I had the opportunity to interviwed Lozano-Hemmer and Margareth Leng Tan during the 52a Bienneale di Venezia. The interviws are avaible also at RADIO PAPESSE. Have a nice listening!
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer ::12/2007::
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is best known for creating theatrical interactive installations in public spaces across Europe, Asia and America. Using robotics, real-time computer graphics, film projections, positional sound, internet links, cell phone interfaces, video and ultrasonic sensors, LED screens and other devices, his installations seek to interrupt the increasingly homogenized urban condition by providing critical platforms for participation. Lozano-Hemmer’s smaller-scaled sculptural and video installations explore themes of perception, deception and surveillance. As an outgrowth of these various large scale and performance-based projects Lozano-Hemmer documents the works in photography editions that are also exhibited.
He created what may be the world’s largest interactive installation, Vectorial Elevation, where hundreds of thousands of online participants directed searchlights to create “light sculptures” over the city, a project that was installed in Mexico City in 1999, in Vitoria-Gasteiz in 2002, in Lyon in 2003 and in Dublin in April-May 2004. He represented Mexico at the 52nd International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, with a solo show at the Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel. In 2006, Lozano-Hemmer’s 33 Questions Per Minute was acquired by The Museum of Modern Art in New York and in 2007 Subtitled Public was acquired by the Tate Collection in the United Kingdom.
Text from Wikipedia
Margareth Leng Tan ::12/2007::
Tan worked with John Cage for the last 11 years of his life. She has since been hailed as “the leading exponent of Cage’s music today” ( The New Republic) and “the most convincing interpreter of John Cage’s keyboard music” (The New York Times).
Tan performed Cage’s music throughout North America, Europe and Asia and in the PBS “American Masters” films on John Cage and Jasper Johns. The association with Cage also led to her enchantment with the toy piano. She made her debut on the instrument in 1993 at New York’s Lincoln Center, playing Cage’s 1948 Suite for Toy Piano. Since finding this first toy piano, she continued to acquire many others, including a 37-key Schoenhut toy grand piano. She continues to, in her own words, “remain wholeheartedly intrigued by the toy piano’s magical overtones, hypnotic charm, and not least, its off-key poignancy.” Tan now resides in Brooklyn when she is not touring internationally.
Text from Wikipedia
Another interviews comming soon:
Fascinated by his first computer in 1984 Yaniv started his long voyage in the realm of digital media. Initially, he delved into digital hardware and software development acquiring a vast knowledge in computer and micro-controller hardware and spent uncounted hours programming, until mastering a wide range of computer languages.
Alongside, he developed an all-encompassing passion for computer games, playing them by the thousands and building, developing and designing his own.
Having gained in-depth knowledge in the development and application of new technologies during many years of work as programmer, human-computer interaction designer, information architect and consultant, Later Yaniv moved to Italy and started teaching at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea.
In his teaching, Yaniv has implemented his own method of ‘learning by doing’ developing a hands-on approach that provides designers and artists with tools to help them enter the world of computers, programming and prototyping concepts that involve digital behaviors, thus enabling them to produce interactive artifacts.
Text from NastyPixel
