Convergence of Memory: Variable Media Studies · Lincoln Schatz

The diaphanous sculpture sees you and responds. Your image becomes a layer of collective memory, time has collapsed… For his second solo show at bitforms, Schatz has developed a series of interactive video works which function as alchemists of memory. Through computer vision, video is stored, recalled and manipulated by the participants movement. New meanings are established through the collision of images. Each work can store decades of ongoing memory, heralding a new generation of art. Schatz's larger multi-screen interactive sculpture "Inter-View" adroitly merges sculpture and new technologies, through the poetic manipulation of memory and use of translucent materials. "Sophie," a wall-mounted single-screen interactive piece, provides an intimate interaction between the participant and the work, intimating its presence in a domestic environment. Exemplifying the versatility and adaptability of the software and idea, Schatz is presenting three large framed studies investigating the potential to network his software globally, link ten subway stations across the Chicago transit system with large projections, and explore the redesign of the United terminal at Chicago's O'Hare airport creating forty interactive zones. "New technologies offer us the chance to truly change the course of art and art history," says Schatz. He has created work which will grow and change over time, based on interaction. Like people, it keeps a large database of recent events, and a much smaller database of distant events.