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Art in Chicago: 1945-1995
Museum of Contemporary Art, November 1996
(Founded
1983) Comprised of a shifting set of collaborative artists,
(art)n creates visually stimulating work through the
use of computer technology. Founded by Ellen Sandor
in 1983,(art)n is a collective of artists, scientists,
mathematicians and computer experts who invented PHSColograms-museum
quality photography of virtual reality and three dimensional
computer graphics-that can be viewed in a lightbox or
reflectively. Their technologically advanced work was
inspired by the process-oriented works of the modern
artists Man Ray, László Moholy-Nagy and
Marcel Duchamp.
(art)n original members included Jim
Zanzi, professor of sculpture at SAIC, sculptors Gary
Justis and Randy Johnson, video artist Mark Resch, and
fashion photographer Gina Uhlmann. Their early work
explores the effects of technology on society and consists
of large-scale sculptures that combine the effects of
photography, holography, sculpture, computer graphics
and occassionally with video and sound. (art)n utilizes
its innovative technologies to produce works that address
scientific, political, social, and aesthetic issues,
including AIDS, chemical warfare, fractals and architecture.
PHSColograms are very, very sculptural.
Lynne Warren, Curator
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
In
1985, (art)n collaborated with Dan Sandin and Tom DeFanti
of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at
the University of Illinois at Chicago; and Larry Smarr,
Donna Cox and George Francis at the National Center
for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA) at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to create a digital
process for producing PHSColograms.
Their first images
were variants of Romboy Homotopies, computer generated
four dimensional complex mathematical structures-that
were photographed off of a computer monitor using a
video camera. The collaboration between (art)n, EVL
and NCSA produced a significant digital collection of
immersive scientific visualization documentation. In
1986, Stephan Meyers, an MFA student of Dan Sandin and
Tom DeFanti at EVL, joined the group as an artist and
programmer, creating the first working digital process
for PHSColograms on the computer.
The Equation of Terror 1991, MCA catalogue image reference;
mentioned in Richard Vine's Where the Wild Things Were
[Art in Chicago] article, Art in America, May 1997
In 1991, Ellen Sandor coined the term "Virtual
Photography" to describe PHSColograms, and a patent
was awarded for the process the following year. (art)n
has produced over 200 digital works that have been exhibited
in international museums and galleries. Recent shows
include Galerie Darthea Speyer Paris, Santa Barbara
Museum of Art, The Smithsonian Institution Washington
D.C., and others. (art)n is comprised of Ellen Sandor,
Stephan Meyers and Janine Fron.
Dominic
Molon
MCA Chicago
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