Here's an example of an interactive low-tech installation by American artist Bernie Lubell.
Bernie Lubell’s work shows that interactive art in 2009 need not always be digital. He will place not high-tech interfaces or computers but rather analogue, mechanical installations made of wood, springs and rope and driven by muscle power in the exhibition space at V2_
The viewers themselves will operate these massive installations by means of cranks, wheels and pedal mechanisms. The Origins of Innocence is about movement and connectedness, cause and effect. Setting a machine in motion through an innocent action in one place, the visitor is surprised by inexplicable movements, sounds and images in a completely different location. Machines suddenly squeak and creak to life.
Lubell combines various themes in his installations, ranging from personal experiences to a predilection for the 19th-century industrial age. Thus he refers to the work of Etienne-Jules Marey (1830–1904), a French researcher who was fascinated by human and animal movement and recorded it mechanically using a technology he developed himself, chronophotography. When Lubell suffered heart trouble in 1995, Marey’s studies took on special meaning for Lubell, and the complex relationship between body and machine became the point of departure for his subsequent work. In The Origins of Innocence, the visitor is the heart of the installation.
Lubell previously exhibited at the 2007 Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria, where his work won the Award of Distinction, the prize for the most distinguished interactive work of art.
Please note that the artworks need you to interact with them to make them function, so feel free to pedal, touch, wind and even get inside the artworks, and ask the gallery assistants if you need to know what to do.
This exhibition is organised in partnership with FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) in Liverpool. http://www.fact.co.uk; and is made possible with the support of: Mondriaan Foundation, Dienst Kunst en Cultuur gemeente Rotterdam, SNS Reaal Fonds, Ministerie van OCW and NaDrUk b.v.
I think that Lubell's interactive sculptures have a unique sense of personal connectivity. Having something physical one can interact with is different than interacting with an artwork by pushing buttons on a computer although both can provide unique and personal experiences. It kind of reminds me of Walter Benjamin's notion of the "aura" in a work of art -- there is a "specialness" in things that are one-of-a-kind in a world where so many things are mass-produced. These works really rely on a participating viewer to activate them so that they can perform their task or function fully.
ReplyDeleteI think all art work is personal in some way or another, but Lubell's work seems to have something more than other contemporary artists. Because it is explicit that the work "Synapse sweetly singing" represents his mother's death, and "Etiology of innocence" refers to his heart surgery, we can really see the intimacy in his work. And this is something very powerful, because the audience can relate to it and "feel" it in a way.
ReplyDeleteThe amusing thing is that he creates sorts of "machines", which is very impersonal, but then he gives them a personal touch and therefore they're no longer considered wooden machines but works of art. In my opinion this could raise the problem of what is really an art work and what is craft..
I think lubell's work is very different because he forces the viewer to be a part of his work. If you want to be able to perceive the art you have to actively work it. I think this enhances the way the viewer perceives the art because he becomes a part of it. It affects the way he regards it. It becomes more personal thus more special.
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