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New Perspectives: A Survey of Perceptual Paradigms

Searching for agency in the post-Snowden era of mass surveillance and powerful computer vision systems, a cast of key interdisciplinary voices analzye eroding privacy, the proliferation of computational aesthetics, and our increasingly augmented realities. Also: artist encounters, a digital art history lesson, and tales from the dawn of computer graphics

Encounters

Philip BeesleyPhilip Beesley is a Canadian architect and researcher exploring near-living systems through large-scale sculptures and installations. His interactive 3D-printed forests, for example, have been mounted internationally at venues such as the Venice Biennale, Futurium Berlin, MMCA Seoul, and Ars Electronica.

“The Limits of Growth” (p.170-181) → Tim Maly visits Beesley’s Toronto studio to learn more about systems at the edge of artificial life
DAM GalleryWolf Lieser’s DAM Gallery in Berlin (now DAM Projects) has been a beacon of digital art for over 20 years. Representing a peerless artist roster that includes Vera Molnar, Manfred Mohr, Casey Reas, Mario Klingemann, and Lorna Mills, Lieser has built a reputation for championing early pioneers and tomorrow’s stars.

“Welcome to the Club” (p.196-205) → In the wake of its 10th anniversary, HOLO’s Alexander Scholz visits DAM to ask Lieser about representing digital artists when almost no one else would
DerivativeCo-founded in 2000 by Oscar-winning special effects programmer Greg Hermanovic, Derivative is the Toronto-based studio behind the powerful visual programming language TouchDesigner. With a massive global user base of creators working across installation, projection, and audiovisual performance, the software is a singular force in the creative industry.

“Plug and Play” (p.206-216) → HOLO’s Greg J. Smith traces TouchDesigner’s long and winding history all the way back to the dawn of computer graphics
Eno HenzeEno Henze is a German artist and stage designer, whose computer drawings, installations, and scenography explore eternal truths through emergent, generative aesthetics. Henze has shown work at the Max Planck Institute Cologne, NODE Forum in Frankfurt, London’s Royal Opera House, and the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam.

“The Alchemist” (p.146-159) → HOLO’s Alexander Scholz visits Henze’s studio to talk generative systems and fully owning the artistic production process
Raquel MeyersRaquel Meyers crafts brutalist fairy tales with obsolete technologies including the Commodore 64, teletext, and typewriters. A visual artist originally from Spain, Meyer’s eccentric character-based imagery and animations have been featured internationally at Ars Electronica, File Festival, Transmediale, and others.

“Follow the PETSCII Rabbit” (p.182-194) → Kristin Trethewey meets Meyers at Berlin’s Transmediale festival to learn more about lofi aesthetics and textmode labour
David OReillyDavid OReilly is a Los Angeles-based Irish animator and filmmaker, who burst onto the scene with several weird and wonderful self-directed films in the late 2000s. Since then, OReilly has blossomed into a singular CGI artist, authoring not only films but the wildly provocative videogames Mountain (2014) and Everything (2017).

“LOL All the Way to the Bank” (p.054-067) → Daniel West meets OReilly to talk Hollywood and CGI capitalism before and after he guest-directed an Adventure Time episode
Chris O’SheaChris O’Shea is a London-based artist and designer known for a series of large-scale interactive installations he created in the 2000s. In 2012, he launched Cowly Owl, a studio creating apps “to bring families together.” Among its biggest hits are iOS titles like Little Digits, Monster Mingle, and Sizzle & Stew.

“Toy Story” (p.160-169) → Will Wiles talks to O’Shea about tech and kids in the wake of his latest installation at the Royal London Children’s Hospital
Jer ThorpJer Thorp, a Canadian-born New Yorker, is one of the most idiosyncratic talents to emerge from the data visualization milieu. Over the last decade Thorp has held R&D and archival residencies at institutions including the National Geographic Society, The Library of Congress, and the New York Times.

“Data-based” (p.028-041) → HOLO’s Greg J. Smith meets Thorp in New York to discuss information aesthetics as his residency at the New York Times winds down
SemiconductorBritish artist duo Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt explore the material nature of the world through the lenses of science and technology. Often collaborating with leading experts, many of their films and installations have been forged at major institutions including CERN, NASA Space Sciences Laboratory, and Charles Darwin Research Station.

“The (New) Age of Discovery” (p.042-053) → Daniel West visits Gerhardt and Jarman’s Brighton studio to explore the grey zones between art and science
ZimounZimoun is a Swiss sound and installation artist whose motorized assemblies of everyday materials (cardboard, ping pong balls) generate rich organic soundscapes. Since his rise to prominence in the late 2000s, Zimoun’s kinetic architectures have mesmerized global audiences at Ars Electronica, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, the Nam June Paik Museum, and elsewhere.

“Motor Cities” (p.068-081) → HOLO’s Alexander Scholz visits Zimoun’s assembly line in Bern to talk sound, material, and his love of DC motors

Contributors

Greg Borenstein
James Bridle
Golan Levin
Tim Maly
Luna Maurer (Moniker)
N O R M A L S
Paul Prudence
Dylan Schenker
Kristin Trethewey
Daniel West
Mitchell Whitelaw
Will Wiles

and more

Gallery

“How are emerging technologies changing the way we see the world? As optimists, we’d point to imaginative artist practices and perceptual hacks. As pessimists, we’d call attention to (often invisible) systems of control. As realists, we split the difference.”

Included: DAM Gallery
Retrospective Booklet

In a special 20-page retrospective booklet, DAM Gallery’s Wolf Lieser reminisces about ten works that shaped the gallery’s first decade—from a 1967 plotter drawing by Frieder Nake to a hand drawn QR code portrait created by Aram Bartholl in 2012.