Upon entering the first floor of the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, visitors are immersed in a virtual landscape of animated glyphs, phosphorescent text and pixelated sunlight. Unveiled to the public in August, “Liminal Luminance” — the Brown Arts Institute’s newest multimedia exhibition — will be shown in the Fribourg Family Atrium until Oct. 4.
Featuring collaborative pieces by new media artists Edrex Fontanilla ’00 MA’02 MFA’12 and Robert Goldschmidt ’03, the exhibit offers a lucid sensory experience by showcasing the artists’ combined knowledge in fine arts, neuroscience and computational methods.
The gallery features “mutable sculptures,” a term first introduced by Fontanilla in a 2006 conference at the University of Victoria. The art form takes moving computer-generated patterns and projects them onto physical surfaces, ultimately blurring the boundary between the digital and physical.
As the name implies, “Liminal Luminance” dances at the intersection of natural objects and fabricated images. Despite the work’s illusory aesthetics, Fontanilla said that the exhibit is “not trying to fool the viewer.”
“If anything, we’re trying to invite the viewer to become cognizant of how their visual processing system suggests patterns that aren’t really there,” Fontanilla told The Herald. The work invites “critical viewing,” he said, encouraging viewers to examine their own sensory and theoretical perceptions.
The artworks on display in Fontanilla and Goldschmidt’s exhibition were created over the span of 21 years. The oldest piece, “Overlooked,” dates back to 2005.
The two artists first met during their time at Brown. After becoming housemates, the pair began creating art together in the fall of 2004.
“There was a cool effect that would happen on my bedroom wall every morning during sunrise,” Goldschmidt recalled. “And then Edrex –– being the kind of person he is –– was like, let’s make this into art.”
Even after Goldschmidt moved to Florida following his graduation from Brown, the pair stayed in contact and continued collaborating on various projects asynchronously. In 2008, their art installation “S[tr]eam” was selected by a jury and showcased at the SIGGRAPH conference in Los Angeles.
Fontanilla –– who was previously a part of Brown’s Creative Arts Council before the organization evolved into the BAI –– said he was excited to return back to campus. “There’s something validating about coming back to Brown and getting the knowing nods from friends and colleagues,” he said. “It’s like coming home.”
Goldschmidt also expressed his gratitude toward the BAI, describing how the institution allows “thoughts and conversations (to) turn into something that we can share with other people through art-making.”
Neal Birchfield GS –– who visited the exhibition after seeing a promotional poster on campus –– appreciated how the works explored themes of liminal space across various mediums.
“I love that we have art on campus that we can just wander in,” Birchfield said.
Kendra Eastep is an illustration chief and a Senior Staff Writer for Arts & Culture. She is from New York City and concentrates in English and History. While she draws, she likes to drink peach tea and watch video essays.
