{"id":1688,"date":"2008-10-15T20:59:52","date_gmt":"2008-10-15T18:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/15\/writing-for-rhizomeorg-actreact-at-the-milwaukee-art-museum\/"},"modified":"2008-10-15T21:04:38","modified_gmt":"2008-10-15T19:04:38","slug":"writing-for-rhizomeorg-actreact-at-the-milwaukee-art-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/15\/writing-for-rhizomeorg-actreact-at-the-milwaukee-art-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing for Rhizome.org: Act\/React at the Milwaukee Art Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

A review I penned of the Act\/React Milwaukee Art Musem exhibition<\/a> is on the front page of Rhizome<\/a> today, and will be in their DIGEST this weekend.<\/p>\n

Teaser:<\/p>\n

Action, Reaction, and Phenomenon<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"actReact5small.jpg\"
\nImage: Daniel Rozin, Snow Mirror, 2006. Computer, custom software,
\nvideo camera, projector, silk. Dimensions variable. Edition of 6. (Courtesy
\nof bitforms gallery, New York, and ITP, Tisch School of the Arts, New York.)<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n

In his book, Parables for the Virtual<\/em>, Brian Massumi calls for “movement, sensation, and qualities of experience” to be put back into our understandings of embodiment. He says that contemporary society comprehends bodies, and by extension the world, almost exclusively through linguistic and visual apprehension. They are defined by their images, their symbols, what they look like and how we write and talk about them. Massumi wants to instead “engage with continuity,” to encourage a processual and active approach to embodied experience. In essence, Massumi proposes that our theories “feel” again. “Act\/React<\/a>,” curator George Fifield’s “dream exhibition” that opened at the Milwaukee Art Museum<\/a> on October 4th, picks up on these phenomenologist principles. He and his selected artists invite viewer-participants to physically explore their embodied and continuous relationships to each other, the screen, space, biology, art history and perhaps more.<\/p>\n

Fifield is quick to point out that all the works on show are unhindered by traditional interface objects such as the mouse and keyboard. Most of them instead employ computer vision technologies, more commonly known as interactive video. Here, the combined use of digital video cameras and custom computer software allows each artwork to “see,” and respond to, bodies, colors and\/or motion in the space of the museum. The few works not using cameras in this fashion employ similar technologies towards the same end. While this homogeneity means that the works might at first seem too similar in their interactions, their one-to-one responsiveness, and their lack of other new media-specific explorations — such as networked art or dynamic appropriation and re-mixing systems — it also accomplishes something most museum-based “state of the digital art” shows don’t. It uses just one avenue of interest by contemporary media artists in order to dig much deeper into what their practice means, and why it’s important. “Act\/React” encourages an extremely varied and nuanced investigation of our embodied experiences in our own surroundings. As the curator himself notes in the Museum’s press release, “If in the last century the crisis of representation was resolved by new ways of seeing, then in the twenty-first century the challenge is for artists to suggest new ways of experiencing…This is contemporary art about contemporary existence.” This exhibition, in other words, implores us to look at action and reaction, at our embodied relationships, as critical experience. It is a contemporary investigation of phenomenology.<\/p>\n

Near the entrance of the show, Scott Snibbe’s Boundary Functions<\/em> (1998) begins by literalizing the fine line between publicly constructed and personally constituted space, between “you (plural)” and “me.”…. Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A review I penned of the Act\/React Milwaukee Art Musem exhibition is on the front page of Rhizome today, and will be in their DIGEST this weekend. Teaser: Action, Reaction, and Phenomenon Image: Daniel Rozin, Snow Mirror, 2006. Computer, custom software, video camera, projector, silk. Dimensions variable. Edition of 6. (Courtesy of bitforms gallery, New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,3,7,38,9,8,19,5,12,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-art-and-tech","category-me","category-milwaukee-art","category-pop-culture","category-re-blog-tidbits","category-stimulus","category-technology","category-theory","category-uncategorical"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9blZT-re","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1747,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/23\/beer-baron-breweries-animated-gifs\/","url_meta":{"origin":1688,"position":0},"title":"Beer Baron \/ Breweries animated GIFs","author":"nathaniel","date":"23 December 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a great project by A. Bill Miller and Brandon Bauer in Milwaukee. Say the artists (slightly edited): The work was presented at the Blatz Building in Milwaukee as part of the Make Your Own History group exhibition. This site is more in line with what we originally intended for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Blatz Beer Baron","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.master-list2000.com\/abillmiller\/beerbaronsbreweryworkers\/beerbarons-animatedgif\/Brewer-09.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1871,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/19\/night-work-the-armoury-gallery\/","url_meta":{"origin":1688,"position":1},"title":"Night Work @ The Armoury Gallery","author":"nathaniel","date":"19 March 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Night Work @ The Armoury Gallery The Armoury presents Night Work, featuring the work of six of Milwaukee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most established contemporary artists. Opening Reception: Friday, March 27th 6:00 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 10:00 pm Show runs: March 27 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c May 2 Gallery Hours: Saturdays 12:00 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 5:00 pm 1718 N 1st St 3N3,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"nightwork-postcard-back","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/nightwork-postcard-back-300x204.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1707,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/20\/uw-milwaukee-grad-exhibition\/","url_meta":{"origin":1688,"position":2},"title":"UW-Milwaukee grad exhibition","author":"nathaniel","date":"20 November 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1695,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/28\/gallery-night-and-day-in-milwaukee-fall-2008\/","url_meta":{"origin":1688,"position":3},"title":"Gallery Night (and Day) in Milwaukee, Fall 2008","author":"nathaniel","date":"28 October 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I managed to make it to Kenilworth Studios, UWM's Union Gallery, Spackle Gallery and the Armoury Gallery for this Fall's Gallery Night (and Day) in Milwaukee. Below is a slide show - I recommend full-screen mode, and hit the \"info\" key to see titles of works and names of artists.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1701,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/09\/sprawl-milwaukee-art-exhibition-opening\/","url_meta":{"origin":1688,"position":4},"title":"SPRAWL: milwaukee art exhibition opening","author":"nathaniel","date":"09 November 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm on my first show in Milwaukee - which opened this weekend - with 4 prints (and the Compressionism video), and 4 pieces from the odys series. Nice opening: congratulations to the Borg Ward Collective and A. Bill Miller and all the artists involved. See more pics from the exhibit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "flickr"","block_context":{"text":"flickr","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/old-categories\/flickr\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3148\/3012170757_fab278756f.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1725,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/09\/material-at-the-kunzelmann-esser-gallery-milwaukee\/","url_meta":{"origin":1688,"position":5},"title":"‘material’ at the Kunzelmann-Esser Gallery, Milwaukee","author":"nathaniel","date":"09 December 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"one night only at the Kunzelmann-Esser Gallery Friday, December 12th 6-10pm Kunzelmann-Esser Gallery 710 West Historic Mitchell Street, Second Floor Milwaukee material is a one night exhibition of audio and video installation including interactive, experimental, formalistic, and political work. 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