Think about the computer your family had in 2000. Can’t remember it? That’s understandable. Technology has advanced so rapidly in the past 10 years that the digital world of turn-of-the-millenium seems completely foreign in today’s world of iPads and e-books. But if you want a refresher course on just how far technology has come, you’re in luck—“Pixel Vision: The First Ten Years” opened in Georgetown’s Spagnuolo Gallery on Jan. 19.
The exhibit features standout pieces from students of the University’s digital art classes over the past ten years. It represents a wide range of digital media techniques, including digital prints, interactive media, and digital video. But while the subjects and artistic aims of the exhibit’s pieces vary widely—they do encompass an entire decade’s worth of subject matter—the works are unified by a theme of technology, and the way it impacts and enhances the world of art.
The exhibit’s photographs and films are diverse and engaging. Alongside each piece there is an accompanying illustration, which tells the viewer how to manipulate digital media to create that type of art. Some pieces are abstract, like Jonathan Gardener’s (COL ’04) dreamy brick-scape, which visually renders a rigid, manufactured material malleable and organic. Some pay homage to other artists and movements, such as Olulomire Ogunye’s (COL ’10) Lichtenstein-esque Pop-Art double portrait, and Tara J. Choi’s (COL ’14) excellent spin on Grant Wood’s “American Gothic,” in which the subjects—but not their clothes—are invisible.
Alongside the pieces whose artists obviously focused on using technology for aesthetic merit, many pieces convey clear social critiques. Maddy Donnelly’s (COL ’10) image of a man-as-wolf sitting at a bar, with his true human form reflected in the bar top, depicts an eerie, shady scene. A series of photographs of people with bags emblazoned with racial stereotypes over their heads by Jacqueline Anne Julio (COL ’10) bluntly, and a little jarringly, addresses racial stereotyping.
Another contingent of works portrays universal emotion. Claire Callagy’s (COL ’10) extreme-fish-eye photograph of an open road is a fairly typical theme, but produces an effective and familiar sense of vertigo, as the road becomes a balance beam under the photograph’s bare-footed subject.
While the themes behind the pieces are fairly typical and sometimes a little simplistic, the focus of the exhibit is clearly on the application of digital media techniques to morph otherwise ordinary images into art. None of the works will shock or offend the viewer, but each expresses a unique, impressive vision through the use of digital photography or film.
“Pixel Vision: The First Ten Years” is, after all, about the first ten years of digital art at Georgetown. The medium itself has taken off as a preeminent vehicle for the best contemporary art, and it will only get more so in the future. We can only guess how high-tech the Spagnuolo Gallery will be when “The First Twenty Years” comes out.
“Pixel Art: The First Ten Years” will run at the Spagnuolo Gallery in the Walsh Building until April 9, 2011. Gallery Hours are Wednesday-Friday 12-7 p.m., Saturday 12-5 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
