“Poetic Codings” is an exhibition that explores the relationship between art and technology. Through flatscreen displays, projections, interactive installations, and iPad apps it also addresses the differences between public and private viewing experiences. Many artists today embrace technology and find ways of integrating it into their practices. While their visual displays and artistic goals differ greatly, their processes of creation share numerous similarities. The exhibition posits that the experience of interacting with a digital work in public is vastly different from sitting back and navigating a work on a mobile device. Apps are contained and fill a small screen. Installations are often immersive environments. While the graphic elements and animations can be similar in both formats, how the viewer interacts with the artwork is very different. When viewing an interactive installation or projected video one is aware of the presence of their body in relation to the work, how their shadow may or may not interrupt the projection, and how their movement in the space changes the interaction. Even when looking at a monitor the viewer can move in closer or back up, changing the scope of view. When interacting with art on a mobile device it is a private experience more often than not, where one can loose themselves in the complexity of the interaction without regard to the architectural setting and placement of the work.
Exhibitions have presented code-based works on monitors and as interactive installations. This exhibition is one of the first to juxtapose wall-based works with those made for mobile devices. The goal of presenting them together is to suggest that apps are indeed viable works of art and should be considered as such.
On the walls will be works by John Carpenter, Casey Reas, Jeremy Rotsztain, and Jennifer Steinkamp.
The artists making artworks as apps include John Baldessari, Jason Lewis, Lia, Erik Loyer, Jeremy Rotsztain, Rafael Rozendaal, Scott Snibbe, and Jody Zellen. These projects range from the poetic to the narrative. Some have game-like interactions while others offer ways to distort images. All of the apps are available in the app store and while they will be on view in the gallery, viewers will be encouraged to download them to their own devices.
