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Omni IMMersion OSNAT SHAKED World mde Web/MammediaDirector 1996 Through massive international distribution of goods, the big conglomerates facilitate the emergence of a commercially driven global culture. Values, idols, and myths encompassed by these goods are propagated in various regions with very different historical, political, and linguistic traditions. In the same manner, the Internet, which was envisioned as a multicultural, democratic medium, is threatened with being overshadowed by commerce. As its evolution follows the same pattern as global capitalism, it will be constrained by similar patterns of domination and market manipulation. Omni IMMersion plays on the analogy between the emergence of a global culture driven by multinational capitalism and the commercializationof the Internet. It offers a dynamic debate about the Internet’s future, superimposed over a visual reflection on our commodified society. Users are able to input their comments about the subject matter, thus creating an ongoing discussion. The nature of the piece changes gradually, according to the users’ input. The piece comprises two entities: an interactive piece in Macromedia Director, and a World Wide Web site. The Web site serves as a gateway connecting the Director piece to the Internet for wide distribution. A f u l l version of the Director piece can be downloaded from the Web site or ordered for delivery in CD-ROM format. The users’ comments are recorded in a central database that can be browsed from both the Web site and the Director piece. Traditional painting and sculpture no longer adequately capture the world in which we live. Our visual language has changed. Since the making of art is a deeply personal effort, something else has had to develop. Something as unique as the moment we inhabit. As an artist, my current path of exploration is the creation of objects that transform the observer into a participant. In the 1986 piece Zen, a female figure composed of light and motion materializes for a few moments from blackness, only to vanish just as quickly. With fiddle (199z), the invisible is rendered visible as sound is transformed into light. In Zoe (1995), the challenge was to create a “nonobject object” that would allow for creative participation. After Spirit (1994), I was preoccupied with the problem of erasing the presence of objects and intimations of technological sleight-of-hand by deconstructing familiar symbols in order to free the spirit of magc that had become the essence of my work. Rubaiyat PETER TEREZAKIS Installation 7996 Translated from the Greek, ‘zoe’ means ‘life’. The function of the work Zoe was to be a metaphor for the mystery of being, of life. Its mechanism was for the viewer to enter a dark space and, under computer control, fill it with light. For a short time (two minutes) participants were able to move and dance about makmg music or noise with their movements until the piece cycled through to its dark inactive phase, or “died.” There was no returning to enliven the work until the next cycle began. For inclusion in this exhibition I have submitted &bayat. W e spiritually very similar to Zoe, this piece allows me to return to the grid, discoveringspontaneity in structure. Whether it is the exploration of love and loss, loneliness and companionship, living or not, the challenge is to create propositions for the participant to take issue with-stimulating both reason and imagination. Digital Salon, Artists’ Statements 407 ...

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