NEW
DOCUMENTARY PROFILES FOUR ARTISTS WHO USE COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY TO
CREATE INNOVATIVE ARTWORK
Akron,
Ohio-June 11, 2002- Media artist Seth Thompson recently
completed the documentary Evolving Traditions: Artists Working in
New Media. The hour-long documentary focuses on four
internationally recognized artists and how their work has evolved from
traditional disciplines into the form now coined "New
Media."
The
documentary is currently distributed by Wigged Productions and is
available for $29.95 (includes S/H) at
http://www.wigged.net/evolvingtraditions/
.
Featured in the documentary are artists Mark Amerika, Tennessee Rice
Dixon, Toni Dove and Troika Ranch. Ranging in such diverse artistic
backgrounds as painting, dance, music, bookmaking and writing, these
artists have incorporated current computer technology into their work
to enhance their artistic visions.
"The documentary serves two purposes," said Thompson. "One, to
show people how artists are incorporating computer technology into
their work with new and innovative ideas. Two, to serve as an
historical document, so that in the future people can look back to the
beginning of the 21st century and see what some of the leaders in this
movement were thinking at the earliest stages of this developing new
art form."
Don Freeman, director of programming at PBS Channels 45/49, said,
"The evolving interaction between artists and computer/video
technology is an area that hasn't been explored often in traditional
television terms. Thompson's documentary will significantly
contribute to a wider understanding of this field."
Evolving Traditions: Artists Working New Media
was supported in part by generous grants and contributions from the
Ohio Arts Council, the Wexner Center Media Arts Program at The Ohio
State University, Media 100 Inc., and The University of Akron
(Myer's Faculty Grant).
Mark Amerika
Mark Amerika, a "Time Magazine Top 100 Innovator," is the
author of two novels, The Kafka Chronicles and Sexual
Blood. His most acclaimed project Grammatron
(www.grammatron.com), a groundbreaking work of Internet art, was one
of the first Web sites to be included in the prestigious Whitney
Biennial. Amerika is also the publisher of Alt-X (www.altx.com),
dubbed "the literary publishing model of the future" by
Publisher's Weekly.
Tennessee Rice Dixon
Tennessee Rice Dixon creates interactive texts and animated works
for CD and performance art. Her first interactive digital work,
Scrutiny in the Great Round, is an award-winning CD-Rom that
is dreamlike in effect and sensibility. Scrutiny is
based on her limited edition artist book of the same name. Her recent
work is focused on moving pictures with verse and behaviors responsive
to sound and other environmental data. Dixon currently teaches at the
School of Visual Arts, New York.
Toni
Dove
Toni Dove
is an artist/independent producer who works primarily with electronic
media, including virtual reality and interactive video installations,
performance and DVD-ROMs that engage viewers in responsive and
immersive narrative environments. Dove has received numerous grants
for her work, including support from the National Endowment for the
Arts, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Langlois Foundation.
Troika Ranch
Since
forming the dance theater company Troika Ranch in 1993, Artistic
Directors Mark Coniglio and Dawn Stoppiello have been creating dynamic
live performances that combine dance, music, theater and interactive
digital media. Through fierce choreography, dense musical scores and
an evocative use of media and theater, they explore how we can
maintain our most human attributes in a time of accelerating change
and growing physical disconnection