David Rokeby
David Rokeby, Very Nervous System and The Giver of Names
“Indeed people sometimes feel irritation when faced with an interactive artwork, because they feel their behavior is being judged.” (David Rokeby, Transforming Mirrors: Control and Subjectivity in Interactive Media, 1996)
It may seem strange for an artist to criticize his chosen medium so candidly, but for David Rokeby this line of inquiry is essential. His explicit acknowledgment of the ‘irritation’ that is so often a limiting element of interactive art, allows the artist to address a larger anxiety people feel not only about interactivity, but technology in general. Through his large and varied body of work, Rokeby confronts this anxiety by exploring an equally large variety of interactive approaches. Approaches that expose the ways computer technology, and our associated assumptions and concerns, create meaning both as processing devices and physical objects.
Very Nervous System (1986-present), one of Rokeby’s earliest and most often referenced interactive installations, elegantly translates movement into sound. Technically speaking, a camera tracks a user through a defined space and this information is sent to a computer that outputs the body’s movement as musical or dissonant sound. The technology that enables this interaction is not obvious to the viewer. Apart from a camera, there is no visible technology to navigate, and the interface is as elemental as the air the user moves through. The response time of the system, what Rokeby refers to as the ‘feedback loop,’ is intentionally short and as a result, the computer’s seemingly instantaneous response to movement leaves little time for the user to ruminate on how or why their actions create sound. It encourages an intuitive and physical, rather than purely cerebral, relationship to and understanding of the work. This compressed feedback loop, and the absence of a complicated and potentially intimidating computer interface, decreases the likelihood of a user feeling ‘judged,’ as the simple act of moving rewards them with a seemingly open-ended and rich sonic experience.
Rokeby’s work The Giver of Names (1990-present) also uses the feedback loop as a means to construct a specific relationship between the work and its audience. In this instance however the loop is deliberately stretched, and the time lag between action and reaction creates a very different interactive dynamic. Viewers upon entering the space are confronted with a camera, a computer, a projector, a screen, a plinth and a pile of toys. When an object is placed on the plinth, it is captured by the camera and transmitted to the computer. The computer then processes the captured image through analysis of shape and colour and attempts to make sense of what it is ’seeing.’ Unlike Very Nervous System’s seemingly organic and effortless call and response, in The Giver of Names the computer, and its process of computing, are central to the visual and conceptual nature of the work. The hardware is placed prominently in the space and a monitor shows an evocative visualization of the way the computer generates descriptions from its language database. This heightens the spectator’s awareness of computer intelligence, and creates the potential for ‘judgment,’ to which Rokeby refers. But rather than bringing this judgement down on the participant, Rokeby structures the relationship so that judgment falls instead upon the computer and its limited ability to ‘think’ and make sense of its surroundings.
As technology becomes more seamlessly integrated into our lives –barely noticeable but for the interaction and relations it enables–Rokeby’s deep explorations into interactivity confront and challenge our ever-changing relationships to it. By acknowledging that this relationship is often fraught with a host of social pressures and anxieties, he makes room for a range of audiences and interactive relationships. Active or passive, direct or indirect, the works and the level of interaction they allow for may have different outcomes, but all have a common desire to engage us and reflect back our feelings and assumptions about the technologies which surround us.
Text by Caitlin Jones
Caitlin Jones is a Brooklyn based independent curator and writer, most recently a regular contributor to Rhizome.org. In 2007 she was Researcher in Residence at the Daniel Langlois Foundation. In 2006 Jones was the Director of Programming at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery in New York and from 2001 to 2006, she held a combined curatorial and conservation position at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. She co-curated the groundbreaking exhibition Seeing Double: Emulation in Theory and Practice, and was Assistant Curator of the Deutsche Guggenheim exhibition, Nam June Paik: Global Groove 2004. As one of the lead researchers and organizers of the international Variable Media Network, Caitlin has been responsible for developing important tools and policy for the preservation of electronic and ephemeral artworks. Her writings on new media art presentation and preservation have appeared in a wide range of catalogues and international publications.
Details of work
Very Nervous System
1982-2004
dimensions variable, video camera, computer, custom software, amplifier and speakers
The Giver of Names
1991-2004
dimensions variable, video camera, computer, custom software, objects, pedestal, video projector, rear-projection screen, small multimedia speakers
Artist Biography
David Rokeby b.1960 Tillsonburg, Ontario, Canada. Currently residing Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He has a honours degree from the Ontario College of Art. Recent exhibitions include “e-art”, Musée des Beaux Arts de Montréal, Montréal, Canada (2007); Pro?ling, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, U.S.A (2007); Feedback, Laboral, Gijón, Spain (2007); David Rokeby, Silicon Remembers Carbon (retrospective), FACT, Liverpool, UK (2007); Algprithmische Revolution, Zentrum für Künst und Media, Karlesruhe, Germany (2004-7). Awards include 2007 idmaa Award for Innovation in Media Arts, Philadelphia, USA (2007); 2004 World Technology Award for the Arts, San Francisco, USA (2004); Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica for Interactive Art, Linz, Austria (2002); Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts (2002); BAFTA Award for Interactive Art, (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) (2000). Collections include Montréal, Montréal, Canada; Fondation Daniel Langlois, Montréal, Canada; Ontario Science Centre, Toronto, Canada; Fundació Sorigué, Lléida, Spain; Oakville Galleries, Oakville, Canada. Rokeby is represented by the Pari Nadimi Gallery.
Rokeby’s early work Very Nervous System (1982-1991) was a pioneering work of interactive art, translating physical gestures into real-time interactive sound environments. It was presented at the Venice Biennale in 1986, and was awarded a Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction for Interactive Art in 1991.Several of his works have addressed issues of digital surveillance, including Taken (2002), and Sorting Daemon (2003). Other works engage in a critical examination of the differences between human and arti?cial intelligence. The Giver of Names (1991-) and n-cha(n)t (2001) are arti?cial subjective entities, provoked by objects or spoken words in their immediate environment to formulate sentences and speak them aloud. Rokeby has exhibited and lectured extensively in the Americas, Europe and Asia, In 2007, he completed major art commissions for the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto and the Daniel Langlois Foundation in Montréal.