SAN FRANCISCO -- It's not necessarily easy to appreciate art in technological times. Some do. Some don't. Some want to, but just can't grasp the concept.
Students, Web developers, attorneys, home-makers, software engineers and artists flocked to SFMOMA this week for the opening of "010101: Art in Technological Times." As varied as their backgrounds, so were their opinions and their interactions with the new exhibit.
Many were impressed with the digital art and sculpture installations, but others wondered why their ATM cards didn't work in one of the multi-media pieces that asked for users' bar codes. And while some felt the video art stale and confusing, patrons less familiar with multimedia art were impressed with the show as a whole.
"I thought (the show) was excellent," said Mark Epstein, an attorney who lives in San Francisco. "I truly thought it was an innovative and fresh idea."
Epstein said he had trouble understanding some of the video art but especially enjoyed "Scream, Therefore I Am," by Yuan Goang-Ming, a video installation depicting the anxiety surrounding the question of what defines existence in a digital world.
Mark Argo, a Web developer from San Francisco, said "the video art stuff is bad." He also said he didn't like the exhibit, "Softscape," by Karim Rashid, in which patrons of the museum sit on orange rubber chairs with a large Internet screen behind them.
"It wasn't anything too special," Argo said. "Another exhibit at CCAC (California College of Arts and Crafts) was much better -- when you sat in the chairs, the foam would mold into you, giving the effect that our environment is surrounding us."
Lynne Kimura, a public relations associate at SFMOMA, said the original material for the chairs was supposed to be foam, but due to cost issues the chairs ended up being made of a harder material.
Two exhibits that seemed particularly challenging for the patrons were "System Almighty, Bar Code Interpreter (the system can be disordered)" and "System Almighty, Touch Screen (the intangibility of the system)." Both were made by Droog Design.
The bar code interpreter piece is a seven-foot tall box made of plexiglass that has a variety of objects (hair dryer, radio, and chandelier) within the box. A bar code sensor is on the outside of the box, and each time someone swipes a bar code, the objects are supposed to come alive.
Patrons began digging into their purses and wallets for ATM, athletic membership and driver's license cards -- anything with a bar code on it. Only one of 10 attempts to activate the sensor was successful, which caused most people to shrug and back away.
The noticeable problem with "System Almighty, Touch Screen (the intangibility of the system)" was the heat-sensory screen. When activated by touch or by a heat gun that is provided to patrons of the installation, letters should appear on the screen. Instead, the screen did not react strongly to any sort of heat, and patrons interacting with the installation left unsatisfied.
There were definite successes, however. Argo particularly liked "Floating Time," by Tatsuo Miyajima, Jochem Hendricks' eye scans, and Char Davies' virtual reality exhibit. And he said he would have liked to see more of John Maeda's work.
Paul Sheridan, a computer software engineer from San Francisco, was impressed by Roxy Paine's "Scumak," a computer-programmed machine that produces, onto a conveyor belt, a melted plastic-like substance that forms shapeless sculptures. A large group of patrons surrounded Paine's piece; they seemed almost hypnotized by his work.
Kati Casida, a sculptor herself, was also impressed with Paine's installation because it was new and something she does not see every day. She also said the music compositions were intriguing.
"But the majority of these (installations) impress me as everyday types of interactions," said Casida, whose studio is based in Berkeley. "The helicopter, the grocery store prices, I deal with it on a everyday life level. I want to be able to escape into something I don't usually experience."
Neither Ruth Wilcox, who was in San Francisco from England on business, nor Lugene Keene, who lives in San Jose, were aware that the "010101" exhibit was taking place. But both found themselves enjoying the show.
"It's very different," Keene said. "It's fun and silly and epitomizes modern art."
"I'm impressed by the scale of the work," Wilcox said. "It was worth coming to."
Epstein agreed, saying this was the first show at SFMOMA where the art worked with the theme. He said that in the past, the art at the museum "seems to have been put on the wall without any kind of idea or thought."
"But this show was different," he said. "I'm thinking of writing a letter to the museum saying how much I enjoyed it."
