Final Paper

Samantha Spreitzer

ART 245

Professor Miller

5 May 2016

Final Essay

Augmenting Reality with Light

            In the search for digital artists, one comes across a myriad of different ideas propelling works forward. Personally I have always found work with light to be interesting, how manipulating it can change your whole perception of something. So in my search I managed to come across two artists who both use light in their works to transform whatever is being projected on. Pablo Valbuena’s website will tell anyone that his projects are focused on space, time, and perception, and I could easily see the truth in these words as I looked through his selected works. His Augmented Sculpture piece caught my eye, using light projected onto a physical sculpture to change the way it looks. While the second artist, Hiro Yamagata, has some more traditional physical works on canvases, he is also known for his laser light exhibitions. Considering the fact that lasers have always fascinated me (and any concert that uses them becomes intrinsically better for it for me), it is no surprise that these works are what captured my full attention. The most well-documented exhibition I could find was an installation at the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain and shows his incredible skill with lasers. While different in aspects like scale and such, both of these artists have created unique pieces that show how easily our perception of the world can change and just how little it actually takes to change that perception.

            Pablo Valbuena’s Augmented Sculpture is one of the most unique pieces of art I have ever seen that so successfully combines the physical and the virtual. The premise of the piece is fairly simple: build a rather plain sculpture, then change it by projecting light and video onto it in such a way that the sculpture is no longer so plain. The execution of the piece is perhaps more important, as the premise is the, relatively, easy part. Putting it together effectively can be rather harder. But Valbuena was quite successful, especially if the number of times the sculpture has been presented is any indication, as it has been installed at least eleven times in a number of different countries and galleries since first being exhibited in 2007, according to his website. It is difficult to categorize this piece into a genre in only a word or two, as it is sculpture, film, and even then a combination of both but interactive art might be the closest thing. Below is the video posted to his website that shows the piece’s dynamic transformation throughout the projected video. (click the image)

(http://www.pablovalbuena.com/selectedwork/augmented-sculpture-v1/)

            Hiro Yamagata is known for his laser light installations, though somewhat sadly I could only find any sort of sufficient documentation for one of them-an installation at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain. Yamagata’s installations are large things that use lasers and integrate the native architecture into the show itself. This has an especially powerful effect when that architecture is reflective in some way, as the Guggenheim is. Using a relatively small number of lasers, Yamagata manages to create effects that seen to encompass the entire building in a spectacular show of light and color. The viewer, as well, is also often a part of the show, sometimes standing right in the middle of a particular effect created the lasers. Yamagata’s work, then, is also fairly difficult to ascribe only a few words to, though perhaps some combination of light/laser art and interactive art would be the best way. Below is a photo of the outside of the Guggenheim from the Laser Systems Europe website. 

(http://lse.eu/index.php?page=hiro-yamagata-installation)

Yamagata himself has also shared a video of one of his so-called “light boxes” outside the museum. 

            The works of Valbuena and Yamagata have a few similarities as well as differences. Most notably, both of their works feature light as arguably the most important components, Valbuena with his projected video and Yamagata with his lasers. Both also heavily feature physical components. Valbuena’s sculpture would mean little, after all, if it had no physical form to augment. Yamagata’s work, likewise, relies on having something to reflect light from lasers in order to produce the beautiful effects it does. Both of these specific works, as discussed above, could also be classified as interactive art. Valbuena’s piece was, however, on a considerably smaller scale than Yamagata’s. This does mean that it can presented more easily than Yamagta’s large-scale light shows, which rely heavily on planning based on the specific location. Neither artist, form what I could find, had any very specific reason for each of their specific works other than for the sake of art itself, though of course one can easily interpret their own meanings. Each could be said to exemplify the transient nature of things in this world and how easily they can be changed into something else, even only visually. And again, at least in regard to Valbuena, one can take into account some of his more general statements on his art. The most important in regard to this work would seem to be his focus on overlapping physical and virtual, dissolving boundaries between the real and the perceived, and the use of light as a prime matter (taken from his website at http://www.pablovalbuena.com/info/bio/). Yamagata offers little more on his own website than a portfolio, a list of projects, and a few links that do not relate to his current painting project, which makes it difficult to discern his meanings behind any one of his past projects (http://www.hiroyamagata.com/). All in all, both artists seem to be in their element, using light and physical structures in unique, interactive ways and though their physical scales differ, both seem to be effective in their overall works.