[ISEA2011] Panel: Cyn­thia-Beth Rubin – Dig­i­tal Paint to Dig­i­tal Pho­tog­ra­phy: the long reach of Ab­stract Ex­pres­sion­ism

Panel Statement

Panel: The Big Bang of Electronic Art: Merging Abstraction and Representation in the Age of Digital Imaging

Pas­sion­ate ex­per­i­ments in the in­ter­ac­tion of color gave rise to the Ab­stract Ex­pres­sion­ist move­ment of the 1960s, in which spa­tial am­bi­gu­ity ruled above all else.  This move­ment still in­forms my own work.  I began my ca­reer as an ab­stract or nearly ab­stract painter, then moved into com­puter imag­ing in the mid-1980s, and grew with the tech­nol­ogy of the medium.  My im­agery has shifted from nearly ab­stract, with only the slight­est ref­er­ence to the sources of the forms in na­ture, to the in­te­gra­tion of pho­to­graphic el­e­ments, re­sult­ing in clearly rep­re­sen­ta­tional work.  As the tech­nol­ogy has evolved to make easy the facile ma­nip­u­la­tions of pho­to­graphic im­agery, my in­ter­est has grown to in­clude a re­turn to the un­seen, be it in ab­stract form or in mi­cro­scopic el­e­ments.  I still crave Hans Hoff­man’s “re­la­tions of re­la­tions”, or the in­ter­ac­tion of clus­ters of el­e­ments through color in­ter­ac­tion. This is so per­va­sive in my think­ing that noth­ing can purge it from my vi­sual vo­cab­u­lary, even when I move into un­charted ter­ri­to­ries of mean­ing.

  • Cyn­thia Beth Rubin is a new media artist whose im­agery evokes mem­o­ries of cul­ture, place.   Dig­i­tal for over 25 years, Rubin’s prints, mov­ing im­agery, and in­ter-ac­tive in­stal­la­tions  have been shown in the Jew­ish Mu­seum in Prague, open­ing night of the both the San Fran­cisco and the Boston Jew­ish Film Fes­ti­vals, the Pan­dae­mo­nium Fes­ti­val in Lon­don, Lavall Gallery in Novosi­birsk, and di­verse venues around the world. Awards in­clude  mul­ti­ple Con­necti­cut Com­mis­sion fel­low­ships, the Memo­r­ial Foun­da­tion for Jew­ish Cul­ture, and the New Eng­land Foun­da­tion on the Arts, as well as a res­i­dency at Vidéochroniques in Mar­seilles and other in­ter­na­tional res­i­den­cies, . Rubin works in­de­pen­dently and in col­lab­o­ra­tion, and teaches part-time at the Rhode Is­land School of De­sign, US.

Full text (PDF) p. 2077-2080