School of the Art Inst i tute of Chicago saic .edu/highl ights 12

by Anjulie Rao (MA 2014)

SAIC’s Claudia Hart wages war on the separation between technology and femininity

Romantic

A t o n e t i m e , n o t s o l o n g a g o , f e m i n i n i t y a n d t e c h n o l o g y w e r e s e e n a s t w o d i s p a r a t e e n t i t i e s . Fe m i n i n i t y r e p r e s e n t e d e m o t i o n — i n d i r e c t c o n t r a s t w i t h t h e s t o i c , c o l d q u a l i t i e s o f c o m p u t e r s c i e n c e , m o t i o n g r a p h i c s , a n d e n g i n e e r i n g . T o d a y , w o m e n h a v e m a d e t h e i r m a r k s i n t h e s e f i e l d s , c o n t r i b u t i n g t o innovat ions in t remendous (yet a rguably s t i l l -lacking) numbers.

Rebellions

Claudia Hart , On Synchronics : Song of the Avatars , 2012, 3D computer animation, high-def 23-minute animated loop for instal lat ion

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As an artist, SAIC faculty member Claudia Hart (Film, Video, New Media, and Animation) has paved her own, unique path into the field of 3D animation, resulting in a body of work that dissolves the misleading separation between femininity and technology.

Trained as an art historian and architect, Hart veered into writing about design, securing an editor ial posit ion with ID magazine i n 1 9 7 9 . S h e s a y s , “ I w a n t e d t h e p u b l i c a t i o n t o f o c u s o n intersections of art and technology, which didn’ t total ly exist . At that point, computers were the size of a room; they were still mainframes, but it was possible to find folks who were thinking along those lines. And I was taken up by a very interesting gang of people.”

This “gang” included artists Dan Graham and Dennis Oppenheim, f o r w h o m s h e w o r k e d a s s h e d e v e l o p e d h e r o w n a r t i s t i c p r a c t i c e . A f t e r e x h i b i t i n g a t t h e P a t H e a r n G a l l e r y i n N e w York ’s East V i l lage in the late ’80s and ear ly ’90s, she moved to Ber l in where she l ived and worked for 10 years . One of her p a i n t i n g c a t a l o g u e s — A C h i l d ’ s M a c h i a v e l l i — w a s p u b l i s h e d as an i l lustrated book by Penguin Edit ions just as Pixar ’s Toy Story appeared in theaters. The movie struck Hart: “I studied art history and my expertise was in Renaissance, so this constructed perspect ive , the sculptural qual i ty, and the fact that i t was a hybrid of both totally seized and inspired me. I thought: I want to know how to do that.” While initially, she thought she might animate her book, she soon moved in a very different direction.

A f t e r t a k i n g a c l a s s i n 3 D a n i m a t i o n i n t h e m i d ’ 9 0 s , H a r t purchased an early PC for $8,000—what i t took at the t ime to harness the process ing power for v i r tual imaging. She began teaching in tech-oriented animation programs soon after. She descr ibes , “ When I s tarted teaching, there was no context for 3D animation in contemporary art . I t was a form of sc ient i f ic v i s u a l i z a t i o n ; i t w a s u s e d p r i m a r i l y b y t h e D e p a r t m e n t o f Defense for flight simulators, in 3D shooter games, and for Pixar movies.”

In th is context , Hart d iscovered the d ichotomy of feminini ty and technology. Accord ing to Har t , the US government was , essentially, “giving” the new 3D graphics technology to private industries, with hopes that cit izens would develop the product.

“ I t was actual ly a mi l i tary st rategy documented by sc ient ists and sociologists to put advanced technologies into commercial industry in order to speed up the development. The idea was to then bring it back into the mil itary for war game simulations,” she explains.

Not thri l led with the violence inherent in these methods, Hart developed her own romantic rebellions to combat the aggressive iconography associated with the technology. She continues, “ I started working in a kind of hyper-feminine way. I was dealing with ideas of beauty in the context of first-person shooter games that were fast and v io lent and pornographic . In res is tance , I started making slow sensual work, focusing on the female body.”

