In Slow Art, new media artists re-imagine speed through the paradigm of slowness.
SIGGRAPH 2008 Slow Art encompasses juried art from 41 artists meditating on fast and slow living in a landscape of technology. The goal of the collection is to investigate if the speed of our digital culture creates an oasis for contemplation or a hunger for yet more speed.
The artworks are categorized into four themes:
- Erosion, exploring the wear of time and repetition
- Hybrids, objects and interactions uniquely combining contrasting elements of old and new
- Rhythms, documenting patterns and play
- Traversal, discovering paths that define humans’ relationship to time
“In our fast-paced society, we often get caught up with enhanced productivity. We forget to stop, look, and listen to our surroundings. What are the consequences of bigger, better, faster, more?” asks Lina Yamaguchi, SIGGRAPH 2008 Juried Art Chair from Stanford University. “Through the platform of new media, 41 artists share condensed perceptions of time and interrogate the limits of performance, distance, desire, and respite.”
The SIGGRAPH 2008 Design & Computation exhibit presents curated pieces that explore digital fabrication technologies as well as analytical and generative design methods that connect the past and future, bridging vernacular with contemporary examples.
"The emergence of digital tools and methods used by contemporary architects and designers has been inextricably connected to developments in computer graphics throughout time," stated Lira Nikolovska, SIGGRAPH 2008 Chair of Curated Art from Autodesk, Inc. "The digital information with which designers work has provided new means for expression as well as a material that can be molded and reshaped in a radically different way. The works in this exhibit weave together the past and the present in many ways - whether through the evolution of computer graphics or otherwise."
Highlights of the SIGGRAPH 2008 Slow Art Gallery Include:
RealSnailMail
Vicky Isley and Paul Smith, aka boredomresearch - Bournemouth University, United Kingdom
RealSnailMail is a messaging service that uses real snails equipped with RFID technology to deliver messages to email recipients… or not.
Associative Audio Design
Dennis de Bel - Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam University of Applied Science, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
This piece illuminates the creation of music and sound by associated everyday objects such as sewing machines, vacuum cleaners, and record players. The combinations draw on similarities in form and function as well as wordplay.
Fold Loud
JooYoun Paek - Eyebeam Resident, USA
Fold Loud, a playful interactive interface, connects ancient and modern through a combination of origami paper-folding, vocal harmonies, and interactive technology.
Navigator
Jorn Ebner – Artist, United Kingdom
Paralleling the random nature of real-life decision-making, Navigator is a Flash-based world incorporating digital photographs and sound in animated sequences. Users amble through real and representational environments without knowing exactly where they will lead.
Phantasm
Takahiro Matsuo – Monoscape, Japan
Phantasm is an interactive installation in which participants take hold of a glowing sphere that releases a pale blue light as white butterflies appear from nowhere and a soft piano melody flows.
Skorpions: Kinetic Electronic Garments
Joanna Berzowska - Concordia University, Canada
Skorpions are kinetic electronic garments that integrate Nitinol, a shape-memory alloy, and custom electronics to move and change on the body in slow, organic motions.
Spacequatica
The Sancho Plan - Ed Cookson, Adam Hoyle, Lewis Sykes, Edd Dawson-Taylor, Olly Venning, United Kingdom
Spacequatica is an interactive descent into a musical ocean. This
immersive installation fuses live performance, animation, sound, music,
interaction design and gaming.
