 |
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | November 17, 1967 |
| Nationality | Mexican |
| Education | Bachelor of Science in physical chemistry from Concordia University in Montreal |
| Known for | electronic artist |
| Website | www |
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer RCA (born 1967 in Mexico City) is a Mexican-Canadian electronic artist who works with ideas from architecture, technological theater and performance. Lozano-Hemmer lives and works in Montreal and Madrid. [1]
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer was born in Mexico City in 1967. [2] He emigrated to Canada in 1985 to study at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and then received his Bachelor of Science in physical chemistry from Concordia University in Montreal. [3] The son of Mexico City nightclub owners, Lozano-Hemmer was drawn to science but could not resist joining the creative activities of his friends. [4] Initially he worked in a molecular recognition lab in Montreal [4] and published his research in Chemistry journals. [5] Though he did not pursue the sciences as a direct career, it has influenced his work in many ways, [3] providing conceptual inspiration and practical approaches to create his work. Lozano-Hemmer's work can be considered a blend of interactive art and performance art, using both large and small scales, indoor and outdoor settings, and a wide variety of audiovisual technologies. [2]
Lozano-Hemmer is best known for creating and presenting theatrical interactive installations in public spaces across Europe, Asia and America. Using robotics, real-time computer graphics, film projections, positional sound, internet links, cell phone interfaces, video and ultrasonic sensors, LED screens and other devices, his installations seek to interrupt the increasingly homogenized urban condition by providing critical platforms for participation. [6] Lozano-Hemmer's smaller-scaled sculptural and video installations explore themes of perception, deception and surveillance. [7] As an outgrowth of these various large scale and performance-based projects Lozano-Hemmer documents the works in photography editions that are also exhibited. [8]
In 1999, he created Alzado Vectorial (or Vectorial Elevation), where internet participants directed searchlights over the central square in Mexico City. [9] The work was repeated in Vitoria-Gasteiz in 2002, in Lyon in 2003, in Dublin in 2004 and in Vancouver in 2010. In 2007, he became the first artist to officially represent Mexico at the Venice Biennale, with a solo show at the Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel. In 2006, his work 33 Questions Per Minute was acquired by The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Subtitled Public (2005) is held in the Tate Collection in the United Kingdom. [10] In 2014/2015 his work was presented in the Solo Exhibition A Draft of Shadows at Bildmuseet, Umeå University, Sweden. [11]
Several of Lozano-Hemmer's installations include the use of words and sentences to add additional meaning. These texts are used to elaborate upon a deeper meaning that involves a viewer's actions, to change or create an effect upon the atmosphere and perception. Some of the text based installations, such as Third Person and Subtitled Public, place words upon the viewer himself. Because of the random nature of these texts, the viewer has no control over what they are labeled as, incurring a sense of helplessness, and experience the pleasant and unpleasant connotations that are associated with the words placed upon themselves. The text based installations such as 33 Questions Per Minute and There is No Business Like No Business are reliant upon the willing participation of the viewer. These two forms of text installations are externally reflective, while the first two are internally reflective.
