CHArt Twenty-First Annual Conference

Ralf Nuhn , London.
From UNCAGED to Cyber-Spatialism

The starting point for this paper is my recent project UNCAGED, which is a series of six 'telesymbiotic' installations, exploring interrelationships and transitions between screen-based digital environments and their physical surroundings. The presentation will include a commentated video documentation featuring the first exhibition of UNCAGED at the V&A (National Museum of Childhood) during May and June 2004.

I will introduce the initial motivation behind the project, which is based on the idea to 'uncage' computer-based realities from the confines of their digital existence and to bring the remote computer world closer to our human experience. In addition, I will explore how my critical engagement with the work has nourished the impression that despite the perceptual fusion between the digital and the physical world, UNCAGED actually seems to highlight the distance between the two domains. In my view, all six exhibits bear an underlying absurdity, which arises from the very fusion between their physical and digital components. For me, this absurdity ultimately hints at the fallacy of the initial motivation behind UNCAGED and, in a wider context, questions the idea to seek in virtual worlds a place for meaningful human exchange and experiences.

In the second part of this presentation, I will discuss how these new insights have informed my new artistic approach, which is essentially concerned with exploring further the socio-philosophical issues implied in UNCAGED. In particular, I will refer to my project Cyber-Spatialism, which is a series of canvasses in which common computer connectors are inserted. The project makes specific references to Luigi Fontana's slashed canvases and his concept of Spatialism (which is usually regarded as an attempt to overcome the illusionistic representation of space in painting by introducing real physical space). By substituting Fontana's slashes with computer connectors, Cyber-Spatialism implies an extension of the canvas into cyberspace, and thus attempts to address the notion, that in today's (globalized) culture, real space is increasingly being replaced by virtual space.

For further information about UNCAGED, including photos and videos, please visit the project website at: http://www.telesymbiosis.com

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