Some Interesting References...

Interaction in Art and Technology

Alternative Reality Gaming

Van Dijk's The Network Society

Explorations in Art and Technology

Youtube and the Guggenheim collaborate

The Play Biennale, a collaboration between Youtube and the Guggenheim, is an extremely exciting opportunity for digital art to be a part of a such a well-known museum. The project also illustrates the global potential of Internet platforms and the arts. I am excited to see the results. Watch this video to learn more.

INTERACTIVE

Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jason Bruges. Jason started Jason Bruges Studios in 2001 and has been creating exciting interactive pieces all over London and the world. I was particularly impressed with Jason's recent work at the Victoria and Albert Museum Mirror, Mirror. Jason's work combines his background in architecture with his past career as an interaction designer at the innovative Communications Company Imagination to create truly innovative and discussion worthy pieces.

The Jason Bruges Studio is also a part of the annual Kinetica Art Fair and was a part of the Milan Furniture Fair.

Downloadable Everything

Imin Yeh, an artist based in San Francisco, has a good sense of humor and a handle on a wide variety of mediums. I interviewed Imin last night and was impressed by her knowledge and passion for print making as well as her technological literacy and wit! She has successfully created beautiful prints, while also including a store function on her website and creating downloadable art pieces.

Her downloadable Mahjong set is a must see! She also has introduced me to the world of downloadable art work among famous artists such as Jake and Deno Chapman and Gilbert & George.

The interview was delightful and has showed me the ongoing overlap between the commercial world and the digital art world.

Keep an eye out for Imin as a finalist in the Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Art competition!

More on the digital arts!

As I have been researching and continuing to interview artists I have also come across some interesting institutions, individuals and events I would like to share:

Hype Williams

Digital Art Festival Tokyo

Disqo

NYU ITP

Top Ten Artist Installations of Second Life

More interviews and updates to come!

Architecture, Visual arts and the Digital

I have now finished my second interview! Despite the fact that I still need around 8 more interviews for my analysis, I am in good spirits and really enjoying the experience. I recently interviewed Jesse Seegers, an up and coming artist, architect and writer, who gave me an interesting perspective on architecture, the visual arts, and digital technologies.

He also suggested some artists/organizations to check out in the field including Rhizome, Cory Arcangel, and his friends behind the website double happiness.

Jesse, a recent NYU graduate, also recently finished working on the architecture book Agenda with JDS Architects in Belgium.

Interviews!

So, I finally had my first interview yesterday. I spoke with Andy Gouveia, a talented artist from California, who gave me some really interesting insight into the world of illustration and the digital. The key themes that seemed to come up in our conversation centered around globalization, the artists adoption of technology, the influences of digital technology on artists work, and interaction between the viewer and the artist.

The interview overall was a success! Andy was easy to talk to and the conversation flowed well... I look forward to continuing to interview artists and learning from their perspective how the digital has effected their work. Andy also referred me to one of his friends in the Bay area Imin, who has a website for downloadable mahjong sets as part of her work. Today I will be continuing my interviews, so stay tuned!

Some of my other research interests...

While this blog is dedicated to my work on my dissertation I also wanted to highlight some other research that I recently finished for the BBC World Service Trust this past spring. While interning at the BBC WST for Dr. Gerry Power I was able to help him with a presentation for the Cultural Voices Conference in New Orleans. The topic was on "the challenges and difficulties opportunities of creating a drama for development in Nigeria" focusing on the BBC WST drama series 'Wetin Dey'. This was an exciting opportunity for me to learn about Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry. I have had a great deal of past internship experience in Hollywood and it was fascinating to hear about another flourishing film industry that spends about a tenth of the cost on production and only distributes films in DVD or VCD form.

Anyway, before I say too much about Nollywood I would like to point out that I will have another blog post on this research on the Norman Lear Center website... so stay tuned for a link in case you are interested in this less known film industry in an emerging market!

Research, Research, Research

Reading, reading and more reading... My research has been enlightening and a struggle at times, but with the help of Frederik Lesage, at the LSE, things are starting to become clearer. I have begun to focus on the artist's perspective of technology. Essentially, looking back historically to see how technology has influenced and been an essential part of the process for artists as early as the photograph... Moving forward to the works of Duchamp and finally touching on new media related theory with the writings of Manuell Castells on the Network Society.

I have been in the process of organizing my dissertations outline to highlight the central topics to use in my interview guide. I look forward to actually interviewing working artists and putting my research to use!

I will also be helping Frederik Lesage's with the LSE-MARCEL upcoming symposium on July 7th! It should be an interesting perspective on artists who collaborate with researchers.

More to come as I begin my skype interviews this week!