Yes, I'm a geek. But I thought the whole geeks-rockstar thing was settled a long time ago by the movie Revenge of the Nerds? Oh well, I guess the rock stars with the money and power will always win in America. I tend to work with issues of efficiency, and as such enjoy creating efficient processes. Which in a way is like what happens when most people write code. Fewest number of operations to get the job done. I tend to use free or cheap materials in my work. I try to spend as little as money as possible when doing a new piece. The apple hardware in the Screen Burn piece was obtained free from Craigslist. I saved that hardware from going to the dump - some labs at CU in Boulder were going to toss it all out. I saved it. I recycled. I am trying to avoid burdensome, consumerist practices. Not that I'm against projects doing the opposite, I'm just doing what I'm doing.

I don't have alot of money for projectors either. So I tend to find other cheap ways to 'project'. Another Apple II piece I did a year ago (8 bit contemplation piece), was where I projected nothing but the inherent rectangular light of 2 apple monochrome display devices. The light quality was just the pure light from the hardware, projected onto the wall (actually a blank canvas) and into the space as well. Sort of Flavin-style I guess. I didn't keystone it, but the rectangular light was just pure legacy hardware green. Mmmmmmmmmm. Actually, in code the HCOLOR was set to white, but of course the monitors only emit shades of green. So, even though there is an inescapable retro aesthetic to this old hardware, I'm more interested in the fact that it is free hardware that is otherwise going to a dump.

Both of these pieces of mine were recently presented in the December-February Vague Terrain online magazine about Digital Minimalism. Patrick Lichty was also in the issue, with writings related to Cory and other awesome digital artists. Am I actually accusing Cory of plagiarism? Hell no. Am I saying that I think he saw these recent, strangely similar pieces of mine? Yes. Am I saying mine are better? No. His are better? No. Mine more original or inventive? No. His? No. Am I influenced by Cory's work? Yes. Did I do a 'screen burn' piece years ago and coin it as such? Yes. Have I seen evidence yet of anything like that prior? No. In the grand scheme of things, does this kind of stuff really matter that much? No.

I love Cory's art and his 2 new pieces for sure! The Plasma Screen Burn is super nice, I love the fact that he is destroying the $2000 hardware. In fact he didn't destroy anything. He moved the decimal point to the right on that one. The keystone projector piece is awesome too. Its safe to say, by using new equipment, and not old, he removes the retro factor from the work, making the pieces more conceptually lean and clean.

Another other reason I did a 'screen burn' years ago, was for archival experimentation, not for the shock and spectacle. I think collectors are struggling with this issue. I wanted to find a way to freeze the Apple software into an object, like what happened with Han Solo. In fact, the only reason I burn my generative software art onto DVD videos, the only reason I deal with DVDs at all, is because I'm trying to freeze my software into something more culturally stable. The more culturally predominant the technology medium, the more archival it will be, I posit. Also, the fewer dependencies, the more archival. DVD technology is 1 entity. My PC and underlying software are 100,000 entities. Years from now, it will be much easier to find DVD compatible hardware/firmware, than it will be to find a platform to run software in real-time, which has dependencies on a huge framework of crap (windows os, .net runtimes, gdi libs, services, intel, etc). Yes, I know that most out there think windows and pcs are indeed crap. Using game system hardware, like Cory's Nintendo pieces, is another great example of that advantage. Its one entity. I think its as archival as DVD, if not more, because there will always be hardcore gamers out there to keep the platform alive. Us neurotic gamers will never let that shit die.

Anyways, more people will probably always like punch-line conceptual art, it will always be the most popular. But I purposely 'fuzz' the conceptual deductions. I am bored with the easy thought routes. I have often joking called this approach 'fuzzy conceptualism'. Ok, now I'm really rambling Brownianly...I'm out!


- stevie 3-29-2007 10:16 pm





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