Recorders: Raphael Lozano Hemmer

Great Electronic Art by Raphael Lozano-Hemmer at the Manchester Art Gallery.

I particularly like the 'Pulse Room' which employs biometric technology to transform the gallery using incandescent light bulbs that visualise your heartbeat. As you hold the metal sculpture, sensors record your pulse, immediately setting off the lightbulb closest to you, which flashes to the exact rhythm of your heart.

And 'People on People': On entry powerful projectors cast your shadow on the wall to create what appears to be a giant shadow-puppet theatre. A portrait gradually emerges inside your silhouette, but the person staring back is not you. Images of other people, gathered by a sophisticated surveillance system, are shown within our shadow and these images become animated and look out at us when they are revealed by the shadows, creating an uncanny and unsettling effect. The portraits that you see are not passive subjects, as they very often are in
traditional portraiture, instead they are looking at you, looking at them.

And 'Autopoesis' is simple but thought provoking.
The term "Autopoiesis" was coined by Chilean biologists Maturana and Varela.
Literally meaning self production or creation, it refers to the way in which living beings are seen as systems that produce themselves, or regenerate, in a ceaseless way. An autopoietic system is at the same time the producer and the product.

"When people look at themselves in this small mirror they see the word "Autopoiesis" projected on their forehead. The concept of self-creation described by Chilean biologists Maturana and Varela is an inspiration for all art that depends on participation to exist."

'Autopoiesis, 2010'Somehow I turn up on the website.

Does this mean I'm a 'Self-made man'?

More about individual pieces here.

Lozzano-Hemmer's website: http://www.lozano-hemmer.com/
Also see the Artsy webpage for lots of further info on Lozano-Hemmer - it provides visitors with Lozano-Hemmer's bio, over 130 of his works, exclusive articles, and up-to-date Lozano-Hemmer exhibition listings. The page even includes related artist & category tags, plus suggested contemporary artists, allowing viewers to continue exploring art beyond the Lozano-Hemmer page.

Summer Project: 'Home Page'

Maybe some Rachel Whitread influence?

Maybe some Marcel Duchamp?

What happens to all the dead computers?

iPad!

Home Page
Hang on it what you will.
("Wherever I lay my hat - that's my home")

Computer fossil.

Interactive media

Altered computer project using plaster and de-constructed computers.

Foundation Course Begins!

Well the tutors don't seem to be a bad bunch!
Tony Ratcliffe, Dave Brodie, Louise Batchelor, Margaret Mytton,
Eileen Simpson, Joan Beadle, Jo Vickers

Blimey - there's a lot of us!
208 students
All at least half as young as me!
I'm feeling both older and younger at the same time if that is possible.

Trip to Liverpool Biennial

Great trip to Liverpool Biennial. Rainy day wandering around the streets, stumbling over unexpected street art down back alleys, in derelict garages and in the more established galleries.

Galleries visited: 52 Renshaw St, FACT, The Bluecoat, Europleasure/Scandinavian Hotel.

Alfredo Jarr's video about the Rwandan Genocide at Europleasure/Scandinavian Hotel is really moving. See Jaar's website.

Circuits

Using computer keyboard circuit boards in assemblage and also as a photo filter.
Modifications in Photoshop.

Nail Shadows

Thinking of mixed media including shadows as a media.

In these pieces I'm playing with the contrast of a white matt emulsion prepared board, with the hard protruding nail and then the shadow possibilities within the composition.

What Happened to Scottish Pop Art?

Messing with old maps, wrapping paper, pen and spray paint.

Drawing on Dance performance

I am a guest artist at two multidisciplinary events. One at Huddersfield Art Gallery and the other at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds University.

Victoria Baths & Chew The Float Exhibit

Visited the Cottonopolis Collective art exhibit at The Victoria Baths in Chorlton-On-Medlock in Manchester. Never been to the old baths before so it was good to see both the semi-restored baths and some local art too. And what a great venue for art. Most of the pieces did seem related to the theme of the baths. But my favourite piece was Teresa Wilson's 'Facade' - a site specific puppet installation occupying the sitting room of the Superintendent's Flat. The puppets have a macabre feel, ghosts of another time but commanding attention in the present. Demanding we draw a story out although the story is ambiguous. Also loved Andy Gornall's mixed media bricolage pieces - abstract plaster and paint echoing the damaged plaster and old peeling paint in the Committee Room. For some reason I didn't manage to get photos of either of these. But plenty of other good pics from around the exhibt.

But the Baths themselves are perhaps the star attraction.Amazing atmosphere and plenty of beautiful decay in amongst the restorations.

See more images from this expedition on my Flickr site: here