Dorkbot VII: Thursday, March 23rd, 2006

Ben Bogart & Donna Marie Vakalis - Resurfacing
Mouchette

Ben Bogart & Donna Marie Vakalis

The meaning of an artwork is not a single objective truth. Meaning is a complex tapestry created from patches of theory. These patches are in constant flux and reorganization. Meaning is the process of rethinking and reconsidering. The patches of meaning do not always connect elegantly. Meaning is overgrown with seams. The caretakers of meaning are not only individuals but a multiplicity of objects and subjects. Meaning grows from the community negotiation of these seams.

Resurfacing is the shifting of the frames of viewpoint. The flat surface becomes a deep collection of frames from the present, the past and their intersections.

Resurfacing captures and archives viewpoints or moments from its own context. Moments are evaluated by how they change over time and the extent to which the audience is engaged.

Ben is an installation artist, visual performer and programmer. He works in an open-source context and makes all the software he develops, that is of general use, available under the GPL. His installations create content live and on the fly in response to the work's sensed environment. These works may involve interaction from the audience as a part of the environment, or the work may simply respond to the context in which it exists. Ben is a structural thinker and imagines his work as the production of media architectures. Physical modelling, chaos, feedback systems and evolutionary algorithms have been used to inform and and engage in his creative process. Ben is the author of the pixelTANGO visual performance software funded by the Société des arts technologues. Ben is currently collaborating with architect Donna Marie Vakalis creating an interactive architectural installation made possible by the Canada Council for the Arts. Ben has also received a travel grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to participate in the pixelACHE festival in Helsinki, Finland in April 2005. Ben has presented work in Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal, Vancouver, Seattle, Helsinki, Bergen and Barcelona.

http://www.ekran.org/ben

Candidate for Master of Architecture at the University of Toronto; currently researching intersections of computing and design, especially environments for generative component-based modelling and computer-aided fabrication methods. Other projects: travel, video and kite aerial photography.

http://artengine.ca/resurfacing/

Mouchette

www.mouchette.org/

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