Sculpture Studio Spring 2012

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Kat Eisenberg

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Project 2: Kinetics and Interactivity
Vito Acconci and Tim Hawkinson

Vito Acconci

 

            Interaction is one method of art-making which directly involves the audience. The audience is an important aspect to the final product.
            Vito Acconci spreads across the spectrum of interactive art. He often inserts himself directly into the piece, in tandem with the audience. He also creates art object with which the audience must interact.
            Acconci’s pieces often make the viewer feel uncomfortable or forced into a certain situation as he stretches the limits of what is acceptable by society’s standards. Whether it is through provocative language or actions, or encroaching on a stranger’s space, he manages to create situations.

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            In his following piece, he explores the idea of space, and personal space. He invades the personal space of several people as he began following them. There is a certain feeling when you suspect someone if following you. Without knowing who Acconci is, people may have acted differently and tried to lose him. He induced a sense of panic or suspicion in the different people he followed.
            The strangers he chose to follow were simply walking their normal paths that they followed everyday. Once Acconci entered the space, he changed the familiar and created a situation in which the people had to adapt to and interact with. In a way, he manipulated an ordinary space, changing only one element, and the element of him following a stranger.

            Some of his works I particularly enjoy, because there is a direct necessity for the audience. Some of his works were houses with an attached pulley and lever system that was activated once the viewer sat down. In a way, the audience themselves are changing the space around them simply by sitting down. The artist has set up a situation, which the viewer must directly engage with.

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            It is the pieces where it is a more obvious idea of interactivity. The interactivity in this case is direct and can be attributed with a specific action and result. Some of his other works require a certain level of endurance or desire to stay and watch the entire piece.  

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            Acconci’s pieces explore the relationships between people to people and people to space. His work walks the fine line between whimsical and playground like, yet also treads into the areas of taboo and intimacy. He manages to reach the audience on a deep, personal level.

“I think the convention of art remains that the art is there and the viewer is here, and I think architecture and design is totally the opposite. I don’t want viewers; I really want users and inhabitants, or participants." -- Vito Acconci

        Sources used:     

https://mmm1932.dulles19-verio.com/slough/store/product_info.php?products_id=53http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/artist/acconci/biography/
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/01/arts/vito-acconci-s-art-of-opposition-and-provocation.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-04-20/art/body-heat/

 

Tim Hawkinson  

            Tim Hawkinson is very focused on the body through his various interpretations and explorations. He uses his own body as a starting point for his work.
            One of his exhibitions, entitled, Zoopsia, was an entire exhibition of creatures. The word itself, zoopsia, is the visual hallucination of animals. Hawkinson plays off of this idea to create animal forms out of body like objects and materials. Hawkinson is a huge proponent of materials. He uses a variety of materials, ranging from found objects to photographs. For example, he uses photographs of his own mouth to create the suckers on the bottom of an octopus. In this bizarre self-portrait and exploration, Hawkinson is also letting us as the viewer consider our own body. His materials give us a sense of the tactile and think about our bodies from our own perspective.

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            Alongside Zoopsia, Hawkinson presented Überorgan, a massive installation accompanied with music. His materials in this piece are of an industrial nature and work with the addition of music to create a multisensory experience. The experience is different everytime it is viewed, not just due to the variety of visitors. The musical score is a 250 foot long scroll with dots and dashes, which are deciphered by light sensitive switches. The sounds are then scrambled to create a vast array of possibilities. The ability to change gives this work more power when heard all the way through. Once you hear it and interact with it in one manner, it may not be the same next time.
            Some of his other works explore the idea of the body in a very literal manner. In his piece, Emoter he connects the idea of machine and the body.  This piece is comprised of pictures of the artist himself, cut into sections and set up to move around depending on the patterns of light and dark that fall on it. In a way, he is reducing his face and breaking it up into stages, which we can observe. From here, we can make assumptions about our own face.

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            In his piece, Pentecost I, there is a massive tree like form with figures resembling the human form. The entire piece is quiet and still, until someone walks up to it, when a motion detector activates the piece. The piece is entirely different without the act of someone approaching the sculpture. Once the piece senses a person, the figures begin to hit the tree form like a drum, using their different body parts. Quite a few of Hawkinson’s works are activated by the presence of a human, which alludes to the idea of spirituality or the metaphysical

           His explorations with the body allow us as the viewer to see our bodies in a new context. Whether we activate a piece and compare our movements, to actually  understanding our own movements, or understanding to our capability.


           

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