O n e e x a m p l e o f t h i s s l o w, f e m i n i n e w o r k i s H a r t ’ s M a c h i n a (2004)—a 3D-animated work that d isp lays a c lass ica l , nude o d a l i s q u e f a m i l i a r i n t h e h i s t o r y o f R e n a i s s a n c e p a i n t i n g , l a n g u i d l y a n d s u b t l y m o v i n g w h i l e l o u n g i n g o n a d i v a n . While the piece portrays, “ the compressed t ime and space of a painting,” it is diff icult to neglect the heightened sensuality of the woman’s infrequent gaze.

I n 2 0 0 7 H a r t m o v e d t o C h i c a g o t o t e a c h a t S A I C . I n t h i s e n v i r o n m e n t s h e w o r k e d w i t h s t u d e n t s w h o “ w a n t e d t o b e a r t i s t s ” — u n l i k e t h e g a m e d e s i g n e r s a n d P i x a r h o p e f u l s s h e o n c e i n s t r u c t e d . S h e d e v e l o p e d a p r o g r a m o f c o u r s e s c a l l e d Exper imental 3D , which merged animat ion with per formance, sculpture, painting, installation, and other disciplines.

In 2012 she received a grant from SAIC’s Earl and Brenda Shapiro C e n t e r f o r R e s e a r c h a n d C o l l a b o r a t i o n w h e n s h e p r o p o s e d a collaboration with her students that would result in a final piece that in conceptual s t ructure , resembled an exquis i te cadaver. Hart designed a character and passed the data to 24 students to complete with their own aesthetics.

She decided to use ragdoll technology—the realistic, simulation technology used in mass-market war games to k i l l characters . A c c o r d i n g t o H a r t , a d e s i g n e r b u i l d s a “ p u p p e t , ” g i v e s i t dynamic and physical qual it ies, and then submits i t to forces. She explains, “ I f you’re going to ki l l in real t ime, you want the character to writhe in agony so you can feel that you’ ve real ly killed it. It conveys the feeling that the virtual avatar is acting in spontaneous ways.”

With this technology, she simulated a virtual character trying to “break out ” of the v i r tual world and into the real one. Each student created his or her own iteration of this virtual “breakout.”

“And what resulted were 24 different interpretat ions from your ‘ typical ’ SAIC student, which is of course a totally atypical one. And none was violent. There was a lot editorializing happening. But nobody was joyfully committing murder,” says Hart.

“ When I started teaching, there was no context for 3D animation in contemporary art . It was a form of scientific visualization.. .used primarily by the Department of Defense for flight simulators, in 3D shooter games, and for Pixar movies.”

SAIC Associate Professor C laudia Hart

School of the Art Inst i tute of Chicago saic .edu/highl ights 14

T h i s f i n a l p i e c e , t i t l e d O n S y n c h r o n i c s : S o n g o f t h e A v a t a r s , was posted on Vimeo, result ing in a spontaneous takeoff and bringing the work to museum exhibitions in Korea and Germany, a festival in Hong Kong, a gallery in Brooklyn, and the Eyebeam Art + Technology Center where Hart i s current ly an honorary fe l low. Both haunt ing and twisted, the work ext racts intense sympathy from viewers. The 3D avatar shows no human emotion as i t is subjected to violence, yet the f inal product is start l ing and affective.

In her most recent work, The Alices, Hart has taken her feminized technology to a new level, f l ipping it completely: “Before, I was c h o r e o g r a p h i n g a v a t a r s a s i f t h e y w e r e p e r f o r m a n c e a r t i s t s . What I started to do was to choreograph humans as if they were avatars,” she explains.

