Gabriel Barcia-Colombo’s “Tube” takes television characters outside the box (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
WORK FROM THE INTERACTIVE TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROGRAM AT NYU
Paley Center for Media
25 West 52nd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Through April 29, free with general admission of $10
212-621-6600
www.paleycenter.org
luminance slideshow
Six NYU students and alumni from the Interactive Telecommunications Program have fun reimagining television and video in creative and unusual ways in “Luminance,” running through this weekend at the Paley Center in Midtown. Curated by ITP adjunct professor Gabriel Barcia-Colombo, the exhibition features works that expand viewing into three-dimensional space, influenced by the participation of the viewer, with each piece accompanied by an artist statement and commentary by the Paley Center’s Ron Simon. In Toby Schachman’s “Time Travelers,” visitors can see their image merge on-screen with Creative Commons scenes of flowers, strawberries, sunrises, and sunsets. Rui Pereira’s “IEM” brings back the HAL 9000, as color patterns and clips from 1980s music videos directly answer personal questions. (Try not to inquire if he loves you.) In “Golden Treasures of Snows,” Molly Schwartz invites visitors to drive animated images of nature ― what she calls “a hierarchy of animals and vehicles, representing confidence, mischievousness, silence, concentration, messengers, and rogues” ― using a ship’s wheel to control what appears on-screen. In “Little Memories,” Andrea Wolf employs miniatures and super-8 home movies projected onto the wall to create a trio of realistic situations, including a car traveling down a long road in “Movement.” The highlight is Barcia-Colombo’s “Tube,” in which two characters have escaped the confines of a 1964 RCA television set, only to find themselves trapped in a glass case on top of it, digital and analog coming together to enter another, still limiting, space. And downstairs, Martín Bravo’s “Skittish Tree” is a projection that responds to sound, illuminated branches seemingly shaking in the wind. Although computers and handheld devices have changed the way people watch movies and television programs, these engaging works take the technology outside the box, instead of the box taking the technology outside.