The CD-Rom Illuminations:
A Book of Letters models book form, specifically, illuminated
manuscripts. The twenty-six “pages” or screens, one
for each letter of the alphabet, contains video material put into
quick-time movies, graphics, and still images and text with interactive
potential.
The pages of the
"book" are comprised, like illuminated manuscripts,
of both images and text. The text has a main body and supplementary
diverging quoted passages from the realms of the arts, science
and religion. These sub-texts can be opened by a viewer selecting
the “author bar.” The line of "main" text
seen on each page lays out themes and questions about how we perceive
reality, understand creation, live with contradiction.
On each page,
two video sequences with sound are edited side by side and play
in a continuous loop. Along the left side of the screen, three
still images can be changed by the viewer clicking on them. The
multiple images on the page are arranged so as to be reminiscent
of both illuminated manuscripts and the computer screen itself.
Images will function differently than text exploiting the more
bodily nature of perception in contrast to the conceptual aspect
of language. Interconnections exist between the images and text
on each page and between pages, though the work does not have
to be experienced sequentially. Ideas relay throughout, unifying
the work and making connections.
While encyclopedic
in approach, organized by the letters of the alphabet, the Book
Of Letters is not an encyclopedia. It focuses on and makes connections
between religion, art and science, three disciplines that inform
so much of contemporary life and interface in these times. The
work in science on the beginnings of the universe, on DNA/genomes,
"blueprints for human creation," and on fractals, the
science of chaos, are ripe with counterparts in Genesis and Apocalypse
of the Bible and creation myths of other cultures. Physicists
speak of divine plans and the history of art is full of sacred
imagery. Art is regarded as a spiritual expression by some, as
a making of material objects by others. Computer printouts of
fractals are seen as art, and artists are engaged with technology
and scientific concepts. In all three disciplines the question
of reality, its perception and its representation, looms. The
Book works with contradictions and paradoxes seeing these as opposing
poles of a unified whole. Due to its interactive nature, the CDROM
can offer a great deal of textual material.
The imagery in
the videos comes from daily life, what's around us: the morning
light in the kitchen, items on a bedroom dresser and repetitive
motions such as patting, hammering, rowing, kneading. Also the
reverie-inducing motions of flames flickering, leaves fluttering,
waves lapping. Included are images that surround our daily lives,
that form the lived context, images from newspapers, T.V. and
movies.
In this piece,
with images paired on each page, certain connections, synchronous
moments, will be experienced between the dual images. References
in text to something previously imaged, will bind the work together
over the twenty-six 'pages.' Important images and concepts in
this regard are fire, hand, language (communication). Rhythmic
pulsing makes equivalences between disparate images; think of
hammering, kneading, rowing, walking.
This piece works
with the idea of the union of opposites. The image of a potter
creating a vessel on the wheel from raw clay contains both nature
and culture; male and female are conjoined in procreation; fire
is destructive and nurturing (love and hate). Fire forges links
between science and religion which are often thought of as opposing
conceptual frameworks and, via alchemy, between science and art.
The relationship
between language and experience is acknowledged: the analytic,
conceptual aspects of language and the bodily, felt nature of
visuals. In the Book, the main text uses concepts, abstract nouns
such as 'love', 'hell', 'creation', 'presence.' The images, apprehended
visually, bodily make the concepts tangible, felt-hand carressing
cat, men wrestling, the raw material of clay being formed into
a vessel—(this last image might be seen to reference the
Biblical image of man as molded by god and at death returned to
the mud).
“Barbara
Sternberg’s Illuminations reflects both the genre of engraving
and Arthur Rimbaud’s book of poems of that title. Essentially
delightful and uplifting, all three depict vast and deep subjects
as approachable and fathomable. By creating an alphabetized dictionary
of images, films and quotations — under themes such as G
stands for God, gooey and good — Sternberg is able to weave
between the issues and artists that have impressed her. Presented
on CD-ROM, viewers are invited to browse this expansive work,
creating their own associations in the shadow of the artist’s.
The poetry in
these sequences, verses and songs is amplified in Barbara Sternberg’s
media-work, Illuminations. Like Rimbaud, she examines the values
of our time with wit, sophistication and optimism. And, like in
many of the other works, she fuses still and moving images, music,
text and a carefully contrived sense of order, but in this case
adding an element of interactivity.
In the end we
are left with the poetic voice of each artist ringing clear, revealing
an aspect of themselves that we could see no other way, and allowing
us to walk along side them for a little distance, in measured
step, even if it is to an unfamiliar beat.” (Geoffrey Shea,
Durham Fringe Festival)
Illuminations:
A Book of Letters credits
Producer/Director/Writer: Barbara Sternberg
Length: continuous loop, 26 pages
Year of Production: 2002
Sound: Barbara Sternberg
computer interface: Michelle Gay
programming: Richard Conroy
letter drawings: Robyn Budd
Country of Production: Canada
Exhibition format: CDRom
Preview format: CDrom
Available from:
VTape 401 Richmond St.# 452
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 3A8
telephone 416 351 1317, email: info@vtape.org
web: www.vtape.org
Agence TOPO
4646 Clark, Montreal, (Quebec) H2T 2T4
T (514)279-8676
vitrine@agencetopo.qc.ca
