building_space_with_words is featured on Caught in the Act: Art in Brooklyn, on
Brooklyn Independent Television (Time Warner 56 and Cablevision 69). It was premiered on October 28 at 10 pm.

For the next month, it will repeat every Monday & Wednesday at 2pm & 10pm.

It’s also on their website:

http://www.bricartsmedia.org/community-media/brooklyn-independent-television/caught-in-the-act

I’ve just read about this installation which was exploring the relationship between the physical and the virtual space:

Constellations is a network music installation by Atau Tanaka connecting the physical space of a gallery to the imaginary space of the internet through sound and image. Visitors in the gallery navigate an onscreen universe of planets, invoking audio to stream into the gallery. The planetary system is the interface to a library of soundfiles existing on servers throughout the internet. Each planet represents a contribution from a different composer. The sounds coming from the network space resonate in the acoustical space of the gallery, connecting these two universes.

Last summer I described my experience of “playing the building”, an installation by David Byrne which was taking place in NY. When I moved to London this summer, as I was walking nearby Camden Town, I saw a big poster advertising “Playing the building”. Byrne had revived his work in the Round House, a building in Chalk Farm, close to Camden Town.

When  Aileen visited us in London, we went together - interested by this attempt to inhabit a material space allowing others to interact with it. I was also curious to see how similar and how different it will be. The concept was the same “a sound installation in which the infrastructure, the physical plant of a building is converted into a giant musical instrument” (David Byrne, 2005) and people were invited to interact. Yet, the feeling was very different. The space in New York was an old factory, the infrastructure was visible. The Round House is a beautiful building, also quite “raw”. However, the “infrastructure” seems less visible and thus it did not feel so much like “playing the building” - “building space with sounds”. Moreover, the round shape of the building made the wandering through the space more difficult.

A nice video done by Lily Henderson

As a follow up to my post on visualization, Tufte has explored ways to “embody”, “materialize” his research work presented in an exhibition, Seeing Around, currently at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum:

“Tufte’s monumental sculptures—including Larkin’s Twig, which stands 32 feet tall, and Rocket Science, which weighs 48,000 lbs—are partly a response to his own well–known books on analytical visual displays of data and information. Two–dimensional space—the flatlands of paper and the computer screen—inherently compresses and makes illusory the reality of the three–dimensional world. In contrast, outdoor sculpture provides endless and complex experiences of space, light, color, and airspace in nature’s full reality of three dimensions. Tufte’s outdoor artworks reside in the land, the trees, and the air. His essay on sculpture, Seeing Around, accompanies the exhibition.” (from the introduction to the exhibition on the website).

Interesting attempt to present research ideas in a different medium, using the language of art…

I am also intrigued by the move from a 2-D space (the flat representation of data on the piece of paper or on the computer screen) to the 3-D space as it was an important element in our work with Aileen: going from the flatness of words printed on paper or read on the screen to the maze created by projected text.

I’ve just read an article in the Business Weeks on Data Visualization: Stories for the Information Age. Maria Popova, the writer argues that with the new technology and the abundance of information we have (e.g. the NY Times and the Guardian opening their archives) “artists and designers are turning to data visualization to interpret the deluge of information around us, often with unexpected results”.

She contrasts data visualization with infographics, defining data visualization as “an interpretation, a different way to look at and think about data that often exposes complex patterns or correlations.

Data visualization is a way to make sense of the ever-increasing stream of information with which we’re bombarded and provides a creative antidote to the “analysis paralysis” that can result from the burden of processing such a large volume of information. “It’s not about clarifying data,” says Koblin. “It’s about contextualizing it.”

She interestingly stress the importance of what she calls the “the importance of creative vision along with the technical mastery of software”, i.e. highlighting the contextualizing or story telling process: “Data visualization isn’t about using all the data available, but about deciding which patterns and elements to focus on, building a narrative, and telling the story of the raw data in a different, compelling way.(…) It’s about the most ancient of social rituals: storytelling. It’s about telling the story locked in the data differently, more engagingly, in a way that draws us in, makes our eyes open a little wider and our jaw drop ever so slightly. And as we process it, it can sometimes change our perspective altogether.”

I really like how she links the current practice of data visualization enabled by new technology and the storytelling practice. It’s all about the (re-)enactment of a sociomaterial practice. I also like this idea of trying to think of data as a material to tell stories in a similar way that Aileen and I thought of using words to build a space.

I just think it would have been nice to have a reference to the work of people like Tufte who has explored the role of “envisioning information” as a contextual and narrative process in his numerous books - one of my favorite being Envisioning Information. Indeed it would be interesting to look at the current work (see the spreadsheet in the BW website) in the light of previous works.

Hello,

I just read an interesting article by Elizabeth Cline titled “Building Without Walls” in SEED Magazine, and I wanted to share it with you since I think it is related to our discussions on objects, spaces, design, art and science. I’ve already read similar discussions on this blog, so maybe this is a good opportunity for a second round of opinions.

Cline argues that “a new breed of architectural objects, inspired by theoretical science, is changing how we think about building and what counts as art.” She does that by referring to “Transitory Objects,” an exhibit at Vienna’s Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary gallery. The exhibit, according to Cline, goes forward in collapsing the boundaries between architectural objects, conceptual art, and theoretical science. Having that in mind, the architects embrace the impermanence of their work and engage in a process of producing structures that follow scientific laws and principles. As such, they are probably never finished, but continuously adapt to their environment and use.

