Robert Irwin

Robert Irwin, an installation artist who started in the 1960s, is most closely tied to the light and space movement. His work deals directly with light and space. As he himself puts it: “It’s about everything existing in a context.” He believes that art plays a role in which it changes our perception. The goal he has in mind for his work seems to be to bring you (the audience and viewer) to awareness and focus you on every day things. It also seems that not only does he have an intimacy with art, but that he would like to share this intimacy with his audience as well.

In his more recent work, Irwin has used primary colors in abstract ways. His objective in this appears to be to suspend the viewer in an experience. He does this by taking these colors out of context and putting them into a completely different context of his own making. Irwin creates a context for these colors, which is unique to each viewer. By taking primary colors out of context and putting them into a vague context, he lets his audience create there own context for the piece.

Robert Irwin response

In the beginning of the video, Irwin lost me a bit while talking about color and light. He talked about white and black as primary and secondary colors in light. Black and White are better understood as achromatic values, as they lack hue. The most interesting part of this artwork to me was how Irwin formed a somewhat cohesive diagram of color mixing via reflection in a setting of immersion. As subtractive primaries, Red, Yellow and Blue are the essentially the first and simplest harmony, commonly used at full chromatic glory in educational or playful contexts to indicate childhood and vitality. It's always a treat to see the diffusion of that lively playfulness into the gallery space.

Although I do see an illustrative logic of this artwork, I wonder how the lighting/purity of light situation is handled, especially considering all the open doors and windows. I think it could have been pushed further in it's simplification of complexity, perhaps incorporating the 3 dimensions of color into 3 dimensional space. Or a moving form with an archetypal local color, to describe the relative changes in hue throughout such a physical landscape of reflected light. Or at least let the crowd walk on top of the piece (did he?). Actually, I think I would rather experience those than the work by itself, although I'd probably be impressed with the size of it all for a while.

Conceptually, I appreciate his views on context and scope, although I find them to be limited. His contextual decisions seem to be based on physical visual elements like scale or value without considering more fluid or dynamic possibilities.

Robert Irwin

Irwin has a very unique aspect of how he looks at an object. I think that by doing this he broadens the limits of what an object should do corresponding to the space
in which it is in. In one of the exhibitions space he has what is called"Light and Space II" This installation is a bunch of florescent light bulbs
That are mounted at right angles in a non-repeating,formation.In this Installation Irwin plays with his idea that objects should not have an ending point. This particular one has no focal point.
Although Irwin does have focal points in which he would like the viewer link to his
work and they are Light, Architecture and Space.
"The presentation and placement of these works became as critical as the object itself, and in developing these ideas, Irwin sought to dissolve the distinction between the edge of the sculpture and its environment." quoted from a blogger
I find that a lot of the wok that he does is to eliminate that border between
what we see as the end and beginning an object.Irwin says that there is no such thing as an empty room. I never really thought of that but now that i think about it I suppose that it is true. I you think about what we see when we say its an empty room we say its empty when there are no objects in the room. Even a room with only a fan on the ceiling would be considered to be an empty room. But this would no be true because the fan itself is an object it just isn't taken into consideration but when you look at the room architecturally the walls and the fan are considered objects as well as the shadows that are made. A Shadow gives the perception that something is there therefore no longer making an empty room an empty room.
Priscilla Zavala

Robert Irwin's Colors

Colors are made with the trickery of your eyes. Finding the right alignment within the light spectrum shows you your yellows and blues.
This artist Robert Irwin, seems to be a man who is intrigued with the concept of complementary colors affecting an environment with light. His impression in the art world started with the works of abstract paintings. When I looked at these paintings, I really did not understand the full context of what he was trying to do. However when Irwin started to explore the more fundamental aspect of what color is, is when minimalistic qualities of his installation art started to become expressive as a massive whole.
He makes on-going attachments with quotes like “Context, existing in a context” or “Art as a conditional activity.” However, I felt his works are in the minimalistic qualities that set forth his abstraction to the world.

