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Interface-off
>> F2F: New Media Art from Finland is a physical
experienceby
by
CHRISTINE REDFERN
 F2F is an Internet acronym
for “face to face” communication. It’s also the title
of an exhibit of new media art from Finland at the Saidye Bronfman Centre.
And, as opposed to the usual look-don’t-touch environment of galleries,
this exhibition not only allows, but requires you to physically interact
with the work. The technology employed in each installation varies;
the resulting responses are diverse, yet the end result of F2F is a
human-machine dialogue of surprising depth and playfulness.
In our instant gratification, short attention span culture, the public
seemed happiest at F2F when their interaction caused immediate results
with little effort. Young and old alike were gleeful as the subject
of Juha Huuskonen’s interactive painting “Mirror ++,”
where their every movement alters a kaleidoscope of images of themselves
and generates the accompanying sound.
I was instantly hooked by “hit2Morrow” by Teijo Pellinen—this
is possibly the only high tech art piece you will ever interact with
by using a bow and arrow. Every time you hit the bull’s eye, a
different short animated sequence appears predicting the future. This
piece combines summer camp archery, cheesy computer game graphics and
dire future predictions into a smile-inducing experience. Go figure.
Contrasting with “hit” was the bored public reaction to “The
Battle over Indifferent Minds” by Hanna Haaslahti. Each viewer’s
face is scanned as it looks at a magic lantern battle scene and then
incorporated into an accompanying video projection. There was something
oddly disconcerting about the projected faces, almost all of which wore
a blank expression. This is not a failure in the work though, since
we are the indifferent minds referred to in the title.
A lot of people did not bother to explore in depth the tongue-in-cheek
Web sites “SOB” (“Son of a Bitch”) and “Need,”
as they required a longer commitment in time. The subject of Marita
Liulia’s “SOB” is the virtual apartment of Jack L. Froid,
psychoanalyst and expert on modern man. “Need,” by Tuomo Tammenpää,
inspired the least amount of interest in the gallery, but the core of
this work is the multi-layered Web site that can be accessed anytime
over the Internet at www.needweb.org.
Mother
and child reunion
Heidi Tikka’s installation “Mother/Child” highlights
our own innate circuitry and our inability to override our natural emotional
responses with our rational mind. The viewer spreads a white cloth across
his or her lap, which acts as a screen for a digital projection of a
nursing baby who laughs and cries. The movement of the person holding
the cloth and the surrounding spectators affect the mood of the child,
thereby creating a virtual, shared experience.
Teijo Pellinen also produces a feeling of false intimacy in the work
“Aquarium.” Via telephone, numerical commands are given to
two TV characters who are incapable of making up their own minds. This
installation is a shorter version of a 130-hour interactive TV program
aired by the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation last year. Out of all
the works, this one gives the strongest indication of future uses of
technology in our chose-your-own culture. :
F2F,
at the Liane and Danny Taran Gallery, Saidye Bronfman Centre for the
Arts, until June 2, 739-2301
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