Before LSD, there was Escher. The intricate woodcuts of Maurits Cornelis Escher created a strange world of visual puns and distorted perspectives where swans morphed into salmon. This Dutch artist gets poked and prodded in Escher Interactive, an ambitious, albeit uneven, retrospective.
While a good part of Escher Interactive is the standard sit-and-stare slide show, it manages to break out of this electronic cul-de-sac. Visual puzzles help you unknot Escher's complex graphic formulas. It's a crafty technique that illuminates the complexity of his spatial illusions. At least publishers Byron Preiss and Harry Abrams got that right. But one of these days they ought to hire a graphic designer. The interface looks like it was created by a blind man.
If you don't get stalled on the flat-footed presentation, you're rewarded with a walk through a fascinating mind. Escher often sacrificed lyricism for technique. Yet Escher believed he could capture the infinite within a closed cycle. Scientists will recognize a soul mate in Escher. He challenges us to look for new relationships between seemingly unrelated phenomena. In them, reality is a wondrous, logical beast.
Escher Interactive CD-ROM: US$39.95. Byron Preiss: (800) 945 3155, +1 (212) 989 6252, fax +1 (212) 633 0332, email bpmc@aol.com.
STREET CRED
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