Artist Statement

unbroken pieces is an abstract computer animation exploring the relationship between unity and disjunction. The work addresses the arbitrary nature of distinctions such as chaos and order, amorphous and solid, flatness and volume. unbroken pieces makes extensive use of spatial and temporal rhythms, as well as spatial ambiguity, in expressing these similarities and contradictions.
To demonstrate these thematic contradictions, unbroken pieces utilizes 3D and 2D computer graphic techniques to create spaces which could not exist in the physical world. Reflection, refraction and transparency, are used in the amorphous opening environment, while texture mapping and multi-layer compositing techniques are used throughout the piece to create spaces which have the feeling of being simultaneously two and three-dimensional. The integration of the amorphous imagery throughout the various phases of the piece builds on the theme of unity among the apparently dissimilar.
A work in the abstract film category known as “visual music,” the piece progresses through a structure of thematilland [sic!]. Like the animation, the music is structured so that the sections of the piece have very distinct identities and initially seem quite different, but are later revealed to be unified in theme, liveness of appearances, the arbitrary nature of classification and stratification, and the ultimate dissolution of apparent stability. In unbroken pieces, I was interested in using formal devices to express these general concerns of ambiguity and instability on an abstract level.              The title unbroken pieces refers to the unity of the divisions between the parts of the whole. This is demonstrated through the ambiguity of the separations between elements within the frame, but primarily through the divisions between the seemingly dissimilar, yet unified, pieces which comprise the structure of the work.

The music for unbroken pieces was written by Kent Clelland. Like the animation, the music is structured so that the sections of the piece have very distinct identities and initially seem quite different, but are later revealed to be unified in theme.

• Amy Alexander (U.S.A.) has worked both independently and commercially in film, video, computer animation and interactive media. She has taught at California Institute of the Arts and the University of Southern California. Her personal work often explores relationships between content, spatial composition, and temporal or algorithmic structures. Amy received a B.A. from Rowan College of New Jersey in 1991 and an M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts in 1996. She is currently active in Internet art and is interested in continuing to explore the integration of interactivity with temporally-based visual art forms. Recent exhibitions include SIGGRAPH, Prix Ars Electronica (Honorary Mention), Sinking Creek, Anima Mundi, FIV International Festival of Video and Electronic Art (Best World Wide Web Project), Festival International Du Cinema D’Animation – Annecy, and the Internet World Expo (Achievement Award, Dai Nippon Pavilion).