Bifid, details, by Alisa Andrasek
Fresh Projects: Shimmer
New Media Installations Turn New Museum of Contemporary Art into Laboratory for Design
thru December 31, 2005
New Museum of Contemporary Art / Chelsea
Media Lounge
556 West 22nd Street NYC 10011
Shimmer, organized by Anne Barlow, Curator of Education and Media Programs, is the most recent installation in the continuing Fresh Projects showcase of emerging artists working in digital media.
Waken, detail, by Beth Coleman and Howard Goldkrand
Shimmer presents two installations, created using generative software, that reconfigure the gallery into a laboratory for innovation in the use of scale and material. In Bifid, Alisa Andrasek [http://www.biothing.org/]uses a form of "design intelligence"—a combination of genetic engineering techniques and design software—to create a field of intricate and translucent fabric structures. Here, Bifid takes the form of an architectural installation, but in theory, it could manifest itself as an infinitely customized design product, the surface of clothing, or a dynamic sound pattern.
In Waken, Beth Coleman and Howard Goldkrand [http://www.soundlab.org/]use a code that emulates the movement of bees in nature to create sound that is characterized by diversity, accident, and spontaneous growth. This work, which continues their investigation into system design and generative forms, creates a kind of electronic-architectural distortion of space.
