Although it is true that John Simon Jr. has a daily drawing practice, that which he describes as meditative not only for clarity but also creativity, the artist could be best known for the digital art he produced, parts sold in cyberspace and displayed on LED screens instead of canvas in places like Whitney and Guggenheim.
Among the first works of art sold under the name of NFTS from Simon, the 1997 work that he titled “Each icon,” Because, like the squares in a 32 by 32 grid pass from black to white in a change of pattern which will take billions of years to travel, the complete image will finally form the outline of all familiar images.
Simon is also known for other pieces like “Complexcity”, a series of digital works in which the street grid, the circulation model and the height of the skyscrapers are continuously shaping change, a representation of the constant change of a city.
But Simon is perhaps not as well known for his first cycle diploma in geology, his master’s degree in earth and planetary science and a MFA in computer art.
The place between art and science, this is where the beginning of his career, Simon, said that he would be – “where art and science would merge in a way, where you would see a sculpture, a painting and things that are a bit like art made with a scientific concept that is going out in an artistic way.
“But this has never been deeply satisfactory enough for me,” he says, “and I finally felt that the categorization of science and art, this type of academic categorization, was made to separate the two. My approach (now) is creativity. »»
And it is something that scientists and artists must have in abundance.
“If we look back on the Renaissance period, in particular, science and art were not as separate as they are now,” explains Wendy Wischer, guest director of Uconn’s Contemporary art gallerieswhere a redesigned version of Simon’s “complexcity” is exposed as part of the exhibition, “Infused data.”
“Artists and scientists do the same thing,” she says, summarizing a feeling of the writer KC Cole. “They start by observation and then recognize the models which are often neglected by others. This kind of imagination, looking for models, to connect wires of what may seem to be distinct entities is one of the things that artists and scientists do all the time. »»
“Infused data” is Wischer’s first conservation at Galeries, after coming to Uconn in the fall. In this document, she included works by artists like Simon who have each studied subjects, including IT, architecture, graphics and artificial intelligence, all of which influenced their creative results.
Take Nettrice Gaskins, for example, including the part “Variations of Afro-Generative Tables” uses AI to remix the colorful whirlpools that dance around the side profile of a black woman who remains stationary in the center.
The “variations”, explains Wischer, shows how AI moves through variations in color and form to help an artist or an observer as in this case, assess infinite options. Gaskins made the play specifically for this show to give people an overview of how I have helps the manufacturing of art.
Richard Garet used pieces of his in his two pieces, “Perceptual; Star “and” perceptual; Blurry corner ”, to create images of pulsating colors, then eliminated the hearing component, leaving only the moving image.
The act of using what many would call scientific data for such an artistic inspiration is what connects the pieces, says Wischer, as well as the fact that all artists, as with Simon, maintain a traditional artistic practice which includes drawing and painting despite the production of work that is based on technology.
It is something, she says, that students graduated from Uconn asked when she asked them about what they would like to see in the gallery. AI, visualization of data and Afrofuturism are at the top of the list. They also wanted to see new ways that artists make art and viewers consume it, such as parts sold like NFTS, or non -buttons that live on the blockchain.
“Scientists are excellent in viewing data. But their role is to be removed from any type of emotional or personal attachment, ”explains Wischer about the artistic connection. “Artists can come and ask questions without having an answer. Art can provoke emotions. He can link personal experience with the scientist in a way that makes her more digestible. »»
Ira Greenburg – whose “cyberstructures” represent a view of the eyes of the bird’s architecture of a computer, its chips and its cards and its processor increasing and descending like the towers and the low boxes of a city – not only written the computer code necessary to generate its work, but uses AI to influence it because it treats the thousands of iterations that technology provides.
WISCHER says that all the artists of the show are at the forefront of the use of technology such as AI in the development of their work. This is one of the reasons why she hopes that people from other departments in Uconn outside History of art and art Visit the show.
“I hope there is something for everyone and that it evokes curiosity to find out more,” she said. “Whether someone is attracted to digital and that he finds something new in the physical, or that someone who is attracted to the physique finds something in digital, one of my goals was to bring these various communities together.”
And it means it literally.
She arranged a Artist discussion series Stop throughout the semester, starting with Simon at the end of January which attracted about two dozen people in the galleries for the opening of the show.
Garet will go on February 27, Gaskins on March 13, and Courtney Starrett and Susan Reiser wrap the series on April 3. The complete exhibition ends on April 25.
“I see contemporary art galleries as a place to bring together different ideas and be a little more experimental than in the past,” explains Wischer. “This exhibition is a very traditional and polished exhibition. But we could have a rotary calendar which allows a variety of experimentation which moves away from a single traditional gallery space. »»
This may include becoming at home for the annual BFA show or to serve as a place so that graduate students practiced their own conservation skills. It may be possible to organize a show that coordinates with a specific class or that an artist on a visit uses space as a workshop, in a sort of disorderly exhibition that is revealed over time, she suggests.
Although all future shows do not focus on the use of technology as strongly as “infused data”, this semester focuses on its influence.
“We know that the data does not move people. The facts do not move people, but there are other ways that people can be moved. The work is a way so that someone can enter a more personal level and find out why this is important for him or the meaning behind, ”explains Wischer.