{"id":960,"date":"2017-03-08T09:25:36","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T09:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/?p=960"},"modified":"2017-03-08T09:25:36","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T09:25:36","slug":"jon-rafman-at-spruth-magers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/2017\/03\/08\/jon-rafman-at-spruth-magers\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Rafman at Spr\u00fcth Magers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This weekend I visited the art gallery Spr\u00fcth Magers in LA&#8217;s Miracle Mile, where they were hosting an installation by Montr\u00e9al artist Jon Rafman. Rafman&#8217;s work delves into the odd, and often abject realms of the Internet, dissecting how sub-cultures are formed and psychologically manifested. His work is manifested in the technological, and aims to find different ways of engaging art through emerging technologies.<\/p>\n<p>The gallery had three separate pieces, the first called <em>Poor Magic<\/em> (2016), is a video projection of different computer generated crowd simulations. The CGI characters run into walls and get swept up by pendulums, moving together with uncanny and rather silly mechanics. The whole experience is made even more uncomfortable as Rafman designed grotesque benches for viewers to sit on while watching the film. The chairs look as though they are made of strange, alien flesh &#8211; making the experience all the more alienating. By making these chairs, Rafman seems to replicate the sense of being a spectator in a movie theater, yet tweaks it, making this seemingly familiar act foreign. Another piece, <em>Open Heart Warrior<\/em> (2016) uses three video screens to surround the viewer with lush and graphic video game imagery. As this video seemed more traditional and static, I noticed less people taking the time to sit and view its full-length.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-961\" src=\"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/IMG_4800-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/IMG_4800-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/IMG_4800-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/IMG_4800-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-962\" src=\"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/IMG_4801-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/IMG_4801-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/IMG_4801-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/IMG_4801-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the final piece, <em>Transdimensional Serpent<\/em> (2016), one gets to wear an Oculus Rift to experience a Virtual Reality art space. I waited with others in a line to get to try out the VR, something I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve ever had to do in a museum setting. But once it was my turn, I was fully immersed in the VR environment. The video itself depicted several different &#8220;transdimensional&#8221; environments, and turned the bench I was sitting on into a large white serpent eating its own tail. The video very playfully messed with my sense of space; in one instance figures approaching me grew to much larger proportions than expected. The use of VR technology in an art gallery created a new kind of intimacy, that at once built a space unto myself and took me out of the space I previously inhabited. While this was a particularly art-minded space, it led me to think about how VR would be used in another museum setting. I believe the technology does not lend itself to realistic spaces, but rather succeeds in placing someone in a surreal or absurd environment not previously possible.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-963\" src=\"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/Screen-Shot-2017-03-08-at-1.24.31-AM-300x229.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"229\" srcset=\"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/Screen-Shot-2017-03-08-at-1.24.31-AM-300x229.png 300w, http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/Screen-Shot-2017-03-08-at-1.24.31-AM-768x586.png 768w, http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/Screen-Shot-2017-03-08-at-1.24.31-AM-1024x781.png 1024w, http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/Screen-Shot-2017-03-08-at-1.24.31-AM.png 1364w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-964\" src=\"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/Screen-Shot-2017-03-08-at-1.24.08-AM-300x150.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/Screen-Shot-2017-03-08-at-1.24.08-AM-300x150.png 300w, http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/Screen-Shot-2017-03-08-at-1.24.08-AM-768x383.png 768w, http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/Screen-Shot-2017-03-08-at-1.24.08-AM-1024x511.png 1024w, http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/03\/Screen-Shot-2017-03-08-at-1.24.08-AM.png 1386w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This weekend I visited the art gallery Spr\u00fcth Magers in LA&#8217;s Miracle Mile, where they were hosting an installation by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}