Algorithmic Unconscious
Curated by Phillip Stearns
Digital is anti-noise. In the shift from analog, physical, or chemical forms of art making—where physical agents operate on physical material—to digital, the noise of the medium is minimized (controlled) as a default of the technological substrate.
Algorithmic Unconscious highlights machine/human collaborations where the primary material in the works exhibited is the inherent noise of electronic systems. By emphasizing random fluctuations, the artists explore the potential for electronic technologies to misinterpret and re-imagine the signals they are processing in order to complete the work. The featured artists work within and parallel to the Glitch Art movement, recognizing that algorithms for processing signals function as key materials of digital art. By feeding these algorithms "unconventional data" or by putting them through unconventional routines, noise is reintroduced as a signature of the machine.
Jeff Donaldson’s work takes analog VHS tapes and Flash video compression and twists them into a system where the product is an "interpretation" of noise that mirrors the phenomenon responsible for the noise of our visual sense organs being perceived as visions in dreams. Dan Temkin puts Photoshop’s dithering algorithm into a situation where it is forced to get creative with incompatible color palettes in the production of large scale, low-resolution images. Arcangel Constantini re-wires the electronics of an Atari 2600 game console from the 70s so that the internal memory is expressed in a fragmented machine style stream-of-consciousness: a frenetically changing barrage of fragmented geometries and saturated colors. The images of Phillip Stearns’s DCP Series explore a machine dream-state induced by rewiring the brains of digital cameras. The analog plotter drawings of Jeff Snyder utilize technologies from which contemporary digital art practices originated: analog computing, providing an elegant counter point to the digital works in the show.
The algorithmic unconscious itself may not yet be something that we can clearly define or identify, however, we may be able to view the works in this exhibition and identify between them a revised metaphor for ourselves and our relationship to our technology.
- Opening: November 4th, 6:30p reception / 9:30p concert
-
Exhibiting Artists- Jeff Snyder
- Daniel Temkin
- Phillip Stearns
- Jeff Donaldson
- Arcangel Constantini
Performance Lineup- Richard Garet
- Kamran Sadeghi
- Phillip Stearns
- Closing: November 18th, 7:00p - 10:00p
-
Performance Lineup- Phil White
- Dandelion Fiction
- TwistyCat
- Antonio Biermann & Jeff Donaldson
- Phillip Stearns
He performs and records in an analog synthesizer duo with Sam Pluta, called exclusiveOr (CD out on Quiet Design Records), and also performs on a hacked 1980s pen plotter with Victor Adan in the Draftmasters. Jeff's electro-country alter ego Owen Lake released his debut album in 2008, on the Layered label. He also founded and co-runs the Carrier Records label for experimental music with Sam Pluta and David Brynjar-Franzson. As a member of the Wet Ink composers’ collective since 2004, Jeff has written many pieces for the group and performed electronics on the work of several composers. Lately, he has been experimenting with making visual artworks using obsolete analog chart plotter technology.
In 2009, Jeff Snyder founded Snyderphonics, a company devoted to the invention of new and unusual muscial instruments and controllers. His first product, the Manta controller, was released that same year.
Arcangel is a specialist and manager and curator of art events and technology. New Media Curator of the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, 2000 to 2009, Curator of the 2005 and 2009 Biennale of Electronic Art "Transitio mx" the ANC and CONACULTA, Curator Inaugural event of The fonoteca nacional y, Curator of the University's CENTRO inaugural event, Member of the Board of Dorkbot, Mexico City, Director of the gallery 1 / 4. un-cuarto.
He has been exhibited in prominent festivals and media art in Canada, Korea, Italy, Germany, Argentina, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Peru, China, USA, Brazil, Australia, Puerto Rico. He received the Young Artists Scholarship FONCA 2000, the Rockefeller Fellowship / Macarthur 2002, support to artistic production of the Multimedia Center, the support given by Fundación Telefónica in the "Contest VIDA 0.11". Production support Bancomer Foundation, is part of the National Art Artists 2005-2008.
In 2001 an interest in the potential of re-purposing consumer electronics to create new forms of expression led Jeff to begin creatively short-circuit NES consoles. This work has led to international recognition in new media art and has inspired people world-wide to pursue similar expressions.
Share Article 
