2: "Some Knowledge of Schlemmer Is Required" by Patrick Lichty (Tuesday, July 7)
"Some Knowledge of Schlemmer Is Required" by Patrick Lichty
Machinima, approx. 3 minutes
"Some Knowledge of Schlemmer Is Required" is a performance in the virtual online world of Second Life created by Chicago-based artist Patrick Lichty. In his exploration of performance of synthetic bodies in virtual spaces, he has been considering how these new bodies relate to earlier experiments in movement. For this piece, Lichty has assigned a collection of preset movements to his avatar, who is placed on a stage reminiscent of the grids used for Muybridge's motion studies, wearing an apparatus similar to that worn for Oskar Schlemmer's "slat dance" at the Bauhaus. The translation of mechanical dance into synthetic is an experiment that asks whether the principles of Schlemmer's experiments actually re-map to virtual worlds. Can you have your avatar hip hop or do the Chicken Dance while examining the mechanical aspects of the body?
To watch "Some Knowledge of Schlemmer Is Required," click here: http://iam.colum.edu/plichty/video/schlemmer.mov.
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Patrick Lichty (b.1962) is a technologically-based conceptual artist, writer, independent curator, animator for the activist group, The Yes Men, and Executive Editor of Intelligent Agent Magazine. He began showing technological media art in 1989, and deals with works and writing that explore the social relations between us and media. Venues in which Lichty has been involved with solo and collaborative works include the Whitney & Turin Biennials, Maribor Triennial, Performa Performance Biennial, Ars Electronica, and the International Symposium on the Electronic Arts (ISEA).
He also works extensively with virtual worlds, including Second Life, and his work, both solo and with his performance art group, Second Front, has been featured in Flash Art, Eikon Milan, and ArtNews.
He is also an Assistant Professor of Interactive Arts & Media at Columbia College Chicago, and resides in Baton Rouge, LA.
