OLD SCHOOL VS. NOW
This past semester, the graduating seniors of High Tech High Media Arts presented a compelling interactive art exhibition on impressions of social, cultural, technological, and ideological constructs interpreted through historical art movements. Fifty students presented interactive art experiences based on their research to examine the question, “Does art represent, record, and predict history?”. Through artistic renderings and interactive program design, these young adults challenged their audience to reconsider the notion of the present through a historical event or movement.
KPBS NEWS STORY FEATURING OLD SCHOOL VS. NOW
highlighted Student work
Artist Statement
In this project, we interpreted Impressionism as a retro “ISpy” video game. We aimed to connect Impressionism to pixel art in form, then anti-formally, in intention. The hidden images are a tribute to Renaissance and religious art, which, ironically, Impressionist artists sought to distance themselves from. Our piece works as a timeline. It makes note of modernity in both the 19th century and the 21st century and illustrates both Impressionism as it was and our own interpretation of it in the present and future.
We aim to challenge the audience’s perception of the future by asking several questions: Is the image of destruction an accurate depiction of the future? What might we do as a society to prevent this? Our project provides a narrative related to our hidden images which may explain the travesties in the end screen, but it is up to the viewer to decide to accept our explanation blindly or find his or her own interpretation based on the social, political, and environmental climate of today.
Ultimately, our project investigates how past and present art movements connect to each other through Impressionism and pixel art.
In this project, we interpreted Impressionism as a retro “ISpy” video game. We aimed to connect Impressionism to pixel art in form, then anti-formally, in intention. The hidden images are a tribute to Renaissance and religious art, which, ironically, Impressionist artists sought to distance themselves from. Our piece works as a timeline. It makes note of modernity in both the 19th century and the 21st century and illustrates both Impressionism as it was and our own interpretation of it in the present and future.
We aim to challenge the audience’s perception of the future by asking several questions: Is the image of destruction an accurate depiction of the future? What might we do as a society to prevent this? Our project provides a narrative related to our hidden images which may explain the travesties in the end screen, but it is up to the viewer to decide to accept our explanation blindly or find his or her own interpretation based on the social, political, and environmental climate of today.
Ultimately, our project investigates how past and present art movements connect to each other through Impressionism and pixel art.
Artist Statement
In our project about Expressionism, audience members will be met with a choice of exploring two art shows. The first art show is a recreation of the Degenerate Art Show, the art show Hitler held to ridicule art which he deemed as immoral. Hitler saw art styles such as modern, abstract, and expressionist as lesser and unworthy of praise. The second art show is a recreation of the Museum Of Modern Art’s art show featuring art from countries included in Donald Trump’s travel ban. Audience members can rollover the various paintings in both art shows to gain additional information on the history of the art pieces and the artist’s’ perspective.
When audience members complete a cycle through the art show, they are looped back to the starting screen so that they may choose the alternate path. By doing this they can connect the past to the present in terms of art and opinion. This creates a discourse based on the connections audience members have created.
Our project revolves around the concept of subjectivity and how one’s perception of a piece affects their enjoyment of the piece. The Degenerate Art Show enforces our point because it was held specifically to mock art that Hitler personally disliked. The Degenerate Art show attempted to make the audience perceive the art as wrong. They did this by choosing a venue that was minuscule, dimly lit, and hanging the art crooked and close together. The pieces in the art shows were set to be burned, however a large amount of the paintings were salvaged by those who enjoyed them and hid that fact. This meshes with our second art show, The Modern Art show, which brings up the topic of subjectivity in regard to people. The Modern Art show is a recreation of The Museum Of Modern Art’s show with pieces from countries included in Trump’s travel ban. This serves to ask the audience the question “Should others opinion affect yours?".
Knowledge of this art show is not common, and we believe people should become more aware of it. By learning about how Hitler took people’s art and livelihood, the exploration of this dark but true history can prevent events like this from happening again.
In our project about Expressionism, audience members will be met with a choice of exploring two art shows. The first art show is a recreation of the Degenerate Art Show, the art show Hitler held to ridicule art which he deemed as immoral. Hitler saw art styles such as modern, abstract, and expressionist as lesser and unworthy of praise. The second art show is a recreation of the Museum Of Modern Art’s art show featuring art from countries included in Donald Trump’s travel ban. Audience members can rollover the various paintings in both art shows to gain additional information on the history of the art pieces and the artist’s’ perspective.
When audience members complete a cycle through the art show, they are looped back to the starting screen so that they may choose the alternate path. By doing this they can connect the past to the present in terms of art and opinion. This creates a discourse based on the connections audience members have created.
Our project revolves around the concept of subjectivity and how one’s perception of a piece affects their enjoyment of the piece. The Degenerate Art Show enforces our point because it was held specifically to mock art that Hitler personally disliked. The Degenerate Art show attempted to make the audience perceive the art as wrong. They did this by choosing a venue that was minuscule, dimly lit, and hanging the art crooked and close together. The pieces in the art shows were set to be burned, however a large amount of the paintings were salvaged by those who enjoyed them and hid that fact. This meshes with our second art show, The Modern Art show, which brings up the topic of subjectivity in regard to people. The Modern Art show is a recreation of The Museum Of Modern Art’s show with pieces from countries included in Trump’s travel ban. This serves to ask the audience the question “Should others opinion affect yours?".
