[ISEA97] Artist Statement: Ken Rinaldo – Watchers

Artist Statement

Watchers could best be described as two biomorphic ambient light works that are concerned with the rhythmic nature of television light and how it is used to seduce here, as the medium is no doubt designed to infect rather than inform, and so the medium joins with vestiges of our perceptual being. The forms themselves incorporate disembodied TVs and are roughly based on the structure of the human eye. These TVs are encased in plaster forms which project the TV light onto white plaster parabolic lenses which accentuate the light while removing the images. The abstract eyeball form itself is outside the loop of seeing and houses the TV receivers and infrared sensing circuitry. This is clearly emblematic of Marshall McLuhan’s notion that the medium is the massage. The retina and brain are removed from the loop of seeing. It is not what we see but how we see that determines the power of any medium. Here the power of the medium is removed and distilled from it’s content to point to the medium’s ability to alter our body image non-consciously. kenrinaldo.com/portfolio/watchers

  • Kenneth Edmund Rinaldo (U.S.A.) creates interactive multimedia works which look to the intersection of natural and tech­nological systems. His works are influenced by theories on living systems, artificial intelligence, artificial life, and the nature and organization of matter. He believes it is imper­ative that technological systems develop a sensitive ecolo­gy which is modeled on the principles of living systems, so they will inherently fuse to permit an emergent, interde­pendent earth. Kenneth Rinaldo was born in 1958 in New York. His grandfather was a Parisian artist and his mother and father are both contemporary artists. At eighteen he studied to be a ballet dancer in New York City. Returning to school at twenty he earned an A.S. Degree in Computer Science from Canada College (1982),a 8.A in Communications from The University of California, Santa Barbara (1984) and an M.F.A in Conceptual Art from San Francisco State University (1991). His works have been dis­played and Collected in the U.S. and abroad at such shows as the Home Show in Seoul Korea (1996), V2, Dutch Electronic Art Festival in Rotterdam, Holland (1995), Image Du Future in Montreal, Canada, (1992 & 1995) and Siggraph, Los Angeles (1994). He has curated numerous exhibitions specializing in art and technology, such as Wavicle Blasthaus Gallery, San Francisco (1995), Integrated Hemispheres: Woman Art and Technology, Blasthaus Gallery, San Francisco, (1995). ATA Gallery, San Francisco, a festival of forty three artists work­ing in video, performance, robotics, and installation. kenrinaldo.com