The Alices is a multi layered performance-installation and opera that ut i l i zes augmented-rea l i ty objects programmed by SAIC Assistant Professor Geoffrey Alan Rhodes (Visual Communication D e s i g n ) , w i t h a n o r i g i n a l s c o r e b y U n i v e r s i t y o f C a l i f o r n i a , B e r k e l e y P r o f e s s o r E d m u n d C a m p i o n . O r i g i n a l l y p e r f o r m e d a t t h e A r t s C l u b o f C h i c a g o , s i x “ c l o n e d , ” c h o r e o g r a p h e d A l i ces re -enact the famous tea scene in A l i c e i n W o n d e r l a n d in a surreal , grotesque manner. “ I used procedural animation techniques on l iv ing people , ” says Hart . “So that made them extremely weird. They therefore shared the uncanny qualities of computer-simulated avatars, which seem so eerily human. I now choreograph humans that seem eerily robotic.”

Hart continues to expand The Alices with other materials such as augmented-real ity fabric for her upcoming The Al ices Walking , which a lso uses choreographed models , fashion, sound, and food to produce a per formance . “ This i s avatar per formance, ” Hart remarks.

“I was dealing with ideas of beauty.. .that were fast and violent and pornographic. In resistance, I started making slow sensual work.”

Rhys Bevan ( in col laborat ion with Claudia Hart ) , On Synchronics : Song of the Avatars , 2012, 3D computer animation, high-def 23-minute animated loop for instal lat ion

Rhys Bevan ( in col laborat ion with Claudia Hart ) , On Synchronics : Song of the Avatars , 2012, 3D computer animation, high-def 23-minute animated loop for instal lat ion

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“ I want people to look a t these works , to fee l fo r the avatars , and to fee l emotional ly connected to them,” states Hart . “My f o r m o f r e s i s t a n c e t o t h i s c o r p o r a t i z e d , v i o l e n t , h i g h - t e c h g a m i n g w a s i n i t i a l l y a b o u t s e x a n d s e n s u a l i t y . B u t i t h a s expanded into something that ’s also emotional and that makes y o u f e e l e m p a t h y ; s o m e t h i n g t h a t y o u ’ r e m o v e d b y . ” H a r t produces feminized technology that is more than just a bridge b e t w e e n w o m e n a n d t h e s c i e n c e s . I t i s a c o m m e n t o n h o w humans create, exper ience, and connect to one another—that the technological revolution is not just something that is made, it is something that affects the way we feel about the world and about each other.

C l a u d i a H a r t ( i n c o l l a b o r a t i o n w i t h c o m p o s e r E d m u n d C a m p i o n ) w i l l p r e s e n t T h e A l i c e s W a l k i n g , a - f a s h i o n -show-cum-opera, on Sunday, March 9, at the Eyebeam Art + Technology Center, 520 W. 21st St . , New York, NY. Hart ’s solo exhibition, including “augmented-reality” wearables and “peep-hole” computer graphics, wil l fol low in May at Bitforms Gallery, 529 W. 20th St., New York, NY.

Hart will also open The New Romantics— a 30-person group s h o w c o - c u r a t e d w i t h S A I C a l u m n i N i c h o l a s O ’ B r i e n ( B FA 2007) and Katie Torn (MFA 2012)—in April at Eyebeam Art + Technology Center.

On Synchronics: Song of the Avatars will open Saturday, June 7, at Transfer Gallery, 1030 Metropolitan Ave., Brooklyn, NY.

“My form of resistance to this corporatized, violent, high-tech gaming.. .has expanded into something that ’s emotional and that makes you feel empathy.”

Claudia Hart (with score by Edmund Campion; dresses and headpieces by Vincent T i ley) , The Al ices , 2013, Mi l lennium Park ’s Jay Pr i tzker Pavi l ion, September 10, 2013. Left to r ight : Amanda Vanvalkenberg, Yaloopop, Mikey McPar lane, Chr ist ine Shal lenberg, Jane Jerardi , and Natal ia Nicholson

Claudia Hart (with score by Edmund Campion; dresses and headpieces by Vincent T i ley) , The Al ices , 2013, The Arts C lub of Chicago, June 18, 2013