33 Questions Per Minute is an installation consisting of several screens programmed to generate possible questions and display them at a rate of 33 per minute. The computer generating the questions can generate 55 billion unique questions, taking over 3,000 years to display them all. In addition to viewing the automatically displaying the questions, members of the public can submit their own questions into the system. Their participation shows up on the screens immediately, and is registered by the program. [12] [ non-primary source needed ]
Third Person is the second piece of the ShadowBox series of interactive displays with a built-in computerized tracking system. This piece shows the viewer's shadow, composed hundreds of tiny words that are in fact all the verbs of the dictionary conjugated in the third person. The portrait of the viewer is drawn in real time by active words, which appear automatically to fill his or her silhouette. [13] [ non-primary source needed ]
There Is No Business Like No Business is a blinking neon sign, whose speed is directly proportional to the number of times that the word "economy" has appeared in online news items within the past 24 hours. [14] [ non-primary source needed ]
Subtitled Public consists of an empty exhibition space where visitors are detected by a computerized surveillance system. When people enter the space, the system generates a subtitle for each person and projects it onto him or her: the subtitle is chosen at random from a list of all verbs conjugated in the third person. The only way of getting rid of a subtitle is to touch another person, which leads to the two subtitles being exchanged. [15] [ non-primary source needed ] His work gave to the public a free entertainment, and he also help them to have a marvelous experience.[15]non-primary source needed
In 1994, Lozano-Hemmer coined the term "relational architecture" as the technological actualization of buildings and the urban environment with alien memory. He aimed to transform the dominant narratives of a specific building or urban setting by superimposing audiovisual elements to affect it, effect it and re-contextualize it. [16] From 1997 to 2006, he built ten works of relational architecture beginning with Displaced Emperors and ending with Under Scan. [16] Lozano-Hemmer says, "I want buildings to pretend to be something other than themselves, to engage in a kind of dissimulation" [17]
Solar Equation was a large-scale public art installation that consists of a faithful simulation of the Sun, scaled 100 million times smaller than the real thing. Commissioned by the Light in Winter Festival in Melbourne, Australia, the piece featured the world's largest spherical balloon, custom-manufactured for the project, which was tethered over Federation Square and animated using five projectors. The solar animation on the balloon was generated by live mathematical equations that simulated the turbulence, flares and sunspots that can be seen on the surface of the Sun. This produced a constantly changing display that never repeated itself, giving viewers a glimpse of the majestic phenomena that are observable at the solar surface and that only relatively recent advances in astronomy have discovered. [18] [ non-primary source needed ]
Under Scan is an interactive video art installation for public space. In the work, passers-by are detected by a computerized tracking system, which activates video-portraits projected within their shadow. Over one thousand video-portraits of volunteers were taken in Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Northampton and Nottingham (in England) by a team of local filmmakers. For a London presentation in Trafalgar Square, Tate Modern filmed over 250 additional recordings. As people were free to portray themselves in whatever way they desired, a wide range of performances were captured. In the installation, the portraits appeared at random locations. They "wake-up" and establish eye contact with a viewer as soon as his or her shadow "reveals" them. As the viewer walks away, the portrait reacts by looking away, and eventually disappears if no one activates it. [19] [ non-primary source needed ]
Body Movies transforms public space with interactive projections measuring between 400 and 1,800 square metres (4,300 and 19,400 sq ft). Thousands of photographic portraits, previously taken on the streets of the host city, are shown using robotically controlled projectors. However, the portraits only appear inside the projected shadows of the passers-by, whose silhouettes can measure 2 to 25 metres (6.6 to 82.0 ft), depending on how close or far away they are from the powerful light sources positioned on the ground. A video surveillance tracking system triggers new portraits when all the existing ones have been revealed, inviting the public to occupy new narratives of representation. Lozano-Hemmer comments, "my initial desire was to use artificial shadows to generate questions about embodiment and disembodiment, about spectacular representation, about the distance between bodies in public space, and so on". [17] [20] [ non-primary source needed ]
Re:Positioning Fear was the third relational architecture project. This was a large-scale installation on the Landeszeughaus[ where? ] military arsenal, with the projection only being seen in the shadows of passers-by. Using tracking systems, the shadows were automatically focused and generated sounds. A real-time discussion about the transformation of the concept of "fear" was projected inside the shadows; the chat involved 30 artists and theorists from 17 countries. [21] [ non-primary source needed ]
