[size=25]C5's Perfect View at the Chelsea Art Museum[/size]
Location: Project Room at the Chelsea Art Museum, 556 West 22nd St., New York
Dates: August 5-Sept 2
Opening reception: August 5, 6-8
Artist's Talk: August 26, 6-8, presented by Jack Toolin
Perfect View considers our perception of landscape in light of growing technological mediation brought about by digital technologies. GPS, satellite imaging, computer graphics, etc. allow us to preview, to navigate, to represent, and to conceptualize our experience of landscape in complex ways. How does this mediation affect the phenomenological experience of the natural environment? In what ways do these technologies enhance the experience of nature? Does their use somehow interfere with this experience? Are some forms of perception privileged over others due to their use?
Perfect View delves into our increasingly technological methods of exploring, evaluating, and sharing our experience of topography. While ostensibly about landscape imagery, Perfect View addresses parallels between technological and philosophical developments during the Enlightenment and modern technology. Not only does current technology enable multiple, simultaneous representations, it permits peer-to-peer sharing, linking vast geographic regions and cultural differences. Technology is often seen as antithetical to nature, Perfect View represents a respectably large community of users who engage with GPS technology precisely for the fascination of exploring little-known areas in the natural world.
Perfect View is one of four projects in the Landscape Initiative suite (2002-2005) by the art group C5, which was based in San José, CA, The other projects include Analogous Landscape, Other Path, and the C5 Media Player. The projects apply navigating and mapping technologies (as well as data mining techniques in some cases) as a basis for what will ultimately be a hybrid between technological and psychic experiences of landscape. Documentation of all projects can be seen at www.c5corp.com, and www.jacktoolin.com.
