An interactive video installation in which gallery-goers can manipulate the images will open the 2008-09 season at Rockefeller Arts Center.
"The Synergy Project," an installation by artist Claudia Esslinger, will open with a free public reception on Friday, Sept. 5 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the university art gallery. The exhibit will continue through October 1.
Art Gallery Director Tina Hastings explained “The Synergy Project” is an interactive video project featuring three different sets of images. The images and sounds can be manipulated by the viewer through a monitor interface. “It will allow the gallery visitor, along with those watching, to become an integral part of the installation during their time in the space,” Hastings said. “Their configuration will be left for the next visitor.”
Esslinger, a professor of art at Kenyon College in Ohio, earned her master of fine arts degree from the University of Minnesota. She said her work “investigates issues of hierarchy, investigating the roles of the powerful and the powerless as affected by societal institutions. These video installations use a combination of visual and aural metaphors as well as interview segments and collaborative media.”
The video/audio elements, Esslinger explained, act as electronic pulses experienced over time. “It is my desire to involve the viewer in the completion of the piece, either through direct actions on their part or through their contemplation and physical presence,” she said. “Although I prepare intellectually through wide reading and research, it is a visceral, intuitive approach that guides these ideas into their physical form.”
Hastings said she is “excited about this installation as it provides an opportunity for Fredonia students, the campus and the Fredonia community to experience an interactive video installation, a form of art that has not been exhibited in the art gallery for some time.”