Tape Recorders is an installation containing rows of motorized measuring tapes recording the amount of time that visitors stay in the installation. As a computerized tracking system detects the presence of a person, the closest measuring tape starts to project upwards. When the tape reaches around 3 metres (9.8 ft) high, it collapses and recoils back. [22] [ non-primary source needed ]
Please Empty your Pockets is an installation that consists of a conveyor belt with a computerized scanner that records and stores images of everything that passes under it. The viewer may place any small item on the conveyor belt, for example keys, ID cards, wallets, worry beads, condoms, notepads, cellphones, coins, dolls, credit cards, etc. Once they pass under the scanner, the objects reappear on the other side of the conveyor belt beside projected objects from the stored images of the installation. As a real item is removed from the conveyor belt, it leaves behind a projected image of itself, which is then used to accompany future objects. [23] [ non-primary source needed ]
Microphones is an interactive installation featuring one or several 1939-vintage Shure microphones, placed on mike stands around the exhibition room at different heights. Each microphone has been modified so that inside its head is a tiny loudspeaker and a circuit board connected to a network of hidden control computers. When a public member speaks into a microphone, it records his or her voice, then immediately plays back the voice of a previous participant, as an echo from the past. [24] [ non-primary source needed ]
Standards and Double Standards is an interactive installation that consists of 10 to 100 fastened belts that are suspended at waist height from stepper motors on the ceiling of the exhibition room. Controlled by a computerized tracking system, the belts rotate automatically to follow the public, turning their buckles slowly to face passers-by. When several people are in the room, their presence affects the entire group of belts, creating chaotic patterns of interference. Non-linear behaviours emerge such as turbulence, eddies, and relatively quiet regions. One of the aims of this piece is to visualize complex dynamics, turning a condition of pure surveillance into an unpredictable connective system. The piece creates an "absent crowd" using a fetish of paternal authority: the belt. [25] [ non-primary source needed ]
Less than three is an installation consisting of a series of light beams that form a kind of network between two analogue intercoms. When a viewer speaks into one of the intercoms, he can see how the voice signal is converted into flashes of light that are visibly transmitted along one of the several possible routes through the network. When the flash of light reaches the other end, the spoken phrase is released and transformed again, from light to sound. The installation interacts by transforming sound stimuli into light, which is then turned back into sound again. [26] It was shown at Disseny Hub Barcelona between 2011 and 2012 at the exhibit I/O/I. The senses of machines (Interaction Laboratory) [27]
Voice Array is a participatory installation featuring up to 288 anonymous vocal samples—played in uneven unison, and accompanied by pulses of vibrant white light in discrete beams, emanating from above and below a raised black strip along a back wall. When activated, the piece connotes the pulsing volume bars on an old stereo, turning sound into light to measure intensity. Any visitor can speak into the silver-buttoned intercom to the left of the strip—upon withdrawal, the recording immediately transforms into a flashing sequence, stored as a loop in the first light of the array. [28]
Entanglement is an installation that consists of two neon signs that say “entanglement” on them that light up. The two signs are 72 inches by 14.75 inches in size. The two signs both have a light switch that turns both of them on and off. When one of the light switches is turned on, both signs light up. When one of the light switches is turned off, both signs are off. The two signs are placed in separate rooms, separate buildings, or even in separate countries. The idea came from what entanglement means in quantum physics which is where two particles behave as one. [29] [ non-primary source needed ]
Bifurcation is an installation where a Y-shaped branch dangles in the air that is attached to the ceiling by a piece of string. Behind the branch is a projection of a whole branch, showing what the Y-shaped branch once looked like. As the Y-shaped branch moves with the air movement or by people moving it, the projection also moves in synchronization with the dangling branch. This is Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's second piece in “Shadow Objects.” The piece was inspired by Octavio Paz and Bioy Casares who stated that “absence and presence are not opposites.” [30] [ non-primary source needed ]
Pan Anthem (2014) is an interactive installation of hundreds of movable speakers that play national anthems when the viewer approaches. These speakers are arranged throughout the gallery's walls based on national statistics. For example, the arrangement may depend on population, year of independence, etc. [31] [ non-primary source needed ]
Speaking Willow, is an interactive, motion-detecting tree that will whisper to visitors in hundreds of different languages at Washington, D.C.'s Planet Word Museum. Anticipated installation date 2020. [32]
In 2013 Lozano-Hemmer created a piece called Friendfracker. This was an online service that Lozano-Hemmer created along with Harper-Reed in one day. A participant would enter their Facebook account information into the online program, then once the information was verified the service would delete up to 10 of the participant's friends on their Facebook account. The service wouldn't tell which friends were deleted. Facebook disabled the program on April 25, 2013. [33] [ non-primary source needed ]
