Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 2.17
The Crystal Coffin, Piazza San Marco
by Lily and Honglei (
2011
). Augmented Reality.
Artwork inspired by the crystal coffin in the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square,
seen here in Piazza San Marco
from high art: as a form of camouflage, their skin appropriates imagery from
artworks around them as they multiply amongst the national pavilions in the Giardini
(Fig.
2.18
) and spread out into the city, seeking the outlying venues of the Venice
Biennale (Fig.
2.19
).
When touched on the smartphone screen, the toads release psychotropic drugs
that trigger hallucinations in the viewer: a swirl of Internet information surrounding
the Biennale and waves of Tintorettoesque ecstasy that Bice Curiger proclaimed to
be the true essence of ILLUMInations (see Fig.
2.20
and Pappenheimer and Virta-
Flaneurazine
2011
).
Naoko Tosa's app
Historia
addressed Bice Curiger's question “Does the future
speak English or another language?” and her view that “art offers the potential to
explore new forms of 'community' and negotiate differences and affinities that
might serve as models for the future” (Tosa
2011
). Historia appropriates iconic
images from all nations and world cultures, from times both modern and ancient,
and uses them to create a mental pavilion of re-constructed meaning. The interactive
artwork allows visitors to choose icons, arrange them in a sequence - and then assign
each icon a new meaning (Fig.
2.21
).
Historia playfully examines the process by which artists appropriate and redefine
existing cultural symbols to create their own individual language, and distills it into
a smartphone app. These messages, with their newly created, completely individual
English “translations,” appear as overlays in the Giardini and in Piazza San Marco,
