Event #1 Toni Dove

Last Thursday in the Broad Art Center I attended Toni Dove's art lecture in which she discussed her  technological and digital mixed media art projects. Much of Dove's work consists of virtual reality installations that focus on human interaction with film.

(Dove as a viewer, interacting with her film through motion sensing)

Two virtual reality installations that she  discussed in the lecture were "Artificial Changelings" and "Archaeology of a Mother Tongue". Both projects require for the audience or viewer to interact with the project through body movement. In "Archaeology of a Mother Tongue" Dove requires the viewer to use a mechanically modified glove that allows the participant to "touch" and move objects in the virtual reality. In "Artificial Changelings" Dove uses motion sensors to track the viewer's body movements, which are then relayed to the video film and move the story along. I found Toni's inclusion of viewer interaction in her installations particularly interesting because it seems to be a very straightforward and effective way to engage audiences. Consequently, this experience has inspired me to incorporate viewer interaction into my midterm project. Although I found the content of Dove's virtual reality films to be outlandish and confusing, I admired the graphic and technological ingenuity of her projects.

(A sample from Dove's current project,
 a dress that moves and lights up)

In particular, I enjoyed the mechanical dress design she shared with us. Like many of her other installations and the art projects taught in week three of lecture, the dress Dove is currently working on contains both aspects of art design and tech design. In order to make the dress Toni disclosed that she had fashion designers from Parsons working alongside electrical and mechanical engineers, I found this odd collaboration along with Toni's visionary use of both tech and art media in installation to be particularly interesting.

(Toni Dove and I at the Broad Art Center)

While Dove's work was clearly inspired by the juxtaposition of the future and past, it also contained psychological and societal commentary, which eerily related her dark and unsettling plot lines to the modern day. Consequently, I would recommend my classmates or others to attend her lecture or check out her work, as it strongly relates to the material learned in lecture and provides a current, real life example of the integration of technology, design, and the arts.