| FSU Digital Media Area Head and Professor Tra Bouscaren recently interviewed Craig Moore, a current student in the Department of Art. Their conversation is documented below.
If you could see a show of any artist, whose show would you see?With so many phenomenal artists working today, this is a tough question to answerdefinitively. As of right now, I would probably go with Cory Arcangel, one of new media’s mostinfluential figures and someone I greatly admire. There are two aspects of Arcangel’s work thatI’m particularly attracted to one being his consistent use of humor in both concept andexecution and the other being his approach to automation. Best represented by projects like Let’sPlay: HOLLYWOOD and Various Self Playing Bowling Games, which both feature hacked videogames designed to play themselves, Arcangel makes deceptively simple gestures thatsimultaneously elevate and poke fun at their respective technological and art-historical canons.What are you working on right now?I’m working on a virtual reality project built from glitched scans of 3D environments. Ihave been exploring the photogrammetry capabilities of my smartphone to capture scenes at theSaint Marks National Wildlife Refuge, around FSU, and in various public restrooms aroundTallahassee. I’m then stitching the scans together in a game engine so that users can use a VRheadset to explore the environment.What drew you in that direction?This project is largely inspired by Jeff VanderMeer’s novel Annihilation, which situates itsscience-fiction narrative in a version of the Saint Marks Refuge clouded by mysteriousecological collapse. The mind-bending setting of the novel inspired me to create an unstableworld of my own, fittingly populated by glitches in artificial reality and vertiginous pathwaysbetween recognizable points of interest.What advice would you give to a new incoming FSU Art student?Connect with your professors. Amidst the chaos of the first few semesters in undergrad, it is easyto forget that you’re studying with professionals actively engaged in your field. Learn about whatyour professors have done, where they studied, and what they’re currently working on. Whilethis might seem simple enough, you’d be surprised how long it takes most students to expandtheir professional network. Branch out beyond your group of peers, make your curiosity known,and do work that reaches beyond your assignments. It will pay off.Pick a number between 1 and 10 and tell us where you will be in that many years.Eight years from now, if things go the way I intend, I will be enrolled in a graduate program.Currently, I am very attracted to the work being done at the MIT Media Lab. I’m sure my choiceof school will have changed at least fifty times between now and then, but the underlying goalremains. I intend to immerse myself in a culture of cross-disciplinary collaboration and anetwork encompassing many practices and areas of expertise.
Website: https://cdm21d.itch.io/busy-bee |
4/19/2023
