Event 1: Glow

On Sept 28^th, I attended Glow at the Santa Monica Beach. The purpose of Glow is to introduce audiences to interactive art installations. As someone who had never experienced this style of art before, I was very intrigued. Below is a picture of one of the art exhibits. 

Having looked ahead into the idea of two cultures, I instantly made the connection. This isn’t the modern art pieces which experimented with new ways of seeing and with fresh ideas about the nature of materials that I imagined. These arts used modern everyday technology. Having studied art history and taken several classes, I tend to think of modern art as a more abstract way of depicting and communicating the same ideas using possibly new mediums (Seurat, Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Duchamp, etc). I never considered using modern technology in actual artworks.

Above is an example of my favorite art installations. Here, artist Karen Atkinson utilizes a large screen coated with phosphorescent paint that holds the shape of projected images and invites public interaction.

I found the the goal for her artwork fascinating. Each artist has a message they like to communicate and hers was the idea that the new ideas are influenced by previous ones. This very deep profound thought from such a seemingly fun and interactive art piece surprised me. Images saved on the screen from the last group of people would be there for new individuals to play with on the screen. The new individuals would behave and react differently due to the slight changes on the screen. This is like how your ideas are influenced by your experiences and parents or how throughout history actions are made in response to what had happened before. This concept is very interesting to me. 

I thought about how previous ages of art would have explained this dynamic idea, and I found it near impossible. The closest artwork I could think of which depicts something dynamic would be the artwork below. The David sculpture made during the Baroque period depicts David mid-action throwing a rock.

This event really helped me put into perspective what the intertwining of science and art has done. The above picture represents how I see the science and technology affecting the arts. With science and technology at their disposal, the artist's potential is limitless.