Public Art 2013 Storefront Projects

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FOR PUBLIC CONSUMPTION

"For Public Consumption" is a pop-up installation in Block37 in downtown Chicago. Created by students in the Interdisciplinary Arts and Media MFA and Interactive Arts and Media BA programs, the show aims to transform a storefront into a public art gallery, with rotating video and interactive media pieces that all deal with the act of living in a public environment.

Google Street Portraits: Surveilling a Mediated Public (Surveillance Art2) by Leonardo Selvaggio

"GSP" is a site specific interactive media installation that explores boundaries of public space through the agency of Google Street View technology. While Google's facial blurring algorithm attempts to placate a desensitized public to it use of surveillance technologies, my work calls for transparency. Haunted by these disenfranchised faceless portraits my work attempts to substitute surrogates by openly and explicitly capturing the faces of pedestrians pondering the installation. This work calls into question surveilled spaces in the public realm and begs of its public to consider this context in other scenarios in which the surveillance is purposely veiled. Sample Video: [2]

"Boy in Woods" by Greg Browe

There is a forest full of black, menacing trees. Their trunks are wide, and their branches hang far above. The ground is white with snow, save the occasional errant twig. Suddenly, a young boy hops out from behind a tree, and runs to another trunk. Some time passes before he feels ready to do it again, and now the boy runs from an entirely different tree to another. It’s as if he traverses the intervening spaces while we aren’t watching, and it’s only our gaze that forces him to describe his movements, become animated, illustrated, and make a go for the next trunk. Boy in Woods is an animated projection wherein media engages with the frame and tests its physical and contextual boundaries. In a way, the animation of the piece resembles a Scooby Doo chase scene, as the gang inexplicably bursts out of one room and then the next - their path unclear. This challenges the viewer, and the ability of an audience to find anything concrete or explanatory in the piece. The boy is constantly moving, and therefore never settles in one place or on one idea. The resulting video would be formatted to fit most, but not all, of the panes of glass. Care will be taken to line up the seams with trees in order to make the presentation as flawless and unobtrusive as possible.