Postmasters/bitforms/Eyebeam

Even though I was born and raised in NYC, I rarely go to art museums (I went to the MoMA for the first time a year ago) so going to these three cutting-edge Chelsea galleries was a new experience for me. While I've experienced modern art before (Tate Modern and MoMA) I've never been a huge fan. It seems to rely more on concept than on actual intrinsic artistic value. While it's not to say a Picasso piece doesn't require context, at least it can impress without it. Most modern art requires some background information and context to even be appreciated. Now without further ado:

Postmasters
I wholeheartedly disliked the entire gallery except the shadow train (Paper Moon) and the can from the ceiling (The Shield of Achilles). The candles on the floor were actually devoid of intrinsic meaning. They were there to represent Dickinson's impressive feat of writing 366 poems in 365 days. While the colors of the candles were appealing, I didn't see anything past that. However, the can hanging from the ceiling were intrinsically appealing. Lying on the floor look upwards, the cans with pinholes of light emanating from them actually gave me the sense of looking at a night sky. Pure awesome:



Bitforms:
The layout of bitforms was very conducive to the art on display. It all seamlessly fitted together with a beautifully present introduction at the beginning. It seemed to take us on a tour of Yael's artwork. Besides the gigantic vagina made out of various languages, the most striking piece there was the art display that reconfigured itself based upon the sound around.



Eyebeam:

I've been to one of their parties before where I was encased in a huge trashbag with holes in it and all you could see where random pinholes of light. Cool, but mostly disconcerting. The project we saw that involved a YouTube video battle was pretty cool. The imaging software behind the project was even cooler. When I held up a physical card with some sort of pattern on it, in place of the pattern, a YouTube video would appear on screen. The software would be able to track the video regardless if I moved the card around in all directions.