Research Presentation

I used the website: Stephen Wilson: Intersections of Art/Science/Technology/Culture to discover the artists for this research project. Three artists that I found really interesting were Rinotchild, Camile Utterback and Scott Sona Snibbe. All three of these artists create art that has to do with motion of some sort. 

Rinotchild created a piece called "Laughing Swing." It's a swing that has a speaker embedded in it that creates laughter as you swing. The higher you swing the more intense the laughter becomes. The "Laughing Swing" is designed to be a stress reliever by making you laugh while you swing. It's an interesting cycle between laughing and swinging. I found this project incredibly unique and joyful. It just made me happy watching the videos on the artist's website. 

Website: http://www.michalri.net/laughingswing/

Camile Utterback created a piece titled "Text Rain." This project is exactly what it sounds like, text rain. It's a video of falling text that people can interact with. You are able to catch, toss, and drop the text as it falls from the screen. The text happens to be a poem about bodies and language. If you catch enough letters it will begin to spell out words or phrases from the poem. I thought this installation was really cool in the sense that you can interact with words and text. It was just really interesting and caught my attention. 

Website: http://www.siggraph.org/artdesign/gallery/S00/interactive/thumbnail21.html

Scott Sona Snibbe also created a video installation but on a much bigger scale in comparison to Camile Utterback. He installed his piece in the LAX Airport titled "Transit." It's a unique silhouette video of people walking in an airport that randomly begin to break into dance. Eventually a man walks across the long stretch of screens and stops the dancing and everyone continues walking. At one point there is a lady in red that dances that really contrasts with the other silhouettes of people. What I loved most about this installation is that the different dancers are unique to represent the different people and styles of dance in LA. You can tell there was a lot of thought and planning that went into this project in the way that it incorporates the airport and the different dancers to represent the location of the installation. The "Transit" piece was by far my favorite. 

Website: http://www.snibbe.com/

More on Scott Sona Snibbe 

• Digital Artist/Entrepreneur 
• Work includes: Apps, videos, and interactive installations
• Work incorporated into: Concerts, the Olympics, museums, airports, etc. 
• Worked with: Philip Glass, Beck, and James Cameron
• Awards: Webby and Ars Electronica & grants from the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Rockefeller Foundation
• CEO at Eyegroove
• Teaching/Research positions at: NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematics, The San Francisco Art Institute, California Institute of the Arts, and U.C. Berkeley

He says that his purpose of his work is to "bring meaning and joy to people's lives."