New Media: Eric Souther

Nov 17, 2012 to Mar 31, 2013

Opening Reception
Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013, 5:30-7 p.m.

This November, the Museum presents Eric Souther as part of its New Media series. Known for building and utilizing his own software, Souther manipulates video and sound to explore how technology shapes experience and communication in our contemporary culture. His artwork also reveals how machines enrich the expressive means of artists. He “find[s] that creating experiences that lead to new understandings are more important than delving into the exact presentation of information,” and his Search Engine Vision “Chair” does just that.

“Chair” is a compilation of the first 1,000 videos that appear under the keyword “chair” on YouTube. Using Max/MSP and Jitter computer programs, Souther wraps the visual catalogue around a 3D chair model and maneuvers cameras to imitate the process of sifting through information online. He places the viewer in an alternative dimension where the database can be experienced “all at once as a form, an aesthetic visualization of sensory knowledge and experience,” expressing the “vastly broad potentialities of experiencing ‘chair’” and capturing the visual language created by the online community.

Souther’s aim as an artist is to question how we navigate today’s “complex system” of information overload. He “creates individual artistic explorations” of the unseen network of the digital age in which we all engage—the sharing, compiling and encountering of information—to reveal the experiences of modern life “saturated with digital information.”

New Britain Museum of American Art
56 Lexington st
56 Lexington st
New Britain, CT
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