On April 2nd, an opening reception was held in Macy Gallery for the exhibition "Synthetic Pleasures: Cybernetic Relationships in Studio Art Practice," which was on display through April 23rd.

The exhibition is culmination of a collaboration between Visual Arts Researcher Sherry Mayo and 11 artists, including Kristin Anders, Brandon Ballengée, Sandra Bermudez, Claire Corey, Millree Hughes, Cynthia Lawson, Ben Margolis, Patrick Meagher, Tricia McLaughlin, Chris Ramey and Jenny Torino.

At the opening, in addition to displaying their art objects, the artists gave videotaped interviews about how they integrated digital technologies into their studio practice and about the hybrid emergent objects that they produce. These interviews, the resultant art objects, and the exhibition constitute a project-based case study titled "Emergent Objects at the Human-Computer Interface: A Case Study of Artists' Cybernetic Relationships."

The artworks displayed in the exhibition were: an installation of hybrid emergent forms of expression such as lenticular paintings that move when the viewer does; a moving projection of digital painting in the process of being painted; a frog specimen and a high resolution electromagnetic scan of a skate; interactive "biostim" performance; net-art works; and an animation of bizarre social behavior caused by absurd architecture and renaissance-style oil paintings of 3D characters that never really lived.

Published Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2005