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Smart Art: Lower Burrell gallery launches coded pattern art world [The Valley News-Dispatch, Tarentum, Pa.](Valley News-Dispatch (Tarentum, PA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) May 29--The only thing missing from the new cutting-edge art exhibit at Artform Gallery in Lower Burrell is the art. Or, so it seems. Entering one of the Alle-Kiski Valley's newest galleries and trying to find the 58 pieces in various mediums can create a head-scratching moment. The exhibit comprises pieces from 48 artists from around the world, including the Alle-Kiski Valley and Pittsburgh areas. The traditional frames are there, but inside all of them are matrix bar codes, consisting of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. Techs like to call them "QR" codes, short for "Quick Response," because they were created to allow contents to be decoded at high speed. "It's quite shocking at first," says artist Seth Leibowitz, show co-producer and gallery co-owner. "We wanted to be the first to have an art show with zero physical art hanging on the walls." The Tarentum resident believes it is a first for the Pittsburgh area and, perhaps, the first of its kind in the nation. It requires direct participation from those wishing to view the work, and can be accomplished only by scanning the codes via smart phones and related devices (including iPhones, any Android mobile, BlackBerry, iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab). Don't worry if you are old school. The gallery will loan you a phone-device to see the show. The results yield considerably more than what usually is found at art shows, Leibowitz says. In addition to the art itself, the code provides access to the artist's biography, a photo, a YouTube video interview and a hyperlink to their website and Facebook. Technology meets art The exhibit, "Through the Looking Glass Project," which continues through June 18, is about having a new way to look at the world through a device in the palm of your hand, he says. "It's almost like looking into a magic mirror, one that can answer any question, view any object or listen to any sound," he says. Employing the digital world within the realm of the Internet, as this show does, "is like exploring everything and anything through a looking glass," he says. The manner in which the work in this exhibit is displayed brings a form of digital communication from one side of "the looking glass" into the physical world, via the QR code, he says. The point of mounting this exhibit around Quick Response technology is to convey the practical use of it in everyday lives. "We want to educate people on how it can benefit their businesses, art, social lives, schooling, teaching, publications and show how the world can easily be connected in a matter of seconds," Leibowitz says. Artform Gallery has a mobile version of the exhibit, which Leibowitz refers to as an "educational art show on the road," available for schools and organizations. He has presented classes to students and teachers at Art Institute of Pittsburgh on the use of the technology. "We want to spread the use of this amazing technology, rather than people walking by these codes and not even knowing the power they hold," he says. The world now is a "different type of art studio," he adds, one that focuses on trying new things and creative ways to bring people and their imaginative ideas together in one space. The goal is to inspire. "It's great to see what creative things people do with new knowledge," he says. Their vision explored That's what art is all about, says Monessen artist Juliette Bennett. "It's evolving, new ideas, and if we didn't have that, there would be no art," she says. "It sheds a new light of how we can view art and other things in our lives. Technology helps artists get out there and be seen." Her "Birds and Deep Sea," a surrealistic project based on crafts, sculpting, molding and painting, is seen in this display. "This exhibit forced us to look at art in a different way," says Katie Moran of Mt. Washington, whose "Bony Hand and Snake Table," is an expression in oil on slate and acrylic on wood. "The world is moving fast, and we have to keep up," says Alyssa Clifford of Cranberry. Her sculptural teapot, with its beard-cup, is based on "The Moan," the extended-play record released by the blues-rock band The Black Keys. Artistic expression doesn't have to come straight from the human hand anymore, she says. Todd Pinkham says it is satisfying to be part of a show like this that is fresh and different. "It pushes me into new directions," says the Murrysville resident who teaches painting at California University of Pennsylvania and who has exhibited at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert for the past three years. He believes that, while the new world of the digital arena might be just another venue, it is a more powerful one. "I believe as long as ideas are communicated, the venue doesn't matter," he adds. He has three works -- oils and acrylic on board -- of "slightly dark humor" in the Lower Burrell show. "Hopefully, people will have a good laugh. That is the human quality I seek to inspire," Pinkham says. Lower Burrell native Ken Beer, a scientist, inventor and artist who lives in Bethel, feels as though he has gone full circle in entering abstract paintings, prints and sculptures on which he collaborated with his artist wife, Terri Perpich, a Cheswick native who has an art school in Natrona Heights. All of the pieces from the award-winning artists are mixed media and fiberglass. The fiberglass yarn and fabric used in the art was invented and manufactured by Beer's Kittanning company, Dielectric Solutions, LLC, which also sells the material to companies worldwide that manufacture electronic circuit boards used in the digital technology that made this show possible. "This type of show is innovative and unique, like the medium we use for our new form, fiberglass fabric," says Beer, who is a past president of the Pittsburgh Print Group and The Associated Artists of Pittsburgh. "It is important that both our art and the venues where it is exhibited remain relevant in an ever changing culture." He has collaborated with art students from Seton Hill College, Greensburg, on a past project. "Most of our new work is very large and not easy to exhibit in galleries," Perpich adds. The QR technology demonstrated in this show makes it possible to exhibit "virtually everywhere," she adds. Every show, says gallery director Sam Thorp of Brackenridge, who also is exhibiting in this show, is an opportunity "to uncover something new and present it to the world." Thorp says she does not believe that a QR code show such as this will replace a traditional exhibition. "Nothing replaces actually seeing the work in person," she says. "But it has the potential to introduce artwork to a larger audience, who will then, hopefully, want to see the actual work in person." To view art Scan this matrix code using a QR reader by downloading an app (many free) such as QR Reader for iPhone, QR Scanner, ConnectMe QR Reader, qwikScan, Bakodo Barcode or zappit on your smart phone, iPod, iPad or similar device. The app can be used for interactive shopping, too. ___ To see more of The Valley News-Dispatch or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleynewsdispatch/. Copyright (c) 2011, The Valley News-Dispatch, Tarentum, Pa. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail [email protected], or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544) |