The moving image plays tricks on the mind. It is nothing more then man-machine made mirage. The way in which we experience video in our daily lives is inherently subversive, it works towards reassuring us that objectivity is relevant and that reality is immediate. It tells us that time is real, that we live in a concrete world, that I am me and you are you and that this is where we are. We want to let you know that this is not true. We want you to know that I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
The extract above is from new media artists Blake Shaw and Bruno Levy (aka SWEATSHOPPE) which make street art without any paint. So, where is the fun? Bear with me.
Video painting is a technology the new media art duo SWEATSHOPPE developed, allowing them to create the illusion that they’re painting videos onto walls with electronic paint rollers they built. It works through custom software they wrote that tracks the position of the paint rollers and projects video wherever they choose to paint — allowing them to explore the relationship between video, mark making and architecture and create live video collages in real time.
SWEATSHOPPE also recently participated in the exhibition “Ouroboros: The History of the Universe,” together with Ali Hossaini. Here are some interesting comments from The New York Times article about the exhibition:
“Ouroboros: The History of the Universe,” a 3-D visual collage of vibrating mandalas, exploding galaxies, astronauts and corporate logos, among much more, on six screens, all in the service of reconnecting consciousness and cosmos.”
“That would be us, collections of space junk, somehow perceiving and pondering the grandiosity that gave us birth in a sort of intellectual and emotional equivalent of the snake eating its tail.”
“Ouroboros, as the Greeks called the snake that eats its tail, has from ancient times been a symbol of cosmic unity and self-sufficiency. ”
Take some time to watch one extra video created by Bruno for Modeselektor’s Deboutonner. Very cool.