Robert Irwin's Unknowns

What I thought to be the most interesting part of the documentary on Robert Irwin was the idea of unknown result (the way I called it). In the film, Irwin states that he has no clear idea about the way his installation will look like when it’s finished which as he puts it “involves a lot of guessing”. For a long time now I was thinking of how to teach myself to be a thorough thinker and see the result of my work before I actually start it. Due to my little attention span and overexcitement when I encounter elements that I did not think/know of, I can never follow my initial route. For some reason I thought that having a clear vision of accomplished work is something crucial if one is to try him-/herself as an artist. After watching documentary on Irwin I realized that there can be many solutions to solving a problem as well as many ways to achieve the goal. In fact the goal can be a surprise, rather than a present that one finds in the catalogue two month before the holiday.

Stelarc

Stelarc's art is very, very peculiar. He uses the human body as his main focus and finds ways to manipulate it or combine it with technology to make it work differently. I feel that most of his work is in a way disrespectful to the human body, for example the ear on arm. There is no logical reason to want to have/ grow an ear on someone's arm. He is toying with science and engineering to see how far he can push it and what he can get away with. I just feel that he could use this knowledge for better and more humane things than his wacky experiments. But i guess that's what made him famous.

Robert Irwin response

Robert Irwin own themes and works doesn’t feel too knew to me but interesting. He’s able to show the primary colors in color theory and focus it as an installation instead. Installations like Primaries and Secondaries exhibition was pretty complex and simple just by showing the color strips on the floor and hang the same ones on top that reflects. I can see that, how he put it, uses a more “architecture technique”. In fact, I’ve seen this kind of art installation like the IKEA stores or Apple stores. I wouldn’t say it’s not like art but definitely resembles something more architectural and designing interiors.  

A dog that follows any Master

This installation, displays a 3d image of a dog on a office window, creating a holographic image of a dog. The dog follows individuals who pass though the streets. creating an interaction of a dog at a pet shop display. Incoming video feedback follow and track the people walking in front of the window. Extremely simple as an idea, but a creative way to create a lifelike interaction with digital figures.

WTF?

I really enjoy the possibilities within the realm of computer vision. What the broad category can create is amazing and fun at the same time. I came across this music video which clearly uses computer vision technology throughout the entire thing. If you click on the title of this post, you can watch OK Go's official music video. They also have a video that explains (in a very wordy way) how they created it in collaboration with someone with knowledge of effects and how to create something like this. The collaborator got the idea from an old photograph of a man jumping by Thomas Eakins. It showed several different frames of motion, and the effect is, to use the band's words, "pretty dope." In their music video, they used a green screen to make background subtraction very easy, and blob detection so there wouldn't be any places where the band members had "holes" in them. A fan of OK Go was able to recreate this effect using open-source software, processing. You can see his recreation of this effect here. There are links to download the software (free, btw) he used to create it, as well as the program he created to make the effect. All you need is your webcam! It's all in real-time. In addition, he lists several links to other artists that have used this effect, including the Jackson 5's song "Blame It On The Boogie." I enjoy playing with these types of art, and I believe that is the ultimate achievement of it. Art is no longer a quiet gallery for the elite. It is right on your computer, encouraging you to dance!

Flexible LED curtain

When I first stumbled upon this video, it was like having a flashback into my childhood. I use to have this toy called "Lite-Brite". It was a box that contained a lightbulb inside and had little holes on the top. You'd place a piece of black paper over the holes and then stick little colored pegs through the paper to create lighted designs. Now I know that this is not the same concept that LEDs use, however, Lite-Brite and the LED curtain in the video above share a striking resemblance; despite their difference in size. These 2 contraptions, I believe, show how technology has evolved over time. Going from a lighted toy box with simple pegs, to a complex blanket of LED lights that can not only display still photos, but can display a wide range of videos as well. It's unbelievable what some Artists/ Inventors have come up with. It makes me think to myself "What will they come up with next?" Maybe they'll apply that same concept to clothing... Then we could all be a walking, talking, movie screen, music video, or commercial advertisement: anything.. you name it. Now, that wouldn't be annoying at all.

