I take archetypical, religious ideals to generate images. I filter these concepts through a hyperdigital aesthetic lens driving the viewer to question the work and its intention. There is an element of the work that may seem ostentatious or antagonistic in relationship to the iconography used. This dance between possible antagonism and superfluous exaltation, seriousness and absurdity begs the viewer to question the integrity and meaning of the work. The art in turn invites the viewer to question their own relationship to the iconography and concepts at play.
The work is hyperdigitalized in hopes to bring about some distance from the commonplace judgments associated with iconography. So often archetypal heroes are rendered in a naturalistic aesthetic as to show their humanness and give them a sense of reality. The aesthetically holographic archetypes highlight the importance of a metaphorical interpretation of said figures. A digital work is created in the liminal digital space in which references the intangible vs the literal. In the ARchetypes images the metaphorical interpretation has become the physical tangible object and the original physical works have become intangible in augmented cyberspace.
This work points at the subtle uncultivated attention of our modern society. The Attention Videos are conceptually driven by facial recognition code. The code can detect a face and recognize if that face is looking at the screen . The video installations have a lock and key system built into them by means of interactivity, wherein the true nature of the work doesn't present itself until supplied with the key of one's attention. Through a reversal, the devices that consume our viewing time and hijack our attention turn into an allies rather than opponents. In this “fight fire with fire approach”, I use interactive video to point at the attention siphoning phenomenon that often goes unnoticed. The works try to redeem the gripping qualities these mediums possess that often get exploited.
Works created with a home brewed method of digital collage, which includes abstracting previously created 2D works as well as neural network stylized imagery, combined with classical collage techniques.
"Still Here VR"
This is a collaboration project I'm working on with Brandon Williams. We took one of his great prints "Still Here" and I turned it into a Virtual Reality Environment.
http://www.brandonwilliamsart.com/
Gettysburg Address VR is an exploration of time travel and documentary techniques in virtual reality. I really stepped out of my comfort zone on this project as most of my works are sort of non physical in nature. In this experience I recreated a portion of the Gettysburg National Cemetery for the user to walk through. The focal point of the cemetery is the Soldiers National Monument. Which the National Parks Service generously let me use for my project. Upon reaching the monument the user is invited to walk through a portal. Upon entering the portal the user is transported into a room in which President Lincoln is writing the Gettysburg Address. Within the room lies another flickering, black and white portal. When the user steps through this last and final portal they are transported to the moment of the speech. The user then assumes the role of Lincoln and gives the speech.
I represented the crowd as modern people to portray the timelessness of this great moment. Lincoln said "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but can never forget what they did here." The world will never forget either of these instances as the Gettysburg Address will go down in history as one of the most important speeches of all time. Making this experience was a great pleasure and i'm excited to witness the potential of virtual reality to immerse people within these profound moments in time. It was fulfilling to watch the young people smile and be excited about this technology, all the while subliminally going through an educational and historic event. I think virtual reality has a very powerful quality to get people excited for learning and experiencing new things first hand.
(Download link coming soon)
An axial plan, a linear narrative through three-dimensional space. Archetypal expressions from myth emerge from our human comprehension of mortality, Death is the universal circumstance we all have in common. Various figures have emerged over the course of history, that deal with our personal non-existence. The first portion is a material conglomeration of archetypes involved with death from various cultures (Greek, Egyptian, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, and Americas). The second space is a representation of death and nothingness or the void. The last space is the everything-ness within the nothingness. The void does not exist it's a singularity.
Download Link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByZh_Ml2miqFaG1zS3dFalhmbVk
Music:
Krishna Das - Devi Puja
3-D models:
I used the base meshes for the sculptures from Scan the World. I then made a collage of different elements in Unreal Engine and Zbrush to form the final objects.
Scan the World project:
myminifactory.com/category/scan-the-world
The premise of this project is to let the community fuel the subject matter of the experience. This virtual reality project is compiled from top ten most popular 3-D models from "Scan The World". This company is a hub for 3-D scanned sculpture where people can download the models and 3-D print them. The user starts the experience at the least popular model and works their way to the most popular.
https://www.myminifactory.com/scantheworld/
Music:Requiem in D minor, K. 626 - VIII. Communio - Lux aeterna (For Voices and Recorder Ensemble - Papalin)
https://musopen.org/music/3891/wolfgang-amadeus-mozart/requiem-in-d-minor-k-626/
3-D Models:
1 - Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican
https://www.myminifactory.com/object/pieta-in-st-peter-s-basilica-vatican-3796
2 - Venus de Milo at The Louvre, Paris
https://www.myminifactory.com/object/venus-de-milo-at-louvre-paris-1657
3 - The Vitruvian Man Sculpture at Belgrave Square, London
https://www.myminifactory.com/object/the-vetruvian-man-sculpture-at-belgrave-square-london-1669
4 - The Thinker at the Musée Rodin, France
https://www.myminifactory.com/object/the-thinker-at-the-muse-rodin-france-2127
5 - Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai
https://www.myminifactory.com/object/burj-khalifa-tower-118
6 - Michelangelo's David in the Accademia di Belle Arti of Florence, Italy
https://www.myminifactory.com/object/michelangelo-s-david-in-florence-italy-2052
7 - Marwari Horse Head Sculpture at Marble Arch, London
https://www.myminifactory.com/object/marwari-horse-head-sculpture-at-marble-arch-1576
8 - Julius Caesar at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
https://www.myminifactory.com/object/julius-caesar-at-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art-new-york-6330
9 - Winged Victory of Samothrace at The Louvre, Paris
https://www.myminifactory.com/object/winged-victory-of-samothrace-2073
10 - Statue of Liberty in Manhattan, New York
https://www.myminifactory.com/object/statue-of-liberty-in-manhatten-new-york-2077
Entrance - Brandenburg Gate
https://www.myminifactory.com/object/brandenburg-gate-3865
A collection of experiments, studies and projects in film.
Fractals are perpetually unique, you could explore the same fractal countless times and always see something new. Right now I have 2D images and 3D videos, but I hope to merge this type of imagery with virtual reality. I feel being immersed into one of these fractalscapes has the potential to induce a grand sense of awe. I should be able to achieve this by 360 video.
A strand of code reads an audio file while simultaneously generating a 3-D object. The 3-D objects shape is random for the most part but does spike in size and direction based off of the volume and inflection of the audio file given.
This project is meant to convey the concept of Visible Language. Similar to watching clouds in the sky what does the viewers imagination see in the fluctuating shapes and what does it say about their relationship to the verbal artwork itself?
