Hans Verhaegen and Jean Delouvroy's "Deus Digitalis"

While searching through rhizome.org, I came across the art piece “Deus Digitalis”, an audio visual installation created by visual artist Hans Verhaegen and composer Jean Delouvroy, which spans the second floor of the Orpheus Institute concert hall.

Hans Verhaegen is a visual artist who studied both graphic arts and art history and since 1994 has been invited by several groups for both group and solo exhibitions. Regardless of the medium in which he is working, whether creating a painting, collage, installation, or drawing, his work seems to contain the connected element of the human figure. Coming together with Jean Delouvroy for the first time, the musician also explores different styles of music, including jazz, contemporary, electronic sounds, and the recycled use of his own acoustic material. Delouvroy composed music for the piece “Deus Digitalis” to create an installation, which stimulates two senses of the body.

The pattern in the visual is similar to that of a quilt, with detailed squares of moving bodies (25 each), using different colors, separated by bars of black. The colors are the default colors found in almost any graphics program and do well to simulate the “typical” gothic colors of the glass windows The animation is made using Flash and is inspired by another work of Verhaegen’s that was inspired by his approaching trip to see the new stain glass windows of the Cathedral in Koln titled “Gotiek”. That animation is a proposal of Hans’ for the Basilica of the Sacred Heart’s window, using a flat screen rather than windowpanes. The music is a 23-minute “looped soundscape” set to a very low frequency range. Finding little video or clips of the sound used, one site described it as sounding as if it were “a group of giants singing in slow-motion with an endless breath like they are frozen in time”. There is also a layer of crackling in the sound that appears and disappears, queuing the visuals to change.

By creating repetition in the shapes and using similar basic colors, the artist connects the quilt like squares to form the work as a whole. The use of the human form promotes a feeling of the collective whole and, when the music is added, a sense of the collective whole’s connection and/or sensitivity to the vibrations and awareness presented by music. The concept of the low hum of the music reminds me of religious and spiritual traditions of the chants of the Tibetan monks, something used to connect the individual to the collective energy and to focus the mind away from the self and towards an understanding of the community. The hum of the “giants” combined with the ever-moving human forms suggests the subliminal energy of the human connections that occur every day without ever being discussed. It is like the Taos Hum, a rumored low humming sound said to only be heard by young males who live in or come to the Taos region of New Mexico—realizing such a sound is as if to be presented with the idea that, although we are all moving separately, divided by space and time (black bars and movement qued by sound), the collective thought and energy of humankind may be heard or felt if one listens.

I find this artwork to be very successful, connecting the individual, community, and modern experiences of the digital with the commonality and shared connections of the human race. By using the digital media, specifically the older technology of Flash, I feel the artist connects not just the collective whole through visual and space but also through time, inferring the motions of the modern world, developing in technology and predictable patterns of the work world while also pin-pointing the starts of the digital arts beginnings.

Self Portrait: Image Options.

Project ONE: Los Desaparecidos

Artist Post: Simon Kanavagh

While researching through the web for a digital artist, I came across an artist who caught my attention by combining his interests to create works of art that were both intellectually and artistically stimulating. Simon Kavanagh is a digital media artist who began his art career after receiving his degree in Graphics and Fine Arts, along side with art history, sociology, philosophy, and psychology of education, eventually combining his extra specialties and integrating them into his art. Working under then name/group name “mediarts”, Kavanagh creates art which embraces modern technology, while also fearing it and its “close association with science”, through paintings, sculpture, and installations. He states in his manifesto that Mediart is not to create personal, exclusive art, but to encourage the viewer or recipient to become active, creating a dialogue of thoughts and common creation, cooperation and shared experience, what I enjoy most about the artist.
Encouraging the theme of interaction, the artist pushes viewers to think more thoroughly about what they are seeing, compelling personal opinions and ideas about the images and their meanings. Looking at his most recent work, “Minds Eye”, Kavanagh creates a piece which combines randomly selected adjectives with specific nouns, combined at random together and with images to ensue thought into the mind of the recipient. It explores the instant associations made between images and words through areas of phonetics/words. He feels that the world has become jaded by the media and its overwhelming imagery of the terrible and shocking, removing the surprise that should come with the graphic scenes: “Has this become the new barometer of our senses”, states the artist, “What this piece tries to show, through random text, images, video & news, is the uncertainty of life, and how one image or word or story does not fit all people the same.”
Kavanagh works also include the incorporation of other electronic devices that humans may depend on, including instant messaging. “Colour Box” is an interactive installation which exhibits a shape molding into various colors and forms, depending on the amount of messages sent between individuals. He combines the technology of the program with the basic elements of color, the simplest form of art, and adds to the depth of the art playing on the emotions, expressions, and creative thought presented by specific color.
Overall, I really enjoy the work created by Simon Kanavagh, involving the digital media and the human thought and perception. Often it seems hard to combine ones interests with fluidity, while still compelling intellectual though of the viewers, not just personal intent. I often find myself thinking of ways to combine my interests with the art I create; seeing it successfully done within the digital media opens up more possibilities of success in a form of art that I had originally presented with feelings of frustration and anxiety.

Images and Scans

Here are some images that I took. I have scans in mind, I just need to figure out how/when to load them. Tomorrow after work







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First Artist: Mehmet Atkins

Reincarnation from Memo Akten on Vimeo.

Reading about the works of Mehmet Akten, it was the description of his work that kept my attention and interest, usually being deterred from digital artists. A source states that Akten’s work “focuses on creating emotional and memorable experiences”. I had never before thought of a digital artist being emotionally compelling, leading me to look further into the works of Atken. Growing up in Istanbul Turkey, the artist was fascinated by the “hack demo-scene” of the 80s. It was this that inspired his interest in programming music and graphics demos. After collecting a Bachelors of Science in Engineering, Atken moved to London where, after a five-year run working for the video gaming industry, created his own studio, the Mega Super Awesome Visuals Company. Mehmet Akten is currently working on personal projects, collaborations, research and commercial projects. The artist “designs and develops tools to explore new forms of interaction and pursue natural approaches to artistic expression via digital domain”. He displays his work through large-scale interactive installations, also broadening his creation from personal art to mobile applications.

"Body Paint" Installation at "Clicks or Mortar", March 2009 from Memo Akten on Vimeo.

The artist creates several different styles of work using digital media. Many of the pieces he creates are interactive, involving the movement of a human to trigger the image of the piece. His work is about creating connections and involving performance art in visual art through a developing form of art: digital media. The programs Akten makes wonderfully display the connections between each motion of the dancer and each beat of the songs with a unique and colorful visual.

Amoeba Dance from Memo Akten on Vimeo.

I enjoy the concept of the artists work. Community art and interactive art ha always been very impressive to me, but things such as video games have always been a poor representations of interactive “art”. To involve those coming into an exhibit featuring his work gives the viewer a chance to be the artist and to experience a part of Akten’s creative mind. All of his works contain a good aesthetic appeal to them. Examining his piece “Body Paint”, specifically “Clicks or Mortar”, one can see the movements of the dancer projected onto the screen. It creates a flow of paint on the canvas that lingers, creating the impression of the dancer. The visual of the body pose that lingers as the dancer creates the next movement inspires an interest in the art and the artist that I had not yet experienced in digital media.

Gold demo from Memo Akten on Vimeo.

Overall, I really enjoy the work of Mehmet Akten. Although I took issue with some music choices and the attire of the dancer, as I feel it distracts from the wall itself, the overall ideas behind his programs are interesting and appeal to not only those interested in digital media, but also those in performance art, community art, and painters themselves.

Makin a Post. mah weekend.

Helm's Deep and a Dance Pratty.