Tech, Science Shape New Contemporary Art Exhibit

While it's true John Simon Jr. has a daily drawing practice, one he describes as meditative not just for clarity but also creativity, the artist might be best known for the digital art he's produced, pieces sold in cyberspace and displayed on LED screens instead of canvas in places like the Whitney and Guggenheim.

Among the first pieces of art sold as NFTs came from Simon, the 1997 work he titled "Every Icon," because, as the squares in a grid of 32 by 32 change from black to white in a pattern shift that will take trillions of years to cycle through, the full image eventually will form the outline of any and all familiar pictures.

Simon also is known for other pieces like "ComplexCity," a series of digital works in which the street grid, traffic pattern, and height of skyscrapers continually shape shift, a representation of the constant change of a city.

But Simon might not be as well known for his undergraduate degree in geology, his master's in earth and planetary science, and an MFA in computer art.

The place between art and science, that's where early in his career Simon says he thought he'd be - "where art and science would kind of meld, where you'd see some sculpture, a painting, and things that are kind of like art done with a scientific concept that's output in an artistic way.

"But that was never deeply satisfying enough for me," he says, "and I felt eventually that the categorization of science and art, this kind of academic categorization, was made to separate the two. My approach [now] is creativity."

And that's something both scientists and artists must have in abundant supply.

"If we look back to the Renaissance period especially, science and art weren't as separate as they are now," says Wendy Wischer, visiting director of UConn's Contemporary Art Galleries, where a reimagined version of Simon's "ComplexCity" is on display as part of the exhibition, "Data Infused."

"Artists and scientists do the same thing," she says, summarizing a sentiment from writer K.C. Cole. "They start by observation and then recognize patterns that are often overlooked by others. That kind of imagination, seeking out of patterns, connecting threads of what may initially seem like separate entities is one of the things that artists and scientists do all the time."

"Data Infused" is Wischer's first curation at the Galleries, after coming to UConn in the fall. In it, she's included works from artists like Simon who've each studied subjects including computer science, architecture, graphic design, and artificial intelligence, all of which have influenced their creative outputs.

Take Nettrice Gaskins, for instance, whose piece "Afro-Generative Tableaux Variations" uses AI to remix the colorful swirls that dance around the side profile of a Black woman who remains stationary in the center.

"Variations," Wischer explains, shows how AI moves through the variations of color and shape to help an artist, or an observer as in this case, assess the infinite options. Gaskins made the piece specifically for this show to give people a look at how AI aids in art making.

Richard Garet used bits of sound in his two pieces, "Perceptual; Star" and "Perceptual; Glowing Wedge," to create images of pulsing colors, then stripped away the auditory component, leaving only the moving image.

The act of using what many would call scientific data for such artistic inspiration is what links the pieces, Wischer says, along with the fact that all the artists, as with Simon, maintain a traditional art practice that includes drawing and painting despite producing work that hinges on technology.

That's something, she says, that UConn graduate students asked for when she surveyed them about what they'd like to see in the gallery. AI, data visualization, and Afrofuturism topped the list. They also wanted to see novel ways artists make art and viewers consume it, such as those pieces sold as NFTs, or non-fungible tokens that live on the blockchain.

"Scientists are great at data visualization. But their role is to be removed from any kind of emotional or personal attachment," Wischer says about the art-science connection. "Artists can come in and ask questions without having an answer. Art can provoke emotions. It can link personal experience with the scientific in a way that makes it more digestible."

Ira Greenburg – whose "CyberStructures" depicts a bird's eye view of a computer's architecture, its chips and cards and CPU rising and falling like the towers and low-rises of a city - not only writes the computer code needed to generate his work but uses AI to influence it as he processes the thousands of iterations technology provides.

Wischer says all the artists in the show are at the forefront of using technology like AI in the development of their work. It's one reason she hopes people from other departments at UConn outside Art and Art History visit the show.

"I'm hoping there's something for everyone and that it evokes a curiosity to learn more," she says. "Whether someone is attracted to the digital and they find something new in the physical, or someone who is attracted to the physical finds something in the digital, one of my goals was to bring together these various communities."

And she means that literally.

She's arranged a series of artist talks to be held throughout the semester, starting with Simon in late January who drew about two dozen people to the Galleries for the show's opening.

Garet will visit Feb. 27, Gaskins on March 13, and Courtney Starrett and Susan Reiser wrap the series on April 3. The full exhibition closes April 25.

"I see the Contemporary Art Galleries as a place to bring together different ideas and be a little more experimental than it has in the past," Wischer says. "This exhibition is a very traditional, polished exhibition. But we might have a rotating schedule that allows for a variety of experimentation that moves away from just a traditional gallery space."

That may include becoming home for the annual BFA show or serving as a place for graduate students to practice their own curation skills. It might be possible to host a show that coordinates with a specific class or have a visiting artist use the space as their workshop, in a sort of messy exhibition that gets revealed over time, she suggests.

Though not all future shows will emphasize the use of technology as strongly as "Data Infused," this semester the focus is on its influence.

"We know that data doesn't move people. Facts don't move people, but there are other ways that people can be moved. Artwork is a way that somebody can enter at a more personal level and discover why this is important to them or the meaning behind it," Wischer says.