Spark a Conversation at Ignition 2.0

March 30, 2009 | Filed Under Design, kcato. 

The Fuse Factory Electronic & Digital Arts Lab, a not-for-profit arts organization in Columbus, is hosting its second annual juried exhibition featuring artists working with digital and electronic media. Ignition 2.0: Conversations takes place on April 18th and 19th at Junctionview Studios, located at 889 Williams Avenue, Columbus OH 43212. The exhibit showcases the works of fourteen artists from Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Zanesville, Gahanna, and Whitehall.

True to the exhibit’s theme, conversations, much of the work in Ignition 2.0 involves direct or indirect viewer interaction, whether it be human-to-machine or machine-to-machine. For example, Thomas Winniningham’s “Give Me Pop Art” has viewers type into a computer a single word, which is sent to a file that has been configured to post drawing tasks to Mechanical Turk. The images created by Mechanical Turk users who sign on to complete these quick drawing tasks are projected as a composite image in real time.

Other works requiring the viewer’s direct input include Bill Shackelford’s “Blogged”, Nathaniel Hartman’s “Noise Machine #1″, and Debbie Rosenfeld and Jonny Roller’s “Conversations with Color”. “Blogged” monitors blog traffic to the work’s website and runs air from an air compressor into a 6-foot balloon every time someone visits the site, filling the balloon until it bursts. “Noise Machine #1″ uses sensors, toggle switches, and potentiometers to monitor the viewer’s interactions, which in turn impacts the sculpture’s movement/sound cycle. In “Conversations with Color,” viewers send text message responses to questions posed by six different abstract digital prints; their messages trigger the projection of additional images or quotes onto the wall space above the prints .

While not requiring direct interaction, a number of pieces adhere to the exhibit’s theme via reflection upon the nature of conversations made possible by the internet. Jane Ries’ “The Man Project” is a compilation of over three hundred male photos retrieved from their Yahoo! personal ads and categorized according to a system based on facial expression, clothing, hairstyle, and body language. Anthony and Sandra Fontana’s photo installation “We are Avatars” explores the social capital one gains via participation in social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, represented by the placement of images taken of exhibit attendees.

“With the meteoric rise of online social networking and advances in communications technology, the theme of conversations seems quite apt,” said Dr. Alison Colman, founder and Executive Director of the Fuse Factory. “It is amazing what artists are doing with these technologies now, not just in terms of technological expertise, but also in terms of reflection, critical exploration, and play.”

The opening reception will take place from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm on Saturday, April 18th. The exhibit will open to the public from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm on Sunday, April 19th.

For more information, please visit http://thefusefactory.org or call 614-483-3873.

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