i saw the NY Times review of the new ica, and there was mention in it about a debate in the art world over the use of the web as art. the AIR show, and this project seem to wiegh in on “web as valid art medium” side of things. can you share some of your perspective about how art and the web, which might be more commonly seen as conduit, evolves into art?

One person’s conduit is another’s expressive medium. I would hope that the sum of the parts of this project is lesser than the totality it will create. As we particpate we weave something that did not exist before.

Jane’s work at the ICA is stimulating and thought provoing. it is interesting how deeply pictures can help us feel as well as think. Jane’s amentded “photos” made me feeling cold — brrr — and confused — the latter with regard to how they were created. They also sparked the thought of the usefulness of artistic expressions for campaigns about global warming. Perhaps an invitational show on THE PRESERVATION OF WHITE SPACES. There’s an art world pun in that since the gallery is often considered a neutral white space. More generally, I believe we need uncharted spaces, that are not covered by corporate or governmental “lines,” placards, images, etc. There the imagination can chart new visions. We need white spaces to break up the surfeit of words, sound bites, images, etc. which distract us from the real, etc.

Roger,
Just a quick explanation of the process of making the images here and then I’ll post more about it on the main page in a day or so–basically I get DEMs from glaciologists of arctic glaciers, choose a view, time of year, and quality of light, and then render that in a 3D landscape program, Teragen. I shoot the vaudeville performers in the studio and stitch the whole thing together in photoshop. More soon on the main posts about the inspiration from arctic explorers deep winter theatrical productions on the ice…

I’m going to respond to both these threads here. I’ve been so frustrated by the diffculties of getting the gallery viewers to look at work on a computer screen. People don’t go to galleries for that kind of reading or interactive digital experience. I think we have been trained culturally to expect a certain kind of aesthetic experience in a gallery, albeit one framed by a clearly defined historical and critical discourse. This is an experience of receiving, not of interaction or even giving. Certainly there are artists treading over these boundaries in non digital forms as well as in digital ones. And I can post more about this relational art another time. But suffice it to say that the process of reorganizing people’s needs in the gallery context is a long and fraught one for me as an artist. Not quite sure that answers your question exactly but its the answer that is foremost in my mind while trying to integrate this piece in to the new ICA building context.

interesting picture