Installation Artist/Designer
David Rokeby
A short Biography
David Rokeby has won acclaim in both artistic and technical fields for his new media artworks. A pioneer in interactive art and an acknowledged innovator in interactive technologies, Rokeby has achieved international recognition as an artist and seen the technologies which he develops for his work given unique applications by a broad range of arts practitioners and medical scientists. Born in Tillsonburg, Ontario in 1960, David Rokeby has been creating interactive sound and video installations with computers since 1982. His early work Very Nervous System (1982-1991) is acknowledged as a pioneering work of interactive art, translating physical gestures into real-time interactive sound environments. David Rokeby has won acclaim in both artistic and technical fields for his new media artworks. A pioneer in interactive art and an acknowledged innovator in interactive technologies, Rokeby has achieved international recognition as an artist and seen the technologies which he develops for his work given unique applications by a broad range of arts practitioners and medical scientists. David Rokeby's installations have been exhibited extensively in the Americas, Europe and Asia. He has been an invited speaker at events around the world, and has published two papers that are required reading in the new media arts faculties of many universities.
Choice of Media
· Interactive sound installations
· Interactive video installations
Preposition
David Rokeby uses technology to reflect on human issues. Rokeby's best known work, Very Nervous System (1986-90) premiered at the Venice Biennale in 1996, won the first Petro-Canada Award for Media Arts (1988) and is permanently installed in several museums around the world. It is also used in music therapy applications and is currently being tested as an activity enabler for victims of Parkinson's Disease. A number of Rokeby's works address issues of digital surveillance, including Watch (1995), Guardian Angel (2002) and Sorting Daemon (2003). Other works engage in a critical examination of the differences between human and artiļ¬cial intelligence. The Giver of Names (1991) and n-cha(n)t(2001) are artificial subjective entities, provoked by objects or spoken words in their immediate environment to formulate sentences and speak them aloud.
Source:
http://homepage.mac.com/davidrokeby/home.html
http://www.furtherfield.org/display_user.php?ID=674
Interactive Installation Art Pieces/Projects
Very Nervous System (1982-1991) by David Rokeby
Choice of Media
· Interactive sound installations
Concept
Very Nervous System is the third generation of interactive sound installations. In these systems, I use video cameras, image processors, computers, synthesizers and a sound system to create a space in which the movements of one's body create sound and/or music. It has been primarily presented as an installation in galleries but has also been installed in public outdoor spaces, and has been used in a number of performances. He created the work for many reasons, but perhaps the most pervasive reason was a simple impulse towards contrariness. The computer as a medium is strongly biased. And so his impulse while using the computer was to work solidly against these biases. Because the computer is purely logical, the language of interaction should strive to be intuitive. Because the computer removes you from your body, the body should be strongly engaged. Because the computer's activity takes place on the tiny playing fields of integrated circuits, the encounter with the computer should take place in human-scaled physical space. Because the computer is objective and disinterested, the experience should be intimate. The active ingredient of the work is its interface. The interface is unusual because it is invisible and very diffuse, occupying a large volume of space, whereas most interfaces are focussed and definite. Though diffuse, the interface is vital and strongly textured through time and space. The interface becomes a zone of experience, of multi-dimensional encounter. The language of encounter is initially unclear, but evolves as one explores and experiences.
Form
The installation is a complex but quick feedback loop. The feedback is not simply 'negative' or 'positive', inhibitory or reinforcing; the loop is subject to constant transformation as the elements, human and computer, change in response to each other. The two interpenetrate, until the notion of control is lost and the relationship becomes encounter and involvement.
The diffuse, parallel nature of the interaction and the intensity of the interactive feedback loop can produce a state that is almost shamanistic. The self expands (and loses itself) to fill the installation environment, and by implication the world. After 15 minutes in the installation people often feel an afterimage of the experience, feeling directly involved in the random actions of the street.
