Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Art that whispers, learns and evolves is on display at Carnegie Mellon University's recently opened Gates Center for Computer Science.
Six of the seven installations that integrate elements of art and computer science were created by students and faculty members inspired by a class called 'Art That Learns.' The class was jointly taught last spring by Carlos Guestrin, an associate professor of computer science and machine learning at Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science, and Osman Khan, a visiting associate professor of art in the College of Fine Arts."
4 comments:
So THATS what those are!!! I hadn't realized that the screen i saw when walking into the Gates building everyday was an ever adapting piece of artwork (it is not signed very well), or that there were others around the building. Tomorrow, i will be walking a little slower through the building, and will find those other six and take a look at them. It is a little surprising (and hard to believe for many of us at first) that even the CS building has art in it- but we should believe it and not write them off as lost artistic causes (yet). These pieces are proof that the CS department are artists as well, and possible collaborators for us all.
The article somewhat glosses over one of the pieces, and since it is my favorite, I would like to bring it into view: Deconstruction of Motion is the piece between Gates and Newell-Simon halls, and is a really interesting one. A small camera below the display shows a distorted view of the hallway, which is on a several second delay. Motion within the frame tosses the particles of the image around, allowing a fast-moving person to flow through the hallway (this is stunning during passing periods). However, if you stay still for about 3 seconds, your image comes into clear focus until such time that you move again. It evokes the feeling of a modified time-lapse shot popular in television where the main character is standing still while the rest of the world whips around them... it's a beautiful piece, and is really amazing in its artistic elegance for a highly developed computer program.
The prospect of interactive art and using technology in performance is one that excites us all. The problem is figuring out how to use the technology effectively to tell the story. Have these tools is really exciting, but now we have to decide what to do with them. Currently, most of this technology is confined to the world of "avant-guarde" and when the technology is used n main stream theater, it is just thrown at the project just to say "look at what I can do". This is not the point of art. It is not to show off, it is to showcase and tell stories. In addition, having a computer as an artist is something that may bother many people. We shall see.
YES. THESE PIECES ARE AMAZING. I FEEL SO STRONGLY ABOUT THIS THAT I AM YELLING.
This is what we can do when we integrate technology and art. We have whole new levels of meaning that can be incorporated by using technology and the internet. We have new culture created by new media. Art should reflect that.
Carnegie Mellon has all these incredible resources; an amazing art school and a state-of-the-art computer program. Why are we not collaborating? Why are we as artists not learning how computers work? Why aren't CS majors taking art and storytelling classes?
If you haven't taken a look at these pieces in Gates, you definitely should. Just imagine what we can do if we work together!
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