Artist Research

Ashok Sukumaran

Sukumaran is an Indian media artist practicing in Mumbai. He deals mostly with the concept of "embedded technology," taking elements of electricity and the way we interact with it and making it appear uncanny. He also discusses how ubiquitous it is yet still remains "magical" to many: a lack of "electrical literacy," as he calls it.

In his work Recurrencies (2007), he places switches in various places that control lights or sensors far from the switch's location. His first example of this was in his own home. He installed a wireless switch on a tree, leaving a note that said it controlled the house's balcony lights. Sukumaran, with this project, wanted to think about electricity "from the viewpoint of its domesticity and containment," and made a piece that straddled the divide between public and private life.


Guto Nobrega

Nobrega is a Brazilian artist who works with plants and the idea of "Leaves Systems." He wants to use the plant as a "sensitive agent." Most people see plants as purely stationary, static beings, and Nobrega wants to subvert that with technology. He's also interested in the slow hybridization of technology and natural organisms.

One piece, Equilibrium (2008) uses solar cells, light sensors, and an orchid to create a mutualistic relationship between the artificial mechanism and the plant. The light sensors detect light and control to propellers which allow it to act as a photovore and seek out the light. In doing this, the solar cells are able to feed alongside the plant.

He's also written an essay on this idea.


Erwin Redl

Redl employs methods based on computer code -- controlled, randomness, algorithms, etc. Many of his works are on a large scale, and involve incorporating light into architectural environments. He feels that light and its ephemeral nature is the "ideal representation of the pure structural logic" which forms the basis of his work.

His work in LED programming includes Passing Through Light (2012). Animated LEDs are installed in an underpass, and they regularly change from blue to purple to red.