I can't remember the last time I was actually floored by a work of art—I mean floored, effected in every conceivable way. I recently came across one of the most moving pieces of technology art/information architecture that I have ever seen. What is unique about it is that not only is the gathered data fascinating, the delivery is quite beautiful. I mean, yes technology art usually looks interesting with its random visual output, and information architecture is quite appealing in a black and white sort of way, but I tend to miss the poetry. This piece has the graphic design know-how needed to carry its message closer to the heart.
Take a look at Jonathan Harris & Sep Kamvar's I Want You to Want Me, (featured at NY MOMA last spring). It's a powerful soliloquy, real expressions of desire and loneliness orchestrated into an interactive installation that speaks of our human need for company and sense of self. This ode to humanity reveals how we see our selves, how we represent ourselves to the world, and our struggle to find a perfect match. Across time and cultures, methods and technologies vary, but this need is always universally the same in its urgency.
Perhaps, the work can be best described as a tracking device on the human quest for love and a chronicle of the phenomena that is online dating—what it says about us, and how it reveals our ultimate solo essence.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
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2 comments:
I find this interesting too. I'm intrigued by your last comment "... how it reveals our ultimate solo essence."
I think this is great, because so many ppl. in the field of design that read authors like Deleuze, Lacan or rather post-modern thought, would say exactly the opposite; we are all interconnected and if you will non-solo. I had a huge problem not so much with the actual thoughts that these thinkers bring to art school, but that these seem to be creating some type of foundational thinking patterns for design students that somewhat leave other ways of thinking out. (I recently went to CCA, so this is particularly what I am refering to!? I've seen it across America also though in schools like Yale for example.)
Melissa,
This is such a touching project. Thank you so much for posting it, and for writing such a poetic introduction.
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