International Awards on Art & Artificial Life

Cloud appears at first to be much more complicated in construction and behaviour than it actually is. This ruse is highly effective, because the experience of complexity endures even when one has understood that the work functions through repetitive motion. Cloud is suspended from the ceiling in a very large space (the Great Hall of the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, Canada, who commissioned the work), so it is always seen from below. Consequently, the vertical components of the work extend into the space, towards the eye of the viewer, and the overall effect is one of filling a large volume while at the same time leaving it open, penetrable. The sculptural components of Cloud are one hundred 13-foot long acrylic shafts that each hold six sets of thin acrylic planes, half transparent and half pale blue-grey. The movement programmed into this array of elements is a simultaneous rotation of all of the shafts, slightly out of phase but synchronizing at specified intervals. The constant movement of the elements, plus the consistency of colour and texture, contribute to an intense expectation of emergent patterns. And pattern does appear – a ripple of light, a solid block of colour – but only for an instant and only directly in front of one’s line of sight, while along its edges a movement that can be perceived as either a disruption or a new consolidation begins to take shape.

Biography

Born in Tillsonburg, Ontario in 1960, David Rokeby has been creating interactive sound and video installations with computers since 1982. His early work Very Nervous System (1982-1991) is acknowledged as a pioneering work of interactive art, translating physical gestures into real-time interactive sound environments. It was presented at the Venice Biennale in 1986, and was awarded a Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction for Interactive Art in 1991. Several of his works have addressed issues of digital surveillance. Watched and Measured (2000) was awarded the first BAFTA award for interactive art from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 2000. Other works engage in a critical examination of the differences between human and artificial intelligence. The Giver of Names (1991) and n-cha(n)t (2001) are artificial subjective entities, provoked by objects or spoken words in their immediate environment to formulate sentences and speak them aloud. David Rokeby has exhibited extensively in the Americas, Europe and Asia. He has spoken at events around the world. In 2002, Rokeby was awarded a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica for Interactive Art and represented Canada at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. He has recently finished major art commissions for the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, the Daniel Langlois Foundation in Montréal.