Owner, Howard House
Event: Byte-Bi-Byte, a group show of artists using technology in their work. Opening reception Thurs Aug 2, 6-8 pm (2017 Second Ave, 256-6399); through Sept 8.
It seems to me I've seen a lot of digital-art shows lately. What sets yours apart? "I'm not trying to compare anything here. The show has samples from some of those other exhibitions, including Susan Horbeak-Ortiz from the Laguna Art Museum and Jon Haddock from the Whitney's BitStreams. I've been interested in this kind of work since graduate school--I worked with Paul Berger at UW. So, these are a few artists who, from my point of view, are strong in the field."
Is digital technology recognized as a medium--one choice among many--or is it just a trend? "I think there's still a real concern about it being a crafty medium, like photography was 150 years ago, or crafts in mid-century. I don't think we're going to see a movement like Abstract Expressionism. It's more about computers being first nature, part of the whole process of making art, rather than a wave."
So, it's like a generation of kids who grew up with computers, rather than approaching them as a novelty as grownups? "Sure. When I was a kid, I worked on little computers, making stupid pixel images using BASIC or PASCAL or something like that. It's part of whatever you want to call our generation, X or whatever. It's part of our language, a natural conjoining of technology and personal cosmology."
Why no Seattle artists in the show? Why not Paul Berger? "Paul's a pioneer in the field, but part of the point of this show was to bring in artists from elsewhere."
And now those pioneers are being institutionalized in museum shows--Larry Rinder's BitStreams at the Whitney, 010101 at SFMoMA. "There's a dialogue going on now at artforum.com with DebraSinger and Larry [Rinder]. I was reading it and sort of not feeling comfortable about the idea of digital art being a trend, but at the same time it's exciting for artists to have museums embrace it. It's a relatively recent phenomenon for museums to collect digital art, so it's good that they're keeping up with it."
