| Paul Berger, Pictures |
|
Print Out 1984-87
I want to see the "face" of a computer, not its "interface". But this is not a technical question or desire.
I take the computer to be first and foremost a general purpose machine, one that speaks like this: 0010 1101 0101 0111 1011 0010. Yet our (visual) experience of working on a computer tends to be a composite of images from specific programs designed to perform specific functions. I think we must a some point turn our heads away from the screen to "see" what the computer is like. This is why I am not interested in "computer art", that is, letting the computer supply the borders of the picture. I generate images with computers, but feel it is important to then remove them from their source of generation to an arena of image interaction.
I have worked since the early 70's with photographic imagery in structured sequences; since 1979 I have turned towards the collision of photographic and electronic pictures in the form of digitized video "frames". This collision of photography - an analog, optical rationalization of space characterized by the smooth, continuous modulation of light and tone - with the relentless digital, binary and quantified nature of electronic image processing provides a unique way to look at the nature of the computer beast. Specifically, I place these digitized images in the context of each other and against a "background" wall or webbing of non-picture computer output that becomes a new arena for viewing. The content of these images are drawn from the endless stream of electronic imagery that exists for everyone at all times, and is grabbed, converted and re-contextualized. The mechanics of this image production can become rather complex and technical, but the desire to engage this imagery is no more "esoteric" than the urge to change the channel on your television set.
In the present day, for most people a computer is a TV sitting on a typewriter. Time spent with this machine is time sitting, peering into a small box. I would like to make the experience of that box into a wall.
I take the computer to be first and foremost a general purpose machine, one that speaks like this: 0010 1101 0101 0111 1011 0010. Yet our (visual) experience of working on a computer tends to be a composite of images from specific programs designed to perform specific functions. I think we must a some point turn our heads away from the screen to "see" what the computer is like. This is why I am not interested in "computer art", that is, letting the computer supply the borders of the picture. I generate images with computers, but feel it is important to then remove them from their source of generation to an arena of image interaction.
I have worked since the early 70's with photographic imagery in structured sequences; since 1979 I have turned towards the collision of photographic and electronic pictures in the form of digitized video "frames". This collision of photography - an analog, optical rationalization of space characterized by the smooth, continuous modulation of light and tone - with the relentless digital, binary and quantified nature of electronic image processing provides a unique way to look at the nature of the computer beast. Specifically, I place these digitized images in the context of each other and against a "background" wall or webbing of non-picture computer output that becomes a new arena for viewing. The content of these images are drawn from the endless stream of electronic imagery that exists for everyone at all times, and is grabbed, converted and re-contextualized. The mechanics of this image production can become rather complex and technical, but the desire to engage this imagery is no more "esoteric" than the urge to change the channel on your television set.
In the present day, for most people a computer is a TV sitting on a typewriter. Time spent with this machine is time sitting, peering into a small box. I would like to make the experience of that box into a wall.