Function
The installation could be described as a sort of instrument that you play with your body but that implies a level of control. This piece of art tracks the slightest movement of the human body. Rokeby wires up a space the size of a dance floor, and whatever moves through it is sucked into the artwork. Very Nervous System makes something out of you. It turns you into a symphony. Or a jazz song. Or a samba. After determining where you are and how you're moving, Very Nervous Systemtakes this information and turns it into music. Movements are read, interpreted, and turned into many layers of sound. All of this happens in real time. So a dancer in the space is moving, in effect, to music of his or her own creation. The word "interactive" gets bandied about a lot these days, but Rokeby's work has been deeply interactive for more than a decade.
Materials/Technology/Equipment/Gadget/System
- Video cameras
- Image processors
- Computers
- Synthesizers
- Sound system
Personal Comment
I am actually pretty blown away by the amount of gestural control he seems to have over the sound! It appears as though the music has some kind of linearity that only occurs when movement is detected. Individual sounds seem to be positioned at different points in the space and can be triggered when the body moves into that space. The velocity at which the movement travels seems to determine the speed at which the sequence of sounds are played through. This piece of artwork is brilliant!
Images
Source:
http://homepage.mac.com/davidrokeby/home.html
Installation Art Pieces/Projects
Cloud (2007) by David Rokeby
Choice of Media
- Sculptural Elements
Concept
Cloud is a monumental kinetic installation hanging suspended in the Great Hall at the Ontario Science Centre. One hundred identical sculptural elements, arranged in ten by ten grid, are rotated at slightly differing speeds by computer-controlled motors. The elements slowly shift in and out of synchronization. When the motors are just out of sync, huge waves ripple across the space. When completely in sync, the work appears almost solid then suddenly almost invisible. When far out of sync, the sculptural elements float in apparent chaos. Cloud creates constantly shifting fields and patterns in the space of the Great Hall, playing with the tension between chaos and order, between scientific theory and human experience, and between objectivity and subjectivity. In classical Hindu beliefs, there are five elements: earth, water, air, fire, and space. He took as a starting point this fifth element, space both the magnificent space of the great hall, and the space within the structure of matter.
Form and Function
The clear and coloured planes are oriented to provide very different shape profiles at each angle of rotation and angle of viewing. The almost square rectangle collapses through a diamond shape towards invisibility, then expands again markedly changing the visual density of the structure. The clear planes with pick up subtle reflections. The coloured planes shift intensity as they rotate towards and away from the sources of light. The speed of rotation of each motor is slightly different according to a strict pattern. The rotation rates are in a harmonic relationship to each other, meaning that they will from time to time all come back into complete synchronization at regular intervals. The entire cycle length will probably be around 8 - 10 minutes if allowed to unfold naturally, but this can be shortened or lengthened in various ways.
Materials/Technology/Equipment/Gadget/System
- A pair of thin acrylic planes 12" x 15" crossing each other perpendicularly on their short side. One is clear, the other is a light blue grey.
- Six sets of these planes are arranged in identical orientation at 2.5' intervals along a 13' acrylic shaft.
- A stepper motor slowly rotates the shaft.
- 100 of these motor shaft sets are set up in a 10 x 10 configuration at 4.5 foot intervals to create an open form about 42' x 42' x 16' high.
- The 100 units are identical, replaceable and interchangeable. They are attached to a 10 x 10 grid of aluminum.
- All motors are connected to a computer which maintains the desired relationship of rotations speeds and positions.
Personal Comment
Cloud is very beautiful installation that made me dive more deeply into his work. I feel the artwork and the artist's have a nice correlation to one another, and I am appreciative for this project that has heightened my awareness of the art world and the world around me. I feel more interested in art now than ever before and am greatly appreciative for the digital media class, and assignments given throughout the course. I feel I am somehow better now for all of these new things that I have learned.
Images
Source:
http://homepage.mac.com/davidrokeby/home.html
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