Embracing Chaos
For several years I have been looking to chaos theory as a source of relev
ant metaphors for understanding the nature of conciousness and culture, as well as for critiquing and making art. Following on the lines of investigation of “A Life of Its Own” and a talk I gave at at ISEA98 in Manchester “Embracing Chaos: A strategy for the next millennium”, I’ve written a short essay that explains why I advocate embracing the precepts of chaos theory as a new aesthetic for the post-modern age. It is entitled Chaos Theory in Art and Cultural Practice. My most recent source of inspiration in formulating a practical application for these theories are the writings of TR Young
A Life of Its Own
In November ’97 Catherine and I had a piece in a show that I co-curate
d with Norman White. The show of robotic art was entitled “A Life of Its Own”. It opened at the gallery of the Multimedia Center at the Centro Nacional de las Artes in Mexico City on on October 30 ’97 and ran until November 30th. The pieces in the exhibition are: The Wanderer by David Rokeby, Sticks by Doug Back, Autarky by Catherine Orfald and myself, Facing Out Laying Low by Norman White, and Fingerprints of Birth of Essence by Robert Erlich are presenting works demonstrating the principle of self organising complex systems — the emergence of order from chaos. The show was sponsored by NAFAA]
Navigating Non-linear Narratives
In May ’96 I chaired a panel called “Navigating Non-linear Narratives” as part of the <CLIK-TOK> programme of the Images Festival. It was really interesting to hear four such diverse approaches to multi-media authoring as Vera Frenkel, Robert Ouellette, Steve Reinke, and Kika Thorne.
Net@Works
In 1995 I curated, in association with Eleni Mokas and Jorge Morales of NAFAA (the North American Free Artists Association), an exhibition of Canadian new media artists in Mexico City called “Net@Works”. There I showed, in collaboration with Tom Leonhardt, our projection installation piece “The Gathering Space“.
I was down in Mexico DF from Oct. 17 to Nov. 4 ’95 to put up the show and organize the lecture series. The show was up at the Centro Nacional de las Artes from October 24 until November 24. We did a lot of work on the web site at the time and we have a Spanish version up, thanks to translations from Jorge. Both versions are still in the future tense and the plan was to expand on this site to include more information about the past and present endevours of NAFAA.
Welcome to the Electric Skin
I had a piece in Graham Smith’s tele-robotic installations “CyberCity” and “Welcome to the Electric Skin”. That show ran from September 14th ’95 at Gallery 401 at 401 Richmond St W #240. The robots were linked up by closed circuit to Inter/Access and remotely to various electronic arts sites around the world.