Catalog
of the Art Exhibition about "Life"
For the Interdisciplinary Tour of the Human Condition
held at Stanford University on January 19, 2012 @ 6:30pm-9:30pm
Cubberley Auditorium, School of Education, Stanford Univ
Miu-Ling Lam's intercontinental sound installation "Streaming Nature"
Synopsis:
Streaming Nature is a live relocation of sound from nature to where nature does not exist. It is an interactive installation that connects the audience to nature environments in real-time by sound. It relocates the live soundscape of Antarctica, Pacific Ocean (underwater) near Maui, South Africa and Seal Island (off coast Rockland) to the phone network. Participants are invited to make local phone calls (using their own cell phones) to listen to the sound at these nature sites. No sounds are pre-recorded.
The experience is enhanced by viewing a visualization of world map, represented by clusters of particles, which swarm under the influence of waves. The locations of nature sites on the map are indicated by LCDs, which also show the phone number and local time of the corresponding site. Any phone call made by participants will trigger a local disturbance at the site being called, and the disturbance will generate waves which imitate sound vibrations, and slowly propagate out and influence the entire world.
Sound is essentially particle vibration, resulting in mechanical waves. Therefore, listening to sound from a distant environment is a process of experiencing the mechanical activities in that distant location.
Real-timeliness implies spaceless. Technology sets us free from the limit of distance. This work facilitates a system to contact with nature for anyone at anytime from anywhere by streaming nature soundscape to the phone system - which is readily accessible to most people.
Natural and unnatural are opposite but interwoven. While bringing the audience "closer" to Mother Nature, this work subtly controverts against itself on several fundamental questions: Does the use of technology make us closer or further away from nature? Is embedding technology in nature an intervention?
Miu Ling Lam is a Hong Kong and Los Angeles based researcher and media artist. She obtained her PhD at The Chinese University of Hong Kong with a focus in robotics and wireless sensor network. She then moved to University of California Los Angeles where she redirected her research to bioinformatics and physical intelligence, and began her art practice. In 2011, she was one of the featured artists at the Hong Kong Mega Art Event Microwave Invention and Intervention. Her artworks have been exhibited in North America and Asia. She has been invited to speak at the Leonardo LASER Lecture Series and the China Academy of Art.
Robert Buelteman's cameraless photograph
"Green Mandala - The Wheel of Life"
Synopsis:
The application of high-voltage electrical currents and hand-delivered fiber optic light can create fine-art photographs of living plants through a creative process inspired by Japanese ink-brush painting and improvisational jazz.
I seek, through my art, to make life itself present. As a photographer, I have labored through the years to celebrate life's energies through camera and lens. By forsaking these traditional tools, my new work embraces life but also the mystery that are embedded in it.
Bio:
Robert Buelteman is an artist whose commitment to growth is reflected in his photographs, portraying the universe as alive and life as purposeful. Whether examining the grand landscape or inquiring into the life of plants, his print work is a powerful extraction of beauty and substance revealing unrecognized dimensions in the commonplace.
He developed his love of the landscape as a child growing up in the small town of Woodside on the peninsula south of the city of San Francisco. From his family home he looked out on the Santa Cruz Mountains, whose deep canyons, redwood groves, and daily tides of ocean-borne fog inspired the veneration of life and light that appear in his work today.
Buelteman has published fifteen photographic portfolios over his thirty-three years in photography, and three of these, The Unseen Peninsula (1994), Eighteen Days in June (2000), and Signs of Life (2009) were published as monographs. In 1999, he left photographic tradition behind in creating Through the Green Fuse, a portfolio of extraordinary images made without the use of cameras, lenses, or computers.
As a result of the success of this new work, Buelteman was appointed to be the Artist-in-Residence at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico in 2003. In 2006 he completed work on two new portfolios, Sangre de Cristo, the flora of Santa Fe, and Rancho Corral de Tierra, the flora of his hometown of Montara located on the North coast of California. In 2008 this new work was recognized with a Gold Award in B&W Magazine's prestigious single image competition.
Invited to be a guest at Stanford University's Jasper Ridge Biological preserve in 2009, Buelteman began a new body of work deepening his artistic inquiry into the design of life.
He has received accolades from institutions as diverse as the United States Congress, the Commonwealth Club of California, Committee for Green Foothills, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. In 2010 his art was the subject of essays in 19 languages on six continents around the globe. It can be found in public and private collections worldwide, including the Yale University Art Museum, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield & Byers, Bank of America, Adobe Systems, Stanford University, Xerox, and Nikon.