The Pulse Room is an interactive installation featuring over 300 hundred clear incandescent light bulbs, [34] 300 W each, hung by cables three metres from the floor. It has run in many places in the last years such as Venice, Italy; and Aarhus, Denmark. [35]
Last Breath is an installation designed specifically to preserve and circulate the breath of a person in perpetuity. Based on the artificial respirators used in hospitals, a part of the work consists of a paper bag that automatically fills up and deflates according to a human respiratory rate. The device driving its mechanism is mounted on the wall and is activated 10,000 times a day – the normal breathing rate for an adult – letting out 158 sighs. The artist considers the “visible” preservation and circulation of breath an individual’s biometric portrait, a sign of life that persists well beyond that person’s death. In this edition, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer immortalized the breath of the Quebec poet and novelist Nicole Brossard, a celebrated activist for feminist and LGBTQ+ causes. Her breath of creativity and protest will thus be preserved in the reservoir of this work, the artist’s living memorial. [36]
Lozano-Hemmer differs from many artists in his comprehensive use of technology; most of his productions contain more than one element of technology to create a lasting effect. Lozano-Hemmer recognizes that Western culture is a technology-based culture, emphasizing "even if you are not using a computer you are affected by this environment. Working with technology is inevitable." [37] "Our politics, our culture, our economy, everything is running through globalized networks of communication..." [38]
Technologies that Lozano-Hemmer has used in his works include robotics, custom software, projections, internet links, cell phones, sensors, LEDs, cameras, and tracking systems. [39]
 | This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(May 2017) |
A shadow is a dark area where light from a light source is blocked by an object. It occupies all of the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross section of a shadow is a two-dimensional silhouette, or a reverse projection of the object blocking the light.
The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the best known and longest running yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music. It has been awarded since 1987 by Ars Electronica.
Kinetic art is art from any medium that contains movement perceivable by the viewer or that depends on motion for its effects. Canvas paintings that extend the viewer's perspective of the artwork and incorporate multidimensional movement are the earliest examples of kinetic art. More pertinently speaking, kinetic art is a term that today most often refers to three-dimensional sculptures and figures such as mobiles that move naturally or are machine operated. The moving parts are generally powered by wind, a motor or the observer. Kinetic art encompasses a wide variety of overlapping techniques and styles.
Olafur Eliasson is an Icelandic–Danish artist known for sculptured and large-scaled installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer's experience.
Physical computing involves interactive systems that can sense and respond to the world around them. While this definition is broad enough to encompass systems such as smart automotive traffic control systems or factory automation processes, it is not commonly used to describe them. In a broader sense, physical computing is a creative framework for understanding human beings' relationship to the digital world. In practical use, the term most often describes handmade art, design or DIY hobby projects that use sensors and microcontrollers to translate analog input to a software system, and/or control electro-mechanical devices such as motors, servos, lighting or other hardware.
Julia Scher is an American artist who works primarily with themes of surveillance. She uses a variety of mediums and is most known for her installation art and performance art works. Her work addresses issues of control and seduction.
Light art or the art of light is generally referring to a visual art form in which (physical) light is the main, if not sole medium of creation. Uses of the term differ drastically in incongruence; definitions, if existing, vary in several aspects. Since light is the medium for visual perception, this way all visual art could be considered light art absurdly enough; but most pieces of art are valid and coherent without reflecting on this basic perceptual fact. Some approaches on these grounds also include into light art those forms of art where light is not any medium contributing to the artwork, but is depicted. Thus, luminism may also refer to light art in the above sense, its previous usage point to painterly styles: either as an other label for the Caravaggisti in the baroque, or 19th and 20th centuries, fundamentally impressionist schools.
Surveillance art is the use of technology intended to record human behavior in a way that offers commentary on the process of surveillance or the technology used to surveil. Surveillance art manifests itself in many different forms, from short films to architecture, but all have been shown to provide some type of critical response to the rise of surveillance by various authorities and the technology used to achieve it, especially when dealing with issues of security and enforcing laws.
