Leonardo

My Only Sunshine: Installation Art Experiments with Light, Space, Sound and Motion Author(s): Jennifer Steinkamp Reviewed work(s): Source: Leonardo, Vol. 34, No. 2 (2001), pp. 109-112 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1577011 . Accessed: 08/02/2012 15:48
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ARTIST'S

ARTICLE

Sunshine: Only My Installation Art Experiments with Motion and Sound Light, Space,
JenniferSteinkamp
ABSTRACT

Light consistsof waves of energythat excitethe eye. -X-The Man with X-RayEyes [1]

In my artwork I use computer animation to craft immersive interactive projection installations. The three-dimensional (3D) computer graphics that form the basis of my abstract animation take full advantage of the computer's ability to create motion and points of view that are not available by any other means. I use multiple video projectors strategically placed in a space; the projections of the animation are then fitted or remapped into architectural situations. The art can then be experienced physically in relationship to one's movements through the space. The first installation I executed was a multiple-site work titled Gender Specific(1989) [2]. The piece ran simultaneously in different parts of the city and viewers had to drive across town to experience the entire installation. One site was a house in Pasadena, while the other was a storefront at the Santa Monica Museum. Two animations, a series of orbiting Earths and a polka-dot whirlpool divided each building into quasi male and female halves. I addressed issues surrounding the cultural specificity of gender in relation to domestic and consumer architecture by bifurcating the architecture and sites across town (Color Plate A No. 1).

ery and light corporeally. Some people actually experienced the physical sensation of seasickness. Ever since then, I have set out to investigate illusions that transform the viewer's perception of actual space in a synthesis of the real and the virtual.

discusses inher Theauthor teractive architectural installation with art.Asanartist works who herself refitnew she media, finds and ting existing genres creating for new languages herparticular consists of artform. artwork Her aniinteractive computer projected She mation installations. investithat the gatesillusions transform viewer's of perceptionactual of spaceina synthesis thereal and virtual. the

SHIFTS AND DECENTERING

I have used various methods to decenter or reconsider subjectivity;I recently completed another installation, The TVRoom [3], in which the projected image underwent a disorienting parallactic shift as the viewer moved through the room. I stretched three wall strips horizontally across a room in the museum and projected animated water streams on each strip. The wall behind was filled with a multicolored waterfall. The back surface and the wall strips interlaced to form the image, somewhat akin to the scan lines on a television set. Further shifting occurred as the animated imagery tilted; consequently, the architecture, virtuallydestabilized, seemed as if it were tilting as well. Viewers, unable to decipher the half wall, found the experience mysteriously ambiguous (Fig. 2).

USING LIGHT TO DEMATERIAIJZE SPACE

As my ideas and work developed, I found I could dematerialize architecture by combining light, space and movement. I had alwaysbeen fascinated with light and space artists such as James Turrell. His perceptual light illusions transform our experience of architecture. Following this tradition, I investigated how light could create an illusionistic sense of space and dimension. Unlike the light-space artists, I added the component of motion to my light-projected illusions, which made the surrounding architecture appear to dematerialize. I first accidentally discovered this visual phenomenon in the work Untitled(1993), a floor projection piece (Fig. 1). In this piece I projected a colorful water animation from the ceiling down across the floor. As a result, the inanimate floor seemed to breathe; the architecture was transformed by light. The viewers perceived the non-physical components of the imagFig. 1. Untitled, 18 x 7 ft, 1993. (? Jennifer Steinkamp) A "river" of light cuts across the floor of the gallery. Water imagery seems to breathe, destabilizing the viewer's relationship to the normally solid architecture; some viewers actually experienced seasickness. (Photo courtesy of ACME., Los Angeles)

Jennifer Steinkamp (artist, educator), 12029 Marine Street, Los Angeles, CA 90066, U.S.A. E-mail: <jennifer@artcenter.edu>. Web site: <http://jsteinkamp.com>.

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SHADOWS
The viewer's shadow becomes part of the image as she passes through the projection, partially disrupting the image, breaking the illusion. The projectors are often placed low, so the viewer has no choice but to become part of the work. Children immediately understand that they are expected to play in the projection. Humor and play are important aspects of the art, ways of further involving the viewer in the work. As the viewer internalizes the image in her mind, she also experiences it physically and narcissistically in real space. The imagery I use tends to be abstract. I am intrigued with abstraction, perhaps more so than representation, because the point of view in abstraction is complex and perhaps not fixed. One could ask, where is the point of view in abstraction? What is the viewer's relationship to an abstract image? This thought has had a profound effect on my contemplation of abstraction and subjectivity. My work has evolved out of a deep interest in issues of feminism. My site-spe-

Fig. 2. The TVRoom, 18 x 13 x 60 ft, with soundtrack by Andrew Bucksbarg, 1998. (? Jennifer Steinkamp. Photo: Alex Slade, courtesy of ACME., Los Angeles.)