I particularly like the argument of “letting go of determinist ideas of structural planning - suggesting that a city’s infrastructure should always be adapting.” However, I did not find an emphasis on the users or inhabitants of these structures as their co-producers or co-adapters. Cline repeats at the end of her article the idea of fragmentation and incompleteness in architectural design, and quotes Daniela Zyman (the curator of the exhibit) in saying that “the architect has to decide at which point the algorithm stops.” And the point of decision reflects the moment of maturation of the architect. I think the fluidity and openness of the structure actually invites the users to jointly select the algorithm, and thus, the architect is no longer a lone individual, but part of this ecology.

Going back to AL and Aileen’s installation, the question is what were its ‘walls.’ Beyond the physical walls and panels, my guess is that the biggest walls were those which facilitated predictability of the process. Same applies to this blog. Having said that, do we remove these walls and how? Or are we more interested in building temporary walls as reference points and guidance. I don’t think I’m very squared in my thinking, but its hard for me to hang a picture frame without any walls

Best,

Bojan

I heard, read and wrote  about The listening post by Hansen and Rubin but I never experienced it.

Today I went to the Science Museum with my kids as we were wandering in London… and I noticed on the museum map: 1st floor, Listening Post. Could it be? There can’t be many Listening Posts, can it? After doing all the interactive spots on the 3rd floor, I dragged my kids to the 1st floor and after a little bit of search found a sign “science art projects”. At the end of a corridor, there it was!

I really liked the piece although I wish it was not stuck behind a glass fence and that one could stand in front, walk around. People sat at there were seats in the middle of the room. I thought it took away some of the experience. People did not walk around. They just sat and “watched and listened”. I also realized that many people were puzzled. The audience was not right in a sense. People did not come to see art installations and they were not expected it, and they did not know how to interpret it, experience it.

Yet I was still very happy to see this work which in many ways is very close to the themes we explored with Aileen:words,online interactions, sounds. In a way Hansen and Rubin’s work highlights more the cacophony and the random aspect of the web, while we looked at the construction of connections, of relationships.

It was just a nice surprise and it made my day!

al

As a follow up to the discussion started with my post on the project, Taking From, Leaving in, Moving on, I thought that the installation “Waste Not” by the Beijing artist Song Dong is very relevant. It is currently at MOMA. I saw it last Friday before leaving for London.

The installation consists of objects collected by Song Dong’s mother during 50 years. “The assembled materials, ranging from pots and basins to blankets, oil flasks, and legless dolls, form a miniature cityscape that viewers can navigate around and through.”My first thoughts were for the concept of materiality, of evocative objects, of the importance of “stuff” in our lives when I first came in the space. My second thought was “His mother did not move!”. I had thrown so much before moving to London, and had been throwing so much before (which is hard for me who tend to get attached to objects, and who love my books - these I don’t throw them. I left a few behind, but only a few and I keep shipping them… ). It also reminded me Yasmine’s post: All what I own or another post by Yasmine: How much does home takes?

These are issues we started exploring with Aileen in a curating collaboration on neo-nomads, evocative objects and a sense of place, with Baseera Kahn at Rotunda Gallery planned for March 2011 (I know it seems far away… to us too! but it’s an exciting project. We’ll keep you posted).

al

An interesting article was posted by Jesse Shapins and Brian House (who collaborate on the Yellow Arrow) on the Urban Omnibus entitled Designers and citizens as critical media artists. They discuss their views on maps, cities, technologies and the role of art as a research practice.

Here are few themes and quotes that I found really interesting. I let you read the whole article and I’d be curious to read your thoughts.

On the method (which is a theme that emerged from our discussion on this blog - collaboration between artists and scientists, social scientists), they have several interesting points and a great quote:

“Art exists that one may recover the sensation of life; it exists to make one feel things, to make the stone stony. The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known. The technique of art is to make objects ‘unfamiliar,’ to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged.”

- Viktor Shklovsky, “Art as Technique” (1917)

Jesse and Brian note: “We wanted to stimulate another mode of urban practice that was based fundamentally in the physical, social spaces of the city. In other words, we wanted to get students out of the classroom and onto the streets. We were inspired by Shklosvky’s concepts of estrangement and “Art as Technique”, we then aimed to use media arts critically as a mode of research to gain new perspectives.”

On language and ” a mutually transformative relationship between language and the city”:

An interesting project they mentioned: ” One of the projects I’ve always found fascinating is ABCDF: A Graphic Dictionary of Mexico City. The general principal of this book is to re-define the city through a new form of dictionary. Thousands of words are defined by images from a wide variety of sources, ranging from the home photographs of ordinary citizens, to historical newsprints, to the work of famous contemporary artists. These images are complimented by short texts in a glossary at the back. What emerges is a highly detailed mosaic of the city that brings to life the everyday life of the metropolis.”

… and a project they develop for their students: “Furthering the language theme, we built on De Certeau’s understanding of walking through the city as an act of reading and writing. After each student defined around 35 words for their territory, the final assignment aimed to synthesize this material and create a series of design interventions in physical and virtual space. Writing in this new language, the core component of the students’ final project was to write a “poem” that linked together multiple words they had defined in their territory. In addition to the longer and visual media, students had to also now define their words in 140 characters as text messages. The poem would be read, then, as an SMS-based walking tour of their territory that poetically connects the words in physical space using the new vocabulary they have defined. We created the interface and the messaging infrastructure, which they could then script for their particular walks. The walks provided an experiential tour of the multiple layers of physical, social, historical and fictional qualities that students identified through their research throughout the summer.”

Go and check Periplurban their research platform

al