This exhibition is designed to highlight experimental works that have pushed the boundaries of traditional cinema using computer and electronic technology. From computer games to interactive films and immersive environments, “Outside the Box” will allow students and the community in general to see and experience non-traditional cinema. Exhibition artists include: Jud Yalkut, Cory Arcangel, Toni Dove, Lev Manovich and Andreas Kratky, Tennessee Rice Dixon, and Paul Catanese.
Featuring experimental works that challenge the boundaries of traditional cinema, “Outside the Box: New Cinematic Experiences” will be on exhibit Jan. 18-Feb. 24, 2006, in the Emily Davis Gallery at The University of Akron.
Using computer and electronic technology, the free exhibition will showcase works by seven pioneering media artists who explore such subjects as computer game hacking, interactive cinema, and database-driven movies.
“This innovative exhibition displays the interplay of art and media in a variety of formats,” says Seth Thompson, curator of “Outside the Box” and an adjunct faculty member in the Mary Schiller Myers School of Art at The University of Akron. “It enables us to explore a new frontier in contemporary art.”
Emily Davis Gallery is in Folk Hall, 150 E. Exchange St. Gallery hours are Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Wednesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. For more information call 330-972-5951, e-mail dwatt@uakron.edu, or visit www.uakron.edu/art.
The exhibition’s free public opening reception is Jan. 18 from 4:30 to 7 p.m.
Two media artists will give free public lectures in the Folk Hall Auditorium. Cory Arcangel will talk about “How I Went from Modifying Nintendo Games to Giving Lectures About Simon and Garfunkel” at 6 p.m. on Feb. 3. Arcangel takes a novel approach to computer games by hacking them as part of his artistic practice to create new meanings. Super Mario Clouds v2k3 and I Shot Andy Warhol are two of Arcangel’s game hacks in the Emily Davis Gallery exhibition.
Computer artist Patrick Lichty, widely known for his work as the computer animator for the activist art group called The Yes Men, will talk about “Confessions of a Culture Hacker: Probes, Pranks, and Investigations” at 6 p.m. on March 24.
The other artists showcased in “Outside the Box” include:
• Jud Yalkut, a video artist with a 40-plus year career focusing on spiritual transformation, is showing his 1966 landmark piece Turn, Turn, Turn and his 2005 video installation Sea Islands.
• Toni Dove’s interactive video installation Sally or the Bubble Burst uses speech recognition and synthesis to allow viewers to interact with Sally, a responsive virtual character based on the 1930s fan and bubble dancer Sally Rand.
• Lev Manovich and Andreas Kratky’s Soft Cinema: Navigating the Database features three database-driven films in which software creates movies by selecting and editing media from a database.
• Tennessee Rice Dixon’s 1995 award-winning Scrutiny in the Great Round CD-ROM is a slow-moving and interactive collage about birth and marriage that employs sound, poetry, and imagery of artifacts and symbols from cultures throughout history. Dixon’s artist book that inspired the CD-ROM will also be on view.
• Media artist Paul Catanese will show three of his hybrid creations: Medicinal Craft of Cephalopods, Recollections of a Somnambulist and A Short History of the Bezoar Stone made for the Gameboy Advance.
“Outside the Box” is part of the Myers Artist-in-Residency Program at the UA Myers School of Art. The program brings nationally and internationally renowned artists to campus to share their diverse talents with students, alumni and the community.
