Moment of Clairification

Well, I don’t really know if this type of media fits into any particular category, but symbiotic media is what they call it at the University of Oklahoma art school, where my brother is getting a master’s in the field. It’s pretty impressive.

According to the school’s Website (http://symbioticmedia.ou.edu/mission.html), which my brother made, symbiotic media is “an inter-disciplinary program where artists, engineers, scientists and scholars gather to investigate the dynamic interplay of humans, biology and technologies. Celebrating the creativity and problem-solving skills that link our fields, SMP explores cognitive, emotional and social consequences of electronic media.” I’m proud to say that Jesse has been very instrumental in giving this new genre of art an identity, and I’d like to share a few of his works below.

The following is a harpbot, which Jesse built. It’s a instrument and also a sculpture, something I imagine is supposed to look kind of like an insect. It has eight motors that are placed above eight strings with corresponding visual feedback LED’s. Hanging in front of the Harpbot are two glowing eyes, that immediately turn off when touched or jostled, sending signals to the motors and strings. Each eye possess a dual axis accelerometer (whatever that is), and the Harpot is tuned to a Japanese pentatonic scale.

Jesse also presented his “Nonspecific Modern Art Generator” at an opening in February, and it was by far the biggest hit. Quite frankly, his concept of being able to interactively produce art — with each piece being unique from the rest — is a slap in the face to institutionalized notion of what art is. In his years of composing, Jesse explains on the Symbiotic Media site, he became fascinated by the commonplace that “multiple musicians, without any sense of direct collaboration would emualte the stylistic tendencies of each other.”

He continues: “As a musician I thought the formalist approach to music was a perfect example of how style fascinated me. I am referring to the works of Modern composers, such as Berg, Schoenberg, and Webern. This was interesting because the style was not only consistent among the composers but highly codified. How stange they all spontaneously agreed ‘yes, this is the true way to make music.’”

Jesse related this same idea to modern art, a style that dates back many years and can be seen in so many capacities, from paintings on the walls of dentists’ offices to shower curtains you can by at Target. Which begs the question, says Jesse: “What if a computer could generate all the stylistic aspects of this genre? What then, would be the importance of having style?”

I don’t know why he doesn’t have these on YouTube so I and others can geek out and put them on their blogs, but do check out the two videos at the bottom on the page, one made about the art show and featuring Jesse, and the other a demonstrative clip: http://symbioticmedia.ou.edu/modern_art.html

Did I mention that Jesse can make a pretty sweet movie? The following is written, shot, composed and narrated by Jesse. I am not sure what this was for, but I dig it:

He did this one, too:

And this is pretty neat, too. Maybe my favorite…. Except, Jesse, I am not really a fan of your horror movie font:

And this is so terrible, but so lovely… mainly because it stars my dad’s dog Ditto. I am not quite sure who the little perpetrator is… But hearing my stepmother and brother crack up laughing in the background makes me miss home…