[ISEA2016] Artist Talk: Tamás Waliczky — Using photography in my computer artworks

Artist Statement

Abstract
The newest version of my installation, “Homes”, is included as a part of the exhibition of the ISEA2016 symposium. The installation is constructed from several thousand photos. In connection with it, I would like to discuss the various modes of the employment of photography in my computer-based artworks.

Motion realised from Still Images
In the “Micro-movements in Snapshots” video installation (2015), motion is realised in just one photograph. In general, to attain the illusion of motion, several different still images are required per second. In this installation, the various details of the exact same photograph projected rapidly one after the other in the appropriate order, achieve the illusion of motion.

Photographic Database
The foundation for the 1998 interactive installation, “Focus”, is a database of approximately 900 photos. The photos depict people and houses. The viewer of the work can search freely among these photos with an interface that resembles the viewfinder on a camera. S/he can put an individual figure or house into focus, and then take a virtual snapshot of it. This work was produced for the “Photo ’98” festival in England, within the framework of photography and Europe. The figures appearing in the database are my own friends or family members, and the houses are their own houses in the various countries of Europe.[3]

Photography as Memory
My computer-based animation entitled “Pictures” was made in 1988. Amateur family photos assembled together create a collage, whose resolution is theoretically infinite. If we enlarge a detail, then newer details emerge, which we can then further enlarge. With the aid of these enlargements, increasingly early photos become visible, i.e., increasingly older memories come to the surface.[4].

References

Tamás Waliczky, “Homes” (a.m. post magazine, issue 115, 07/08, Hong Kong, 2015), 18.
Tamás Waliczky, “Landscape” (Cyberarts 98, Springer Wien-New York, 1998), 136.
Lev Manovich, The Camera and the World: New Work by Tamas Waliczky (Continental Drift, Prestel, Munich – New York, 1998), 143.
Frédéric Dany, Takis Kyriakoulakos, “Pictures” (L’Image Vidéo, No. 4, Juin Juill., Paris, 1990), 32.

  • Tamás Waliczky, b.1959, Budapest, Hungary. School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong waliczky.com