Artist Entry 5

Christopher Manzione is another artist that I found through the www.rhizome.org ArtBase. He earned his BFA in sculpture and then went on to Maryland Institute College of Art which happens to be in my home town of Baltimore. He is most concerned with the blurred line between industry and nature. This occurs in certain spaces today without our immediate knowledge.
His newest project is a digital artwork which deals with an application for smart phones. Just as many other applications, his “Virtual Public Art Project” is designed to expedite the process of site seeing and or to provide further information about a location. While some applications allow you to go to a site, pull out your iphone, and get information about a place like a restaurant, Manzione’s Virtual Public Art Project attempts to create a site specific sculptures which display a virtual layout of the physical environment at the designated site. Users can then pull out the phone, search for a specific place, and tour the site, in advance, in the same way that you would explore a video game level. They can view the place from any angle and debate whether or not to head down a certain path or see something they couldn’t normally discover.
I love the idea behind this project, although I think the motive behind it may be a bit more ominous than my reaction. To me, initially it seems like magic to be able to see a place and walk the paths without being there. However, knowing that the artist is concerned with the blurred line between industry and nature make me think that Manzione created the piece because he wanted to show that people can now, and essentially already walk around around fixated on their gadgets without even stopping to experience a natural environment. However, the artist might also find this to be a world of fantasy instead as if to question the idea of reality like in The Matrix series. In essence, however, I would consider it thoughtful experimentation with 3D modeling to say the least
All information taken from Rhizome Art Base