Aug. 6, 1996

Art Infomation Index - Jul. 26, 1996

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DEAF http://www.v2.nl/DEAF/ DEAF.html R96 Rotterdam Festivals-the New Temptation - Yukiko SHIKATA Art Information - Sep. 24, 1996

Seiko Mikami Upgrading the "Molecular Informatics" Exhibition Yukiko SHIKATA In the art laboratory in which I am participating as a curator, I have been continuing the collaborative work with Seiko Mikami for about two years, and have completed two projects. They are the ARTLAB5 "Molecular Clinic 1.0" featured on the Internet from last fall to April this year, and the ARTLAB6 "Molecular Informatics -- morphogenic substance via eye tracking", which is a VR installation using "eye tracking input" technology, held as an exhibition this past spring. Mikami has been studying computer science in New York since 1991, and since she was in a stage of shifting from creating works that were objects to those of media art, these two projects have marked a renewed start for her. These works are based on the theory of molecular biology which states that "all objects can be artificially created by changing the chain reaction of molecular formation" . Naturally, Mikami's objective is not to prove this theory, but to apply this to media art in order to discover new potentials of form generation. This is not the kind of art that questions the aesthetic values of visible objects as seen in the norm of fine art in the past. It is an experimental art that interfaces the changes in the program (factor) itself and the changes of the visible morphosis (she calls this 'the interfacing of mathematics and perception'). The "work" mentioned here can be understood as an "event" which continuously changes by the participation of the people experiencing it. In "Molecular Informatics", the participant wears a pair of VR eyeglasses with an eye tracking sensor and enters a virtual space. The gaze becomes processed at real-time as information, and the molecules generate in a chain reaction synchronized with the tracks of the gaze. In other words, the continuing new generation of the molecular world becomes a reflection of how the participant sees the virtual world, and how he reacts to it. Even slight subconscious eye movements are processed into numerical data, instantly being expressed as molecular forms. Thus the people experiencing the work are forced to confront their unconscious self. "Molecular Informatics" will be exhibited at the DEAF (Dutch Electronic Art Festival) held in Rotterdam, Holland from September 17 to 29, and is currently being upgraded. In this latest version, by utilizing a style in which two participants share and experience the virtual space simultaneously (multiple gazes and their relationships), an unprecedented world will be presented to us. [Yukiko SHIKATA/Art Critic]

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Aug. 6, 1996