I saw the JODI INSTALL.EXE show at EYEBEAM last week and was pleasantly surprised at how well their stuff works in large format and in a large open space. From the EYEBEAM literature:

INSTALL.EXE, "The First Time You Start Your Computer", consists of a collection of screen recordings more similar to JODI's work on the web. The art is the visual realization of everyday computer programming that translates into colorful screens, cryptic characters, and an endless labyrinth of lines and spaces. The results are hypnotic depictions emulating our relationships with technology.

According to Benjamin Weil, Curatorial Chair of Eyebeam, "This exhibition fosters a reflection on how artists increasingly choose to operate at the conflation of the two different time/space realms, pointing to the way they have become increasingly difficult to dissociate."

I was struck by how the disorienting barage of stimulation worked so well in the open space of the large back gallery, which has the feel of a vacated factory cell with raw concrete and iron everywhere. The gallery allows you to view multiple projected images of computer desktops painting a landscape of windows, browsers, and dialog boxes along a massive wall as the layered sounds of clicks and dings echo throughout the room. The end result of the perceived chaos makes me think of an orchestration of robots and video games tuning up before a performance althought what you're witnessing is the performance itself. It's overwhelming at first, but with time the effect lulls youm invites you in and simultaneously drives you out. Maybe that's the point. Computer as a tool exists as connecting and separating point when it comes to expression. There is a sense of the user behind the mouse or keyboard that made these images come to life, but at the same time, there is a definite separation between user and use. What you see is not the person, but the projection of a recording of a person's interactions with a computer. The degrees of separation grow with each level of examination. There isn't the personal mark of a brush stroke to be seen in digital art, but the cumulative expression evokes something immediate and human.

For some reason, this all works better for me than the chaos of the www.jodi.org sites. Perhaps because the invasion of my desktop is more violating than walking into the chaos and being able to walk out once I had enough. It's much less pleasant to have to force quit my browser to remove myself from the www.jodi.org experience. In any case, JODI has brought their art out in open meat space to prove that it works there as well.

Next week (hopefully),,, The Ellsworth Kelly shows at the Matthew Marks Galleries.