Final Essay

Over the semester in my Digital Media Class, we covered many different artists and their various works and creative styles. The three I found most interesting were Laurie Anderson, Tony Ourster, and Krysztof Wodiczko. I believe they all brought interesting pieces of work and conceptual ideas into the growing style of digital media today. At the beginning of the semester, an issue that we had discussed is weather the aura found in more traditional art works were disappearing because of the quality and value of mass-produced and technically inclined works. After learning about these artists, I have come to believe that through their work, there is still a very distinct aura shining through the speculation, and this excites me as an aspiring artist.
Laurie Anderson was one of the most amazing artists I learned about, her work is absolutely stunning and tantalizing to the mind once it is seen. In class, we were shown various pieces of her work. I enjoyed her “superman” and “excellent birds” performances. Laurie Anderson is an experimental performance artist and musician, even in her musical pieces, she continues to shine through with her artistic thought and state of mind. One piece that I chose that was not featured in our class was her musical performance “Drum Dance & Smoke Rings.” In the beginning, she is featured doing her drum dance which I found to be visually stimulating with the beating of the drum and her sharp quick movements. The second part, Smoke Rings, is a more musical performance, but at the same time Laurie asks some mentally stimulating questions to her backup singers, and if you listen and watch the interaction it is amusing what points come across in her performance. One thing I really like about Laurie’s work is how she poses questions and statements that revoke thought, and also how she allows her performance of movements and music help interact with them.



The next artist that I found very interesting was Krysztof Wodiczko. He was also brought up in class, but I really enjoyed the way he did his work. I loved the meaning and messages that he brought across in the process of his showings. Creating buildings and monuments into something to watch and to listen, it all has meaning when he brings the architecture and the stories together, it’s very touching and brings the man-made structures to life. His work gives man-made structures the feelings and emotions of human life. Krysztof also brings a lot of his life experiences into the pieces. He, himself, who is an immigrant, does many of his works also about immigrants. With his work, he is more interested in the architecture the buildings, but his work is very visual and in a way performance art, yet he’s not the one who performs in his pieces. Though he was born and grew up in Poland, he rarely exhibits any of his work there. One piece that I found very interesting was one that he did in Poland at the Zacheta, which features two women projected on the pillars holding up the building. Sadly, I could not find any video footage of this particular exhibit, but from reading about it, it is about violence against women in Poland and about abuse that these women, projected on the columns, would share their stories. I would really enjoy it if I was able to see this piece only because it looks so beautifully done and so amazing, I only wish I could hear the stories.


Tony Oursler, unlike the other artists is more of a visual projection artist kind of like Krysztof Wodiczko, but does not project onto buildings, but more onto blank objects, often dummy’s or round surfaces to add to the realistic attribute brought on by his projections. Tony is mostly well known for his video instillations that project onto the dummies. I personally find his work somewhat weird, yet in an intriguing way. The life that he brings into the dummies by using the projections creates a sense of life yet distortion across the surface of the figures. One piece that I found quite amusing to see created by him, is a piece that he projected in New Zeland onto the trees of a wooded area. The projection itself creates a skull cast upon the trees.


Over all I really enjoyed all that I have learned and have been taught in this course. These artists are only a select few that I have learned about and studied, yet they are very influential and inspiring to those aspiring to create a career in the field of Digital Media, and using technology to their advantage to shed new light upon technology based are, but allow the human experience in the creation, viewing , and interaction with such creative exploration and projects shine through allowing an aura to be felt throughout the piece. Those that can master that, can truly use this amazing technology to their benefit and success.

Works Cited

http://art-history.concordia.ca/eea/artists/wodiczko.html

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://mailer.e-flux.com/mail_images/1133190751zacheta.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.e-flux.com/shows/view/2414&usg=__vXYrr9gxoiBXb80fwOdqeSfS2LA=&h=234&w=357&sz=30&hl=en&start=3&itbs=1&tbnid=xdI9krePA7RNeM:&tbnh=79&tbnw=121&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dkrzysztof%2Bwodiczko%2Bzacheta%26hl%3Den%26tbs%3Disch:1

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://rawartint.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/oursler-nz1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://rawartint.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/tony-oursler%25E2%2580%2599s-skull-in-the-woods-video-projection-in-new-zealand/&usg=__iQEhAdehU1pl2HZ66xS9a6roF3I=&h=576&w=485&sz=76&hl=en&start=5&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=07KGc0uV-DLnZM:&tbnh=134&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtony%2Boursler%2Bartist%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26rlz%3D1T4TSHB_enUS307US307%26tbs%3Disch:1

http://www.laurieanderson.com/