Data Vis: Information as Art

Exhibition at UC Irvine Campus: Beall Center for Art and Technology 

Written by Cathy Breslaw

Data Vis: Information as Art is a thought provoking group exhibition curated by David Familianat the Beall Center for Art and Technology on the campus of UC Irvine.  Artists and groups of web developers and designers exhibit their art pieces and projects gleaned from data gathering - traversing the fields of computer science, art and technology by exploring the meaning of data as it is translated into visual imagery through real time data projects, interactive computer displays, as well as sculpture, drawings, and ink jet prints. Sound artist Junichi Oguro and media architect Motohiro Sunouchics’ collaborate on an interactive project called “Sound Mix”.  For the exhibition, the artists set up a globe visualized by clouds of place names that resonate mixed sound scape. During the exhibition, the globe continues going round and mixing the sounds recorded at selected two locations somewhere in the world. When visitors utter a place name into the microphone, the globe starts mixing sounds at the place and sounds are evoked. Another collaborative project called “The Living Air”, by Fernanda Viegas and Martin Wattenberg allows viewers to experience real time data showing a delicate visual pattern of wind velocities anywhere across the U.S. on a computer generated map simply by clicking on a location. Other art pieces like “Paris” by  Paula Scher, creates a textual, colorful map depicting Paris’s subway system, while Alice Aycock creates 3D visualizations of abstract mathematical concepts through digital prints of drawings and sculpture. Ingo Gunther’s lighted acrylic spheres depict subjects as diverse as versions of tectonic plate movements, wine production and consumption, and ice drift stations studying climate change in the arctic. Manglano-Ovalle, created a steel sculpture ‘Hurricane Prototype #1’, which represents his work about large scale natural phenomena while Nathalie Miebach creates sculptures based on her meteorological data collected from the “The Perfect Storm” and the sinking of the ship Andrea Gail. These art pieces and more make up the ’Data Vis’ show. It is a complex exhibition that involves work you expect to see in a combination of both science and art centers and requires viewers to concentrate on wide ranging subject matter presented in multi-dimensional formats. At the same time, it is a fascinating opportunity to enter the world of interdisciplinary fields and the resulting projects and art pieces that evolve from their investigations.

Cathy Breslaw is a southern California visual artist, writer and lecturer who has had over 25 solo exhibitions, and 50 group exhibitions across the country at museums, art centers, college and university galleries and commercial galleries. Her work can be found in many private and corporate collections. Her work and writing can be seen at:
www.cathylbreslaw.com
www.artfullifebycathy.blogspot.com
cathybreslaw@roadrunner.com