Reuse

September 19, 2008 9:18 AM

Computer Art
posted by Blazecock Pileon (25 comments total)

Using around 100 computers and 60 monitors, with almost everything turned on, the sculpture generated a powerful electrical field which permeated the air inside and outside its walls. This was felt the most when inside, as it combined with the bright electric-blue light of the monitors to create a very different, usual space and experience that verges on the spiritual

Wait, we can feel eletric fields now? I thought only sharks could do that.
posted by burnmp3s at 9:29 AM on September 19, 2008

Wow! This is "wicked awesome". I liked playing, spot the RISC workstation. I found desktop HP 9000's and an AlphaStation or two. Plenty of old timey 680X0 series and early PowerPC Macs.... Delicious.

I love me some 21164's.
posted by PROD_TPSL at 9:34 AM on September 19, 2008

Yeah.... I have one of these "installations" in the old conference room here at the office.
posted by odinsdream at 9:54 AM on September 19, 2008 [3 favorites]

This reminds me of the stone ruins I saw when I was in Scotland for school. Very cool site; thanks for posting it, BP.
posted by heyho at 9:56 AM on September 19, 2008

Yeah, I don't know about being able to "feel" the electrical field. There might have been a lot of heat generated or something, but it's not like people don't squish lots of monitors and computer into a small room on a normal basis. Sounds like fake over poetic speech to me.
posted by NationalWreck at 10:00 AM on September 19, 2008

Amen, baby.

Also, we now know where J. J. Abrams gets his ideas.
posted by cortex at 10:01 AM on September 19, 2008

I'm a quasi-modern art fan...

In that I like modern art a great deal, but don't spend a heck of a lot of time following it and only on the most casual level.

Now, is it me or is installation art becoming the only art that is interesting anymore?

Or is it just me?

Keep in mind, this is kind of a blanket statement by a guy who goes to a gallery like once a month.

Thanks.
posted by Lacking Subtlety at 10:20 AM on September 19, 2008

I know a bunch of hoarders that can now call themselves artists.... thanks!
posted by not_on_display at 10:23 AM on September 19, 2008

This is exactly the kind of thing that my program at Ohio State loves. Sweet.
posted by HopperFan at 10:28 AM on September 19, 2008

Dan Flavin for the IT department.
posted by beerbajay at 10:31 AM on September 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

powerful electrical field which permeated the air inside and outside its walls

aka ozone
posted by Laotic at 10:56 AM on September 19, 2008

Sandy Smith is a well-loved tech at the computer lab at Glasgow School of Art. His other work doesn't lend itself to "... fake over poetic speech..." as much as it does a hearty OMFG. Last year, while we were our final year of a course there, my flatmate and I were briefly obsessed with what we still consider to be his magnum opus.

Now, is it me or is installation art becoming the only art that is interesting anymore?

Or is it just me?

Look at Vik Muniz, read James Elkins' essay on him, maybe read a bit of what Merlin James has to say about Katz or William Nicholson, and pick up a recent anthology of "hot" painters like Vitamin P or The Triumph of Painting to get started. Also check out the recent Tate retrospective of Peter Doig. Look at paintings more like how you read a novel and less like how you listen to a rock song. Hopefully that will shake things up for you a little bit. Oh! And check out William Daniels for sure.
posted by nímwunnan at 11:02 AM on September 19, 2008 [2 favorites]

Cool post
posted by KokuRyu at 11:51 AM on September 19, 2008

If there's enough of a field wouldn't it produce a static charge sufficient to twitch small hairs? Kinda like standing next to a big Tesla coil? Or am I totally full of it?
posted by sotonohito at 12:00 PM on September 19, 2008

You are totally full of Tesla coil.
posted by cortex at 12:08 PM on September 19, 2008

What happens to the computers afterwards? I'm not sure if this is reuse or just a way to postpone throwing them out.
posted by amosl at 12:10 PM on September 19, 2008

There's nothing here that Nam June Paik didn't do better twenty years earlier.
posted by oulipian at 12:33 PM on September 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

You are totally full of Tesla coil.

A shocking statement, and totally uncoiled for.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:17 PM on September 19, 2008

I don't think we need this kind of static here. I don't want to see anyone get charged.
posted by GuyZero at 1:31 PM on September 19, 2008

Yeah, please take your negativity elsewhere.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:35 PM on September 19, 2008

Man, I didn't know that would net me so much vandeguff.
posted by cortex at 1:50 PM on September 19, 2008

Yeah, nice going, edison.
posted by not_on_display at 1:59 PM on September 19, 2008

The current conversation is really sparking some creative input.
posted by Graygorey at 2:40 PM on September 19, 2008

But how much does the exhibition charge?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:31 PM on September 19, 2008

Maybe by "electric fields" they meant static electricity?
posted by Target Practice at 3:53 PM on September 19, 2008