After reading the article, Art in
the Age of Digital Distribution, the first artist I became interested in and
researched was Eduardo Kac. After noticing in the article, he had a work, Rara Avis, which combines the robotics
into the form of a bird. It was an interactive experience in which viewers
could put on a headset to see the perspective of an aviary. The actual artwork
I found very appealing was his work, Transgenic
Bunny that was completed in February 2000. Alba is the name of an albino bunny
that was injected with a Pacific Northwest jellyfish gene. When she is put
under a certain fluorescent light, she does glow green. Scientists have
injected her with GFP known as a green fluorescent protein. I am intrigued that
it actually is possible to happen while the animal is still able to live and
function. It entails almost a strange world as if this particular bunny belongs
in an Alice in Wonderland type of world. I believe this artwork is important
because it does create a controversy. I say this because injecting GFP could
have a certain effect on this bunny’s life. It is important for the sake of art
to respect living things and have that process move smoothly. With this
particular art, I believe many people as well as myself can appreciate the
capabilities of animals, and the rare occasion of a bunny having this particular
color.
in the age of digital art is Graham Harwood. This particular artwork I found is
known as The Kiss. In order to create
this image, it uses IBM PC compatible as well as image processing written in C.
In the late 1980’s, he set out on his own in manipulating image processing. At
the time, there was rarely any software for computers that could process,
create, and manipulate multiple images. This artwork is entirely important for
the time period it was produced in and unique blending of these images. It
stands as a digital media artwork that was ahead of its time because advanced
programs such as Photoshop were just being developed as it was introduced to
Macintosh in 1990. Instead, Harwood went ahead and started his own image
processing. It displays this merge of two black and white faces facing each
other, yet their eyes are aimed at the viewer. Their teeth are highly exposed
in skeletal form as if they are also interconnected. In The
Kiss, it is beautiful and unique in the process the images were
intertwined. However, to some it may have a disturbing and eerie visual
appearance. It is that process that outshines that eerie appearance to truly
appreciate the work of digital art.
