August 1, 2006

World's Largest Digital Art Exhibition Debuts at SIGGRAPH 2006

Boston; - The SIGGRAPH 2006 Art Gallery: Intersections is estimated to be the world's largest and one of the most unique international digital art exhibitions.

Featuring works that merge imaginative computer graphics and interactive techniques with artistic practice,
the gallery is on display at SIGGRAPH 2006 in the Boston Convention Center through August 3. It includes digital artwork from 150 different artists, researchers, and technologists from 16 countries. In total, 1053 submissions from 34 countries were evaluated for inclusion in Intersections by an international jury.

"These are some of the most innovative digital artists in the world," says Bonnie Mitchell, SIGGRAPH 2006 Art Gallery Chair from Bowling Green State University. "The breadth and depth of the content is staggering and should leave the audience breathless. It is amazing and inspiring to see people from around the world creatively pushing the boundary of what can be done when art and technology collide."

Intersections boasts 88 wall-mounted pieces that range from digital paintings and collages to new forms of art including "motion painting," algorithmic images, LED optical art, robotics, electronic fiber art, and 3D animated Lenticular prints.

Other highlights include interactive art installations that enable visitors to use their bodies to control various aspects of the artwork. Visitors are encouraged to step on virtual puddles to cause flowers to grow, use their heart rate to affect the movement of virtual people, control the movement and lighting of a balloon ballet, feel temperature changes in an abstract animation by touching a thermally reactive table, splash water on a water fountain that lights up when it senses the water, and use Internet chat sessions to control the growth of a robotic plant. Additionally, interactive audio installations help participants to create music by moving objects on a light table, to enter an environment where thousands of chirping elements detect human presence and communicate messages, and to submerse themselves in a sound field that converges to form complex sound patterns.

Intersections also features sculptures created using digital processes. The sculptures range from abstract to representational and static to dynamic. One sculpture is triggered by sound to create moving spikes of liquid metal that climb up and down a spiral cone. Other sculptures are the result of 3D computer models that are output on 3D stereo lithography printers.

Intersections also boasts computer animations, which range from abstract art to experimental narrative to creative music videos, that hail from seven different countries.