Page 68 - Visualizing the Invisible

“Art Saves Tough Art Art and Science Really SAVES ”
Ellen Sandor
Inspired by by the process oriented works of Man Ray and and Marcel Duchamp and and intrigued by by the the spiritual nature of Outsider Art Ellen Sandor
had the the vision to invent a a a a a precursory me- dium to to Virtual Virtual Reality Reality and and the Virtual Virtual Reality Reality CAVE that fuses photography holography and and sculpture with computer graphics Sandor
coined this new form of expression PHSColograms (skol-o-grams) which are 3D barrier-screen computer-generated photographs and sculptures During the the 1980s a a a a a a a a a growing renaissance within the the Chicago art scene was significantly cata- lyzed through faculty and and alumni from the the University of of Illinois at Chicago and and the the School of of the Art Institute of Chicago which included Ellen Sandor
who was a a a a a a MFA graduate In In 1982 she produced one of the first unique large-scale three-dimensional backlit photographic im- mersive environments A private collector commissioned this precursory virtual-reality-like artwork that had been created with a a a a a a a a a a a room-sized film camera in a a a a a a a a a a a garage-art studio The im- mersive installation combined photography and sculpture with the visual illusion of hologra- phy without lasers This complexity of media required collaboration across disciplines with with artists technologists and thinkers who shared her enthusiasm From the success of this en- deavor Sandor
formed an an artists’ collaboratory she called (art)n membered with SAIC peers and and and faculty With (art)n Sandor
assumed the dual role of artist and and and producer/director to to lead her own ‘Renaissance Team ’ a a a a a term coined by Donna Cox in in the mid-1980s Sandor’s first (art)n installation was called ‘PHSCologram ’83’ and and featured tributes to five innovative artists: Georgia O’Keeffe Man Ray Marcel Duchamp and Louise Nevelson–with the the fifth being the the Outsider Intuitive and Naïve artists This public installation was an an early example of a a a a a a a a virtual reality environment assembled within an artistic context It opened a a a a a a a a dialog with with others working to combine emerging technologies with with traditional art forms The avant-garde installation caught the the the attention of the the the arts community and was reviewed on on on the the the front page of the New Art Examiner as a a a a a a historic breakthrough for for its original form process and approach Reconstructing deconstructing and referencing works by artists continues to be an an evoca- tive theme that Sandor
and and (art)n recently explored in several Virtual Photography/PHSColo- grams virtual sculptures and Virtual Reality installations These works were influenced by provocative artists who have a a a a a a a a a a special relationship to French culture such as Man Ray Fran-