Pattern-Finding
 

9th Annual International
Digital Print Exhibition
Oct. 6, 2007 - Jan. 27, 2008
The Walter LeCroy Gallery
New York Hall of Science
Organized by:
Art & Science Collaborations, Inc.

THIS EXHIBITION IS TRAVELING:

Stevens Institute of Technology
at the Babbio Center's DeBaun Atrium
Castle Point-on-Hudson, Hoboken, NJ
Public reception:  February 12, 5:30-7pm
Exhibition dates:  Feb.13 - March 10, 2008



"Pattern-finding is the purpose of the mind and the construct of the universe. There are an infinite number of patterns, some of which are known; those still unknown hold the key to unresolved enigmas and paradoxes."
- Agnes Denes, 1967 (1)
 
For Digital'07, the international Open Call challenged artists, scientists, and technologists to show us digital prints that look at structure and pattern in the universe, whether visible or invisible to the naked eye. More specifically, this exhibition explores how today's scientific fields of systems science, chaos and string theory, fractals, nanoscience, genetics, molecular science, the wavelets or frequency of sound, and mathematical data-sets, plus nature itself, are being utilized to create two-dimensional art of provocative and sumptuous pattern. As Galileo is quoted to have said, "Nature's great book is written in mathematical symbols."

(1)  From "Evolution and the Creative Mind," written in 1967 by Agnes Denes* and delivered as a lecture in 1974 at the National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

THIS YEAR'S PARTICIPANTS:
23 artists, scientists, and technologists were selected from 116 entrants to this international competition:

James Ambrogi (Pennsylvania/USA), Elizabeth Bajbor (Warsaw/Poland), Paul Barrington (Tasmania/Australia), David Bookbinder (Massachusetts/USA), Willa Davis (Michigan/USA), Helen Ferry (NSW/Australia), Lis Fields (London/UK), Mark Fischer (California/USA), Peter N. Gray (Chicago/USA), Laura Hewitt (Alaska/USA), Cesar Hidalgo (Connecticut/USA), Sung Dae Hong (Seoul, South Korea), Terry Monaghan (Georgia/USA), Jeffrey Nickerson (New Jersey/USA), Yvan Rebyj (Paris/France), Gongbing Shan (Alberta/Canada), Clifford Singer (Nevada/USA), Victoria Skinner (Florida/USA), Mark Stock (Massachusetts/USA), StarLight Tews (Wisconsin/USA), Charles Thurston (San Francisco/USA), Zach Vitale (Massachusetts/USA), and Lorraine Walsh (North Carolina/USA)

STATEMENTS OF CO-JURORS:

What is pattern?
Pattern is more than the repetitive use of form, color, or object within a work.  Patterns assist us in organizing and understanding the world around us.  To a mathematician, the word may conjure the beautiful geometric forms of fractals or manifest forms governed by the Golden Ratio.  A computer scientist may grasp for invisible patterns within the logic of computers to maximize efficiency.  The chemist may be concerned with the repetition of atoms and the geologist relies on patterns for the identification of minerals. Advancing technical capabilities place pattern recognition at the heart of fields such as machine learning, data processing, and computer aided diagnosis to name only a few.

On a primal level, we are drawn to patterns.  We receive pleasure from patterns by generating them, discovering them, and looking at them.  Our fascination with patterns is rooted in our need to coordinate our physical and material world with our inner world - a phenomena that makes pattern recognition and response of interest to neuroscientists.

The creative practitioners represented in this exhibition only just begin to scratch the surface of the almost unfathomable potential provided by digital technologies to mediate traditional patterns and to discover new ones.  In these works, nature is rediscovered; the spiritual path of the Mandela is resolved visually with that of modern psychiatry; and new data sets never before imagined offer the artist a new vocabulary.  Visual culture, once again, provides a platform to consider the intersections between technology, science, and culture.

- JD Talasek, Director of Exhibitions and Cultural Programs, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.

AGNES DENES PRINT TO BE AUCTIONED !!!
Agnes Denes is a world renowned conceptual artist who was also one of the first artists to be involved with the relationship of science to art, as well as a pioneer of ecological art.  She has donated the digital print that inspired the "Pattern-Finding" theme of this year's Digital'07 exhibition for a fund-raising auction to benefit ASCI.  This signed, archival print represents a wildly unusual use of data-sets. It is a digital rendering of the original design drawing for one of her boldest public, ecological artworks, "Tree Mountain - A Living Time Capsule - 11,000 Trees, 11,000 People, 400 Years," 1992-1996; 420 x 270 x 28 meters, in Ylöjärvi, Finland. 

Click here for print & auction details including images and abbreviated bio...


ASCI's SUPPORT OF DIGITAL PRINTS:
ASCI was one of the first organizations in the world to recognize the digital print as a valid fine art product in 1998 by organizing an afternoon panel discussion, "Collectibility & the Digital Print."  The event was held in The Great Hall at Cooper Union, New York City, in conjunction with ASCI's first international digital print competition/exhibition. 

ABOUT ASCI
Founded in 1988, Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI) is one of the few art & technology members organizations in the USA.  Its mission is to raise public awareness about artists and scientists using science and technology to explore new forms of creative expression, and to increase communication and collaboration between these fields.  Explore our extensive archives, see the listing of ASCI Member homepages, and discover the amazing resource information in our monthly ASCI eBulletin.

ASCI is an open membership organization.
Click "join" at top of ASCI homepage