Bathsheba Grossman's CAD/CAM sculpture in metal "Biomorphs"
Synopsis:
I have been mainly a geometrical sculptor, using CAD software along
with many types of mathematical and handtooled code to create forms that
are both algorithmic and designed, with a high degree of symmetry and
systematisation.
I'm an artist exploring the region between art and mathematics. My work is about life in three dimensions: working with symmetry and balance, getting from the origin to infinity, and always finding beauty in geometry.
That's to say, I like to think about shapes, and occasionally I think of a new one, and usually they come out very symmetrical. I'm like any artist in that it's difficult to explain how and why this happens.
Apparently I've studied more math than most artists. I don't use it very directly - I wouldn't call myself a mathematician, and most of my designs are drawn rather than computed - but it's plain that my creative engine is interested in this.
I like technology. 3D printing in metal is my main medium now, and I also work with subsurface laser damage in glass. This isn't because I love gadgets, it's much more trouble to do this than to use the mature tech that most sculptors enjoy. I do it because the shapes I have in mind aren't moldable, and I want to make a lot of them. Those two constraints, taken together, turn out to be remarkably constraining: most traditional sculpture technology simply doesn't operate on un-moldable objects.
Recently I have seen a series of life-like or
biomorphic forms emerging from this matrix.
Bio:
Bathsheba Grossman is a mathematical sculptor, instantiating her own designs as well as scientific illustrations as 3D physical objects. She is a pioneer in the use of freeform fabrication in metal for art, as well as 3D laser etching in glass.
"I have a grass-roots business model. I don't limit editions, I price as low as costs permit, and most of my selling is direct to you, by way of this site. My plan is to make these designs available, rather than restrict the supply. It's more like publishing than like gallery-based art marketing: we don't feel that a book has lost anything because many people have read it. In fact it becomes more valuable as it gains readership and currency. With the advent of 3D printing, this is the first moment in art history when sculpture can be, in this sense, published. I think it's the wave of the future."
Mark Wagner's digital collage "Green Man - The Digital Life of Nature (Guardian Series)"
Synopsis:
The Green Man is an archetypal figure found in many cultures around the world. He symbolically represents rebirth, renaissance, the cycle of growth each spring, and new Life. I've been recently digging more deeply into photo realistic elements in my concept art for future work. I created a Guardian Series which this piece is a part of. This is for Nature, the other one for Animals, the other for War. I've been learning a new 3D painting sculpture program called ZBrush. I created the initial face and figure in ZBrush and then added other photographic elements using Photoshop. Eyes, nose, mouth, tattoos, snake skin, moth, butterfly, flowers, leaves, and water drops. It's really a photo collage. My goal is to connect pieces until the art takes on a life of it's own, so that it can walk in the world all by itself. I want it to have, or mirror a soul clear enough you can see, recognize, and remember a part of yourself that was forgotten or just needs to be here now.
Bio:
Mark Wagner is a digital and traditional artist, and educator. He has been involved in the film industry as a concept artist and consultant, in addition to his work as graphic designer, illustrator, author, musician, and fine artist. He is currently working with the Smithsonian Institution, Museum of Natural History where the Paleo Indian department is featuring his artwork throughout their new web site. Wagner worked at Pixar Studios on the new Disney feature film John Carter, and has worked on other films; Terminator 3, DreamKeeper, and The Book of Stars.
Wagner's work is the combination of nature, spirit, and the human race. Deeply rotted in shamanism, mythology, psychology his imagery is science fiction and fantasy based with an intention to bridge the unseen worlds into the present moment allowing the flow of imagination, inspiration, intuition, transformation, and evolution. His heros are Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell and he is deeply inspired by electronic music. Wagner moved from art school at Pratt Institute in Brookln NY to the high desert plains of New Mexico in the mid 80's. He's been involved in Native American Indian ceremony for over 30 years.
Wagner was brought into the digital art world in 1983 with an NEA grant to experiment with a computer that was worth a million dollars, filled a room, and had 8 colors. In 1995 Wagner fully moved into the digital world. He found the computer and creativity to be an easy connection which lead him into being the lead artist and assistant art director in the game industry. He began to teach digital art in graduate school, computer art colleges, and prison and now uses the computer in all of his creative projects.
