Regarding the multimedia in museums thread, here is my contribution;
excuse the length, I thought I would attempt to convey the richness
of artists' use of computers. The Computer Museum also has over 150
interactives exploring history, personal computer applications, net-
works, and artifical intelligence, roughly 1/3 of which might be deemed
multimedia-based.
 
An exhibition I co-curated, along with Nick Capasso of the DeCordova
Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA (and exhibited at The Computer
Museum and DeCordova) just closed last Sunday. "The Computer in the
Studio" included work by 36 New England-area artists who use the com-
puter in their work; there were 6 multimedia (broadly defined) pieces
in the show, 4 of which were interactive. The following descriptions
are abstracted from the exhibition catalog (38 pages, two essays, de-
scriptions of each artists' work, 35 color reproductions of same, avail-
able through me from the Museum Store for $10)(;|):
 
North Water World was created by the Boston Computer Society VR Group.
Participants enter this world by assuming the persona and body of a wolf.
The participant/wolf is then free to roam through and interact with an
abstracted, animated, arctic environment. After two minutes, the wolf
transmogrifies into a seal, which can swim at will for two more minutes
under the ice until it is unavoidably consumed by a killer whale. A third
entity, an animal spirit, is then released to fly through a spiritualized
realm of floating geometric shapes and patterns. Project leader Amatul
Hannan states that her goal was to elicit empathetic and emotional
responses from viewers as they inhabit the bodies and souls of other
beings.
 
Gregory Garvey's Automated Catholic Confessional is a computer-equipped
kiosk that acts as an electronic confessional. The viewer/penitent kneels
at an ATM-like keyboard to enter the frequency and severity of his or
her sins; after calculating the magnitude of the user's sins, the ACM
prints an absolution onto a paper reciept. The ACM anticipates ethical
issues connected with the creation, use, and disposal of artificial
intellects, embodied and otherwise.
 
Douglas Kornfeld's Who Are You makes use of 24 distinct body types the
artist has developed from internationally-recognized male and female
symbols. Viewers choose one or more of Kornfeld's body symbols to
play short documentary clips in which real people discuss their personal
body images. Viewers can record their own body image perceptions. This
group portrait reveals the individuals behind the symbols, and offers a
glimpse of the myriad personal concerns surrounding an American cultural
obsession.
 
Joan Shafran's Sometimes Never Could is a portable poem on a laptop
computer. Referred to by the artist as a "presentation poem," this piece
works both with and against the software on which is was written. Shafran
used a standard program developed for business presentations to compose
a visual poem about emotional rather than financial relationships. The
software is ironically twisted to chart such qualities as intimacy,
dialogue, and love.
 
Dan Spikol and Hazen Reed's Dream Wheel records and stores viewers' re-
collections of dreams. Working in a gallery transformed by light and
sculptural elements, viewers can access hundreds of short videos of
other people's recollections of dreams, record their own, classify their
dream, and create motaged "dream poems" from the stored recollections.
The artists write "A dream is an imaginative expression. Sharing one's
dreams might be viewed as a democratic form of personal expression. A
wheel can be a representation of the spokes of a community. Dream Wheel
is a synthesis of personal nocturnal imaginings with the circular nature
of communication."
 
(Finally) Jed Speare combines his interest in visual and sound art in
Piano Rolls, incorporating video images of antique player piano rolls into
what Speare terms "desultory scrolls" that contrast the rolling figure
with a text that flows in contrary motion. Adding to the player piano
motif, the program "steps" through the piece with a pulsing motion that
implies the motion and rhythm of feet pumping a player piano.
 
For artist contact information, email me direct.
 
Brian Wallace
Media Arts Exhibit Developer/Manager Historical Collection
The Computer Museum
300 Congress Street
Boston MA  02210
 
617.426.2800 x342
        2943 fax
 
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