Ghost in the Machine

An examination of Digital Art from years 1979-present. Curated by Carla Iovino.

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To be artificial has never been a good thing, calling to mind fakeness, reality shows, and GMO’s, with consumer-driven development and popular culture creating a more negative and vapid word association than it deserves. By pushing the boundaries sometimes beyond the limits of their technological times, digital artists are reinventing the beauty of the word artificial. These artists are the latest pioneers of redefining art and what is real through technology, and making organic life out of the lifeless. 

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Eyepiece, 1979-83

Michael Naimark

16mm film installation projected onto a rounded canvas

Much of Michael Naimark’s work deals with consumption and the relation between reality and unreality. His work Eyepiece is no different, the installation consisting of unnerving eye footage being projected onto a rounded screen. The second version, titled Computer Eyepiece, was reshot with live footage for a different show.

Naimark’s portfolio prides itself on disorienting the viewer, and forcing them to question the optical illusion style technology he puts forth. In a piece titled Talking Head Projection, also from 1979, Naimark projects footage onto a face shaped canvas, this time with the addition of audio. This floating head creates an illusion of AI technology that was impossible for the time.

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Talking Head Projection, 1989

Michael Naimark

Super8 film projection and audio onto face shaped motion tracking screen

In Talking Head, a disembodied dark environment it tricks the viewer into wondering, however briefly, if such a thing were possible. If the viewer wonders that even once, it seems Naimark can claim his personal victory. It’s about opening up your mind to the possibility of such things.

Michael Naimark continues his work very unsurprisingly with Virtual Reality in association with Google. If Naimark’s voyage into VR is anything like his 1989 piece EAT, virtual food the viewer cannot taste is right around the corner. From his website,

“I still revel in good largescale public space immersion, appreciate realworld content as well as fantasy content, and prefer being challenged by difficult art more than engaging in games with simple win/lose endings.” -Michael Naimark, May 2014, Montreal

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Interfaces, 1990 Eduardo Kac Spontaneous vertical rendering of slow-scan TV (SSTV)

Interfaces, according to Kac’s website, is an interactive telecommunications piece that was a live exchange that took place in two different locations. One group of artists was in Pittsburgh and another in Chicago. This cross-country exchange was meant to create a conversation with an element of unknown, as the people participating were unaware when their faces were being captured. The faces were projected onto a screen, similarly to Naimark’s projections. 

By splitting the random faces in half, Kac simulates the dialogue between two people. That is to say, it takes two to have a conversation, and both equal parts are being represented. The exchange took place over an hour, with no clear end time. It could be compared to the lack of closure people experience in real relationships, but instead inhabiting a digital space.

This type of glitch art is popular in digital media, desired for its randomly generated and spooky effect. It gives the impression of a haunted and possessed VHS tape that’s been warped over time and repeated rewinding. Simultaneously, Interfaces unknowingly imitates modern video calls. 

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GHOST CITY /  fragments of T V  T I M E S Jody Zellen Webpage/ animated GIF 1997-

Jody Zellen has created the illusion of a real breathing city. In a point and click, choose your own adventure style virtual space, viewers can dive into a seemingly unending rabbit hole of glitch art and animated gifs. Occasionally, seemingly possessed images will pop up into separate windows and dance across the screen, giving the illusion of life. According to her website, GHOST CITY is continuously updated. 

In her section titled ‘net art’, Zellen describes GHOST CITY as an archive of technology. Like many other digital artists, Zellen is pushing the boundaries of what is capable with a simple webpage. She invites the viewer to wonder what a real city requires to be defined as a city. 

Zellen’s own definition requires it be constantly expanding and changing. A real city that occupies physical space needs life, whereas the Ghost City is only inhabited by the echoes of technology and the viewer. It is an interactive piece that requires participation to be explored. 

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The Moon is a Mirror, 2014 Scott Hessels Light LED sculpture made from organic materials

Technology’s arguably greatest purpose is to document life in ways that were previously impossible. The collection of data and rapid access available to the average person is something still very new to the world. Unfortunately, through rapid innovation comes rapid pollution. 

Scott Hessel’s The Moon is a Mirror artfully demonstrates an alternative way of displaying images with LEDs, but with a smaller environmental footprint. From behind his screens, shapes eerily blend into focus out of the self-imposed mist. This piece is a branch off of his other series, Sustainable Cinemas. One piece belonging to that series is LENTICULAR BICYCLE, which features a bicycle powered animation. 

The screens themselves are made of organic papers, texturized with naturally translucent materials such as lizard skins and feathers. On his website, Hessel describes a symbiotic relationship between technology and life’s bi-products, saying that without the screen the video images would be completely out of focus. By using the discarded remnants of creatures, Hessel weaves the essence of life into each screen for the purpose of conveying ghostlike figures. 

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Every art medium faces the public criticism and skepticism of whether it should be considered art. Digital art goes beyond this, with digital artists often seeking to redefine what is real and what isn’t. By embracing the spirit of cutting edge technologies, artists can create the illusion of the paranormal or even imitate life. As broad a term as digital art is, the one clear factor is the juxtaposition between life and the lifeless and a symbiotic existence that relies on the other to exist.