Photographs from CoCA exhibition closing ceremonies 


This entry contains a set of images taken during the closing night festivities at the "People Doing Strange Things with Electricity, II" exhibition at the Center on Contemporary Arts and sponsored by dorkbot-seattle. I didn't capture photographs of all 31 of the exhibits, rather I concentrated on the ones which used lights and tried to capture some of the essence of the exhibit through a series of photographs or through manipulating the photograph. All the art works which are shown here are copyrighted 2005 by the artist or artist collaborators. 


Two views in one image of William J. Beatty's "Pond Machine." One dish is an image is of water puddles
slowly rippling and the other image appears to be of a sand dune but could be someone's skin. The concept
was to involve the visitor by watching these dishes as they projector cast its image down and to become
part of the exhibit by using the various images in the dishes to cause the visitor to think of organic elements
in their life. Original presentation is Copyright 2005 by William J. Beatty.



This image of the "Pond Machine" by William J. Beatty shows the two dishes with the projected image in
each. Each of the images changed very slowly over time and allowed the visitor to become involved in
the process by imagining each of the shallow dishes as a "viewer" into a larger reality or landscape. Art
is in the interpretation and Beatty's art philosophy tries to evoke the deeper meanings by providing the
viewer with a shallow "look" into something natural and allowing the imagination to take over. Original
presentation is Copyright 2005 by William J. Beatty.



Two superimposed images of another of William C. Beatty's artwork. This one uses fluorescent tubes attached to
a logic-driven power supply so that each bulb was "partially" lit with the light creeping slowly down from the top
of the tube to near the bottom. The fifty-or-so tubes were all individually controlled so the overall effect was one
of a moving wall of light (if one was far enough away) or of a set of light waves undulating back and forth (if one
was up close). Length of the artwork was on the order of 15 feet and top-to-bottom was the standard distance
for a regular 50-inch (or whatever they are) fluorescent tube. Fluorescent tubes are fascinating in their own
right - a single tube held by one end will glow if the user walks across a wool rug in a darkened room - light
sabers for everyone. They're even more fun with a static-electricity generator. Original presentation is
Copyright 2005 by William J. Beatty.



A compilation image of Donald C. Martin's "Quantum Atom." The concept behind this is that the quantum atom
changes state with the slightest input energy and a visitor touching the center of this artwork will effect a change
to the flow of plasma within the central glass area. The images on the left and right are of the central area with
both the plasma and LEDs changing color and shape based on my touching it and moving my finger around.
The text and dice surrounding the central plasma display recount several of the improbabilities associated with
quantum mechanics and show sets of dice as if drawn by M.C. Escher. Original presentation is Copyright 2005
by Donald C. Martin.



Three sideways-looking images of Eric McNeill's "Untitled (Portrait/Movement) artwork.
The top image is a landscape-format image taken at the intersection of the actual LED
array which forms the basis of the artwork and the illumination from those LEDs on a
blank wall. The blue line in the left of these images is Matt Stiger's "Untitled" artwork
showing through the thin wires holding the LEDs. Original presentation is Copyright
2005 by Eric McNeill.



Two more images, this time looking at Eric McNeill's "Untitled (Portrait/Movement)
head-on with the bottom image showing the "movement" of a person in front of the
LED's. The LED's were programmed using a real scene of someone walking in front
of a blank wall. The signal from the original video was used to feed this image array
of 16 X 16 LEDs. The concept is to present motion but do it through a significant
reduction in the "data" used to capture the original scene. Standing far back from
the artwork and watching it for several minutes one definitely gets the impression that
"someone" is walking in front of the LED array. The LED's were focused on the blank
wall behind which allowed the light to cone out and cover the wall effectively.
Original presentation is Copyright 2005 by Eric McNeill.



An image of Toby Paddock's "IMUF_008 - Impractical Methods for Unneeded Functions #8 aka 4x4x4 Little
Neon Blink-O-Grid." This is a very small exhibit, about a square foot and maybe three inches deep. The
concept is that the neon tubes - ancient technology - fire on one of the busses and their firing causes a circuit
to close causing other neon bulbs along that buss to light. The whole is fascinating to watch and is a visual
presentation of what using neon bulbs as relays might be like. It was difficult to capture photographically as
it was not only in a darkened room but a neon bulb doesn' t produce that much light even when it's lit.
Original presentation is Copyright 2005 by Toby Paddock.



