28th
The Media & Technologies in Public Art NEFA event at Mills Gallery in Boston was an informative evening featuring seven artists creating different types of public artwork. It was interesting because their presentations also raised heated questions about art, public art and appropriation.
Erik Carlson based out of Providence has a permanent public artwork “Cloud Seeding” at the Green Valley Branch, Denver Public library. He created a database of images, quotes and films from the collection of the library. The work is participatory as t he user searches for a book and the search engine becomes a simplified version based on the Dewey decimal system. The screens project images and text from his database.
“In Passing” will be installed in November at the RI DMV. He takes moving imagery as seen from a car, and when a person pauses to look at the screen the screen pauses, reacting to the person. See the proposal here.
The beautiful craftsmanship of his work only enhances the technological appeal. I imagine the interactive nature of the work to be entertaining in person, but also fulfilling. I look forward to seeing his public art work in person, and will closely follow his future public art commissions.
