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January 24, 2007

Brigitta Zics: Out of Body Control

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Interviewed by Julia Peck

Brigitta Zics discusses the development of a series of virtual reality projects with artist and writer Julia Peck. Zics reflects upon the different approaches she took and outcomes generated within her 'Mirror-Space' and 'Out of Body Control' projects, comparing the experience of working with programmers to develop custom-made software with the opportunity to transpose pre-existing high specification software.

Brigitta Zics, new media artist, discusses two recent projects and the collaborative process that facilitated their production with her colleague from University of Wales Newport, Julia Peck. Zics was born in Hungary and has studied in Germany at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne and Britain. Zics practice concentrates on virtual reality systems and responsive interfaces to provide an immersive and interactive environment for gallery and other audiences. Zics is currently a PhD candidate, researching interface development and real-time visualisation in creative artworks for which 'Out of Body Control' will be the final major work. Zics and Peck met in their course of undertaking their research projects and have used the interview to extend their discussions on Zics' creative output and her theoretical models.

Julia Peck: Brigitta, we're going to talk about two recent projects, 'Mirror_SPACE' (2004-2005) and 'Out of Body Control' (2004-2006) and the collaborative and conceptual processes that you go through to create these two pieces of art. I'd like to start with 'Mirror_SPACE', as you initiated the project and then located programmers who could help you realise the end artwork. Did you find that the way you thought about the project was quite different to the programmers?

Brigitta Zics: Actually to be honest, this was the first time I had this kind of artistic idea and I wasn't really sure which form of creative process I would choose or who I was going to work with. I wasn't sure how many programmers I would need or do I just do the concept for myself. For me, this project started a new form of creating. Before I was working by myself rarely using external help. During the project I realised the whole idea was really complex, therefore I decided to use people who have specialist knowledge. So as part of the process I was asking people to help me, and when I got these people, then we worked together and they provided ideas for the project but I had a very strong vision of how it should look, so I tried to implement the knowledge and I tried to lead them to this. But it is also important to say that these people were students not professionals, so I had to deal with problems such as they didn't have enough time etc. It also depended on the money because I just had a small budget for the project but I wanted to realise quite a complex thing. This was a new form of project management, a new way of expression. At the same time I have to admit that some of the naivety or freshness disappeared from the art work. More >>

Posted by jo at January 24, 2007 08:14 AM

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