On 14th November, I
went to a public lecture of “Haptic Interface” that brought together 20 leading
artist and creative thinkers from all over the world to give a talk about the
exploration of the borders between art, science and technology. This event was
held in an exhibition gallery in Hong Kong Baptist University. Miss Audrey
Samson, who is the tutor of the Contemporary and New Media Art, encouraged us
to participate in this event as she was one of the artists that would present
in the lecture. Most of the artist presented many interesting works and ideas
to us during the talk, so I am going to introduce some of my favorite artists
and works in my field trip report.
Firstly, I would like to introduce Audrey’
works as she had delivered the most interesting idea about the interaction of
human body and electronic technology. She is exploring the possibility of using
our body as surface of reception and transmission. We are used to enjoy the
advanced technological products such as smartphones, ipads, laptops, etc.
Actually everyone becomes the central transmission and reception point of
electromagnetic wave. However, when these high-tech products are spoiled or
they are outdated, we are also used to throw them away. Therefore, we abandon enormous
of electronic devices that results in landfills of electronic and chemical
wastes every day. Audrey thinks of transforming those refuse into experimental components.
One of her works is to make use of the
components of broken appliance to create accessories like necklace and rings.
In fact, it is not the focal point of her project. She is more concentrate in
making human body as a part of electromagnetic receptor. She tried to build
some wearable devices that can transform those invisible electromagnetic fields
to be audible by headphone.
Here are
some of her works:
It is a receiving
gadget installed on the amp and also to the headphone.
She
tried to place the copper circuit on the surface of body and make the body as
the “device” itself.
Here is
the video that showing what she is doing.
Audrey’s
work is really inspiring of the interaction between human body and technology.
She reminds us about the forgotten electronic refuse. Electronic technological
products are not just something that comforts human beings, they are also the
important partners to us. When I watch the videos that Audrey brought her devices
onto the streets and used them to scan for some electromagnetic fields, I found
that the sounds come out from the fields just like they are talking to receptors.
We thought that these electronic
products are things that can be abandoned in anytime, but they seems to be
alive in Audrey’s experiment. I think this is the most impressive and amazing
part of her work.
Secondly, I am going to talk
about Raune FranKjaer’s project ----The Garden.
Here is
the video that displaying her work.
“The
Garden” is a beautiful sculpture that appears like a seeding located on the
river banks of Main in Frankfurt, Germany. It is a project for the “Green City
Frankfurt” campaign, which introduce the idea of sustainable development. The
concept of the leaf came from the street map of Frankfurt. She quoted a part of
the central of Frankfurt city with the shape of leaf, and the network of streets
became the veins of leaf, thus each vein is actually representing a street in
Frankfurt.
Then she
added the stem to the leaf and converted the whole idea in 3D version.
The stem
and veins are divided to many individual parts which are smeared highly energy-efficient
electroluminescent paint. We can see the blue light pass through the entire
stem and leaf which looks like a glowing plant. However, the intensity of light
depends on the level of energy efficiency of that street. Therefore, the higher
of energy efficiency of the street, the brighter the light of a particular vein
can be.
Under the seeding sculpture is a place
covered with grass for people to take a rest and enjoy the view. Raune says it
is representing the effort of Frankfurt to become a Co2 neutral city.
This
stunning artwork is the combination of science, technology, art and nature
indeed. It applies the technology of using energy-efficient materials on this
work to send a message of environment protection. Also, the idea of
transforming the map as a leaf is really impressive. Our society is always
growing very rapidly but we should not forget to balance the environment and
the development. This seeding sculpture stands next to the Main river and it is
also surrounded by many towers (we can see them on the background). It looks so
small but strong and bright. It encourages people to treasure their environment
and glow it from a little seed to a big tree. Now the effort made by the city
only grows it to be a seeding, so everyone should work together to grow it as a
tree.
All the things together generate a
meaningful and beautiful art piece.
Reference:
Thirdly, I would like
to introduce Elizabeth Shaw, who is working on tableware and jewellery design. I
want to share some of her interesting work here. Raune’s works are crossing
between sculpture, biology and mechanic. As she like to mix up the biological
sculpture with mechanical fragments.
After
she had introduced her artworks, I found that most of her works are always like
the mixture of sculpture and mechanical components. In fact, I was confused of
the meanings of these artworks so I went to her website and found a statement
describing her works.
The works in this exhibition were all fabricated in response to
found incomplete objects. Drawing inspiration from the use of fragments to
communicate a particular history in religious reliquaries and museum artifacts,
I looked to repair and reconstruct fragmentary evidence to present new meaning;
each piece is fabricated evidence. ( http://www.visualartist.info/visualartist/artist/subpage.asp?ex=gallery&I=1753&sub=5335&artistId=1307&PageId=17530)
The statement above is talking about one of
her exhibitions in 2010 called “Evidence”. All her works in this exhibition are
incomplete evidence that we can commonly see in museum. She installed
mechanical components on these incomplete objects. For example, she made a
machine jaw for a dinosaur skull.
Augmented skull
In this picture, we can see a mechanical
dinosaur talon.
Talon
She added a metal arm bone to the claw.
Claw
Those pictures below are another series of work called “Tool” but they
are actually relating to the previous exhibition of “evidence”. She made use of
found or collected fragments to create these series of works. This time, some
of her works are the mixture of human body sculptures and mechanical
components.
For instance, the “tapper” appears like a
human finger that is tapping on a wooden board. Raune said this was a tapping
machine. When you press the button on the top, the metal finger will help you
to tap the table. The second work called tamper but I have no idea of what it
is.
Tapper
The second work called tamper but I have no
idea of what it is. Maybe the little machine installed to the foot is to assist
the movement of the joints.
Temper
And finally, it is a mixture of woman head
and knife.
Pocket knife
In my point of view, these works are
presenting the idea of the importance of mechanic in our daily life, but
sometimes, we seem to too much rely on those technological things. Just like
the tapping machine, is it appropriate for us to use finger machine instead of
using our own finger? Perhaps she also wants to explore the historical meaning
of mechanic and its relationship to art.
“Haptic Interface” lecture is not just
exploring the border between art and science, it is also giving us new idea of
the relationship between science and our bodies. Hence, the topic called “Haptic
Interface” is not because the lecture is about electricity device (like smartphone),
the haptic interface is actually concerning the connection of human and
science. Artists transformed this kind of idea into art form such as the
tapping machine, the wearable electromagnetic detection device, and even “The
Garden” which is very much related to our life. I think my horizon have been
widely opened after this meaningful workshop as it is a rare chance for me to
meet so many leading artist in the world and appreciate so many innovative
artworks at once.
