I’ve been told that the organizers that about 100,000 people tuned in to the live stream (though not simultaneously), which kinda turned upside down my whole perception of the event and my experience with audience.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Other artists in the presentation: Machiko Kusahara, Ryota Kuwakubo, Toshio Iwai, Theo Jansen, Sachiko Kodama, Maywa Denki.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Off World is a 24-hour, month-long interactive public installation part of the 2009 Contact Toronto Photography Festival. It is an exhibition of photographs and video by filmmaker Mateo Guez and commissioned by curator Sanaz Mazinani, realized in situ as a 24-hour interactive public installation by me, Andrew Mallis.

The exhibition ran all of May 2009 at CAMERA, an extension of the Stephen Bulger Gallery, located at 1028 Queen Street West, in Toronto, Canada.

the video is intended to be played vertically. Just tilt your head.

Using the Processing language, an image of da Vinci’s La Jaconde – the most reproduced image in the world – is corrupted over time. With each conversion between image formats, a frame is recorded. The title coyly references Marcel Duchamp’s 1919 readymade.

Simulations of reality are prevalent in the video games and cinematic effects that substitute for the immersive space once offered exclusively by painting. As mental landscapes adjust themselves to these new realities, painting offers a visual language established through historical precedent that favors contemplation.

Interaction with digital technology is, for most of us, an important part of our everyday experience. The post-industrial economy has shifted the worker from the factory to the office desk, from the lever to the mouse.

In an age of almost exclusively digital reproduction, the last bastions of analog recording are visibly fading. In recent years, Kodak has imploded buildings previously dedicated to paper operations, signaling not the timely death of the analog, but rather its deliberate annihilation.

With what fidelity are we reproducing our environ- ment? What impact does the pixelization of the visible spectrum have on our perception? Lossy compression reduces file size by sacrificing pixel fidelity for an ap- proximation, for pre-determined patterns.

YouTube’s phenomenal popularity is unhindered by the poor resolution and low sound quality of the site’s (massive) video archive. This speaks to a wetted appetite for content, story, meaning over glamour, high production value, and form. In the context of our everyday experience becoming increasingly mediated, we must to ask ourselves: how lossy do we want our reality?

the Duchamp original, circa 1919

“Visual culture of the modern period, from painting to cinema, is characterized by an intriguing phenomenon: the existence of another virtual space, another three-dimensional world enclosed by a frame and situated inside our normal space.”

Lev Manovich, An Archeology of a Computer Screen
NewMediaTopia. Moscow, Soros Center for the Contemporary Art, 1995

Many modern painters actively use digital photographic sources for photo reference, even painting along side their computer screens. The “live model” is in this case dead, frozen in screen-space even before it is observed by the painter. The subject-object relationship implodes as the artist involves themselves in an act of media translation. The artist’s mark is left on the image like artifacts in JPEG compression.

Net Change is a week-long event designed to explore how social technology can bolster social change, presented by the Social Innovation Generation team at MaRS.

I heard about an art competition over email, entered, and ended up winning. I really don’t think they should have called it an “Art Show”, as it ended up being more of a branding experience for the event. Nevertheless, it was really nice to be associated with such a great event, many of whose participants are also my colleagues at the CSI.

Read about the art competition on netchangeweek.ca

Just in time for the closing party this Sat, May 30 7-9 @ Camera Bar. Come by one and all.

I put up a page of other press itemss on the offworld site; let me know if you spot anything else out there.

Off World is an exhibition part of the 2009 Contact Toronto Photography Festival.

It is a street-level public installation that runs 24/7 during the month of May.

The project is the result of a collaboration between filmmaker Mateo Guez, myself, Sanaz Mazinani’s curatorial efforts via the Stephen Bulger Gallery, and with funding from Motorola Canada.

The installation features 11 looped videos playing on cell phones, accompanied by an illuminated text panel. While watching the videos, images are sent directly to your cell phone, either via Bluetooth or email.

It was very important to me that the technology not get in the way of experience the work, but rather enhance the user experience and deepen the reading of the work. The presentation is, formally, designed to provide an intimate experience in video viewing – highlighting the personal connection that we have with our mobile devices. The arrangement of the screens brings people shoulder to shoulder, in turn drawing onlookers who, in the act of waiting are presented with affordances that encourage them to read instructions for, and engage with, the interactive component of the piece.

It’s not that often that a project I have in my mind materializes in the real world with such fidelity. I’m torn between thinking it’s either a testament to foresight and planning, or evidence of my hard-headedness. I certainly was dogged for an entire evening about this by Sanaz and Nick, as they were weeding out the small-ish vinyl lettering in the façade, but I feel the extra work in the end made for a much stronger installation. I think it looks particularly stunning at night.

The project faced many challenges. The most dramatic involved the vinyl application. The vinyl guys ordered special vinyl from the States that would be easier for us to remove later. It got held up at customs. Vinyl gets applied wet. I didn’t know this. You basically spray the stuff and window, apply, then squeegee out the water. There’s a kind of glue on the vinyl which cures. Ours didn’t. The new vinyl reacted chemically with the old solution and the window was all gross and streaky. We crossed our fingers, slept on it, but were forced to tear the whole thing down and apply traditional vinyl the next day. Drama.

Another really big blow was the wall we hit in developing an MMS application. I really wanted to keep the installation simple technically for users, and make it accessible to as wide a range of handsets and carriers as possible. MMS is like next generation SMS (text messaging) that supports attachments like ringtones, videos, or photos. The idea was: you call a number you get photos back. Simple – in theory.

We had a working MMS application, but had to pull it at the last minute. We couldn’t get it working across all carriers. Here’s what I think it comes down to: Candian carriers have discovered something else they can sell: picture messaging. Except, picture messaging exists only as a marketing construct. Really, it’s MMS. Everywhere else, you can receive an MMS for about $0.50, but here the tap is  off unless you buy a monthly package. If you have a data plan, you’re good, but I wanted something simple and accessible out of MMS. Ahh… mobile development in Canada…

I really hope you have a chance to check the installation out.

Find out more it here: http://offworld.bulgergallery.com

STEPHEN BULGER GALLERY & CAMERA

MAY 1 – 31
24-hour street-level installation
OPENING RECEPTION MAY 2, 2 – 5PM

1028 Queen St W, Toronto   M6J 1H6
(416) 504-0575
info@bulgergallery.com

installation shots:

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