The World's Greatest Bar Chart is an explorable "cyberpainting"
created by artist Roz Dimon. What makes this multimedia artwork significant
is that it succeeds in transcending the inherent limitations of its medium:
the computer medium is to a large extent defined by its mathematical component
and logic, and lacks the sensuality of a mood created by a painterly gesture
on canvas. As the underlying structure of Dimon's multimedia painting, the
bar chart alludes to this mathematical component and symbolizes a human
desire to understand the world on the basis of comparative analysis and
measurement. Although the cyberpainting's enigmatic interface is based on
the structure of a traditional bar chart, it invokes a distinctly sensory
quality through the use of images, color and sound. The multimedia painting
may be explored by clicking on areas hyperlinked to metamorphosizing images
that are accompanied by an erratic mixture of commentary and sounds. The
x- and y-axes of the bar chart allow you to choose between an array of music
and sounds-among them electronic signals, a crowd, water and birds-that
overlap with the sounds accompanying the images, and thus influence the
perception of what you see.
In an effective way, Dimon's bar chart juxtaposes our desire for analysis
and measurement with the relativity of our perception and of our process
of creating meaning. Although the chart succeeds in defying any kind of
categorization, its four bars can roughly be said to represent different
themes. The clickable areas of the fourth bar link to sense organs and sensory
stimuli: `variations' on lips and pills, changing color patterns or whiteness.
The second bar thematically connects to the fourth by providing ironic metacommentary
on the sensory in art-it compares representations of noses, e.g. in the
paintings of da Vinci and Van Gogh. The connection between the first and
third bar consists in their play with symbols. Bar no. 1 combines the dissolving
and blending of flags as national symbols with a commentary on "men
in suits", while bar no. 3 is a twist on the `countable', such as money
or "Today's winning numbers."
Surrounding the four bars are areas that, once clicked, connect to elements of nature, such as the weather,
water and trees. Once again Dimon plays with the desire to measure the elements,
e.g. by combining pixelated images reminiscent of weather maps with a reading
of the weather forecast. In her "Artist's Statement," Dimon declares,
"I emphasize the pixel to make an electronic statement about an electronic
world." Beyond emphasizing the pixel, her cyberpainting expands the
horizon of the electronic world: it celebrates the evocative and sensual
in the artistic use of a technology that is traditionally associated with
the realm of ones and zeroes.
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