Dan Mayer

http://www.worldofawe.net/

World Of Awe

Yael Kanarek

Lacking the Awe

The World of Awe was and interesting piece. That could have been truly amazing. It seemed that the piece had good direction and a interesting concept, but wasn't fully developed. It is almost as if the piece was rushed or underfunded. The concept of a dancer finding a portal that eventually leads them into a virtual world of music and dance is a good idea. The failings are most noticeable after you feel you have experienced an idea and it drags on longer bringing nothing new to the viewer.

The ability to figure things out or change the way the art is viewed is rather interesting. It sets it apart from standard art. This piece unlike film which changes only with time also changes based on the viewer. This ads a layer where each user is actually participating in making the piece becoming a tiny artist themselves. Seeing some of the pieces change based on the direction you move the mouse is quite interesting allowing you to see a piece from different angles. This is most noticeable in the second chapter.

While the ability to take part in the piece and control part of its outcome is intriguing and begs the viewer to experiment with the piece further finding other possible outcomes it only works well if the piece can move fast enough to keep up with a viewer. Several parts of the piece send out a message but then either repeat a loop or move so slowly that the viewer can feel frustrated. Basically giving the viewer the ability to control certain aspects but then taking it away and forcing them to wait through others, can be frustrating.

The final chapter of this piece was the least interactive. It was also by far the longest. Having the ability to interact or change the story or art really lead this portion of the art to fall apart. Besides not being able to partake in the creating process the limited loops of animation where running in highly repetitive cycles. If the artist had more time or funding to produce more variations of the dancing it wouldn't have lost its appeal as quickly. Also if the artist has more time to add an element of control for the viewer in the last chapter it would have seemed more polished. The last chapter of this piece just really took away from an otherwise unique and interesting experience.

The look of combining video like sequences over photos and 3d landscapes was effective in replicating an almost interactive experience. The overlaying wasn't as effective at portraying depth as standard video. The loops of dance were also quite distorted at certain scales after resizing to use the loop in a different depth. The rough scaling and the sharp but blocky edges also took away from the final flow of the piece. The use of music was effective through out most of the piece only deteriorating from the experience when you could here a track loop end and restart. The use of color and layers was well done also. This was very effective with cars and the box containing a woman. These overlapping provided a good sense of depth that was lacking when just scaling an object an overlaying it on the background.

I still think this kind of digital art has quite a ways to come before it can be accepted as mainstream art. For now it seems to techno nothing to really be accepted by many people as an art form. It would be labeled as perhaps an odd game or belittled as something like a e-card to send friends. Not respected or valued for the depth of thought put into the pieces. I think with time and more fully polished pieces with less ruff edges and perhaps incorporating a look that more are comfortable to call art this kind of experience could eventually become a truly accepted art form.