AntiVJ

The other day I came across this excellent artist: AntiVJ. One of the mexican electronic music labels Static Discos (http://www.staticdiscos.com/) posted his new media collaboration with Murcof (http://www.murcof.com/) who has been famous for his experimental electronic and neo-classical music. That video made me research more on AntiVJ and I discovered his website as well as his vimeo channel where he posts his projects. Not exactly sure how he makes what he makes but it is definitely stunning. Here are couple of direct links:

Murcof + AntiVJ from AntiVJ on Vimeo.

Principles of geometry + AntiVJ: a stereoscopic show from AntiVJ on Vimeo.

 

Halloween maybe over, but it's an interesting project using LEDs and Arduino boards to just simply put inside a pumpkin and 

make a controlled lighten Jack-O-Lantern. These vids are just one of the examples of what other people have done to make their 

own LED Jack-O-Lantern, youtube has a ton of them if you look them up your selves. I found it interesting since it has to do with 

using LEDs to make a Jack-O-Lantern light up by using what color LED lights up or just make it flash all the time to have a scary 

horror feeling. It's smarter and simpler than just using a lit candle stick.

pd tutorials

hello classmates. not sure how often you decide to visit the blog, but decided to post this excellent link nonetheless. hope you find it helpful as much as i do.

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http://www.youtube.com/user/cheetomoskeeto

Lev

Lev as well as authors in general like to speak of everyday variables that we don't pay attention to in our everyday life. because they have been incorporated into our lives as everyday items. Here are two examples.

1. Electronic Screens on buildings walls
2. Computer and Network technologies

The poetics of Augmented Space basically is referring to space. Lev talks about how we immersed into this Virtual world that we gradually started seeing it as the norm. We took for granted how it actually came to be. Things like video surveillance and GPS systems as well as cell phone interfaces. He does talk a lot about the technology that back then would be considered out of the question that now a days we have such as the GUI which allows a person’s location to be tracked. My guess is that it probably was around just not to the public. I am highly fascinated with architecture therefore when he Lev moves on into talking about smart Architecture I was reminded of the structures that Julio had shown us on Thursday. It is in its own way public art that can be viewed by everyone. The possibilities are pretty much opened ended we have the technologies to take some thing that is already there and overlap a visual on it. This article was a little on the past side. What he talked about is out there already but still the concepts are still here.hat can be viewed by everyone.

reading response

I don't know if this article did much to talk about the construction of poetics of augmented space as much as a historical overview of the problems associated with new technology, but I thought many of the points brought up about architectural augmentation were interesting. Venturi's ideas of embracing architecture as the form of communication through complex iconographic surface treatment are terrible.
Modern architecture abandoned the idea of surface narratives and ornament; the problem he creates is trying to unify the spatial integration of information as surface and the contradictory decoration of architecture created to deny decoration and embrace form.
Both of these problems are poor problems to worry about. What happens if all current architectural surfaces are used to display information? Who will get to decide what information is displayed or how it is displayed? We already have enough of a problem with an overabundance of information on the internet, as well as the strategic targeting of users' attention. Yes lets cover up surface with bright lights and pictures in the name of a false dialogue (because the information is dynamic, you see); taking inspiration from Las Vegas, flashy Billboards, and Times Square, with their wasted resources and social misdirection.
The discussion of the public dialogue definitely appeals to me, and it still remains an issue of spatial control. One of the neat things about looking out my window and seeing nothing but bland industrial buildings is the idea of potential. It’s low-key, unwanted and sometimes unused. There is the potential to be clever, creative, and raise awareness of other things than Pedigree brand dog food or Prada or whatever.

Response to "The Poetics of Augmented Space"

After reading the assignment, it let me understand the artist’s relationship to an augmented space. With increasing technological achievements as a society, the extent of accomplishing a work of art associated with technology will have no boundaries. The part within the text that got me interested was with brandscaping. With architecture becoming concentrated to commercial structures, the emphasis in creating an augmented space for commercial use was something I never thought would be beneficial. However, the public will likely view the use of incorporating augmented space at these locations. With better appreciation as a public to these augmented space, the desensitization will be able to benefit the artists to explore new boundaries.