Knowledge of this art show is not common, and we believe people should become more aware of it. By learning about how Hitler took people’s art and livelihood, the exploration of this dark but true history can prevent events like this from happening again.
Artist Statement
Our project was made to preserve the meaning Baroque art intended to convey in the 16th century; to inspire and give hope in the lives of everyday people. Our art piece relaxes its viewer while simultaneously exposes them to the Baroque style of art. We did this by physically projecting a digital art piece on a ceiling so that the audience could focus their full attention to the aesthetics and sounds. By adding modern music and animating effects within the still art piece, we demonstrate technology’s role in helping preserve Baroque’s originality. We hope others will take inspiration from the Baroque movement as well.
By recreating the Baroque style, we hope to preserve the intentions and ideas of the original movement to inspire our audience to keep going, pay attention to detail, and strive for excellence. Our digital art piece is designed to bring “old school” art to anyone. We hope that others will experience art they would normally have to travel long distances to see with a modern twist. Anyone can create and enhance historical art movements.
Our project was made to preserve the meaning Baroque art intended to convey in the 16th century; to inspire and give hope in the lives of everyday people. Our art piece relaxes its viewer while simultaneously exposes them to the Baroque style of art. We did this by physically projecting a digital art piece on a ceiling so that the audience could focus their full attention to the aesthetics and sounds. By adding modern music and animating effects within the still art piece, we demonstrate technology’s role in helping preserve Baroque’s originality. We hope others will take inspiration from the Baroque movement as well.
By recreating the Baroque style, we hope to preserve the intentions and ideas of the original movement to inspire our audience to keep going, pay attention to detail, and strive for excellence. Our digital art piece is designed to bring “old school” art to anyone. We hope that others will experience art they would normally have to travel long distances to see with a modern twist. Anyone can create and enhance historical art movements.
Artist Statement
Our project is a story driven game, one in which, you traverse a tower. This tower is an icon of Constructivism. As Contemporary art takes inspiration from movements such as Minimalism and Constructivism, our mission was to explore the ways architecture continues to borrow from history. We hope people will gain awareness of Constructivism as a movement which impacted our surroundings today.
As you climb the tower there are different artists from various movements that contributed to the final stage of Contemporary architecture. Each artist describes their role and movement. At the start, the user is asked to question how modern architecture came to be. As a result, they are sent back in time to when Constructivism was in its prime and climb the tower.
Our project is a story driven game, one in which, you traverse a tower. This tower is an icon of Constructivism. As Contemporary art takes inspiration from movements such as Minimalism and Constructivism, our mission was to explore the ways architecture continues to borrow from history. We hope people will gain awareness of Constructivism as a movement which impacted our surroundings today.
As you climb the tower there are different artists from various movements that contributed to the final stage of Contemporary architecture. Each artist describes their role and movement. At the start, the user is asked to question how modern architecture came to be. As a result, they are sent back in time to when Constructivism was in its prime and climb the tower.
Artist Statement
We created our project with Performance Art in mind, except this type of Performance Art focused on the horrors of society and called Viennese Actionism. The movement in the 1960s and 70s focused on shocking the viewer with violent and explicit content to protest post WWII bourgeois European governments. Günter Brus was one of the co-founders of Viennese Actionism and in one of his most famous pieces, Vienna Walk, he walked the streets of Vienna in a white suit with blood covering his head and chest. He described this action to be a sort of live painting that illustrated the horrors of WWII.
We wish to continue Günter Brus’ critique of society and highlight some of the more recent horrors of our own, coded with photoshop images and the bloody image of Brus. Our idea was to mimic this performance with the use of Brus himself to bring attention to the ways in which we become numb to the horrors of society.
How many times will you walk past before taking action?
We created our project with Performance Art in mind, except this type of Performance Art focused on the horrors of society and called Viennese Actionism. The movement in the 1960s and 70s focused on shocking the viewer with violent and explicit content to protest post WWII bourgeois European governments. Günter Brus was one of the co-founders of Viennese Actionism and in one of his most famous pieces, Vienna Walk, he walked the streets of Vienna in a white suit with blood covering his head and chest. He described this action to be a sort of live painting that illustrated the horrors of WWII.
We wish to continue Günter Brus’ critique of society and highlight some of the more recent horrors of our own, coded with photoshop images and the bloody image of Brus. Our idea was to mimic this performance with the use of Brus himself to bring attention to the ways in which we become numb to the horrors of society.
How many times will you walk past before taking action?
Artist Statement
In order to understand, explore, and appreciate the world around you, you must discard the items you do not need. Minimalism is not about subtraction. Rather, it is about removing the unessential and distracting aspects in your life in order to live more freely; by this we mean free of redundancies, free of the unneeded, and free of the societal norm to continuously purchase things solely because they are new.
