January 29, 2007
ZOO
The Relationship Between Technology, Culture and Nature
InterAccess is pleased to present ZOO, an exhibition of three works by three artists that artfully integrate natural and artificial life, colliding the realm of living things with the genre of creative electronics. Artists Ingrid Bachmann, Garnet Hertz and Amy Youngs explore the complex relationship between technology, culture and nature.
Opening Reception Friday February 2, 8:00 pm :: Artist talks Friday February 2, 7:00 pm :: Exhibition runs February 2 - March 17, 2007 :: InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre, 9 Ossington Avenue, Toronto.
Digital Crustaceans v.0.3: Homesteading on the World Wide Web involves live hermit crabs and their avatars that explore the World Wide Web. The hermit crabs have two homes - a large glass terrarium and a ‘home’ page on the Web. The movements of the real crabs within the terrarium are tracked by a motion capture system and animate a mechanical plotter that traces its movements onto a surface. These mappings serve as formal drawings as well as a record to track the movements of the avatars, as they map their itinerary and journey across the structures and sites of the World Wide Web.
Cockroach Controlled Mobile Robot #3 is an experimental mechanism that uses a living Madagascan hissing cockroach atop a modified trackball to control a three-wheeled robot. If the cockroach moves left, the robot moves left. Infrared sensors also provide navigation feedback to the cockroach, striving to create a pseudo-intelligent system with the cockroach as the CPU.
Holodeck for House Crickets is a suspended artificial landscape that is designed to house Acheta domesticus (house crickets), who are raised in climate-controlled tanks as food for reptiles. As actual nature would be a bit harsh for these domesticated crickets, artist Amy Youngs provided them with an artificial landscape where they can interact with a video “holograph” of the pastoral grasslands and woodlands experienced by their wild relatives. Through the use of a computer interface, the crickets are able to “interact” with their projected environment by chirping. Each chirp advances the panoramic, cricket-eye-view video footage of outdoor scenery.
Posted by jo at January 29, 2007 01:28 PM
