Cloud Culture
Prototyping: An Exhibit in the Cloud opens on Friday, November 9.
On Friday, November 9, works on view at the Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries at Parsons’ Sheila C. Johnson Design Center will be broken down into 1s and 0s, digital quarks, and uploaded straight to the cloud. That way, anyone anywhere in the world who wants to visit the galleries can simply download it. Sort of.
The exhibition that launches that day, “Prototyping: An Exhibit in the Cloud,” is an experiment in cloud-based, geographically remote artwork. This collaboration between the School of Art, Media + Technology (AMT) at Parsons and the Media Arts program at the University of the Arts in Berlin (UAB), began this past summer when a group of students from AMT, and three professors, Anthony Aziz, Nora Krug, and Ga Brinkmann-Zhang, traveled to Berlin to collaborate with their counterparts at UAB. From then on, it was strictly digital.
The show explores the idea of cloud-based prototyping in several ways. First, all the works on display were designed collaboratively by Parsons and UAB students via email, Skype, and other communications technology associated with the cloud. Second, all the works that will be on display at Parsons are designed so they can be uploaded by gallery visitors and electronically transmitted in the cloud. Finally, the exhibition is itself a prototype, intended to serve as a test case for future iterations of this same collection of works, currently planned to be mounted in Berlin, Paris, and Shanghai in the months following its run at Parsons.
The works on display include:
- Märchenmaker – A tin, ink, and paper set of miniature stamps resembling antique toys with which the public can create their own memorial maps on a large, papered wall.
- A Prototype for Long-Distance Intimacy—A prototype for a new kind of software tool that will enable separated lovers to explore and decorate each other’s computers.
Prototyping: An Exhibit in the Cloud runs through November 20, and an opening reception will take place Friday, November 9, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Visit the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center website for more information.