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Design and construct a 20 foot Vertical Wind Power Turbine that will be installed atop a 35 foot tower to be utilized in generating the renewable energy to power an interactive / reactive lighting array pointed back onto its self. The visual or aesthetic effect will be of revolving double helix shaped shiny object shooting light across the city of Tampa as if it were a type of large whirling disco ball. This will give a dramatic night light show with the daylight hours filled with a sparkling shimmering light effect on the waters edge of Tampa Bay. Additionally the lights will be affected by the presence of people through use of sensors connected to micro-controllers. A website will be online to allow web surfers access to the visual effect created by the lights as well as the data on energy generated and usage by the lighting array. This project will be completed for the Hillsburrough Public Arts Council and the City of Tampa for the Bienial Lights on Tampa in 2009. |
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Social Seedling is an ongoing migratory project engaging ecology, community and individual. Its primary aim is to reconnect us to our food source in a direct physical experience. Viewers are encouraged to cross a metaphoric line in becoming a participant by planting Seeds of various food bearing plants such as: soy, eggplant, lima beans etc… Visually seedlings are displayed on shelves ringing the space growing in spun pumous rock while others await planting for future owners. Using Bronze casting, the exhibition also includes a cast series of sculpture showing aspects of plants and the progression of growth in steps. For their effort, besides the pleasure in getting their hands in dirt, participants receive a Seedling to take home and nurture to maturity, thereby experiencing direct contact with creation, plants and producing their own food. They also will have the satisfaction of starting life for someone in the next show creating a cycle of life, sharing and reward. In addition, they will be able to track the progress of their plant and others online, as it grows to produce food. |
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It is a widely held scientific theory that all life on Earth, including humans, owes its beginnings to Bacteria. This series utilizes Computer Assisted Design 3-D software to create and draw imagery that depicts various types of bacteria that represent the beginnings of life. These designs are based upon still and motion imagery taken from live bacteria colonies grown from other pieces such as “Projected Growth” and “Spit Culture”. The final output of the imagery takes several different forms including: prints with color pencil added onto the surface of the print, stereographic drawings that recreate 3-D imagery, as well as photographic lenticular images. These drawings will ultimately be used to produce physical sculptures utilizing various types of casting. |
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Blowing Emma is an interactive installation that utilizes fans and electricity producing wind turbines that power audio recordings. By blowing on or pointing fans at the various wind turbines placed around the space, the participants control the playback of previously recorded audio segments. These recordings are comprised of a word or series of words derived from a quote by the anarchist, Emma Goldman. As viewers take this active role by interacting and affecting the playback of the recordings through their aiming or blocking of the wind, they create a living shifting work of Emma’s commentary on life. Which fans turn on and in what sequence they operate will be determined in part by the actions, number and positions of the individuals within the space. The result could range from a single word being heard to a cacophony of words and phrases that sound more like an angry crowd than a cohesive monologue. If participants attempt to control or follow the constraints and rules of “Blowing Emma” by playing them in order, in the end they will hear the words of an anarchist blown back at them. That this tangle of control could produce the words of America’s most influential anarchist is another irony generated by the character of this piece.
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Neighbor-Hood (or its working title: Isn’t Gated-Community an Oxymoron) is a project where bandanas, instructions on how to wear them and how to make gang signs with your hands, are distributed to residents of gated communities. Two methods are utilized, the first was to design and build a wooden siege weapon called a Ballista, to lob them over the walls of communities. The second method was to fold them into flowers, placing them into gift baskets at the entrances. In this method the stems of the flowers are made from the instructions for how to wear a bandana and make gang signs.
