Not Just Another Pretty Face 

POV

Hyde Park Art Center > Exhibitions > POV

The Public Art class in the Interactive Arts and Media Department at Columbia College Chicago created POV, a selection of new motion-sensitive video works made for HPAC’s projection facade. The 7 works featured are connected loosely by the theme of the individual against a backdrop of societal constraints. All of the works were completed under the instruction of Annette Barbier in May 2010 and run in a loop in the order given below with each piece displaying for 10 minutes. The title of the show POV, stands for Point of View, referencing the shifting perspective the viewer gets of the facade as they pass by the HPAC building. Each work was made with two sequences – one plays idly and the second gets triggered by the viewer’s motion passing on the sidewalk or the street in front of the Art Center.

The facade runs from 8 pm – 10 pm daily with exception to Friday, May 7 (the program will not play at all that day due to the HPAC gala).

  • May 4, 2010 – May 14, 2010
  • Jackman Goldwasser Catwalk Gallery

Featured Artists

James Patrick Gordon; Timothy Kuttruff; Alexa Loftus; Ryan Meher, B.J. Kraiberg, and Tamale Sepp; David O’Connor; Janet Rooney; and Nic Ruley.

Calm Broken
Timothy Kuttruff

The piece is comprised of two worlds. The first is calm and peaceful. A place that just about anyone would want to live in. The second is a world compromised of greed, power, ignorance and war. A world made by us, triggered by us. It is a world that we may never see completely disappear but the more we are aware of it the smaller each of us can make it. And thus make first world a bigger place in which to live.

The Content Of This Sidewalk Has Been Removed
James Patrick Gordon

Video installation incorporating digital motion detection. The piece is activated by movement. A viewer walking past triggers several videos running in parallel of children and adults drawing on the sidewalk in chalk. Some of the drawings are cute doodles, others are words of wisdom or advice. After a few seconds, the video will is interrupted by white text on a black field that reads, “The content of this sidewalk has been removed due to a DMCA [Digital Millenium Copyright Act] takedown notice.”

War and Discontent
Janet Rooney

The years I spent as an aerospace engineer were fraught with ambivalence – building tools of war in order to prevent it was the basis for the cold war’s success. War is a terrible fact of life that escapes most of the people in this country. This piece is meant to both deal with my ambivalence as well as acknowledge that war could happen on our soil at any time.

The Journey
David O’Connor

I believe that the final destination is not where a person grows, but what happens from point A to point B. So with this idea, I’d want to setup a visualization that is a horizontal progression of a wave. The wave will need to progress through the screens and navigate different obstacles in order to get through to the end. As the wave progresses through the screens, some of the obstacles will begin to trail behind the wave following it. For me this signifies learning from the journey and taking that knowledge with you to your goal.

Disclaimer
Nic Ruley

This is a multimedia discussion of the power that the institution has in defining art and the constant struggle with the public at large that is meant to consume it. The piece is a highlight of moments where that specific negotiation of power has been strained. By placing a warning on the dangers of art in an arts institution, the work recreates this tension in a lightly ironic manner as it dares the viewer to look while warning her of the risks involved.

NGC 7293
Ryan Meher, B.J. Kraiberg, and Tamale Sepp

Surveillance cameras are now common in most public urban spaces. With the advent of networked camera systems, individuals can be tracked in real time as they move through the city. The impact of this network on a collective sense of safety or privacy has yet to be made manifest.

Untitled
Alexa Loftus

My piece creates different emotions that interact with each other as well as with the public. It has the potential to inspire different feelings in the viewers who take part in it, as well as entertain the eye with the rhythm of movement, facial expressions, and repetition. The motivation for the characters in the video become less relevant, as the emotional reaction is heightened in the spectator. This example of public art is both a study of theater and audience.