The projector screen displayed images of a hand slowly turning a page in a book, with stenciled cutouts casting shadows on the paper beneath. As the artist played lightly with the cut-out paper, the angle of the light passing through the paper elegantly stretched and shrank the text.
The artwork, called "Write or Read," was part of the art department's ongoing Visiting Artist Lecture Series at the College. Last Wednesday, the lecture featured artistic innovators Sala Wong and Peter Williams, who have collaborated over the past few years at international exhibits in countries such as the United States, Russia, Japan and parts of Europe.
Throughout the lecture, Williams and Wong alternated exhibiting their projects via a large projector screen in the Science Complex.
The artists work with live feedback and computers with the goal of having the "recorded reality mirror the physical reality." The artists also cited Western philosophy as inspiration for their work.
Williams and Wong showed "Hat Dreams," their wearable art project that, through developing technology, allows fashion to be art while interacting with the environment.
The artists showed images on a projector screen of a person modeling the hat, which exhibits such technological features as pinholes in the brim through which tiny cameras capture images. The images are flashed on small screens on the hat along with shots of everyday life.
Williams exhibited "Write or Read," during which the sound of his soft-spoken dialogue over the soft playing of the paper with his hands provided a mysterious, almost sullen undertone to his work. This was also seen in another piece he exhibited, titled "3344."
Williams and Wong described their work as dealing with the world and having "embodied a sense of information and thought processes."
"I was incredibly impressed by the artists' work and the technology they used in creating their collaborations," Frank Janks, junior sociology major, said.
The artists' first collaborative piece, "Encased," was displayed by the Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts in Nagoya, Japan in 2002.
