SMart fest kicks off Monday, tackles virtual authenticity
GRAND RAPIDS — “Reality” television, Facebook and YouTube are a few reasons organizers of the sixth annual SMart Multimedia Arts Festival decided this year to tackle the concept of “virtual authenticity.”During the five-day festival (Monday-Friday at Open Concept Gallery and the Arts Council of Greater Grand Rapids), more than a dozen local, national and international artists explore the link between technology and reality, challenging virtual authenticity through innovative, interactive and unexpected media. to read the rest of the article, click on link below.
Multimedia festival explores virtual authenticity in artFrom Chicago Art Exhibits Examiner, Jodie JacobsChicagoans used to traveling to Grand Rapids, Michigan for ArtPrize, a mega fall competition that encourages conversations and judgments about art, have a spring event to see.Since 2006, Open Concept Gallery, a nonprofit contemporary art showcase, has sponsored a free SMart Multimedia Art Festival in Grand Rapids galleries so the public could see and discuss international multimedia art trends.Each year’s SMart Fest has a different theme, according to Open Concept Executive Director Zora Carrier. Held this year, April 4-8 in conjunction with the Grand Rapids Community Media Center, the 2011 festival theme is “Virtual Authenticity.”
“We’re starting a new thread in the never ending discussion of what is authentic in art,” says Carrier. “No one is really tapping into this idea of authenticity in virtual space. We hear a lot of talk about perceptions of reality in the virtual world and what it does or doesn’t mean, but nothing about the authenticity of that reality. What’s authentic about it? Is it just the conversations themselves or does it include other aspects? And who gets to determine authenticity?”
Published: Sunday, April 03, 2011
By Molly Kimelman | The Grand Rapids Press
“Tennessee artist Daryl Thetford’s digital chromogenic prints suggest modern-day America lives in a fragmented reality that just might contribute to an increased stress level.
“News, email, weather updates, images of war, social networking pages and stories of loss, hunger, and natural and man-made disasters are delivered to our computers and phones night and day … but because we are unable to take in the whole picture at once, we are forced to view the world in fragments, creating a sense of disarray and heightened anxiety and confusion,” Thetford said in a statement about his work.With his colorful, collage-based prints, Thetford aims to prove that through “a studied and coherent reassembling of fragments, we can gain a more diverse and integrated view of the world and ourselves.”Other artists participating in “Virtual Authenticity” include Brandon Belote, Filippo Tagliati, Jordan Tate, Marielis Seyler, Mark Switzer and L.C. von Sukmeister. Sticking to the vision Artist Brian Elder’s video installation continuously loops on monitors in the ground-floor windows of the Trade Center building, which houses Open Concert Gallery.