'Searching' for a local artistic phenomenon
By Kristin Nehls, Staff Writer
January 31, 2008 | 10:18 a.m.
A soundtrack of eerie radio airwaves, the projection of photographic still frames pulsing hypnotically on the wall and murky darkroom lighting all contribute to Union Arts’ most recent exhibit: local artist Jeffrey Lovett's photography project, "Searching."
Lovett’s installation, which opened Tuesday evening, explores the relevance and existence of satellites in outer space. He shot photographs from different angles and locations, each of them focusing on the sky. His project theorizes that, if gazed at constantly and with the correct reflection of daylight, the sky can produce images of satellites from space.
While some photographs within the exhibit are positioned beneath microscopes for the viewers' closer inspection, thousands more pictures are scattered across tabletops and even crumpled up in garbage cans. Others still are strewn about the floor or hanging from caged fences.
The idea of presenting the photographs in this way was a result of the data overload that this project has reaped. Although the intentional premise of this installation involved that of viewing satellites, the unintentional repercussion involves the idea of an information overload, Lovett said. Rather than merely searching for the virtually invisible, Lovett realized the phenomenon of superfluous results.
“You end up with more data than you can handle, which is obvious here," Lovett said. "I mean, even if there were satellites in 10 of these pictures, you would never be able to find it… it is like data overload, [and] you can’t even handle it [because] it is so much."
It may seem counterproductive to conduct a project with the premise of “searching” while simultaneously destroying or ignoring the very data that could lead to a tangible conclusion, but this is why the ambiguity and interpretation of “Searching” becomes a crucial part of the exhibit. “I think the paranoia of looking for [a satellite] is one of the main concepts he [Lovett] was going for," said Chris McGinnis, a senior at Ohio University. "He is not really trying to capture one, but trying to show the paranoia of always looking up and always thinking that there is something over your head watching you."
Others argue that the distinction of Lovett’s project would be much less effective if not for its presentation. Serving as a magnifying glass of the sky, Lovett’s exhibit seems sinister and mysterious, according to exhibit attendees. Some observers, like OU senior Audry Deal, speculate that the presentation of “Searching” reflects its intentions.
“[The exhibit] has to be this dark area that is not well-lit and is very haphazardly done or else just would not have the same meaning at all,” Deal said.
While the room is certainly aesthetically vast given the thousands upon thousands of pictures that are available, Lovett’s incorporation of auditory satisfaction makes the small, dark Union Arts exhibit feel isolated from the outside world. The artist took it upon himself to find MP3s of real audio airwaves that have been recorded from space satellites, many of which sound quite cryptic. Given the nature of the exhibit's venue, the sound bites make the exhibit feel as though it is a part of an actual supernatural spacecraft.
Two of the most important elements in Lovett's projects are beauty and humanity. Once placed arbitrarily together in the same vicinity, the photographs no longer have any importance individually.
"A lot of [the photographs] are beautiful in their own right, but in the end, it just does not matter," Lovett said.
Correlating with the theme of beauty is the concept of tying humanity into the project’s purpose. “[There is] this whole human element to me of how there are a lot of astronauts up there [in space]… I mean, there are actually people up there,” Lovett said.
Lovett’s inspiration came from the success of his collaborative effort on Biomodd, an interactive project that recently came to an end after its introduction last September. “I started thinking about the project last fall… then [started to seriously consider it] as soon as the Biomodd project came down,” Lovett said.
The idea of installation art prompted the concept of geo-locational photography, as Lovett explained that one creative outlet will often lead to the conception of another. “[The Biomodd project] was an installation work, which I had never really worked on before. I was really able to expand my thinking about what photography can do in installation,” Lovett said.
Overall, "Searching" has a way of taking an otherwise abstract concept with which society does not typically associate itself and making such a concept easier to grasp, understand and appreciate. “The neat thing about that for me is that if you look at the right time, you can prove to yourself, visually, that [satellites] do exist… that they are there," the artist said.
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Lovett’s exhibit, "Searching," will be showing every day from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. until Saturday, Feb. 2, at 15 W. Union St., door 101b.