Pink Noise Projects + MoVA
Opening: 6/2/23 6-9 PM
Closing: 6/25/23
Hours: Saturday and Sunday 2-6 PM or by appointment 215-840-7239
319 N 11th Street, 2L, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Curators and VR Development:
Isla Xi Han, Sophie Mengzhu Jiang, Genyuan Hu, Tyler Kline
Artists:
Mark Klink, Will Wolf, Arden Bendler Browning, DEARTIFACT, Isla Xi Han, Sophie Mengzhu Jiang, Genyuan Hu, Tyler Kline
Exhibition Statement by Curator Tyler Kline:
Pink Noise Projects and MoVA (Museum of Virtual Arts) are pleased to host Doppelgänger, an exhibition that merges the virtual with the visceral, seeking to redefine the boundaries of artistic expression by marrying the intangible with the material and the ethereal with the tactile. Through a questing and serendipitously curated selection of VR experiences and 3D printed objects, this exhibition invites viewers to delve into immersive realms and generative iterations that blur the lines between corporeal experience and physiological reasoning, inviting the participant to question the nature of perception itself. (Multiplicities are reality itself…Subjectivations, totalisations, and unifications are in fact processes which are produced and appear in multiplicities. Deleuze 2006, p 310)
Doppelgänger represents a powerful convergence of art, technology, and human imagination. It challenges the traditional confines of artistic expression and beckons viewers to embark on a journey of exploration, self-discovery, and unknown spatial introspections. As visitors navigate through this immersive exhibition, they will be transported to alternate realities, where the borders of perception are porous, and new navigations, realizations, and understandings emerge.
At the intellectual core of this exhibition are notions of identity created through mimesis, facsimile, simulacrum, and instantiation. Many, myself included, feel identity to be a slip between memory and mimicry, as we constantly search for embers of authenticity and validation. One will find icons passing through stages of iteration and interaction, vestiges of dimensions both fungible and reflexive. How exactly are our realities morphing presently? It feels like we are on the epoch of something unknown, navigating fantasms; if this were a game what would we call it, what are the unwritten rules? (In other words, the imaginary power and wealth of the double-the one in which the strangeness and at the same time the intimacy of the subject are played out-rests on its immateriality, on the fact that it is and remains a phantasm. – Bauldrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, p 95) Maybe through our conscious interactions we can map out a contemporary cartography of the psyche, our small gestures and dents in the time/space foam creating lines and loci, giving shape and form to this Tenon Noumenon, a star charted holographic map, to act, as William Burroughs prophesied…as a talisman…”to make the future solid enough to be destroyed.” (William Burroughs, Dead City Radio, Island Records, 1990)
MoVA (Museum of Virtual Arts):
Co-founded by four Princeton University Graduate Students in 2022, MoVA delivers art experiences in an immersive way with the mission to promote accessibility and convenience in art enrichment and education. Equipped with VR/AR technical expertise and design sensibility, the team creates captivating art experiences, in collaboration with artists, curators, and museums.
Isla Xi Han:
As a creative developer and the co-founder of MoVA, Isla takes the Doppelgänger exhibition as an exciting opportunity to explore novel art experiences enabled by virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) technology. The exhibition goes beyond physical boundaries, encompassing virtual landscapes and mixed reality. On the one hand, VR/AR serves as a canvas for digital-born artworks; on the other hand, by 3D scanning in physical sculptures, the team can expand the perception by manipulating the scale, texture, lighting, and gravity of the artwork’s digital twin in a virtual world. The curation team embraces the potential of translating art between these realms, inviting the audience to challenge preconceived notions of art experiences.
Sophie Mengzhu Jiang:
With culturally diverse art and design experience, Sophie is constantly inspired by divergence and discord, finding beauty in the intersection of multidisciplinary dialogues. Driven by intellectual curiosity, Sophie is fascinated by the vast potential of immersive technology.
The exhibition Doppelgänger aims to blend human interfaces across physical and digital realms. The integration of AR/VR technology presents new perspectives on the artworks, embracing the limitless possibilities of technology and pushing the boundaries of traditional mediums. Blending art and technology, Sophie aims to inspire, challenge, and collaborate. Sophie believes in the collective power of creativity to create impactful experiences.
Genyuan Hu:
Used to raise fish and take photos of “glowing” cells as a student in neuroscience. He grew interest in art by exploring the material and perceptive potentials of object-making with his hands. As he dipped his toes into computer-assisted design and took a virtual leap into the realm of VR development, he began to perceive limitless possibilities in experiencing art through the digital lens. Co-founding MoVA has allowed Genyuan to further his journey into the realms of experience and interactive designs. His goal is to nurture spaces that intuitively resonate with individuals, creating immersive and engaging art experiences that go beyond traditional boundaries.
Arden Bendler Browning:
Philadelphia based artist Arden Bendler Browning creates large paintings, small works on paper, virtual reality (VR) environments, and public art. Her work explores movement, the desire for travel, the effect of digital imagery on perception and memory, and finding wonder and escape through immersive spaces. Her work hovers between landscape and abstraction.
Mark Klink:
Klink has been and done many things: Swept floors, worked in a factory, been an athlete, a minor government official, a life guard, a computer programmer, and a traditional print maker. For twenty years he taught children and other educators how to use computers. But the thing he likes best (beside family) is making curious pictures.
Tyler Kline:
Kline has worked in the sphere of urban interior and exterior intervention for two decades, beginning with creating skate-parks in unused urban spaces in Atlanta, to creating a sculpture garden in the shadows of re-purposed textile mills through Little Berlin, Iglesias Gardens, and Ruth St Garden in Philadelphia. He makes immersive installations and netart, creates animated gifs as a way of exploring and constructing glitch theory, and explores the transmutation of materials by translating 3D prints into cast metal sculptures. Kline’s own point of research within this field is to break the conceptual screen and expose the underlying, subjective, and internal forces that are imprisoned within them by late stage capitalism as this scheme plays out in our current techno feudalistic thoughtscape.
Will Wolf:
Wolf was born on October 2ed, 1988 in Phoenixville, PA. He Wolf has received his BFA in Painting from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and his MFA in Painting from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Wolf has been exploring abstraction, process, and media since 2010. He sees artmaking as a search for truth and inquiry. He has exhibited nationally on both coasts and in Korea. Wolf residence and maintains his studio practice in Philadelphia.
DEARTIFACT:
DEARTIFACT focuses on a fleeting and elusive dance of forms, often portraying the fusion of our humanity with technology, or with nature and the elements.
Through nearly 20 years of experience in digital painting, concept design and matte painting, I’ve developed a personal style that uses a variety of techniques: compositing, photography, 3d and now the incorporation of AI. The unique combination of tools that now exist finally have enabled me to express my ideas to their full extent.