New media art includes artworks designed and produced by means of electronic media technologies, comprising virtual art, computer graphics, computer animation, digital art, interactive art, sound art, Internet art, video games, robotics, 3D printing, and cyborg art. The term defines itself by the thereby created artwork, which differentiates itself from that deriving from conventional visual arts. New Media art has origins in the worlds of science, art, and performance. Some common themes found in new media art include databases, political and social activism, Afrofuturism, feminism, and identity, a ubiquitous theme found throughout is the incorporation of new technology into the work. The emphasis on medium is a defining feature of much contemporary art and many art schools and major universities now offer majors in "New Genres" or "New Media" and a growing number of graduate programs have emerged internationally. New media art may involve degrees of interaction between artwork and observer or between the artist and the public, as is the case in performance art. Yet, as several theorists and curators have noted, such forms of interaction, social exchange, participation, and transformation do not distinguish new media art but rather serve as a common ground that has parallels in other strands of contemporary art practice. Such insights emphasize the forms of cultural practice that arise concurrently with emerging technological platforms, and question the focus on technological media per se. New Media art involves complex curation and preservation practices that make collecting, installing, and exhibiting the works harder than most other mediums. Many cultural centers and museums have been established to cater to the advanced needs of new media art.
Landscape-Portrait (2007) is a public digital artwork that has been touring around the UK since its launch in 2007. In 2007 public arts agency Forma commissioned the work as part of a series of public art works for the Dott Festival Newcastle, UK.
Urbane Künste Ruhr is a German cultural institution founded in 2012, to create art in urban spaces in the city of Ruhr. The institution was established in the aftermath of Ruhr.2010, the European Capital of Culture. It is led by curator Katja Aßmann since its founding.
Agnes Chavez is a Cuban American artist, educator and social entrepreneur. Chavez is an installation artist working often with data visualization, sound, and image projection. Additionally, she designed and created tools for STEAM education and learning, often with a focus on learning through art, language, and physics. She founded the art and education programs, sube.com and stemartslab.com and a co-founder of Paseo Project, an arts festival in Taos, New Mexico.
Michael Murphy is an American artist, sculptor and pioneer of the perceptual art movement. Murphy became widely known during the 2008 U.S. presidential election, after creating the first portrait of candidate Barack Obama in 2007 that influenced thousands of artists to contribute to the "Art for Obama" movement, documented in Shepard Fairey's book Art for Obama: Designing Manifest Hope and the Campaign for Change.
Addie Wagenknecht is an American artist and researcher living in New York City and Liechtenstein. Her work deals primarily with pop culture, feminist theory, new media and open source software and hardware. She frequently works in collectives, which have included Nortd Labs, F.A.T. lab, and Deep Lab. She has received fellowships and residencies from Eyebeam, Mozilla, The Studio for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University and CERN.
Naziha Mestaoui was a Belgian artist trained in architecture, who lived and worked in Paris. She worked both collectively and individually, and received awards in several countries. As an environmental artist and activist, she was best known for One Heart, One Tree at the United Nations Climate Conference (COP21) in December 2015. The participatory art installation supports reforestation on several continents.
Regina Silva Silveira is a Brazilian artist known for her work with light, shadows and distortions exploring ideas of reality. Silveira has used many media throughout her career but focuses mainly on videography, painting, and printmaking She is based in São Paulo.
Titus Kaphar is an American contemporary painter whose work reconfigures and regenerates art history to include the African-American subject. His paintings are held in the collections of Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, New Britain Museum of American Art, Seattle Art Museum, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and University of Michigan Museum of Art.
April Hickox is a Canadian lens-based artist, photographer, teacher and curator whose practice includes various medias, from photography, film, video and installation.
Felicia “Fe” Montes is a Chicana indigenous artist based in Los Angeles. Montes is a multimedia artist, poet, performer, educator, professor, and emcee. She is the co-founder and coordinating member of two creative woman's collectives, Mujeres de Maiz and In Lak Ech and El MERCADO y Mas. She also assists with organizing transnational art exhibitions including Zapatistas, Peace Dignity Journeys and La Red Xicana Indigena.
Llum BCN is an annual light art festival held in Barcelona, Spain. It is celebrated since 2012 every February in Barcelona's neighborhood Poblenou. A selection of outstanding international creators, along with the emerging talent of local art and design artists, feature a series of immersive light installations and shows blurring boundaries between art, science and technology, and showcasing the best of the new creative talent and technology.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
