Day 1: Cliff Eyland's New Media Class

    Today was the very first official day of Projected Intimacy, Cliff Eyland held his first year New Media class in the exhibition space of Gallery One One One.  The class was in costume and character for critiques of their vehicles of the future assignment.  The atmosphere was light and the crit took on a game show feel as each student presented their assignment to the laptop and projector.  
     Day I was not without difficulty, or at least what we thought were technical problems.  At first it appeared as though we only had about 20% of the sound we intended, so we struggled through that and it seems to have taken care of itself, if it was ever an actual problem.  
     It was clear that this was going to be an unusual class, having the professor and his students somewhat masked, sitting in a gallery with black walls and spot lights, and having themselves projected on the wall behind them.  Everyone seemed very aware that they were being watched, and had very little difficulty performing for the camera.  
     The issue of having no sound created an interesting dilemma for us as curators. What is the point of having a class if no one can hear the ideas being thrown around?  Technical difficulties are a ubiquitous element of the  internet and computers in general, so this speaks to an issue involved in online communication.  Perhaps the threat of disconnection, technical failure, is something that both the physical world and the online world share.  
    All through this project I have been considering the realities of how we portray ourselves on the internet and the fact that students came costumed and masked spoke to this in a very obvious way.  Yet, the personalities of the individual students could not be hidden and each one brought their own idiosyncrasies to the camera.  
     Energy was high in the room, and everyone seemed to enjoy this experience, or if they didn't they were excellent sports about it.  I think that the lesson was more than just their assignments, I hope that this experience left them with some questions about why it was necessary, or how this relates to the future of art making.  So often in art education the question of who the viewer is and how will different people respond to a work comes up in critical discussion.  The idea of the gaze is central to Projected Intimacy and each day will likely add a new layer to its exploration.  


For more on Cliff Eyland and Gallery One One One see the links below:


http://www.cliffeyland.com/


http://umanitoba.ca/schools/art/galleryoneoneone/info111.html