Pictures of… works longlisted for the Lumen digital art prize

55 works by artists from 15 countries have been selected for the longlist of The Lumen Prize for Digital Art 2016, an international open competition with a total prize fund of $11,000, now in its fifth year.

Longlisted artists are in the running for a number of prizes – including the $3,000 Gold Award and several $1,000 media-specific awards – as well the chance to be included in the Lumen Prize global tour, which in previous years has visited cities such as New York, Shanghai and Hong Kong, as well as venues around the UK. Prize winners and artists shortlisted for the tour will be announced in September.

A number of UK-based artists and artist duos are included in the longlist, six of which are featured here. All longlisted works are eligible for The People’s Choice Award, an online vote that opens in August.

Jason Revell, Icon (above)
Jason Revell’s images of sculpted forms  appear as if photographed in a studio or gallery setting, but are in fact entirely fictitious objects rendered in CGI.

Revell says he is interested in the contradictory meanings that are instilled in these forms once they are placed within the visual framework of photographic documentation, and the conflict that lies in our initial acceptance of these images as photographs of real objects.

“Once the visual deceit has been realised, the meaning of the images becomes unclear,” he explains. “The intent is to make the viewer question their initial interpretation and then re-engage with the image afresh.”

Seb Lee-Delisle, Laser Light Synths (top)
Sec Lee-Delisle’s Laser Light Synths is an interactive outdoor light installation that gives participants the chance to feel the exhilaration of performing live music.

The work features four custom-made super bright LED emblazoned synthesisers that have been designed to use a carefully selected musical scale so that they remain perfectly in harmony with each other.

“There are no wrong notes!” explains Lee-Delisle. “These musical instruments remove all barriers – now everyone can express their individual musicality.”

Mark Eaglen, Transmission Call
Transmission Call is a holographic sculpture of a 1970s-inspired television rotating beneath a high lumen light source.

“The form presented within the hologram is derived from my explorations and experiments within video feedback,” says artist Mark Eaglen. “This has subsequently been through several responsive processes until it has reached the screen of the sculpture, seeking to break through and feedback into the impossible space [that] surrounds it.”

Tom Szirtes and Iain Nicholls, Veil
Veil is virtual reality work that references early film making, fairgrounds, and the paintings of Velazquez, David Fredrick and Holbein.

The site-specific installation includes a cardboard model house sitting on a plinth and a virtual reality headset which the visitor is invited to wear.

Szirtes and Nicholls explain that the use of virtual reality is designed to “transport visitors into an alternate reality where they can experience art in new and extraordinary ways”.

Rachel Ara, D.O.A.M IV (The Death of Ana Mendieta)
D.O.A.M IV (The Death of Ana Mendieta) by Rachel Ara is a large-scale CAD rendering representing the scene of the death of the artist Ana Mendieta, who fell from the window of her 34th floor apartment in New York in unexplained circumstances on 8 September 1985 at around 05:30. Her husband, Carl Andre, was later tried and acquitted of her murder.

Ara’s work, which shows the spot where Mendieta died an hour after the removal of the body, was created based on witness accounts, meteorological, astronomical, and other collated data.

Thomas Lisle and Valera Alakhov, Transformher
Thomas Lisle and Valera Alakhov say their animation Transformher is concerned with the timeless subject of the human figure and the ability of digital brush strokes to ‘transform’ and be ‘driven’ by other information.

They explain: “The motif of psychological change in the art work is in reference to Karl Jung’s theory of the anima, the inner feminine side in man; and animus, the inner masculine side of women. Jung identified 4 stages of development of the anima and animus, all of which are represented in the video.”

Shortlisted works for the 2016/17 Lumen Prize tour will be announced in early September. Overall prize winners, along with the winner of the Peoples Choice Award, will be announced on 29 September in London. lumenprize.com

Images:
1. Seb Lee-Delisle, Laser Light Synths
2. Jason Revell, Icon
3. Mark Eaglen, Transmission Call
4. Tom Szirtes and Iain Nicholls, Veil
5. Rachel Ara, D.O.A.M IV (The Death of Ana Mendieta)
6. Thomas Lisle and Valera Alakhov, Transformher

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