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ANAT POLLACK, KRISTA CONNERLY, AND MARK KOVEN This research initiative explores the heartbeat as a piece of information. As data, what kind of information can a heartbeat provide? And how can access to this information – normally hidden between individuals – affect communication? We will create a device that transmits one person’s heartbeat to another. This will be communicated through a discreet device such as a bracelet or necklace worn close to the individuals own pulse. Individuals can wear this device in proximity to one another and access information that is physiological and/or emotional. We are interested in extending the type of information one accesses or works with on a day-to-day basis (verbal, visual, or number based data that one is constantly processing/negotiating) to potentially change the nature of interaction/understanding between individuals. |
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Spit culture is an interactive installation that invites the participant(s) to spit into 3 foot Petri dishes prepared with agar, the standard medium used by biologists to culture bacteria. Sixteen of these giant Petri dishes are installed in a space labeled through economic hierarchy based upon individuals gross income. Projected Growth takes the finanacial section of the Wall Street Journal to cultivate bacteria, showing the parallel between the growth cycle of bacteria and the mirroring cycle of Markets accross the globe. Hand drawn graphs and charts are exhibited throughout the space so visitors can explore the parallel. In both cases, the bacteria are illuminated while a digital microscopic camera system hovers above the dishes making it possible to view magnified images of the bacteria both in the space and on the Internet. This camera system affords a visitor to attend the show, contribute bacteria in the form of saliva, and look for the culture created online at a later time. Imagery is in the form of live video feed as well as Drawings |
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A competition dating back to the 12 Century, utilized during the time of the crusades, the game of "Going to Jerusalem" is now a child's game we know as Musical Chairs. "Going to Jerusalem" is a nomadic performative installation that combines technology including Web Cam and Internet participation with first hand patron participation. As a participant on site, you will play a one on one game of musical chairs against a hired champion. Viewers may participate either by playing the game on location or through the Web. During game play, web surfers have access through this website to one of two links, a live video feed with tilt, pan and record control while the second link is a stop button for the music. You may exercise control or just simply remain a voyeur. However, if you find yourself on location during an installment of the game, come and compete or remain a spectator, where the play is passionate, the action suspenseful and the prize is real! Just as crusaders were privileged in being sent on the crusades, here too the Winner receives a one-way ticket to Jerusalem!
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An installation consisting of 537 live Butterflies located in a hotel room in West Palm Beach making reference to the 2000 election in which G.W. Bush won the election by this margin of votes. The controversy was not just over hanging chads, but also the Butterfly Ballot. More than 4000 People reportedly voted for the wrong candidate, and 19000 voted for at least 2 of the presidential candidates, negating their vote. Palm Beach has more than double the national average for wealth and income, while West Palm Beach is almost 20% below the national average. Walking inside the room, participants will experience the beauty of live butterflies along side the carnage of the dead and the dieing bringing into question their role as monitor versus co-conspirator. Upon completion of the show, any surviving butterflies will be liberated if individuals have not already interceded on behalf of the butterflies. |
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The
Arrival is a performance
and installation using
live performers and 3-D
animated lenticular photographs.
This work is an investigation
of the cultural differences
in protocols of how people
greet one another and
how different societies
create varying degrees
of physical separation
between people. As the
audience makes their way
inside the space, they
are greeted and hugged
by strangers, while inside
3-D animated photographs
depict people waiting
for friends and relatives.
In this work I am interested
in the effects of our
frequent leaving and arriving,
including what anticipations,
anxieties, and expectations
arise from separating
and reuniting? As the
strangers confront the
audience, reactions range
from stiff armed denial
to reciprocation of the
hug, even instances of
apologies and promises
of "getting
together real soon."
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In
this work, I was interested
in playing with the blur
between the mediated and
the actual, modified and
unmodified, simulated/
recorded life versus actual
living. This
video installation mixed
4 live video feeds with
4 recorded video loops.
These were shown on eight
flat panel screens installed
within the Lowe Museum
in Coral Gables, Florida. The
loops became clues as
to which panels were live
and which were recorded.
For many years I have
been intrigued by a love
of watching. Additionally,
as the surveillance feeds
are available to the audience,
the fact of the ubiquity
of surveillance becomes
known. The
audience is both viewed
and becomes voyeur, which
is also meant to challenge
our complacent relationship
to technology and surveillance. |
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Entropy
utilized an orthodontist
office for a site-specific
performance/installation.
