ICAT: Open (at the) Source 2015

OPEN (at the) SOURCE

Explore and experience the research and innovation that’s happening within the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology

Luminescent Forest and Cloud Ruth C. Horton Gallery Moss Arts Center April 23–May 17, 2015

Welcome to the second annual Open (at the) Source exhibition—a unique collaboration between the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT), one of the seven research institutes at Virginia Tech, and the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech. One of the key axioms at ICAT is that innovation ourishes at the nexus of science, engineering, art, and design (SEAD). ICAT seeks to provide the right resources and environment to nurture such innovation. In this gallery are perfect examples of what emerges as a consequence: two interactive explorations of light created by four ICAT faculty fellows that transcend discipline boundaries to inspire new kinds of experiences.

In my opinion, Cloud is about communication: communication between the cloudlets through sound unheard and from the cloudlets to the observer through evolving light and sound. There is also the palimpsest of the individuals who, as part of a workshop, created the behaviors of the communications themselves. This participatory design means Cloud communicates, through sound and light, the thoughts and vision of those who came before.

My impression of Luminescent Forest is that it is about revealing. I first saw this piece when it was in the Cube, the large immersive environment located here in the Moss Arts Center. There, in the midst of the darkness of the space, it revealed the enormous extent of the structure. Here, in this gallery, the installation reacts to the presence of the observer to reveal the vaulting features of the space that usually remain unnoticed. The reveal, however, is not all at once, and requires exploration to discover that which is hidden behind the towering trees.

These ideas of communication and revealing are wonderful emergent properties created through the integral coupling of aesthetic and technological innovation at the nexus of science, engineering, art, and design.

R. Benjamin Knapp, PhD Director, Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology

Front cover: Left: NETS 1.0, 2014, environment actuated by local weather live-feed, Cube, Moss Arts Center, Blacksburg, Virginia. Photo credit: John Knuteson Right: Installation view, Welburn Square in Ballston, Virginia, from the Cloud. Photo credit: Jeff Goldberg/Esto

The interdisciplinary projects of Open (at the) Source evoke well-known arts-technology collaborations of the past. Cloud and Luminescent Forest demonstrate a Bauhaus-like harmony between design and function. They recall the artist and engineer encounters of the ground-breaking art collective Experiments in Art and Technology. In their ambition, they are reminiscent of the visionary artist György Kepes’s goals for MIT’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies: “the interaction of artists, scientists, engineers, and industry; the raising of the scale of work to the scale of the urban setting; media geared to all sensory modalities . . . [and] acceptance of the participation of ‘spectators’ in such a way that art becomes a confluence.”1 But Cloud and Luminescent Forest engage audiences in new ways. As public research universities such as Virginia Tech have reinvigorated their missions to community engagement over the past 15 years, collaborations between art, science, and technology have expanded dramatically in number and scope. These new hybrid projects are defined by their deep connections with local communities and their focus on education at both the university and K-12 levels.

Luminescent Forest Paola Zellner Bassett, assistant professor of architecture in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, and Tom Martin, an ICAT senior fellow and professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering, have collaborated previously as researchers, exhibitors, and educators. In 2014, they were recognized for their design course Textile Space with Virginia Tech’s XCaliber Award for excellence in technology-enriched active learning. Enrolling participants from both engineering and design, students worked in interdisciplinary teams on a number of projects, one of which became a precursor to Luminescent Forest. This original installation, Between the Pyramid and the Labyrinth, was designed for Tech-or-Treat, ICAT’s annual K-12 Halloween event.

Luminescent Forest combines the “trees” of Between the Pyramid and the Labyrinth with the netted rope volumes of NETS 2.0, another former Tech-or-Treat project.

Detail NETS 2.0, 2014, in Luminescent Forest, environment actuated by human motion, Moss Arts Center, Blacksburg, Virginia. Photo credit: Paola Zellner

Between the Pyramid and the Labyrinth, 2013, environment actuated by human motion, Cube, Moss Arts Center, Blacksburg, Virginia. Photo credit: Jim Bassett

In Luminescent Forest, Zellner Bassett’s research interests in spatial media installations and responsive textile media converge with Martin’s work on electronic textiles, pervasive computing, and interdisciplinary design. The piece is one of a series of projects that explore the potential for responsive technologies to augment visitors’ experiences of physical architectural space. As they interact with their surroundings, the light and kinetic elements of Luminescent Forest gradually reveal and reconfigure the space of the installation.

Cloud Cloud is the most recent project of Aki Ishida and and Ivica Ico Bukvic, a partnership that has already produced two acclaimed pieces: Lantern Field, which was installed at the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer Gallery of Art, and Luminous Kite Lanterns at the Blacksburg Farmers Market.

For Ishida, assistant professor of architecture in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies and the founder of design practice Aki Ishida Architect PLLC, these pieces combine her interests in the spatial and temporal uses of light and in public engagement of such spaces. For Bukvic, an ICAT senior fellow, transdisciplinary researcher, and associate professor of music technology in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, Cloud and its predecessors convey and invite community engagement, education, and “ubiquitous interactivity.”

