Conclusion
- Conclusion
As we experience and move through networks daily, their strengths remain in the ways in which they connect us both figuratively and systematically. Despite the fact that networks exist within software, hardware, devices, and physical infrastructures that are both immense and intangible, artists are able to cleverly reinterpret these systems, in order to expose and humanize them through design and implementation. Artworks can not only manipulate networks and our interactions with them, but they can also adjust them to a scale that is both familiar and colloquial. Often this type of breakdown leads us to a new understanding of complicated systems and allows us to view and experience them in novel or unexpected ways.
The projects exhibited in the Data Materialities Art Gallery emphasize how connected we remain to the physical interfaces enabled by networks, while also exposing the nuances in their interactive capabilities. Things that are typically concealed to the public are both teased out and reverse-engineered in order to elicit a response. Since these systems are typically hidden entities, their revelation and integration into our physical world is a unique experience that renders them relatable by exposing their enormity of scale. Overall, the work presented in the SIGGRAPH 2016 Art Gallery demonstrates novel perspectives on data representation and media sources through unexpected, critical, and profound new channels.
The future of networks, networked objects, and systems has the potential not only to change how we relate to the world around us, but also to affect our interpersonal relationships and our understanding of the complexity of the interconnectedness of our world. My goal in selecting these projects is to shed light on the changing nature and influence of digital entities—screens, network presence, social media, digital copyright law, augmented reality—and the increasingly physical incarnations of the networks we use every day.
Jonah Brucker-Cohen Jonah Brucker-Cohen, PhD, is an award-winning researcher, artist, writer, and full-time faculty member at Lehman College, City University of New York. He received his PhD from the Disruptive Design Team in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at Trinity College Dublin. His work focuses on the theme of “deconstructing networks,” with projects that critically challenge and subvert accepted perceptions of network interaction and experience. His work has been exhibited and showcased at venues such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, MOMA New York, ICA London, Palais du Tokyo, Tate Modern, Ars Electronica, and Transmediale. His project BumpList is included in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. His writing has appeared in WIRED, Make, Gizmodo, Neural, and other publications. His Scrapyard Challenge workshops have been held in more than 14 countries in Europe, South America, North America, Asia, and Australia since 2003. He is the curator of the SIGGRAPH 2016 Art Gallery.
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