SIGNALS is a collaborative project between artists Nicolas Sassoon and Rick Silva focusing on immersive audio-visual renderings of altered seascapes and geological forms. Sassoon and Silva share an on-going theme in their individual practices: the depiction of wilderness and natural forms through computer imaging. Created by merging their respective fields of visual research, SIGNALS features oceanic panoramas inhabited by unnatural substances and enigmatic structures. The project draws from sources such as oceanographic surveys, climate studies and science-fiction to create 3D generated video works and installations that reflect on contamination, mutation and future ecologies. SIGNALS past exhibitions include the Centre Pompidou in Paris (France), 150 Media Stream in Chicago (USA), Chronus Art Center in Shanghai (China), House of Electronic Art in Basel (Switzerland), Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (USA), Wil Aballe Art Projects in Vancouver (Canada), Interstitial Theatre in Seattle (USA), Galerie Charlot in Paris (France), Villa Beatrix Enea in Anglet (France), Resonate Festival in Belgrade (Serbia) and GLAS Festival in Berkeley (USA).
SIGNALS 1
Digital animation, panoramic & 16/9 format, 5 minutes, seamless loop, 2015-2020
Minted on demand, custom contract (Manifold), delivered in QuickTime, H265, and H264 format on SSD drive
EDITION OF 3 + 1 ARTIST PROOF - 6 ETH
EDITION 1 OF 3 SOLD
PAST EXHIBITIONS
150 Media Stream, Chicago, USA, 2020
Galerie Georges Pompidou, Anglet, France 2018
Let There Be Light Festival, Seattle, USA, 2018
GLAS Animation Festival, Berkeley, USA, 2018
Interstitial Theatre, Seattle, USA, 2018
NADA, New York, USA, 2018
Current Museum, New York, USA, 2018
Chronus Art Center, Shanghai, China, 2018
House of Electronic Art, Basel, Switzerland, 2017
Resonate Festival, Belgrade, Serbia 2017
Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver, Canada, 2016
Richmond-Adelaide Centre, Toronto, Canada, 2016
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA, 2016
SIGNALS 2
Digital animation, panoramic & 16/9 format, 5 minutes, seamless loop, 2015-2020
Minted on demand, custom contract (Manifold), delivered in QuickTime, H265, and H264 format on SSD drive
EDITION OF 3 + 1 ARTIST PROOF - 6 ETH
PAST EXHIBITIONS
150 Media Stream, Chicago, USA, 2020
Galerie Georges Pompidou, Anglet, France 2018
Let There Be Light Festival, Seattle, USA, 2018
GLAS Animation Festival, Berkeley, USA, 2018
Interstitial Theatre, Seattle, USA, 2018
NADA, New York, USA, 2018
Current Museum, New York, USA, 2018
Chronus Art Center, Shanghai, China, 2018
House of Electronic Art, Basel, Switzerland, 2017
Resonate Festival, Belgrade, Serbia 2017
Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver, Canada, 2016
Richmond-Adelaide Centre, Toronto, Canada, 2016
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA, 2016
SIGNALS 3
Digital animation, panoramic & 16/9 format, 5 minutes, seamless loop, 2015-2020
Minted on demand, custom contract (Manifold), delivered in QuickTime, H265, and H264 format on SSD drive
EDITION OF 3 + 1 ARTIST PROOF - 6 ETH
PAST EXHIBITIONS
150 Media Stream, Chicago, USA, 2020
Galerie Georges Pompidou, Anglet, France 2018
Let There Be Light Festival, Seattle, USA, 2018
GLAS Animation Festival, Berkeley, USA, 2018
Interstitial Theatre, Seattle, USA, 2018
NADA, New York, USA, 2018
Current Museum, New York, USA, 2018
Chronus Art Center, Shanghai, China, 2018
House of Electronic Art, Basel, Switzerland, 2017
Resonate Festival, Belgrade, Serbia 2017
Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver, Canada, 2016
Richmond-Adelaide Centre, Toronto, Canada, 2016
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA, 2016
INTERSTITALS 1 to 4
4 Digital animations, 16/9 format, 2 minutes, 2017
Minted on SuperRare
PAST EXHIBITIONS
GLAS Animation Festival, Berkeley, USA, 2018
Interstitial Theatre, Seattle, USA, 2018
Resonate Festival in Belgrade, Serbia 2017
SIGNALS 4
Digital animation, 16/9 format, 6 minutes, seamless loop, 2017
Minted on demand, custom contract (Manifold), delivered in QuickTime, H265, and H264 format on SSD drive
EDITION OF 3 + 1 ARTIST PROOF - 6 ETH
PAST EXHIBITIONS
GLAS Animation Festival, Berkeley, USA, 2018
Interstitial Theatre, Seattle, USA, 2018
Galerie Georges Pompidou, Anglet, France 2018
Resonate Festival in Belgrade, Serbia 2017
RIPPLES (sample)
Digital animation, 16/9 format, 4 minutes, seamless loop, 2017
Minted on demand, custom contract (Manifold), delivered in QuickTime, H265, and H264 format on SSD drive
UNIQUE - 5 ETH
PAST EXHIBITIONS
Galerie Georges Pompidou, Anglet, France 2018
GLAS Animation Festival, Berkeley, USA, 2018
Resonate Festival in Belgrade, Serbia 2017
SIGNALS 5
Digital animation, 16/9 format, 4 minutes, seamless loop, 2018
Minted on demand, custom contract (Manifold), delivered in QuickTime, H265, and H264 format on SSD drive
EDITION OF 3 + 1 ARTIST PROOF - 6 ETH
PAST EXHIBITIONS
Rua Red, Dublin, Ireland, 2018
GLAS Animation Festival, Berkeley, USA, 2018
Galerie Georges Pompidou, Anglet, France 2018
INTERSTITIALS 5
Digital animation, 16/9 format, 2 minutes, seamless loop, 2018
Minted on demand, custom contract (Manifold), delivered in QuickTime, H265, and H264 format on SSD drive
UNIQUE - 5 ETH
PAST EXHIBITIONS
Rua Red, Dublin, Ireland, 2018
GLAS Animation Festival, Berkeley, USA, 2018
Galerie Georges Pompidou, Anglet, France 2018
SIGNALS 6
Digital animation, 16/9 format, 4 minutes, seamless loop, 2017
Minted on demand, custom contract (Manifold), delivered in QuickTime, H265, and H264 format on SSD drive
EDITION OF 3 + 1 ARTIST PROOF - 6 ETH
PAST EXHIBITIONS
CIVIC Hotel, Surrey, Canada, 2018
Galerie Georges Pompidou, Anglet, France 2018
INTERVIEW WITH YUGE ZHOU, 2020
Can you tell us more about each of your contributions to this project and your respective fields of research? How did your collaboration come about?
