Tamás Waliczky's Digital Cosmologies: Reuniting Camera and World in Virtual Documentaries
Since the late 1980s, Tamás Waliczky has been a trailblazer in the realm of computer-generated art. His notable creations, such as "The Garden" (1992), "The Forest" (1993), "The Way" (1994), along with more recent works like "Landscape," "Sculpture," and "Focus" (1999), delve into virtual environments. In "Focus," users engage with a layered photograph consisting of 98 layers, uncovering hidden networks via camera manipulation. Waliczky pushes the boundaries of new media by employing unique perspectives, such as a water-drop view in "The Garden" and a cylindrical view in "The Forest." He partners with programmers to develop specialized 3-D software, transforming the camera into a tool for perception and knowledge, while his art reveals how digital culture spatializes representations.
Key facts
- Tamás Waliczky has worked with computers since before it became fashionable in art
- His works include "The Garden" (1992), "The Forest" (1993), "The Way" (1994), "Landscape," "Sculpture," and "Focus"
- "Focus" (1999) is his first work designed from the ground up to be interactive
- Waliczky creates custom 3-D software with programmers to implement unique perspectival systems
- He rejects linear one-point perspective, using water-drop, cylindrical, and reverse perspectives instead
- His virtual camera and world function as a single system, reuniting perception with material reality
- "Focus" contains 98 Photoshop layers representing people and buildings in Waliczky's network
- Waliczky's work is compared to ancient cosmologists and modernist filmmakers like Eisenstein and Vertov
Entities
Artists
- Tamás Waliczky
- Lev Manovich
- Sergei Eisenstein
- Dziga Vertov
- Jan Olsson
- Timothy Druckery
- Michael Sand
Institutions
- Zentrum für Kunst und Medien
- University of California Press
- Aperture
- ARTMargins Online
Locations
- Karlsruhe
- San Diego
- Berkeley
- New York