One artist I came across after reading this assignment was a Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka. He concentrates in designing commercial augmented space. The work I found online uses the display space to create movement with the merchandise. The use of a screen to create a human presence, to a space with out any human interactions creates the augmented space its own unique spell towards the consumer.

"The Poetics of Augmented Space" by Lev Manovich

I thought that this reading was really interesting and informing. The definition of Augmented Space is the physical space overlaid with dynamically changing information. This information is likely to be in multimedia form and it it often localized for each user. Some examples of Particular Urban Spaces are environments such as shopping and entertainment areas of Tokyo, Hong Kong, and seoul where the walls of the buildings are completely covered with electronic screens and signs; convention and trade show halls; departments stores, etc. When i read the section about video surveillance i was stunned to find out that by 2002 many taxis already had video cameras continuously recording the inside of the cab! I never knew that! I guess I'll be more aware of this when I'm in a cap now. It also talked about how we are all "immersed" in virtual reality. I agree that when you watch a movie in a movie theatre or on a big TV monitor, or when you are playing a computer game on a game console that is connected to the TV, you are hardly aware of your physical surroundings. But when you watch the same movie or play the same game on the small display of a cell phone or PDA that fits in your hand, then the experience is different. You are still largely present in physical space, and while the display adds you our overall phenomenological experience, it does not take over.

Response to The Poetics of Augmented Space

By the time I made it through the half of the article I could not help but think that the way author describes the use of augmented space reminds me of medieval time Christian religion propaganda. The parallel that I had in mind was obviously with the massive transmission of commercial related information onto the buildings, malls and major squares of major world cities. Just like in medieval times where most of the artists were devoted to working within the frame of religion (by painting, sculpting, frescoing, etc mainly on religious themes) in our times most of the augmented spaces as well as other form of arts are devoted to commercial oriented production. One of the reasons of this connection might be the power of belief in the divine in the past and the power of belief in “things” in the present. As church in the past was the wealthiest and the most influential organism as corporations are today. Obviously times somewhat changed and technology brings numerous new possibilities still strangely the attitude in its mass orientation stays the same.

As for the article, it was quite bizarre to read about the future that already happened. The author talks about GPS(cellspace technologies) as an up-and-coming technology as well as surveillance and large screens (p. 3-4) as something that will gain more power and complexity in the nearest future. It seems to me that many of the subjects that the author address as soon to come are already realized in one or another way. He writes about some experiments and innovations that Universities and labs were working on at that time: “Ubiquitous Computing: the shift which away from computing centered in desktop machines and towards smaller multiple devices distributed throughout the space” (p.6). Personally I did not have a desktop computer since I bought my first laptop about 4 or so years ago. My cell phone gets smaller with every new upgrade, so it looks like research pays off.

Lastly, the article made me curious to research some of the artists that were mentioned especially Lars Spuybroek and Kas Oosterhuis, Robert Venturi and obviously malls of Osaka and Hong-Kong. I think I will adjourn and fulfill my curiosity.

Response to Augmented Space

After reading this interesting article, I realized that even though I never heard of  “augmented space,” I have experienced such spaces before. For example, the video displays and scrolling text in Times Square in New York, and the computerized water installation in Las Vegas both combine human-made space and computer technology to create an aesthetic and cultural experience.

As technology keeps improving, artists and architects will always find a way to integrate that technology to the architectural space and create interaction with people in giving and taking information. A good example would have to be from my last blog, Camelle Utterback’s interactive installation “Abundance,” which transforms an architectural space. This art installation is a good example of combining digital technology and architecture since it records the data of people’s movement and transforms the data into animated shapes and patterns and projects them on the surface of the City Hall in San Jose. 

When the author talks about augmented space, he talks mainly about the combination of physical space and information technology. I think that the human user of the space also plays a very important part in the creation of augmented space. Video surveillance and different sensors collect data from the human user, but the user also directly creates data by sending text and cell-phone messages. The author mentions the electronic screens in the sci fi movie “Minority Report.” Some of the ads on these screens are personalized virtual ads that are created after sensors identify people by scanning their retinas. In this example, humans directly play a part in creating the augmented space. The movie may not be real, but it is a fantasy of how augmented space can work.

