HRRAAGHP-TING! is an Internet/video collaboration between Olen Hsu, Dana Karwas and Steven Lam. Using programming developed to connect image filenames to sound filenames readily available on the web, the piece establishes an infinite chain of associations. This information is then extruded in real time, linking the data in a linear format where related and non-related files are turned into a series of stills and soundtracks. HRRAAGHP-TING! converts the Internet into a cinematic experience by collapsing the internet's spatial organization within a single screen. The relationship of one image or sound to the next is based on a randomized process achieved through an algorithmic construction. Each time HRRAAGHP-TING! is used, it generates an entirely different set of visual, aural and linguistic relationships. This Cagean play with chance destabilizes the intent and authorship implicit in the communication of information; perverts intellectual property through rampant decontextualization; and defies the expectations of the viewer through this live reorganization. Objects speak, portraits combust, landscapes squeal. The user is betrayed and unsure how to organize the relationships between image, text and sound. At times the sound syncs with the image, heightening its drama and its capacity for affect, almost giving voice to the image. Other times, the image and sound do not correspond, leaving the viewer with little more than an articulated confusion punctuated with unpredictable moments of irony, empathy and distance. "A [manufactured] table stands with its feet on the ground. But, in relation to all other commodities, it stands on its head, and evolves out of its wooden brain grotesque ideas, far more wonderful than table-turning ever was." K. Marx, Capital.
Olen Hsu constructs installations in porcelain, paper and algorithmically composed sound, converging new media, tactile forms and works for acoustic instruments. He received his BA in Art History and Music from Yale University, a BFA in Ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA in Sculpture from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A fellowship from the Dedalus Foundation brought him to New York where he participated in the AIM Program at The Bronx Museum of the Arts and the Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center Artist-in-Residence Program. Hsu is the recipient of grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Joan Mitchell Foundation and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. His recent work has been shown at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, the InterSpace New Media Arts Center in Sofia, Bulgaria, James Nicholson Gallery in New York, and Ampersand International Arts in San Francisco. He currently lives and works in NYC. http://www.olenhsu.com;
Steven Lam is interested in revealing how information becomes distributed, internalized, and performed. His practice is of glitches and reversals, a practice of re-enunciation (redubbing, recasting, appropriation) in an attempt to unveil categories that are reinforced through personal, domestic, and institutional conditioning. Lam exhibited in several venues including the Bronx Museum of Art, NY; Eyebeam, NY; LEF Embodied Technologies show at Art Interactive, Boston, MA; Silverlake Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA; Diverseworks, TX; The Windtunnel at Art Center College of Art and Design, CA.; Aljira: Center for Contemporary Art, NJ as well premiering video/choreographic work for various performance venues. Lam received his BA in Art History and Art from Trinity University and a MFA from the University of California, Irvine. http://www.headresist.com;
Dana Karwas received a baccalaureate degree in Architecture from the University of Kansas and holds a masters in Interactive Telecommunications from NYU s Tisch School of the Arts. Her main interest lies in transforming and redefining social spaces through the medium of technology. Her work is rooted in architecture and extends to the edges of social and cultural dimensions. She has taught workshops on interactive mobile technology and the connections between architecture and the visual and sonic arts at the Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, NYC. http://www.dk22.com;
Special Thanks:Daniel Iglesia, Yael Kanarek, Konrad Kaczmarek, Fred Kittler, EML, Liz Slagus, and the people at Turbulence.
Technical Considerations: For HRRAAGHP-TING! to run freely, please turn off all safe modes on your Google's preferences. Scroll down and toggle the "Do not filter my search results" tab in the SafeSearch Filtering option. Make sure that have an updated version of Quicktime.
Credits:"HRRAAGHP-TING!" is a 2006 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from The Greenwall Foundation. Programming: Liubo Borissov.