WMC_e6 第六輯

Hidden Variables: Forking Paths of Visuality and Technology
歧路結節 開合解謎

  • Date 日期
  • 26.09 – 15.10.2018 ｜ 11:00 – 19:00
  • Venue 地點
  • Exhibition Hall, 6/F, Sheung Wan Civic Centre 上環文娛中心6樓展覽廳
  • Participating Artists 參展藝術家
  • Hector RODRÍGUEZ 羅海德

Can computational media help us to rethink and re-experience our cinematic heritage?  Can computer technology dialogue with the cultural past? Hidden Variables showcases the research-creation work of an interdisciplinary artist and scholar with a film studies background who re-invents classical cinema using algorithmic technologies.

This exhibition is a retrospective of Hector Rodríguez’s computational and generative cinema projects from 2011 to his most recent experiments. His art pieces, all based on data extracted from classical films, appear in a variety of forms, from single-channel videos, multiple projections, digital prints, and animations to audio-visual and textual documentations of the processes of research and experimentation.

Many of the works have been completely reconfigured specially for this exhibition, which includes a new intensely colorful version of the artist’s classic work, Gestus: Judex.

The works in the show form rich clusters and multiple connections. Visitors are invited to wander freely and curiously to and fro between works in order to discover unseen relations, or, stop by the research/reading room in order to acquaint themselves with the basics of the artist’s processes of experimentation. The “forking paths” design reactivates the desire of seeing the past anew.

Some of the works aim to visualize mathematical ideas. Rodríguez expresses abstract formal concepts in concrete visual terms. The application of new algorithms to existing moving images not only reveals those images in a new light but also calls attention to the technologies themselves. Technology here takes on a self-reflexive aspect. One of the main tasks of media art, the artist believes, is to open the black box of technology and discover previously unknown artistic possibilities.

This exhibition also includes the work Approximation Theory, by Felipe CUCKER and Hector Rodríguez.

計算媒體有助於我們重新思考和經驗我們的電影傳統嗎？展示一個深諳電影史和理論的學者如何深探數學理念的程式化運算對分析、開發電影的可能性。分佈展場的是藝術家2011-2018的作品群，有單窗錄像、多頻投影、數碼平面圖、貌似動畫的活動影像、紀錄實驗過程的錄像文字圖表。 一組一組的設置簇聚，細看，是多重的對話和相互連結。同一個數學定理衍生出來的作品長相外貌體格氣質不盡相同，在另一時段的作品裡又找到不一樣的翻身。訪者因此必須主動好奇的看，在不同的作品中來回遊走去弄出端倪；要不，就從其中一個叫《閱讀室》的作品開始，先理解背景因由。像歧路花園的空間設計，活化了看的慾望，對有心者而言，謎底近在咫尺。

展覽亦展出羅海德與Felipe Cucker共同創作的《Approximation Theory》。

 

 

Hector RODRÍGUEZ is a digital artist and theorist whose work explores the unique possibilities of computational technologies to reconfigure the history and aesthetics of moving images. He received a commendation award from the Hong Kong Government for his contributions to art and culture in 2014.

His works have been internationally exhibited across Taiwan, Singapore, New York, Poland, Germany, Spain, Greece and awarded the best digital work in the Hong Kong Art Biennial 2003, achievement award at the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Awards and jury selection of the Japan Media Art Festival. He was the Artistic Director of the Microwave International Media Art Festival, and is director for research and education for the Writing Machine Collective. He currently teaches at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.

羅海德是一位數碼藝術家和理論家，他以移動影像為創作對象，探索通過電腦技術對移動影像歷史和審美進行重新組合所產生之獨特可能性，並於2014年就其對藝術及文化的貢獻獲香港。

他的作品曾於台灣、新加坡、紐約、波蘭、德國、西班牙、希臘等地國際展覽展出，曾獲2003年度「香港藝術雙年展」最佳數碼作品獎項，「香港當代藝術獎2012」的優秀藝術家獎及日本文化廳媒體藝術祭評審團推薦作品，他亦曾任微波國際新媒體藝術節藝術總監，目前是文字機器創作集研究總監。他現時在香港城市大學創意媒體學院任教。