 

Cao Fei

Cao Fei
Cos players [young people dressed as game characters]

Is a series of photographs that were taken with the purpose of revealing how young teens take virtual worlds to an extreme level. She is showing essentially how some people choose to live in what she calls a second life using virtual worlds to ignore or in a sense run away from reality. I chose this series because I think that what she is trying to accomplish by this is to show that people can step outside of virtual worlds and still be who they aspire to be in games in our real world.

Alexander Calder

I chose Alexander Calder because I think his work is interesting in that it he is a kinetic artist. In his performance "Le Grand Cirque," he uses strings and kinetic energy to make his figures move. He is known for his invention of the mobile as well as for his other sculpture. Most of his work was of larger scale and involved wire to some degree. During his career, he sculpted famous figures as well as his personal friends out of wire.

Leonard Nimoy

I'm choosing to talk about the photographer Leonard Nimoy. Most know him only as Spock from Star Trek, but he is also a producer, director, writer, and a photographer. He has been for over 40 years. His favorite thing to photograph is naked women. He doesn't title his work, preferring to focus on the content of the picture. I think its awesome that someone we normally know exclusively as an actor has such a rich talent for another art form. All of his photos are in black and white. The picture above is from his "Full Body" project, in which he wanted to show women that are normally shunned from the modeling world.

Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson is now a very well known artist to the city of Chicago. Last year he exhibited a large collection of interactive and responsive art installations at the Museum of Contemporary Art. He is well known for creatively using light, sound, and space to interact with his audience. The exhibit was called "Take your time."

The following link is to a video of a very popular Olafur Eliasson installation that Chicagoans did not see.

The Weather Project, Olafur Eliasson

This installation was featured in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern, London. It is titled The Weather Project. The following is a description of the project from wikipedia:

"Eliasson used humidifiers to create a fine mist in the air via a mixture of sugar and water, as well as a semi-circular disc made up of hundreds of monochromatic lamps which radiated single frequency yellow light. The ceiling of the hall was covered with a huge mirror, in which visitors could see themselves as tiny black shadows against a mass of orange light. Many visitors responded to this exhibition by lying on their backs and waving their hands and legs. The work reportedly attracted two million visitors, many of whom were repeat customers.[3]"

Studio Roosegaarde - Liquid Space 6.0

Liquid Space 6.0 is an interactive space which physically becomes bigger, smaller and brighter in relation to human behavior. This interactive fusion of mechanisms, embedded electronics, sound and LED's creates an organic dialogue with its visitors.

Hackaday - Road Sign Hacking

This is a little old, but I feel that it's very interesting and relevant.



Some people figure out how to get inside a road sign to change the text and publish the details.

It describes what we see as private vs. public information, and how access to that information has changed with technology. I think that the technology used to build the world around us is still catching up with what's being done, or what's possible. New connections are constantly being made, and there is an interesting mix happening with the digital world and the tactile one.

There is also a subversive context to this article that i think is especially relevant. This information is not really "meant" for the public to know, yet here it is. I think as these connections continue to be made, and be made available to the public, more people will take advantage of them.

Also in case it doesn't go without saying, altering road signs is most definitely illegal.

Robert Henke & Christopher Bader - Atom

Robert Henke is a Berlin based artist who was experimenting with electronic music since the mid 1990's. He is responsible for Monolake project as well

as one of the most influential music production software Ableton Live. Being a conceptual artist Henke released several albums inspired by CERN

(European Council for Nuclear Research) and other research in the field nuclear physics. As he wrote in one of album's descriptions, physics was his

passion since childhood but he never felt quite smart enough (as he puts it) to become a physicist himself. In his project Atom he collaborated with

Christopher Bauder to create an installation that united sound, light and sculpture into one visual-audio minimalistic treat. White self-illuminated

spheres corresponded to the rhythm and textures of the sounds produced by the artists while representing the movement of atoms.

