When defining the purpose of this blog I aimed to "explore ways that objective truths can have meaning
and relevance in our actual lives." These "objective truths" being, specifically, the verified discoveries of modern science. If you stop to think about that statement, you may wonder why it's a topic worth exploring at all. Discoveries from science that have relevance in our lives... isn't that called "technology"? Don't all the devices and machines we see and interact with everyday show exactly how ideas from science have come to influence our lives?
Yet, you may notice that the majority of the posts thus far on Nature of Neptune have focused on artist's use of scientific concepts in their artwork, not on their use of technology. It is absolutely true that technology brings science to our lives, but the question is how? When we look at an iPod, do we understand how it works, or how it has come to be in 2008 that this device is able to be manufactured? Do we know the rules of the natural world that have been discovered that allow this device to work the way it does?
These are the sort of questions that inspired this blog, and are part of the reason that successful examples of making concepts from science relevant to our lives is so difficult and rare. The art world has certainly not ignored technology however, as the field of New Media has exploded in recent years. New media artists use modern technology, often computers or digitization, as their artistic medium. There is some excellent new media artwork out there, but much of it falls victim to novelty for novelty's sake, creating new forms of "art" that, while certainly new, are conceptually empty. New Media is just another tool for art making; simply using technology does not mean you are helping us understand technology.
One artist whose work does help us understand technology is Andrew Neumann, a Boston-based new media artist. Neumann's fascinating wall pieces offer a unique glimpse inside electronic and computing devices, baring their insides while also showing real time interaction between system components. One piece, titled Quartet (photo to the left, video here), consists of four small lcd screens with their electronics exposed sliding back and forth on two metal tracks. Two cameras on either side of the tracks are pointed at different components of the moving system; one is focused on the motor driving the screens back and forth, while the other points at a switch mechanism that causes the screens to change direction when they reach the end of the track. Two other cameras are mounted on the moving lcd screens, pointing down the track back towards the switch and the motor, respectively. Each of the four camera views are projected on one of the screens, and the entire system is mounted on a wooden plank.
The cameras projecting four different views of the same slowly moving system suggests security cameras inside a computer. While Neumann's cameras are not for protection, like security cameras they give a coordinated view of multiple aspects of the same system as they change in real time. Each part of the system is related to each other part, as power and function are transferred from one to another. Neumann doesn't try to wow the viewer with cutting edge technology, but rather offers a unique and meditative view on the concepts and structure behind modern electronic devices. This allows the viewer to experience the concepts behind technology, offering understanding rather than function. His work does not do any physical or even virtual work, but opens a portal to the concepts behind technology. Neumann's artwork demonstrates that new media art can be startlingly successful when attempting to understand the technology that comprises it.
The first photo is from the Bitforms Gallery website, and the second photo (of Neumann's piece titled Screw) is from the artist's own website.
