ICUL CTION
C o n t e m p o r a r y A r t R e v i e w
Mark Franz
Winter 2016
Also during this time , I helped Golan Levin to install Messa di Voce and had the opportunity to view official Video Data Bank copies of Nam June Paik work in my studio .
After that initial training I had the opportunity to work with several remarkable artists and designers at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago . One of whom , Eduardo Kac , introduced me to the primary works and texts of what is called digital poetry , media poetry , or language art . This work resonated with me in the same way that Intermedia had by giving me a framework and vocabulary for what I was already creating . Developing this vocabulary was essential for understanding the unique problems and methods that existed in this work , and provided a way to discussing and critiquing it more specifically . In particular , I was struck by the notion that this work did not rely on language and that it did not need to contain any language at all to be successful . At the same time , I was studying non-objective animation , and found that Oskar Fischinger would give his animations names like “ optical poem ” and which further developed an investigation into kinetic and interactive work . I found that these ideas have a long history and had been at the core of some popular artists ’ practices as well . This gave me confidence when applying these principles in the commercial design work I was producing for agencies in Chicago , as it relied more heavily on direct connections with the intended audience .
Your approach reveals an incessant search of organic investigation about issues of dislocation , violence as well as other social constructions that affect our unstable contemporary age . The results convey together a consistent sense of unity : before starting to elaborate about
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