Matrix II

source: paramedia
My work reflects upon the condition of art making after the “digital experience.” The formal and structural approach to various media I employ, such as installation, drawings, CD-ROM, Internet and sound, engages in binary logic, because I assemble the material according to a narrow set of self-imposed rules which often incorporate complex algorithms, controlled randomness and other methods inspired by computer code.
Since 1997, I have investigated the process of “reverse engineering”1 by (re-)translating the abstract aesthetic language of virtual reality and 3‑D computer modeling back into architectural environments by means of large-scale light installations. In this body of work, space is experienced as a second skin, our social skin, which is transformed through my artistic intervention. Due to the very nature of its architectural dimension, participating by simply being “present” is an integral part of the installations. Visual perception works in conjunction with corporeal motion, and the subsequent passage of time2.
The formal aspect of my work becomes easily accessible through conscious aesthetic reduction to a minimalist vocabulary. Interpretation and understanding of this characteristic is dependent upon the viewer’s subjective references. Equally, the various interactions between the visitors within the context of the installation re-shape each viewer’s subjective references and reveal a complex social phenomenon.
The medium light refers directly to the aesthetic of virtual reality. The ephemeral nature of this particular medium is the ideal representation of the pure structural logic which underlies my work. At the same time the active light in my installations transforms structural logic directly into an intense corporeal sensation without traditional art media’s detour through the materiality of objects and reflected light.
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source: cswashington
Austrian-born artist Erwin Redl uses LEDs as an artistic medium. Working in both two and three dimensions, his works redefine interior and exterior spaces. Born in 1963, Redl began his studies as a musician, receiving a BA in Composition and Diploma in Electronic Music at the Music Academy in Vienna, Austria. In 1995, he received an MFA in Computer Art at the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he now lives.
Redl’s works have received attention both nationally and internationally. With his piece Matrix VI (detail), he lit the face of New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art for its 2002 Biennial Exhibit. Works such as Matrix II, which was shown in New York, Germany, France, Austria, and Korea, and Fade I, which animated the Eglise Sainte-Marie Madeleine in Lille, France, explore volume and allow people to move through lit spaces.
The Washington State Arts Commission chose Redl to create a piece for the Paul G. Allen Center with funds from Washington State’s Art in Public Places Program. Redl’s work for the Allen Center, “Nocturnal Flow”, uses the 85-foot brick column at the west end of the atrium. In his proposal to the UW Public Art Commission, Erwin Redl wrote:
“Nocturnal Flow emphasizes the vertical dimension of the building’s atrium. The interior brick wall is the only architectural element reaching from the floor to the ceiling. The installation uses this wall to create an enormous plane of light that conceptually links the different floors of the building.
The ambient light level in the atrium controls the appearance of the white grid of 10,000 LEDs mounted floor-to-ceiling on the brick wall. During the day, when the sun shines through the skylight and the light level is at its maximum, the grid is evenly lit. At night the LED grid becomes animated and moves upwards. A light sensor on top of the building measures the external light level (influenced by the weather conditions and the position of the sun) and changes the intensity of the animation accordingly.”
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source: munichre
Erwin Redl’s oeuvre is a reflection on artistic positions in the face of our experience with the digital world. It includes installations, CD-ROMs, electronic music, drawings, paintings. His preferred medium is light, which he directs according to strict rules inspired by computer code. His large-scale light installations, which also involve the viewer as an actor, transform architectural space into a realm of light and colour.
“Cracks”, his work on paper, is also dictated by the laws and interactions of different media. Redl applied a layer of white emulsion paint to paper prepared with a coloured ground. Inevitably, the drying paint developed shrinkage cracks, which produced a brightly coloured web-like structure that penetrates the overlying white.