The piece was commissioned by the Business Improvement District of Ballston, Virginia, and developed throughout 2014, as students from Virginia Tech`s colleges of architecture and engineering built and tested several iterations. A workshop that preceded the showing of Cloud at Welburn Square in Ballston allowed community members to customize the behaviors of individual “cloudlets,” granting them anthropomorphic qualities—their own appearances and personalities—under the guidance of the artists. Where both Lantern Field and Luminous Kite Lanterns were ephemeral paper lantern installations, Cloud is materially robust. It can be moved and situated at multiple sites, each time responding to the specificities of its environment. Cloud pursues ubiquitous interactivity through the targeted workshops and the sentience of the work itself. It is not only community-engaging, but community-generated.

Photography by Jeff Goldberg/Esto Medium: aluminum honeycomb, stainless steel rods, acrylic, Rapsberry Pi, sensors, microphones, speakers, LEDs Dimensions: 50 cloudlets, ranging in height from 3’ to 6’, arranged in a 75’ diameter lawn

Photography by Jeff Goldberg/Esto Cloud community workshop view, Ballston, Virginia

L uminescent Forest, 2014, installation view, Moss Arts Center, Blacksburg, Virginia

etail of Cloud, 2014, installation view, Public Display of Innovation exhibit D at Artisphere in Arlington, Virginia. Photograph courtesy of Artisphere

A Confluence of Collaborations Open (at the) Source cultivates interaction not only between visitors and the pieces, but between the pieces themselves. Cloud, which is composed of 50 cloudlets that vary in height from two to six feet, sits within a clearing inside Luminescent Forest.

Each cloudlet consists of an aluminium honeycomb and an acrylic vessel that contains a Raspberry Pi computer, light sensors, a microphone, multi-color LEDs, and a small speaker. The cloudlets have sentience. They interact individually and collectively with visitors, their environment, and with each other, emitting light and sound in response to the light and sound generated by their surroundings.

Luminescent Forest is equally responsive. Trees within the forest light up when approached to reveal the volume of the space, while others actuate NETS 2.0, changing its appearance together with that of the clearing. Sensing its visitors, the forest as a whole can increase and decrease in luminosity, responding to their presence. These reactions evoke awareness of space within the gallery, as the partial views allowed by the forest invite discovery of its clearings and the interactive elements within them. Open (at the) Source is a both the result of collaboration and an ongoing expression of it. The artists and their creations encourage you to immerse yourself in the clouds, get lost in the forest, and learn something along the way.

Kari Zacharias, PhD student Department of Science and Technology in Society, College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences

Cloud:

Luminescent Forest:

Architecture undergraduate students: Suzanne Berry, Ciara Bucci, Hyun-Jun Cho, Corey Crist, Luke Dale, Zihan Hafiz, Zichun Huang, Christina LoConte, Runyu Ma, Siyu Zhang, Ge Zhou Engineering Science and Mechanics undergraduate student: Zachary Miller Computer Science undergraduate student: Omavi Walker Engineering alumnus: Alex Cleveland

Architecture graduate student: Michael Bednar Architecture undergraduate students: Adam Burke, Mattie Catherman, Kelsey Dressing, Hasheem Halim, Brian Heller, Saron Iasu, Kelsey Margulies, Sarah Rege, William Scott, Matt Young Electrical and Computer Engineering undergraduate student: Rachel Gertler School of Visual Arts undergraduate student: George Hardebeck

Computer Science PhD student: Spencer Lee

End Notes Gyรถrgy Kepes, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Center for Advanced Visual Studies, introductory brochure on the Center (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 1968), n.p.

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OPEN (at the) SOURCE Open (at the) Source enables visitors to explore and experience the research and innovation that’s happening within the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT). Visitors will become more than just viewers, but partners in exploration with the students, faculty, and staff of ICAT and its creative community network.

Stay connected The following events are free.

Artist Talk with Aki Ishida, Ivica Ico Bukvic, Paola Zellner Bassett, and Tom Martin Thursday, April 30, 2015, 6:30 PM Ruth C. Horton Gallery

Upcoming Tangled: Pat West Ruth C. Horton Gallery June 4 –August 9, 2015 Wanderings: Charlotte Chan, Marie Collier, and Betty Moore Miles C. Horton Jr. Gallery June 4 –August 9, 2015

My Take Talk Monday, May 4, 2015, 6 PM Ruth C. Horton Gallery Matthew Wisnioski, associate professor, Department of Science and Technology in Society, College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences

Unleashed Sherwood Payne Quillen ‘71 Reception Gallery, Francis T. Eck Exhibition Corridor, and Grand Lobby June 4 –August 9, 2015

This series invites people from all walks of life to share their “take” on the art in the center’s galleries. Join in an exchange of ideas— sparked by the galleries’ art—in a relaxed, social atmosphere.

Gallery Hours

Check www.artscenter.vt.edu for more details.

Tuesday–Friday, 10 AM–6 PM Saturday and Sunday, 10 AM–4 PM

Concurrent Exhibition Open (at the) Source Ruth C. Horton Gallery Moss Arts Center April 23–May 17, 2015 Co-presented by

SOVA: Senior Studio Show April 30–May 17, 2015 Miles C. Horton Jr. Gallery

Also on View Odili Donald Odita: Bridge Grand Lobby

For more information about this and future exhibitions, visit www.artscenter.vt.edu.

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