Elderly individuals shot
the audience multiple
times in the back with
rubber bands, while food
and drinks were served
exclusively in exchange
for rubber bands. This
work was meant to call
into question the ramifications
of our society 's
ideas of perfection and
order by creating an environment
whereby the audience was
forced to look at their
own value system in calling
to attention the materials
we use as currency. Entropy
is the measure of chaos
within a system. It is
also what gives rubber
its elasticity. Orthodontics
straightens, rearranges
and makes order out of
chaos using rubber bands.
Rubber was chosen for
its ubiqiutous nature,
that of being found in
everything from weaponry
to beauty augmentation,
greeting us at birth and
preparing us in death. |
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By serving free Ice Cream, Cream examines an individual’s cultural heritage and personal level of tolerance while commenting on global events when viewers unwittingly become participants in this covert performance/intervention. An ill-tempered ice-cream man gives away free ice cream: cracking cones, arbitrarily deciding which flavor and quantity to serve, and if he will serve them at all. 3D images of Boy / Girl Scouts frozen in the act of eating ice cream surround the Ice Cream cart while sounds of the Cure's "I am killing an Arab" permeates the area. With no napkins available, ice-cream eaters are left with dirty hands. Unresponsive to customers, the ice cream man is an American childhood icon gone wrong serving as a metaphor on a global scale! |
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The
Female Gape series is
comprised of larger-than-life
3D Lenticular photographs
of women mounted onto
curved sheets of aluminum
which animate a yawn
as viewers walk past
them.
They highlight an essential
aspect of my work --
that of subtle viewer
interaction and participation
combined with a time-based
medium. By becoming
physically interactive,
the portrait no
longer represents mere
objects
of desire that remain
static in time. In
both reacting
to the viewer and causing
an action in the viewer,
the 3-D images elicit
both
a
voluntary
and involuntary physical
response, transcending
typical notions of
feminine
portraiture. |
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"Here"
was a one night only
exhibition using a combination
of installation with
performance. The installation
involved four Jeep Cherokees
parked outside in front
of a black box space
called PS 742. Inside
the space projection
screens ringed the walls
with tiered seating
in the center of the
room. The SUVs parked
in front were lined
up nose to tail with
the lead one being black
and the ones behind
white. Each had its own
video camera with microphone
that fed live video
and sound into the space
utilizing the screens.
The performance components
included sets of actors
in the vehicles and
inside the space. Each
vehicle contained actors
with specific dialogues
and scripts. The lead
vehicle contained two
women talking about their
sexual relationship
while the second vehicle
involved 3 women discussing
their views on abortion.
The third vehicle in
line contained a female
and male actor discussing
the parameters of their
relationship. A solitary
actress singing along
to songs on the radio
and intermittently talking
to people via her cellular
phone occupied the last
vehicle in line. All
this was ongoing while
a pair of actors, one
male and one pregnant
female, played out rolls
as husband and wife
with their dialogue always
ended in an argument.
Their instructions were
to enlist a patron in
trying to settle the
their arguments. The
live video feeds were
piped into the space
and projected
onto the screens around
the room. I was located
at a mixing board that
allowed me to control
which dialogues could
be seen and heard by
the patrons.
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| Turn is an installation using sound and 3-dimensional animated lenticular photographs. Turn is based on Ecclesiastes, the only section of the Old Testament derived from human observation rather than divine inspiration. Among the earliest writings concerned with existentialism, Ecclesiastes addresses diverse subjects ranging from cycles of nature, economic and political hierarchies, and the futility of human endeavor. It focuses on manÌs search for understanding where the self-proclaimed authorÌs (Koheleth) answer is that only the here and now holds meaning. Palm fronds ring the edge of the ceiling, recreating the look of a Sukkos, while the floor consists of lenticular photographs of alternating imagery that flips between day sky and sand as viewers move about the room. The wind like sounds revolve in a clockwise direction around the room mimicking the authors observations of cycles within nature and referencing the many Ïall is as chasing after the windÓ | ||
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Moth
is an exploration of social
interaction, collaboration,
ambivalence, and blind
faith. In this work, a
series of images were created and enshrined in keychain light boxes,
each one being one half of an whole 3-D image. Upon entry to PS742,
audience members were given a single keychain and invited to seek out
their mate in order to experience the image in 3-Dimensions as each
keychain has a mate forming a stereo pair. When
viewed simultaneously
through the left and
right eyes, the stereo
pair merges to form a
single 3-D image.
