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New
York artist presents first solo show
For his first solo show outside New York City, New York-based digital artist Daniel Shiffman has installed four interactive video booths at Orleans Hall Gallery, including the world premiere of his most recent work, “Timecode.” Although he is no stranger to prestigious shows — with entries at The New Museum of Contemporary Art’s “Fresh New Media” exhibition; the annual awards exhibition at the Art Director’s Club of New York, where “Swarm” received the distinctive merit award; and the “Digital Expressions” exhibition presented by Galapagos Art Space — “Interactive Video” marks the debut of Shiffman as an artist strong enough to exhibit unaccompanied. “This is an exciting platform for Shiffman,” said Matthew Mascotte, assistant curator for new media projects. “He is essentially emerging on the art scene and this solo exhibition helps position his work within the art and technology world and is an indication of the commitment SCAD has made to expose students to the very best and brightest new media artists in the country and abroad.” Shiffman, who holds degrees in mathematics and philosophy from Yale and who recently received his master’s from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, described his work as “visual, responsive media to explore the idea of organization and patterning at different scales, revealing unexpected relationships. If a digital image is understood as highly ordered pixels living on a grid, my work attempts to represent the underlying data of that grid via organic, algorithmic processes, from smooth motion of cumulus clouds … to the frantic pace of microscopic bacteria.” “Swarm,” for example, is an interactive video installation implementing the pattern of flocking birds as a constantly moving brush stroke. “Taking inspiration from Jackson Pollack’s ‘drip and splash’ technique of pouring a continuous stream of paint onto a canvas, ‘Swarm’ smears colors captured from live-video input, producing an organic painterly effect in real-time.” Shiffman is anything but timid about acknowledging the inspiration for and motivation behind his work. “In the late 19th century, Englishman Eadweard Muybridge photographed progressions of animal and human movements, capturing the beauty of motion imperceptible to the human eye,” he said. “‘Timecode’ takes inspiration from Muybridge’s work, unlocking the frozen frames of his motion studies with live video. The viewer is invited to witness him- or herself inside a grid of 1,024 frames of video, his or her movements rippling across and around the screen.” According to Mascotte, Shiffman’s works are interactive in the purest sense. “The works are nothing — idle TV screens — until they are engaged and viewed by an individual. As such, they pose complex philosophical questions about the nature of identity in the digital age.” Mascotte pointed to Calvin Tomkins, a renowned art critic who, in the late ’80s, derided video art as a practice that consumed too much of the audience’s time. “Shiffman’s work inverts this notion as his video works last only as long as a particular viewer is willing to interact with the art object,” he said. Shiffman’s examination of his own work agrees with Mascotte’s interpretation. “Alone, each work is empty; viewed, each work jumps to life in a flurry of activity,” said Shiffman. “It is my goal to create digital instruments, or organs, which, in feeding off the unpredictable shapes of human behavior, change the way we see our bodies and our (increasingly digital) selves.” Shiffman will visit SCAD for the installation and opening of “Interactive Video” Feb. 27, 6-8 p.m. He is scheduled to meet with students at Orleans Hall March 1. “Daniel Shiffman: Interactive Video” is on display through March 16 at Orleans Hall Gallery, 201 Barnard St. A second reception will be held in conjunction with the college’s monthly gallery hop, March 5, 5-7 p.m. |
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