion experience by providing a greater sense of environment within the installation. The patterns vary in their animated style to
Taking reference from Gustav Metzger’s: ‘Liquid Crystal Environment’, (1965), I was inspired to artistically use projectors to manipulate a physical space. Metzger used heat-sensitive liquid crystals placed between glass slides and inserted them into projectors. The slides being rotated, created a movement within the liquid, and as the crystals were heated and cooled they changed colour. Technology was central to the piece and was used to creatively construct both the patterns and the immersive space of the installation. vibrant changing colour in the work, seeing how such use of colour reinforces the digitally made and definitely contrasts with the ordinary physical. This led me to favour a chromatic colour scheme. The audience in this specific piece also obstructed the projections, making me think about the role of the audience in my work.[AFp3] [AFp4]
It could be said that my work acts as a live performance piece, prioritising the audience’s interaction. I drew inspiration from Sam Smith’s: ‘Notes’, (2014), a live video essay performance in which a constellation of poor images is brought together into a stream of collaged audio-visual vignettes. Seeing how technology can be used to create a performance, I thought about how the audience becomes a part of the work by obstructing projections. Once an audience member physically walks in front of the projector lamps, they are engulfed by imagery. This is a metaphor for how the digital can become a part of the physical.
Another contextual reference is Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s: ‘Zoom Pavillon’, (2015), a panoptic audio-visual installation that featured 12 computerised surveillance cameras trained on the public. The piece used facial recognition algorithms to detect visitors and record their spatial relationships within the exhibition space. [AFp5] Although abstaining from using such varied and complex equipment, I still found inspiration in how the audience’s interaction with the installation was central to the work’s function. Also, the projections of changing animation worked well in the space, encouraging me to explore this in my own work.
[AFp1]Could flow better
[AFp2]Is hito steyerl needed, explain clearer what the work is trying to say. Change wording
[AFp3]Too lengthy
[AFp4]Tie in with next paragraph – condense
[AFp5]Too lengthy