Another view of Toby Paddock's artwork, this time using a few Photoshop tricks to bring out the layers of buss
wire inside the artwork. The mechanical construction and layout of the buss wires and neon tubes was very
Mondrian-like and worthy in its own right. Original presentation is Copyright 2005 by Toby Paddock.



Here are a few more views of Toby Paddock's "IMUF_008" showing the buss circuitry and a few of the neon bulbs
glowing. The original image data was seriously wanting, a condition which could have been ameliorated by
a camera with a higher ISO setting or by using real film. Original presentation is Copyright 2005 by Eric McNeill.



A set of Seth Lewis' "Sensory Reality Interface" robots on the floor of the Center on Contemporary Arts. These
"robots" were autonomous in that each one was powered and wired separately. The frame contains a vibrator
motor which causes the SRI robot to wiggle its way across the floor on the bottom set of acrylic finger molds.
Pushing against any of these robots with one's foot or hand would cause them to move in another direction.
Each SRI was also on a different timed cycle which allowed different robots to be "alive," move along and then
become dark and quiescent while another SRI did something. Original presentation is Copyright 2005 by
Seth Lewis.



Two views of m's "Bodhi" art and writing presentation. The exhibit is several layers of transparent and internally-
illuminated layers with poetry and art marks on each layer. The special edge-lighting which m uses allows the
viewer to experience different sets of words as they move around in front of the artwork. It's a complex, multi-
layer artwork which has more to show than one sees at first glance. Walking around in front of "Bodhi" reveals
different levels of message and shows different sets of layers - subtle and bold at the same time. The slight
reflection in the left of the panels is that of Donald C. Martin's "Quantum Atom," which was on the next corner wall.
Original presentation is Copyright 2005 by m.



These are four images of Matt Stiger's "Untitled" neon, glass and wood artwork. The two top images show my
hand interfering with the flow of plasma within the tube. The four bottom images show the results of my
manipulation. The plasma coils would react to hands or arms which were placed against and then run along
the tube. Once the hand or arm was removed the plasma would reverberate up and down and begin to go
into these spiral loops. Quite the light toy. Original presentation is Copyright 2005 by Matt Stiger.



Seven images of Scott Gasparian's "DC3" with six of the images lined up in a 3 X 2 array with the seventh image
being layered on top of the other six. "DC3" consists of a set of circuits inside a 12-inch cube made up of six
Fresnel lenses. Inside, the circuits react to user interaction with their hands on the surface of the Fresnel lenses
and cause the light-emitting devices inside to change colors and frequency of cycling through the colors. It was
suspended from one of the vertices so it presented itself as a hanging diamond. Each of the faces was lit with
a different set of illuminating devices (never determined if they were EL wire or LEDs or miniature lasers).
Fascinating and visually captivating and not that simple. The assembly was substantial and with the bulk
of the six Fresnel lenses was quite heavy. Original presentation is Copyright 2005 by Scott Gasparian.



Five superimposed images of another of Scott Gasparian's artworks - this one entitled "OrbiTron." Inside the
glass sphere were a series of LEDs which were mounted on a rotating axle at different positions along the axle.
The axle was powered by a sewing machine engine and spun around at incredibly high speeds causing the
individual light sources to blend into these bands of colored light. The circuitry inside also sequenced the
LEDs so that each level would light in a different color - all the while spinning so fast all that showed on the
frosted glass globe was the resulting mix of light. These images were taken in less than two minutes and
still didn't capture the entire range of colors and layers which the "OrbiTron" produced in that time. For a work
of art using an external motor, the "OrbiTron" was astonishingly quiet. I guess sewing machine motors have
very high RPMs and operate whisper-quiet. Original presentation is Copyright 2005 by Scott Gasparian.



Nothing to do with dorkbots or contemporary art except it IS contemporary art. This is the shop art inside an
auto detailing shop in Ballard and caught my eye during a recent art walk there. It's nice to know that neon art
is alive and well in Seattle.



And, still nothing to do with dorkbots OR contemporary art except it IS light art of a sort - another in a long line of
golden sunsets over Puget Sound.

more later,
Chas 

Posted: Fri - March 11, 2005 at 11:13 AM          

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