Pink blossoms on youthful green leaves twirl and spin among
branches. As they dance, sometimes wildly and other times orderly,
the leaves darken into the rich green of summer, then to the red
and gold of fall, and finally to the bare branches of winter.
This is “Dervish,” a digital animation artwork piece
by UCLA Design|Media Arts Professor Jennifer Steinkamp.
“Dervish” is one of the many works in the
Design|Media Arts faculty exhibition, called “Second
Nature,” that blends art and technology.
The exhibition, located at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Center
at UCLA, is part of the inaugural exhibition of the new center, and
the works displayed there have traveled around the world.
With the advancement of technology in recent years, the boundary
between art and design is no longer a strict separation.
Increasingly, the two disciplines come together to create new media
of expression, according to an essay written by Christian Paul,
adjunct curator of new media arts at the Whitney Museum of American
Art in New York City.
Victoria Vesna, professor and chairwoman of the UCLA Department
of Design|Media Arts, who has artwork displayed at the exhibit,
said being a professor allows her to undertake more experimental
art that is not aimed at being sold to the general public.
“I don’t intend to sell works to the market. (The
works) are not something people want to collect on their
walls,” Vesna said.
Though many of the works are commissioned by museums, festivals
and other public events, some technology companies are also funding
these art projects, as they have functional uses as well.
The “Bush Soul” project, a series of virtual world
art by Design|Media Arts Professor Rebecca Allen was partially
sponsored by the Intel Research Council.
Mary Huang, a second-year Design|Media Arts student, said these
works by professors, who are also professional artists, help
students better understand their own art as well.
“I get to see what professors do in the real world. It
helps to understand what they are teaching better,” she
said.
The animation of the tree in “Dervish” is modeled
after a trance ritual of the dervishes, or priests, of the Mevlevi
order that practices the mystic tradition of Islam. Though the
movement is sometimes wild and frenzied, it is restricted by the
roots of the tree.
With some computer-created art, viewers can interact and become
a part of the work.
In Allen’s “Bush Soul #3,” viewers can
navigate the virtual environment using a joystick. The “Bush
Soul” series is created by interactive software that
generates virtual characters and environments. The software also
creates avatars, or graphic representations of the viewer, and
transports the avatars into the art piece.
The viewer can then control his or her avatar through the use of
a joystick and interact with the environment. The joystick also
provides the viewer with feedback of sensations and sounds of the
virtual world in which the avatar resides.
“We are told that in the not-so-distant future we will
spend hours immersed in three-dimensional virtual worlds,”
Allen wrote of her work in an essay. “The avatar becomes our
other body, another container for our spirit.”
Other works in the exhibit also showcase the hybridization of
art and technology.
“Process,” a series of works by Design|Media Arts
Professor C.E.B. Reas, uses math formulas and software to generate
complex prints that continuously add details to the works. Viewers
can touch the screen of the computer and watch it influence the
direction of the patterns being created.
Professors also collaborate with experts in science fields to
create their works.
Vesna worked with nano scientists, software engineers and sound
specialists for her work “Water Bowls.”
Vesna said one of the advantages she has as a professor at a
university is access to scientists with whom she can
collaborate.
The professor’s work consists of large bowls of water and
oil whose surfaces can be disturbed to generate different sounds.
When one stirs the water or drops coins into it, the disturbance of
the water is processed by a computer underneath the bowls and
amplified by microphones.
The computer helps to create different sounds for the bowls of
water; for the one containing oil, the sound is like that of a gong
““ strong and masculine.
“The oil bowl is more male, more aggressive,” Vesna
said.
The bowl in which the surface is broken by individual drops of
water makes a softer sound which Vesna described as more
poetic.
The water bowls were on exhibit in China in August and one bowl
was displayed in Italy as well. They have also been invited to be
displayed at a biotechnology and art exhibition in Spain in the
future.
The opera set designs created by Design|Media Arts Professor
Robert Israel have been used at the Metropolitan Opera, National
Operas in London and Tokyo, and the Paris and Vienna Opera.
To see photos of other faculty works in the exhibit,
click here.