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The act of looking into an open doorway for no other reason than it is open. The dark opening that we peer out of while people pass by glancing in on us. What is this instinctive curiosity buried within our psyche? After filming for many hours at the same location, this footage is edited down to a 2-3 minute piece to create a rhythm and feeling of expectation. These observations are not merely about looking vs. seeing, participation vs. observation, but ultimately asking the question as to who is the voyeur.
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The
film "can
you pass for one"?
is one segment of a
series of documentary
films I am currently
working on using street
games as a lens to view
the variety that is
Miami. Being a native
of Miami, I have witnessed
many changes that have
occurred over the years.
I feel that portraying
Miami through a variety
of segments more accurately
reflects the atmosphere
and personality of this
city. These individual
fragments that make
up the whole. This particular
segment gives the viewer
a glimpse into Miami's
Little Havana area through
a back alley late night
dominoes game frequented
by a mixed group of
individuals.
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"Come" was
an exhibition that existed
for one night only. It
was a multi-media exhibition
featuring work presented
using video installation,
performance art, sound,
and lenticular photography.
All this was the backdrop
for the performance where
the viewers became unsuspecting
participants. 10 actors
and actresses of various
ages and ethnicities
had been hired to move
about the space interacting
with the viewers acting
as one of them. Their
job was to rub up against
the viewers multiple
times while not engaging
them in any other way
other than their gentle
rubs. Hanging in mid
air and lying on the
floor were animated 3D
lenticular photographs.
The imagery of the lenticular
photographs and video
installations dealt with
common tasks such as
eating, touching or petting
a pet. Mundane acts and
their possible transformation
into the sensual and
the grotesque were the
common theme for the
imagery. In addition
to the main room, a secondary
room housed two luxury
SUVs, a Cadillac Escalade
and a Lincoln Navigator.
The SUVs were used to
play sound pieces dealing
with dialogues and monologues,
giving the viewers a
chance to sit inside
while experiencing both
the sound pieces and
the performance.
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"Koheleth
Wrote" is
a book piece consisting
of 8 pages of 3D lenticular
images, each of which
include a CD-R. The
pages themselves are
a combination of 3D images
that depict asphalt in
various stages combined
with layers of text visible
only at specific viewing
angles. The
piece is based upon a
section of the Old Testament,
Ecclesiastes. The
construction uses a scroll
or Rolodex like design,
mirroring Ecclesiastes
many references to cycles,
thereby allowing the
viewer to flip through
the pages continously. Each
individual page is lashed
to a three inch stained
Maple wooden dowel which
than sits in a matching
wall mounted Maple cradle. The
included mini CDs slide
into the back of each
page from the side and
are manipulated sounds
derived from recorded
air movement ranging
from wind to the sounds
of breathing.
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Inspired
by string theory within
quantum physics, the "The
Other Side" series
of 3D lenticular photographs
explores possibilities.
What if the wall disappeared?
What if we could see
through solid objects
or the objects themselves
became transparent? In
this series, 3-D lenticular
photographs are created
using imagery of what
is behind a wall and
then placed on this same
wall, giving the apperance
to the viewers that they
were looking through
solid objects,
in essence creating a
window to the other side.
Transcending thoughts
and man made barriers
thereby allowing individuals
to see beyond their normal
capability within our
accepted physical universe.
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[ PinWheel | Spit Culture | Blowing Emma | Arrival | Realtime | Entropy | Cream | Gape | Here | Turn | Moth | Observations | Can You Pass For One | Come | Kohelith | The Other Side | About Artist ]
mark at markkoven dot net
or
mkoven at arts dot usf dot edu