Artist Statement, Elliot Anderson

During the 1980's I worked as a computer graphics engineer in the field of flight simulation. I use my expertise as a software engineer and the concepts of interactivity from flight simulation to create dynamic environments using computers, video and sound. My work is an investigation of intertwining and interaction with the computer, the construction of an environment from computer information and an unfolding of time and through interaction with computer algorithms. Computer technology allows me to detect and incorporate the body's presence, movement and proximity in a dynamic negotiation with information and processes internal to the computer.

My work is an examination of human frailties relative to technologies, conceptions of the self and of technology. I see this as a paradoxical relationship. In my work I highlight the site of paradox by focusing on disease, psychology and disorder. My work also investigates self-representation through technological means. Currently I am exploring the idea of infection and contamination and concepts from evolutionary genetics as a mode of interaction with and within the computer. In work that is interactive within the computer itself, I utilize genetic programming to create a dialog between software to evolve a cinematic scenario and effect. Sound and image are a result of software processes set in place by initial conditions that are evolved throughout the course of exhibition.

In my interactive work the viewer/participant is incorporated into the piece as a contaminant or infectious agent that shifts the piece in time. These shifts occur as symptoms of pathological states created by the algorithm and digital information. Changes occur in video and audio because of an interpretation and incorporation of these codes by the software. Often the viewer at any given time is unaware of the changes that he/she is creating. Only subsequent viewers’ experience the shifts in sound and image instituted by the previous participants in the work. All interactions with the work have cumulative effect on the piece in time. These cumulative interactions shape the piece over the time of its exhibition.

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