Fig. 3. SWELL,12 x 26 ft, with soundtrack by Bryan Brown, 1995. (? Jennifer Steinkamp) The walls of the gallery were huge. In response, I created an underwater feeling in the space; a virtual camera floated through a sea of multicolored particles. The same animation was projected twice; horizontally, from the front, and vertically, from the rear. The apparent solidity of both projections was disrupted whenever a viewer stepped in front of the rear projection. (Photo: Joshua White, courtesy of ACME., Los Angeles)

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cific installations set up complex relationships between the viewer and the viewed. With the environments I create, the relationship between viewing subject and art object is recast. Mywork engages with the spatial politics of vision. It breaks down standard-often maleof seeing to create a coded-modes more open physical state of pleasure that includes all genders. My work is influenced by the pioneering feminist film theory of the 1970s, especially that of Laura Mulvey. I am interested in investigating ideas such as the patriarchal gaze, point of view and objectification. With the help of virtual technology, I attempt in my work to de-center and reconstitute the viewing subject as we know it.

COLLABORATION
I have collaborated with three composers over the years. Their music is a very important part of the work: music creates the atmosphere, adding mood and emphasis to certain visual elements. The soundtrack creates a sonic dimension in the space; the physical space is transformed by the audio. For example, in the interactive piece Phase=Time [4], eight speakers were placed around the perimeter of a large square room; the sound traveling around the speakers transformed the square gallery into a circular space. To date, I have collaborated on 16 pieces with Jimmy Johnson, who has an electronic music group called Grain [5]. I have also collaborated with Bryan Brown, whose band is called Blue Bird; he is also the drummer for Dick Dale. I am currently working with experimental composer and artist Andrew Bucksbarg. When collaborating, I come up with the structure, or space for the piece. I usually create a virtual scale model on the computer, then discuss the ideas behind the work with the composer. We get together a few times, testing the sound in relation to the space and image. My first collaboration with Jimmy Johnson was part of an exhibition and symposium on photography [6]. One might say our work was the "extreme left" of photography, especially since I never use imagery from the real world; everything is synthesized in the computer. On the other hand, Jimmy used highly manipulated sound samples of Helen Keller speaking to an audience; by the time he was finished the sound sample was unrecognizable. I conceptually linked the work for this exhibition to photography by utilizing three inter-

mental variables such as gravity, turbulence and wind. The simulation test runs overnight. It can be a pretty random process and it can take a couple of months of testing to complete an animation. Because the particles were created TECHNOLOGY to simulate particle behavior as underAs I mentioned, the imagery I synthesize stood in physics, these simulations creis derived from software tools, not from ate a very realistic quality of motion. I the real world. I use Alias MayaSoftware have long been interested in "lifelike" on a Silicon Graphics computer, a 3D motion. This is always the challenge for animation package used by the film in- an animator or anyone who thinks dustry for special effects. As new virtual about motion. SWELL (Fig. 3) with reality software tools develop, my work Bryan Brown taught me to contemplate effectively changes; in a sense the soft- our perceptual relationship to physical ware developer is a collaborator. I often scale. The large projections enabled the use particle dynamics, a software tool set wall surfaces to dematerialize convinccreated to simulate natural phenomena. ingly. This piece happened to work well Particles are interesting because they are with many viewers, as they could watch unpredictable; one can assign to the par- each other play and perform with their ticles a life span and a color, and deter- shadows. Over the past couple of years, mine how they will respond to environ- JimmyJohnson and I have been adding secting landscape topologies that moved in and out of focus on a grid. A "photographic" aerial view of my constructed landscape was remapped into the space. eachmonolith3 x 17 x 1 ft, room70 x 38 x 17 ft, soundtrack Fig.4. Stiffs, byJimmyJohnson, I 2000. (? JenniferSteinkamp) builtlarge,floor-to-ceilprogramming SarahRosenbaum, by ing monoliths,followingresearchon the phenomenaof monolithsin natureand of quarried obelisksfromEurope,SouthAmerica, NorthAfricaand the MiddleEast.I wasintrigued by or use theirmysterious, long-lostritualsand memorial significance practical as sundials,calendarsor boundary with All markers. these possibilitiesimbuedthese forms simultaneously and Los significance openness.(Photo:StevenHeller,courtesyof ACME., Angeles)
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the component of interactivity with sensors. We recently completed a largescale piece titled Stiffs (2000). I knew that I wanted to create large, floor-toceiling monoliths; the forms would fill the space while referencing some of the existing proportions of the gallery. I imagined the monoliths as a forest of tall figures or trees. In the piece we emphasized this effect by arcing the animation and sound around the viewer, who becomes enveloped when approaching a monolith. The viewer has always been an integral part of almost all my artwork-the shadow disrupts the image, breaking the illusion of the projection. The viewer's playfulness and movement though the space creates the experience. With Stiffs we explored spatial interactivity, using ultrasonic sensors to track the viewer's relationship to each monolith. As the viewer approached the monolith, the animation would speed up. Sensors at the far ends of the gallery would send the image and sound into a chorus; and all the monoliths would then sing together in unison. It is an into construct teresting challenge in a large space for many interactivity viewers without losing the impact or experience of the work of art (Fig. 4).

