Connections
The human mind works off of
connections. Connections between ideas, people, events, and concepts, all of
these are what make the human mind function correctly. This is how we learn,
tying newly learned ideas to previously learned concepts so that we remember
the new information. Therefore, we look for connections in all parts of our
life, for instance when we meet someone new, “Oh, do you know so and so?” This is often a key phrase within the first
few encounters with a new person. The same thing happens when entering a new
situation, for instance an art exhibit. The mind looks for connections, trying
to find the underlying theme of the pieces or how they tie together. Sometimes
there is success, and sometimes there is not. For instance, in the case of the
Lake Tahoe Community College show “CADRE,” many of the pieces did not seem to
tie together, until reading through more information on the exhibit and finding
out that the contributors are all alumni of the CADRE laboratory for New Media
at San José State University. After discovering this, some of the pieces made a
little more sense, however there were still specific pieces that stood out,
even before discovering the tie between pieces.
First, Papal Propagation, by Geri Wittig, stood out because of the recent
events concerning the pope. Overall, this is interesting because the piece is
not new, it is actually from 1994, yet it has new relevance with our recent
events. The piece itself is very well made, it looks like a real video game,
until you go to play it (especially after being able to play the other games in
the gallery), only to find out that it is not interactive. Just as a church should be open to the voices of its
people, the video game should be able
to be played. However, this game cannot be played, which reflects the Catholic
Church and its openness to change and opinions.
On the other hand, we have John
Bruneau and James Morgan’s Cooperative
Gaming Co-op which are interactive. This is unusual in itself because we
have been trained to not touch the art; but this is art that is very much meant
to be touched and discovered. While Papal
Propagation was very realistic and could be confused with a marketed video
game (until the name is read and it is found to be non-interactive), Cooperative Gaming Co-op is less
put-together, and does not look like something that could be found in an actual
arcade. That being said, the fact that this piece is interactive is a plus.
Whether playing the highly inappropriate game where an adolescent is going
through puberty or helping to save people from a fire, the user is a part of
the art, and therefore able to make his or her own connections. In this way,
the art means something to the user, or in other words the viewer.
These two pieces stood out because
there was the connection to video games for both of them, and therefore a
connection between the two of them; however, another piece that stood out was Siena, by Vera Fainshtein, also because
of connections, but in this case, connections to our class. While other pieces
were also digital media, this piece tied in with our class and all of the
video/animation work we have been doing, which allowed for more appreciation of
the piece. There were very simple parts to this piece, namely the background
and whole idea, however the shadows made it different and helped it to stand
out among the other pieces.
Once again, all of the pieces were
interesting, but those that seemed random (for example, were harder to make
connections to) were more difficult to understand and therefore did not stand
out as much as those that could be tied to previously known information. Yet
this is also the whole idea of art, broadening horizons and challenging
thinking. Therefore, the next time random art appears, there may be connections
to be made with pieces from the “CADRE Show” and then they will not be as
random.