Wagner is also an internationally know street painter and chalk drawing artist. He founded the 501(c)3 nonprofit Drawing on Earth that inspires art and creativity in youth and communities around the world. Their first project set a Guinness World Record for the largest chalk drawing. Their current project is an Global Illustrated Story. You can see more of his work at www.heartandbones.com, and www.drawingonearth.org
Sydell Lewis's painting "Sea Light"
Synopsis:
"Sea Light" a 36"x36" abstract painting is part of my "Life Sustaining" rotating painting series inspired by the essential elements for life on this planet: water, air and energy. Images of other paintings from this series can be viewed on my website ( http://www.sydellart.com) . These striated paintings are mounted on rotation devices so the observer can experience all horizontal, vertical and diagonal positons. Viewing paintings in this manner is similar to how we view sculpture, except that instead of walking around the art work we are still and the work moves. This process which brings focus to the surprises and benefits of looking at art from different viewpoints is a metaphor for the importance of looking at life from different points of view and seeing different truths, an action that is critical for the solution of many of life's problems that we face in private and as a society.
In addition to being a painter and printmaker I am a former chemist with an understanding of the building blocks of life and a ballroom dancer with a passion for the harmonic movements of life. My painting combines elements of both disciplines. The juxtapositions of hard edge rendering and sensual organic forms create living surfaces that keep both the eye and mind in an active elated state. One of my major influences is Picasso, from whom I learned that you don't have to paint exactly what you see; you paint the essence of what you see. With the influence of both the OP and abstract expressionist art movments I take it a step further and paint about the essence of what I feel about life's energy.
The idea of rotating my work was a natual outcome of my habit of routinely turning paintings upside down in order to get a fresh perspective on balance. The "Life Sustaining " series with its striated mono-directional compositions presented new striking visual relationships revealing previously unnoticed imagery when viewed upside-down and sideways. This struck me as an important visual and philosophical process worth presenting to observers. With the help of a carpenter I developed the first manual rotator. A year later I had an automated rotator developed to my specifications.
Bio:
Sydell Lewis is a painter and printmaker with a background in science and a love of ballroom dancing. She studied basic studio art at the High School of Music and Art, and Cooper Union in New York City and printmaking at various California schools. In addition she received a BS in Chemistry from the University of Michigan and participated in scientific research until 1992 when she became a full time practicing artist. In 1996 she joined an amateur ballroom dance team which performed at several local venues. Her interest in science and dance is reflected in her work with the juxtaposition of hard edge rendering and sensual organic forms. He work is collected privately by corporations and other professional businesses including Kaiser Permanente. The numerous Bay Area venues where her work been shown include the Triton Museum, Santa Clara, the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco and the Stanford Art Spaces. She is a member of the California Society of Printmakers and her work is represented by Robert Allen Fine Arts in Sausalito and Gallery House in Palo Alto.
Sara Loesch-Frank's mixed-media piece "Birth"
Synopsis:
Looking at the images from the Hubble telescope, I was mesmerized by the patterns and how the atmosphere showed up around the stars and planets. It reminded me of how some pigments flow in water and how ink stains track across a surface. This got me to wondering how best to achieve these looks in artwork. As with most of my artwork, I experimented with many different media.
Exciting things happen at the edges of liquid color moving across a surface. If some of you can remember the first time you rinsed out a paintbrush in water at school or poured juice off food into the sink, you may recall thinking, "Could a person save the color or pattern of flow?" Sometimes the color of the mixture may change. Every compound absorbs a characteristic set of colors of light. This absorption spectrum is like a chemical "fingerprint" for detecting the presence of a particular compound. If the compound is altered in a chemical reaction, this fingerprint and perhaps the color will change as the reaction progresses.
Much of my art begins with pouring or spraying the pigment on a surface. I cause it to flow in certain directions and then develop my ideas from the resulting interactions. The colors change after drying, sometimes fading or exhibiting an unpredictable effect often as a response to what and how the surface was prepared. I frequently use unusual, textured substrates that behave differently with uncommon kinds of inks, dyes, or pigments. Sometimes the elements for the artwork are so unsympathetic that they will repel, change or intensify the color, modify the texture, or turn metallic. These background experiments are what spark the concept for the piece of art, which may change as I observe what develops.
The piece I included for Life began with black paper, poured water, and semi-dried white pigment. When the color moved across the wet surface, it stuck to some areas and flowed away from others. As the faint color moved over the surface, it changed from white to having edges with a deep red brown. I let it dry and then began again with the paint layering. The more I worked on the piece, the more it reminded me of some of the Hubble photographs. I used one of my hand-cut reed pens for Western letters over the abstract image. Some of my work includes hand lettering, and this border writing was done with platinum gouache .
