The lobby of Ball State University's Art Museum was invaded by synthetic "life forms" emitting sound and blue light as part of a new exhibit opening today.
Engaging Technology: A History and Future of Intermedia, is an exhibition designed to educate students and the community about intermedia artworks, Tania Said, curator of education, said.
"What we're interested in in this show is focusing on the intersection of art and technology," Said said.
The exhibition features nine artists whose pieces range from an interactive software exhibit, videos with sound, mixed media pieces and a blue light display with customized software and hardware. On average, each artist took three to four days installing their exhibit, Said said.
As curator of education, Said said she wanted the exhibit to be fun, playful and interesting. To create Engaging Technology, the major exhibition of the school year, Said said the museum invited John Fillwalk, director of the Institute for Digital Intermedia, to be guest curator for the exhibit.
The artists selected to appear in the exhibition were chosen because their artwork represented multiple genres of intermedia art, Fillwalk said.
Bion, created by Adam Brown and Andrew Fagg, was created on-site and the arrangement of bions interact
with the traditional bronze statues located in the lobby, Said said. Bion is comprised of bions - h-shaped plastic casings which are designed to interact with each other and their surroundings - that are anchored to the ceiling with a telephone cord.
From a distance it sounds as though Bion emits a loud, never-changing sound. However, upon closer observation, it is discovered that each bion has its own sound with varying pitches and melodies.
The construction of Bion involved combining the efforts of the artists as well as multiple offices on campus, Said said.
"The carpenter shop, electric shop, electronics shop and even the communications shop were involved in creating this," she said.
The skylight in the art museum was temporarily covered to facilitate better viewing of the blue light activity in Bion.
Another exhibit is Messa di Voce, created by Golan Levin and Zachary Lieberman. Messa features an interactive software program in which museum patrons approach a stage and speak into a microphone. The program reacts differently to voice, depending on the setting it is on.
One way the program reacts is by creating balls on a projection. The duration and tonality of the voice speaking into the microphone determines how many balls are created. After a short period of time the balls on the projection descend on the patrons on stage. The patrons can interact with the piece by waving their arms at the balls and hitting them back and forth.
"I wanted to show the history thus far in digital electronic intermedia art," Fillwalk said.
Intermedia art was conceived in the 1960s, Fillwalk said. Hans Breder, the father of intermedia art, created the first degree program for intermedia art in 1968 at the University of Iowa.
Breder and several of the artists featured in the exhibit attended "Conversation with the Artists" on Thursday to discuss intermedia art and its role in society.
Intermedia art, as described by Breder, is an interdisciplinary convergence of media. Intermedia allows the artist to create their own style that does not fit into the mold of traditional artwork.
Engaging Technology is being featured because the museum's goal is providing access and promoting awareness of information, Said said.
In spring of 2006 Said said the museum played host to a program which displayed student's intermedia artworks. Ultimately from the event and reactions of visitors, the museum staff realized the community did not have a deep knowledge of intermedia art and often confused it with multimedia and commercial animation, she said.
Multimedia evolved into its own design element, Brown said. Intermedia bridges various philosophies of thought and provides an environment where anything is possible, he said.
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