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DIGITAL
TRANSPOSITIONS
May 18
- 28, 2010
You
are cordially invited to the
opening
of an exhibition by post-graduate
students of the Ljubljana Academy of
Fine Arts and Design, Department of
Video and New Media in collaboration
with students of the Ljubljana Faculty
of Computer and
Information Science,
Computer Vision
Laboratory, on Tuesday, 18 May, at
8pm in Škuc Gallery.
Artists - Coding :
Mirjana Batinić
- Klemen Istenič, Matej Žakelj,
Artur Felicijan
& Andraž Sedmak - Andrej
Štrajhar, Nejc Trnjanin, Miha Zorec,
Alen Floričić
- Ivan Majhen,
Ana Grobler
- Matija Novak,
Matija Jašarov
- Miha Boh, Marko Jurinčič,
Dominik Mahnič
- Klemen Nagode;
Ana Schaub
- Darja Eržen, Iztok Žužek,
Dorian Španzel
- Rok Burgar, Matevž Pogačar,
Sonja Vuk
- Tadeja Kadunc, Anže Rehar,
Joanna
Zajac-Slapničar
- Marko Drevenšek
Tutors: prof.
mag. Srečo Dragan (ALUO), asist.
dr.
Borut Batagelj (FRI)
Guiding tour
of the exhibition will take
place on Tuesday, 25 May, at 6pm.
Years of
collaboration between the Department of
Video and New Media at the Academy of
Fine Arts and Design (AFAD, University
of Ljubljana) and the Computer Vision
Laboratory of the Faculty of Computer
and Information Science (FRI, University
of Ljubljana) have given rise to a
Laboratory Institute for Media Art of
the University of Ljubljana (LIMAUL),
which will be located in a planned art
academy campus in Ljubljana. As an
experimental research platform, the
laboratory enables students to produce
and present art projects that – through
the creative use of the contemporary
media and technologies, the introduction
of technological and scientific
procedures, and the utilisation of
engineering and programming know-how –
express the need for an
interdisciplinary approach as a mode of
contemporary artistic practice.
As part of a
project-based post-graduate course at
the Department of Video and New Media at
AFAD, galleries and festivals in
Slovenia and abroad annually host some
of the original projects that are
transposed from the laboratory setting
to various public venues. In Škuc
Gallery, Prof. Srečo Dragan presents his
selection of this year’s post-graduate
course production. Ten projects – some
are debuts presenting possible further
elaborations, and others are upgrades of
previous versions – each through their
authors’ individual sensibility, explore
the individual’s role in contemporary,
technology- and science-driven society.
The interplay of interactive and
responsive installations and web based
projects executed in the logic of
contemporary media artworks that imply
interactivity, participation,
performativity, processuality, etc.
disclose a spectrum of topics that
relate directly to our simultaneous
presence in the different spaces
(physical, virtual, augmented,
cell-space, etc.) of technological
reality.
Through immersion in the
imagery of the digital meta-archive
which corresponds to the word, phrase,
clause, number, symbol or sign that a
user enters into a web browser, Dominik
Mahnič in his project Images of a
Word on the one hand draws a
parallel between the functioning of
computer software and associative
processes in a human, while on the other
presenting data-space as an extension of
the physical habitat. Other artists
exploring augmented and virtual spaces
as research paradigms in contemporary
media art include Mirjana Batinić,
Joanna Zajac-Slapničar and Alen Floričić.
In her interactive installation
Toying with Words until they Lose their
Meaning, Batinić addresses viewers
through a live online stream of world
news which each viewer fragments to the
point where they make no more sense by
entering and moving about the text
field. By abstracting the visual and
sonic landscape, Batinić metaphorises
the omnipresence of information which
invades both public and private spaces
through a constant layering of static
and dynamic images and text messages. In
her installation Let’s Look!,
Joanna Zajac-Slapničar focuses on the
function of the gaze and methods of
observation, and highlights the
possibilities of tracking and
controlling augmented space. Alen
Floričić explores the merging of the
real and virtual worlds, transposing the
visitor who enters a designated area
into a virtual environment where the
visitor experiences an avatar which
generates sound and moves as it reacts
to the visitor’s presence. The project
Soundswitch by Matija Jašarov
revolves around increasingly present
intelligent architecture and smart
objects that react to users’ needs and
habits, and awareness of the ecological
aspect of living. Ana Grobler’s
Pleasure Treasure, an interactive
play in the making, acknowledges the
possibility of a love affair in a
digital environment. A criticism of the
pornographic industry, which mainly
targets the heterosexual male, the
interactive game offers the user a wide
variety of avatars (including
non-anthropomorphic), original locations
and accessories. Ana Schaub explores the
identification of individuals with
fictional characters in Superheroes 2,
an online portal where registered users
can post text, pictures and videos to
express their experience of, and
exchange opinion about, the superheroes
of our time. In an installation entitled
Which Game Do you Play?, Sonja
Vuk explores youth violence as a result
of excessive immersion in the world of
action films and computer games, and the
lack of communication skills required to
resolve conflicts. The projects New
Church and
Altarium Verum
invite us to reconsider the role of
religion, its symbols and rituals in
contemporary society, by adapting the
service and transforming a sacred object
intended for the modern user entangled
in the network of digital accessories
and extensions. By automating the act of
confession through a visual application,
Artur Felicijan and Andraž Sedmak, in
their project The New Church
usurp the intermediary role of the
Christian Church and provide for an
objective interpretation of the Bible in
relation to set parameters and the
content of the user’s confession.
Similarly to his previous project
Verwandlung, in which he transformed
the use of the cross as a religious
symbol, Dorian Španzel has this time
designed an inflatable mobile altar, the
Altarium Verum, which enables the
user to activate one of the three
available scenarios that, through
additional sonic and visual effects,
represent heaven, hell and purgatory.
Rather than focusing on
finished artefacts – that they are not –
the exhibition highlights the processual
nature of the works on show and the
sensibility of younger-generation
artists regarding contemporary issues,
while demonstrating that the initiative
promoting collaboration between students
of AFAD and FRI is of paramount
importance.
- Sandra Sajovic
Thanks:
prof. dr. Franc Solina (dekan FRI
UL), Delavski dom Trbovlje, Ljudmila
http://black2.fri.uni-lj.si/
The
programme of Škuc Gallery is supported
by Ministry of
Culture of the Republic of Slovenia
and
Cultural Department of the City of
Ljubljana.
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