For more information, pictures and videos one can follow the link below

http://www.monolake.de/concerts/atom.html

Wooden Mirror

This is Daniel Rozin's wooden mirror and how it works. Taken from the OU course 'Computers and processors'. I thought that this was really interesting because I have never seen anything like it before. It explains how it works in the video. Enjoy!

Camille Utterback-Abundance

Abundance is a temporary public installation commissioned for the City of San Jose, California by ZER01 – the Art and Technology Network( Under work leader, Camille Utterback). At night, Abundace transforms the city hall plaza into an interactive social space. A video camera mounted on the City Hall captures the movements of people in the plaza below. The animations are generated in response to the people's movement and projected onto the 3-story cylindrical rotunda. Utterback’s colorful, fluid and interesting patterns creates a subtle subversion of the bold geometry of architect Richard Meier’'s building – warming and humanizing its surface.

Robert Irwin

I was really impressed with the way that Irwin views his pieces and how he feels about them. I thought it was very interesting when he decided to paint something that doesn't stop at the edge, and also how he doesn't see himself as a minimalist but he is more focused on a reduction that is a break from the past. He explains it very well that he doesn't see art as things and he doesn't see it as not things but it's really all about the concept of the piece itself. It is also interesting that he is said that he is never really sure how is work will occupy the space, and how he hopes that the large sections of color are going to take on the space, and not just be an element or an object. I was also intrigued that when he talks about whether an artist can create a work using the phenomena of nature to create something that artistically beautiful. This video very interesting in its many ways of explaining how Irwin's pieces are manipulating peoples perception of the world around them.

-Peter M.

Robert Irwin

Robert Irwin seemed very optimistic about his work and life in general. I found Irwin's simplistic concepts very interesting. His work using the reflective plastic sheets and his project using the lights were very simple yet intriguing.  Irwin works with a group of people who all have different skills, some that others may not have. This relates to my project so well. I don’t think that there is one skill that Leeandria and I share, but our skills together help to complete the project.

Robert Irwin

Even though I wasn't present last friday, I googled several of Irwin's works and Pace Wildenstein is one of my favorite. I like it because of the red lights on the wall, it reminded me of candy. I could relate this to the project that my group is working on. One thing that they both relate is the space, how the space is used. In our project we used the projector while he uses lights to be the main attraction of his project. His work is very simple.

Hanslee Garcia

ROBERT IRWIN

I really enjoyed watching Robert Irwin develop and create his ideas. On first glance I really didn't like his work, but after seeing the process he goes through to produce his pieces I began to appreciate his creations. He has very simplistic project ideas that are so big they engulf the viewer. He likes to play with perception and uses that as his muse. I really liked his moving magnify glass that scrolled along the windows of the gallery. That piece really clarified his idea of having a different perception on the world. He liked to use repetition and bright colors. His use of repetition and intense color on a large scale has really made his pieces successful. I especially like the red yellow and blue piece as well as the wall of triangle florescent lights. His work reflects my final project because we are using space as our boundary and also trying to keep it very simple. Instead of having too much going on that could drown out our main goal, we have less to get straight to the point.

Robert Irwin

I was really fascinated by Robert Irwin's work and the way his "final goal is inherently light." I was especially drawn to the installation made up of florescent lights that spanned the space of an entire wall in his show. The unexpected use of traditional lighting was really striking.
I also liked Irwin's definition of art. He said that art is to make you aware, to bring attention to what you're around all of the time but not focused on. His large, colored, plasticy looking sheets are a good example of how he used surfaces to bring attention to the way the room was lit; it made apparent what is often overlooked because there are other things to focus on. Irwin also stated that art is in a constant state of moving and resolving because art is a conditional activity. It's a curious thought; art is always changing and being compared and is conditional on what is going on around it. Especially with new media, the 'conditional' aspect is especially prevalent, since context is often a vital component in understanding the work.
Overall, I enjoyed this documentary, as well as Robert Irwin's work and thoughts on art.