Visual Arts Gallery
601 West 26th Street, 15th floor
New York City
http://www.mfaca.sva.edu
School of Visual Arts (SVA) presents the “MFA Computer Art Thesis Exhibition 2008,” bringing together selected thesis projects from MFA Computer Art Department students. Curated by faculty member Russet Lederman, the exhibition will be on view from May 27 through June 7 at the Visual Arts Gallery in Chelsea.
This exhibition presents nearly 50 projects, including experimental video, networked media, video installation, non-narrative and narrative 3D animation, interactive installation and performance. The artists use current technologies to explore their inner selves, the outer world and how their relationship to one another and their environment is mediated through technology.
Anney Bonney’s video and sound installation Rain Remediation explores the refashioning of previous analog technologies through new media. Finding support in Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin’s theory of remediation, this work stimulates our imagination by presenting an immediate experience of falling rain through a hypermediated video and sound environment.
Another project is Hernan Ricardo Gonzalez’s mobile device and video installation, entitled Displaced Narrative, which explores the social plight of displaced persons in Colombia, South America. Narrative simulations are displayed on a portable device that uses GPS and shares characteristics with interactive computer games. The user explores these narratives as they move through real, as well as virtual, space that parallels the tragic migration of Columbia’s large displaced population.
Alex Frenklakh’s animation, Big Commission is a story of a portrait painter who is confronted with a challenging high profile commission. Asked to paint a famous general with a big facial mole, Frenklakh’s film humorously conveys the message that there is value in being proud of one’s
unique features.
Six of the projects to be exhibited were recently named semi-finalists in the 2008 Adobe Design Achievement Awards. Of these, Elizabeth Lattanzio’s Schools of Thought is a website that explores the collective unconscious described by Carl Jung through multi-user interaction involving graphics, URLs and words from Wikipedia and Google. Another is Illusion Clinic (Case Study No. 3 Endings) by Hui-Lun Lai presents a fictional interactive story that explores memory modification in a website and DVD.
The Visual Arts Gallery, located at 601 West 26th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues, 15th floor, is open Monday through Thursday, 10am to 6pm; Friday, 10am to 5pm; Saturday, 10am – 6pm and is closed on Sundays and public holidays. Admission is free. The gallery is accessible by wheelchair. For further information call 212.592.2145.
School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City is an established leader and innovator in the education of artists. From its inception in 1947, the faculty has been comprised of professionals working in the arts and art-related fields. SVA provides an environment that nurtures creativity, inventiveness and experimentation, enabling students to develop a strong sense of identity and a clear direction
of purpose.
For more information go to: http://www.mfaca.sva.edu