Ryan ChartrandBrace yourselves for a whole new kind of art show coming to Cal Poly.
“Emergent Reaction,” a digital media art exhibition, opens Friday in the University Art Gallery. All exhibits in the show were created using computer technology.
“It’s definitely a show where you’ll really be stretched to believe that it’s art,” said Paradise Osorio, an art and design senior. Osorio has worked at the gallery for the past three years helping install the shows and is the new student gallery director. “All the pieces are very unique.”
The show is comprised of pieces from professional artists who are well-known in the art community, Osorio said.
One exhibit will feature a dissected frog that has been implanted with a mini Web server. Through an Ethernet cable connected to the Web server, viewers can generate movement in the frog’s legs. The frog is suspended in a clear glass container of mineral oil, which does not conduct electricity.
“I don’t even know what to think when I see it,” Osorio said of the bizarre display.
A piece contributed by Peter Cho of Los Angeles is based on a writing system called Takeluma that visually represents speech sounds in a series of curved lines. The display incorporates one of the original linguistic theories that there is no innate relationship between words and the meanings they represent. Visitors can speak into a microphone and see their speech projected on the wall in the form of art.
Irvine-based artist Simon Penny is bringing an autonomous robot called Petit Mal. The robot pursues and reacts to people, giving the impression of artificial intelligence. The exhibit will have a separate enclosed space where visitors can go in and interact one-on-one with the robot.
The show starts at 6 p.m. with a discussion of the pieces by the artists the pieces. Admission to the event is free and open to the public.
“Emergent Reaction” runs in the University Art Gallery, the Walter F. Dexter building, room 171 until Feb. 17. The exhibit is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Wednesdays from 7 to 9 p.m. Contact the gallery at 756-6038 for more information.