After reading Art Against Information, I could see the clear
distinction between how they distinguish data and information. Data is the raw
results, and it is concrete whereas information is the meaning we take away
from that data. Information allows us to interpret, gather, and cultivate that
data into something that is logical and give us a much greater understanding.
After reading about Alex Dragulescu’s spam works, he takes that data of junk
email, and he strips it down to these beautiful architectural forms by
recreating it. Though this data is most of the time useless and pointless, Alex
brings this into shapes that are visually pleasing and useful. At the same
time, he takes away the process and data, and that data is presented on its own
as origami figures. However, the data is
still very much expressed in these works because they offer their own degree of
complexity and wide array of forms. It still exists as uselessness because
those forms look as if they could stand as architectural structures, but there
is nothing recognizable such as windows or doors. By
Dragulescu analyzing the data from email spam into these forms, it puts these
pieces into emptiness. It in turn brings the viewer to imagine and create their
own analysis of that data and analyze it into something that makes sense to
them. It can then take that emptiness out of the origami shape. I feel that
Alex’s work is intriguing based upon its beauty, boldness, and complexity. When
the work is shown without the process, it makes me interested even more to know exactly
how theses shapes are positioned the way that they are. It makes me want to
understand the data but also how that information was used to make those specific
shapes. Lastly, though these are spam emails, Dragulescu brings out the beauty
in that data despite its negative association and makes it appealing to the
viewer which is unexpected.
distinction between how they distinguish data and information. Data is the raw
results, and it is concrete whereas information is the meaning we take away
from that data. Information allows us to interpret, gather, and cultivate that
data into something that is logical and give us a much greater understanding.
After reading about Alex Dragulescu’s spam works, he takes that data of junk
email, and he strips it down to these beautiful architectural forms by
recreating it. Though this data is most of the time useless and pointless, Alex
brings this into shapes that are visually pleasing and useful. At the same
time, he takes away the process and data, and that data is presented on its own
as origami figures. However, the data is
still very much expressed in these works because they offer their own degree of
complexity and wide array of forms. It still exists as uselessness because
those forms look as if they could stand as architectural structures, but there
is nothing recognizable such as windows or doors. By
Dragulescu analyzing the data from email spam into these forms, it puts these
pieces into emptiness. It in turn brings the viewer to imagine and create their
own analysis of that data and analyze it into something that makes sense to
them. It can then take that emptiness out of the origami shape. I feel that
Alex’s work is intriguing based upon its beauty, boldness, and complexity. When
the work is shown without the process, it makes me interested even more to know exactly
how theses shapes are positioned the way that they are. It makes me want to
understand the data but also how that information was used to make those specific
shapes. Lastly, though these are spam emails, Dragulescu brings out the beauty
in that data despite its negative association and makes it appealing to the
viewer which is unexpected.
-Angela Zarek
Intro to Responsive Arts