(3.) New Media Space: 319 Scholes

Bent Festival 2011 @ 319 Scholes from 319 Scholes on Vimeo.

319 Scholes is a gallery / arts space located in Brooklyn, NY dedicated to "digital arts and experimentation." While they do host exhibitions of new media artists, they also have other programming such as festivals, workshops, performances, and lectures that also contribute to their support of digital and electronic media. Examples of media include sound art/installation and video, multi-media installations, kinetic sculpture, and "hacked" art/net art. In addition to new media artists, they also host performances by artists/musicians/sound artists - essentially, multimedia/new media artists.

Although there are artists listed on their site, it is not clear whether artists are represented by the gallery - it seems that the gallery exists with support from a collective of artists and community, so its exhibitions and programming are more accessible and public than one would expect of a typical gallery.

A recent exhibition includes a collaborative work with Nicolas Sassoon and Sara Ludy. Both are new media artists; Sassoon creates art exhibited on the internet, using retro gifs and colorful graphics. Ludy examines physical and virtual space through different digital capacities.

Last Saturday, 319 Scholes held "Art Hack Day" which showed a number of different artwork/installations that created interactions between artists and audiences, in a variety of mediums that were livestreamed to participatory audiences via the web. These included light installation based on a breathalyzer test; a "swim" browser powered by kinect and OpenNI; and a photobooth that produced live gifs.  

(2) New Media Artist: ZIMOUN

Zimoun : 216 prepared dc-motors, filler wire 1.0mm, 2009 / 2010 from STUDIO ZIMOUN on Vimeo.

Zimoun : 186 prepared dc-motors, cardboard boxes 60x60x60cm, 2010. from STUDIO ZIMOUN on Vimeo.

Zimoun (b. 1977) is a self-taught artist, based in Bern, Switzerland. I consider his work new media because of its incorporation of mechanical sound, movement, and architectural/spatial elements (he has also collaborated with architects in his work). While the materials he uses are often more industrial or mechanical, they are used to create "sound sculptures" that have an effect that is opposite to the formal simplicity of his works. On the contrary, Zimoun's sculptures and installations have a chaotic sound effect that amplifies pattern and structure within his objects. At the same time, the works are minimal in form - creating a sense of play within the works.

I also think it is interesting that while the materials are industrial and mechanical in form (and the installations with boxes are architectural/modern) - combined with their sound and movement they appear to be more organic and have natural repetition as opposed to the patterns of machinery. They hum, chaotically moving back and forth or side to side, like animals or insects in nature.The motors allow wires to move frantically, beating the surface and twisting around - cardboard boxes, basic in material and shape, become houses for moving ping pong balls, rattling various sounds and at different pitches. One particular installation of the boxes exists as a curved wall, a barrier of sound perhaps. Zimoun's work embodies the idea of mechanical versus organic, intertwining the two ideas into a different world of its own - an aspect, I believe, that is seen often in new media works. Imitations of nature and our lives in mechanical forms that ask us to observe closer, and listen deeply.

There will be an exhibition opening of his work at bitforms gallery this Thursday (February 2nd)

(1). Introduction

As an introductory post, my initials/name on this site will be known as M. Lee.

I graduated from Carnegie Mellon in 2009 with a degree in Fine Arts, focus on Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking as well as Photography and a minor in American/European Culture Studies.

My experience with new media has been introductory courses from my first two years in college: Electronic Media Studios I & II where we learned the basics of flash animation, video (final cut pro, after effects), photoshop, and basic html. I made some stop frame animations  in undergrad and other than that, have not used any types of new media in my work since.

I'm interested in somehow incorporating kinetic sculpture or video into my work again.