Bio:
Sara Loesch-Frank is a calligrapher and art teacher who combines multi-media painting with a broad range of letterforms. She received her Bachelor and Master of Arts in Art Education from the University of New Mexico and has done additional graduate work at the San Francisco Academy of Art. She has participated in 13 International Calligraphy Conferences, and her art work has been featured in several Bay Area locations, including Filoli Gardens exhibits held in 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011; Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz in 2008; Mohr Gallery in Mountain View in 2009; San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art; and The Triton Museum of Santa Clara. She was chosen as Distinguished Fine Artist of the Year for Cupertino in 1997; juried into the international exhibit Writing Beyond Words in Connecticut and the National Cathedral Exhibition in Washington DC in 1999; included in the textbook Art and Craft of Hand Lettering in 2004; selected as the opening speaker for the Smithsonian exhibit of The Graceful Envelope at the National Steinbeck Center in 2005; juried into the international magazine Letter Arts Review in 2006; and invited to show her artwork in Qufu and Chengde, China in 2006. For 35 years, she has been teaching calligraphy and art in Bay Area adult education programs. She currently team-teaches a Stanford Introductory Seminar "Art, Chemistry and Madness: The Science of Art Materials" with her chemical engineer husband.
Christina Mazza's slide show "Framing Urban Life"
Synopsis:
A compilation of artwork and urban scenes from the Mission District of San Francisco focusing on the residue of a societal lifestyle built on consumption and excess waste. Street images are intercut with work produced by the artist between 2007 - 2011, blurring the boundaries of urban debris and art. Mazza's work focuses primarily on the detritus of life. She uses reclaimed materials to create narrative works of found objects that are discarded by humans or by nature. These items are decontextualized, somewhat abstracted, through isolation and reconfiguration of scale and portray sociological overtones of excess consumerism, of discard followed by redemption, and of the examination of perceived worth.
Bio:
Christina Mazza is a San Francisco Bay Area artist working primarily with reclaimed materials, creating intricate works of art that focus on the urban byproducts of human life while encourage sustainability and environmental responsibility. She has exhibited at the Boston Center for the Arts, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, Southern Exposure, Intersection for the Arts, and numerous other venues throughout the Bay Area. Mazza recently completed a residency at Recology's AIR Program in 2010 and the Artist's Studio Program at the de Young Museum in 2009. Her work has also been accepted into The Drawing Center's Viewing Program in NYC. Selected works have been published in an anthology showcasing contemporary Asian American women artists and in Recology's 20th Anniversary publication. Mazza has a BFA in Advertising and Illustration and previously worked 15 years at leading advertising agencies in Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco before becoming a full-time visual artist.
Javier Ideami's video "Life in Movement"
Synopsis:
Human life that emerges from the fusion between the forces of nature, in a constant exchange of emotions and movements, internal and external. A human symphony, of the most fleeting and imperfect beauty.
Bio:
Javier Ideami (born Francisco Javier Gonzalez Bernardo) is a Spanish-born multidisciplinary artist and founder of Ideami Studios. With studies in both artistic (Painting, Photography, Filmmaking, Design and Music) and technical fields (Computing Engineering), Javier has been blending the arts and the sciences, being awarded numerous awards for his work across different disciplines. Javier has exhibited his creative work in many galleries in both Europe and the USA. Javier collaborates regularly with artists, architects, engineers and other creative minds in innovative projects around the world. He is one of the founders of the creative group RAN, winner of an award by the Spanish museum of art and technology Laboral. He was also the founder of the Web 2.0 online application Ewidi, an online social network in 33 languages. In 2008 Javier co-founded Flaii, a Silicon Valley startup in the social networking and gaming space. Javier later launched the interactive creative application Posterini. Javier is also an award-winning filmmaker, screenwriter, and director who occasionally works as well on the photography and music of his films. His filmography includes the films: 2011. The Weight of Light (HD), 2010. The Long Goodbye (Red One 4K), 2010. Erase Love (Red One 4K), 2008. La Ultima Cena (HD), 2007 - El Cuadro (HD), 2006 - Magic Mountain (35mm, Dolby Digital), 2005 - The Moontamer, 2004 - Ego. They won awards at the London International Sci-Fi Film festival, at the Ourense International Film Festival, at the Gaudi Prizes in Barcelona, and at the San Francisco International SFShorts Film Festival. He has also won awards for his photography and music He has also produced the illustrated book for children "The Moontamer" (2010).