On November 19, the White Box held its first Bring Your Own Beamer (BYOB) night showcasing video art in a one-night-only event.
Projections by Portland-based artists lit up the room as digital artists from University of Oregon and Eugene-based video art festival (Sub)Urban Projections presented collections characterized by an open atmosphere. (Sub)Urban Projections is an ongoing project that allows artists to experiment with new media and video art by transforming public spaces in downtown Eugene, OR.
In addition to video art, (Sub)Urban Projections finalist Jon Bellona let the audience use an iPad to splash a blank wall with quick, digital paint strokes. The interactive piece mimicked the ephemeral nature of graffiti art and combined new digital techniques with the aesthetic of street art. (We also spied a few tic tac toe games.)
Portland artist Hannah Piper Burns‘ projection “The Depths” sped through one of our more intimate spaces by connecting environments and allowing us access to web cam footage of her and her partner sleeping.
The artist and her partner filmed themselves sleeping in separate beds, miles away from each other to explore the connective ability of these digital technologies. Though the piece felt somewhat intrusive, the mood was balanced by its calm sleeping subjects. The artist used Skype to document the intimacy of the bedroom and present it in an hour-long time-lapse loop.
University of Oregon Digital Art students Brian Schmidt and Tyler Centanni‘s video collaboration was a dark-humored look into an increasingly violent interaction between strangers.
Michael J Cooper‘s projection “Why Do That” explored repetition through simple movements. The piece focused on obstructing the audience view of the whole scene as if covering our eyes. The fractured moments between each action were drawn out giving the viewer a sense of nostalgia.
A number of interactive pieces were installed in the Gray Box, the White Box interactive multimedia space.
Christine Thomas‘ “Untitled” gave us a different view of how we inhibit space. Thomas used a camera to capture movement and Isadora, a programming environment used to manipulate digital video in real time, to highlight four pockets of activity in the room. The audience found their image change based on their movement in the space.
Sorob Louie’s “ Interactive Bubble Matrix” was based on 3D depth sensing, creating 3D particles from 2D images. The piece did not intend to relay any information to the viewer however the piece proved to be very popular. The audience enjoyed interacting with the art piece by standing still and waiting for their form to emerge from the bubbles in the background, then quickly moving and seeing the bubbles rush up as if jumping into a pool of water. The art piece was engaging, allowing the audience to forget the barrier between digital and real space.
Donald Richardson’s interactive piece ”Colored Normals” used a Kinect camera to capture audience movement and relay back a colorful pixelated rendering.
Dustin Zemel showcased a few clips from his then upcoming exhibit in the Gray Box, titled SCOOP 6PM.
Dustin Zemel’s “SCOOP 6PM” explores the sensationalist nature of local news media broadcasts. The interactive piece allows the audience to pacify or agitate the news anchor and alter their ability to present local news. SCOOP 6PM is currently in the Gray Box through January 14, 2012.