W A L K transports you into a world of isometric design with three major sections: the Park, the Metropolis, and the Shore. When the program is initiated your character rushes through the landscape with hands full of useless items. From the start, you will experience the world moving past you very quickly and you do not have a chance to admire the environment around you. As you reach the end of the map, the game restarts. This represents the life you could have if you focus on chasing after the things you do not need. It is up to you to discard these items and break free from the maximalist lifestyle your character has. Once you do this, you will find the world opens up to you in ways you never thought possible. All you had to do was focus.
Our interactive experience works from an excerpt from Bruce Lee’s 2009 novel, Wisdom for the Way, in which he writes, “Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own”. We found that this notion encapsulated the mentality many Minimalist artists had about their work during the movement. Although Bruce Lee is not recorded to be a Minimalist, his shared knowledge does ring true to many Minimalist ideals, for example he also said "It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential". We believe this speaks more to the more modern Minimalist lifestyle, which is the platform we chose for our program.
In the end, Minimalism is not about reduction. It is instead about focusing on what is needed.
In order to understand, explore, and appreciate the world around you, you must discard the items you do not need. Minimalism is not about subtraction. Rather, it is about removing the unessential and distracting aspects in your life in order to live more freely; by this we mean free of redundancies, free of the unneeded, and free of the societal norm to continuously purchase things solely because they are new.
W A L K transports you into a world of isometric design with three major sections: the Park, the Metropolis, and the Shore. When the program is initiated your character rushes through the landscape with hands full of useless items. From the start, you will experience the world moving past you very quickly and you do not have a chance to admire the environment around you. As you reach the end of the map, the game restarts. This represents the life you could have if you focus on chasing after the things you do not need. It is up to you to discard these items and break free from the maximalist lifestyle your character has. Once you do this, you will find the world opens up to you in ways you never thought possible. All you had to do was focus.
Our interactive experience works from an excerpt from Bruce Lee’s 2009 novel, Wisdom for the Way, in which he writes, “Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own”. We found that this notion encapsulated the mentality many Minimalist artists had about their work during the movement. Although Bruce Lee is not recorded to be a Minimalist, his shared knowledge does ring true to many Minimalist ideals, for example he also said "It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential". We believe this speaks more to the more modern Minimalist lifestyle, which is the platform we chose for our program.
In the end, Minimalism is not about reduction. It is instead about focusing on what is needed.
Carson Davis & Jack Schwartz A Country on the Run Interactive before and after roll-over narrative |
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Artist Statement
A Country on the Run uses Magical Realism as an alternate depiction of the crisis in the Middle East. With this piece, we bring humanity to this issue and hope participants will view people as people. Many refugees no longer have places to live and are running from forces that destroy their homes.
We illustrate this crisis through the lense of Magical Realism. The Syrian refugee crisis is very similar to the situation which actually started Magical Realism. In the 1920s after WWI, Germany was in a state of brutal disrepair.The people of Germany were starving, the economy was at its worst, and the government was in shambles. German artists at the time needed a way to express their feelings about the world. They did this through Expressionism then Magical Realism.
Magical Realism brought together real events with magical elements to express the world around them. During WWII, the Nazis deemed Magical Realism (as well as Neue Sachlichkeit) as degenerate art, and destroyed paintings that represented those art movements. The German Magical Realism art movement was completely destroyed by the 1940s; however, the German refugees brought Magical Realism to the rest of the world.
Rob Gonsalves’s art inspired our own. Gonsalves in his work often juxtaposes unrelated subjects which we incorporated into this piece. We show the dichotomy between Syria, and other parts of the world, before and after the crisis began. We hope people will understand events which may seem small actually affect the entire world.
A Country on the Run uses Magical Realism as an alternate depiction of the crisis in the Middle East. With this piece, we bring humanity to this issue and hope participants will view people as people. Many refugees no longer have places to live and are running from forces that destroy their homes.
We illustrate this crisis through the lense of Magical Realism. The Syrian refugee crisis is very similar to the situation which actually started Magical Realism. In the 1920s after WWI, Germany was in a state of brutal disrepair.The people of Germany were starving, the economy was at its worst, and the government was in shambles. German artists at the time needed a way to express their feelings about the world. They did this through Expressionism then Magical Realism.
Magical Realism brought together real events with magical elements to express the world around them. During WWII, the Nazis deemed Magical Realism (as well as Neue Sachlichkeit) as degenerate art, and destroyed paintings that represented those art movements. The German Magical Realism art movement was completely destroyed by the 1940s; however, the German refugees brought Magical Realism to the rest of the world.
Rob Gonsalves’s art inspired our own. Gonsalves in his work often juxtaposes unrelated subjects which we incorporated into this piece. We show the dichotomy between Syria, and other parts of the world, before and after the crisis began. We hope people will understand events which may seem small actually affect the entire world.