genres, but there are many other ways to categorize this work; and it has been included in many types of exhibitions, including feminist, video, digital, interactive, photo and abstract painting. Three-dimensional computer graphics, virtual reality if you will, is a new medium for artists. I find it extremely gratifying to work with such adept's tools. Works of art can be created that have never been experienced before, although this can also be all too tempting. I feel a great responsibility to create artwork that engenders poetic resonance. Artwork should work on many levels-it can be accessible and interesting to an untrained audience, as well as to the cultural vanguard. One of my greatest challenges is to create work in which complex ideas can be best experienced as art. References and Notes
1. X-The Man with X-RayEyes (director and producer: Roger Corman; screenwriters: Robert Dillon and Ray Russel; AIP, 1963). Ray Milland plays Dr. Xavier, a researcher who is seeking a method to increase the spectrum of human vision. He has the notion that humans are only capable of seeing 10 percent of the visible spectrum. Dr. Xavier comes up with an eye drop that allows him to see through things. He manages to kill an associate and become an outlaw. As the plot develops he is able to see through more and more, until the end when he can see through everything, to eternity, and of course it is painful. 2. This piece was created for my undergraduate thesis at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. It began as an installation for a house in Pasadena that was also an artist-run alternative gallery space called Bliss; subsequently it was also exhibited in a storefront at the Santa Monica Museum in California. 3. I created this work for the Santa Monica Museum of Art in Santa Monica, California. 4. Phase=Timewas exhibited at the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA.

5. Grain has albums available on Fragrant, Astralworks and Moonshine record labels. 6. The symposium and exhibition, Photography and thePhotographic, held at the California Museum was of Photography, Riverside, California, curated by Amelia Jones.

Bibliography
Benjamin, Jessica. TheBonds of Love, Psychoanalysis, Feminism,and the Problemof Domination (New York: Pantheon Books, 1988). Ferguson, Bruce W., and Grachos, Louis. POSTMARK:An Abstract Effect(Santa Fe, NM: SITE Santa Fe, 1999). A Fuller, Diana Burgess. Parallels and Intersections: RemarkableHistory of WomenArtists in California, 1950-2000 (Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California Press, 2001). Hickey, David. Ultra Lounge, The Return of Social Space; With Cocktails, exh. cat. (Houston, TX: Diverseworks Artspace, 1998). Jay, Martin. "Scopic Regimes of Modernity,"in Hal Discussionsin ContemFoster, ed., Visionand Visuality, porary Culture#2 (New York: Bay Press, in association with Dia Center for the Arts, 1988) pp. 3-23. Lunenfeld, Peter. Snap to Grid:A User'sGuidetoDigital Arts, Media, and Culture (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000). Mulvey, Laura. VisualPleasureand NarrativeCinema, Art afterModernism (New York:The New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1984, reprinted from Screen16, No. 3 [Autumn 1975]). Steiner, Rochelle. Wonderland(St. Louis, MO: St. Louis Art Museum, 2000). Zelevansky, Lyn. Made in California (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2000).

GENRES AND INFLUENCES

I am often asked what genre these artworks can be said to inhabit. They obviously can be considered part of the new media art genre because of their origins in, and reliance upon, computer-based technology. At the same time, they are part of a long evolution in installation art. These are the two most overarching

Manuscript received 1 September 1998.

JenniferSteinkampis an installation artist. She teaches Cal-Arts,Valencia,California, at and the Universityof California,Los Angeles, Department Design/MediaArts. of

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