SIGNALS began as an experiment in 2014, when we decided to collaborate on a first project online to be published on a net-art platform. Prior to this, we were aware and interested in each other’s practice, which led to conversations and eventually, to the collaboration. We share a strong common interest for landscape and wilderness in our respective practices, although it manifests differently in each of our visual work. Rick’s work often employs realistic 3D rendering to manifest landscapes, life forms and structures at the intersection of the real, the speculative and the virtual. On the other hand, my (Nicolas) interests for landscape and natural forces manifest through digital abstraction, where pixelated textures and moiré patterns become a visual vocabulary to create works that oscillate between abstraction and figuration. There is a form of distance between the different visual languages that we each use in our individual works, and SIGNALS is an opportunity to combine these visual forms. Typically, we conceptualize the works together through conversations and experimentations. Rick brings a sense of realism to the landscapes while I bring a sense of digital abstraction through textural components within the scenes. In terms of production, Rick tends to manage the production of the video works, while I tend to handle the installation of the works in space, but we remain both very involved at all stages of conception and production.
The visual representation of “Signals” is sublime and spectacular, yet the project draws from scientific sources such as climate studies which are factual. How did that research impact the direction of the aesthetics?
Our main axis of research in SIGNALS is centered on the notion of landscape as a construct, an “in-between”; between reality and fiction, factual and speculative, natural and man-made, between temporalities. We also both live in the Pacific North West and we wanted to use the natural landscapes surrounding us as a starting point, in particular the North Pacific Ocean. This led us to document a wide range of content relating to the ocean; scientific research and imagery, environmental phenomena, 3D renderings, resources extraction visualizations, etc. We eventually created a documentation blog to keep track of all the notable elements we came across. The title of the project also hints at what we look for when we consult our documentation: signs, foreign elements within a natural setting, signifying a form of alteration or change. Looking at nature today, these signs are almost always present within the landscapes - sometimes obviously and sometimes enigmatically - they are significant of our experiences of nature and wilderness in the Anthropocene. In that regard, SIGNALS is informed as much by scientific studies as it is by fictional elements: we deconstruct and reconfigure elements of the landscape, and we integrate our own foreign elements along the way.
The 3D animation gives the water a sense of uncanny, artificial sensibility which is very interesting. How do you see the relationship/tension between the representation of nature and the unnaturalness of computer-generated images?
3D animation and rendering offer the possibility to create highly realistic natural settings, but what we are most interested in is to generate a confusion in what is perceived as natural. Each work is conceived as a balancing act and tension between a sense of reality and a sense of uncanny. We use physics inspired by nature for the settings of each work – to render the liquid motions, the reflections, the atmospheric depth – then we include a dissonant element within this setting. This dissonant element is almost always a textural component which brings a sense of abstraction in an otherwise very realistic looking landscape. We compose each work in regards to the presence and role of this element - its relationship to the setting – and we try to keep this relationship open-ended, so there isn't just one way to interpret the environment depicted in the work. The point of view is also a very important factor since it greatly determines the experience of the work during exhibitions, the scale at which the landscape unfolds in space and the place of the viewer within that represented space.
How did you arrive upon the concept for the audio and what is its relationship to the visual?
The presence of sound in the works goes back to what one may encounter when facing a real ocean horizon visually, sonically and in terms of experience. The sound for each artwork was created using low and medium sound wave frequencies, in resonance with the waves pictured on screen and also reminiscent of meditation soundtracks. The incorporation of sound pushes the experience of the works towards something more meditative and contemplative, eventually linking to the notion of mindscape, which is another form of landscape leaning towards the abstract and the ethereal.
ARTISTS BIOS
Nicolas Sassoon is a Franco-Canadian artist using early computer graphics to create a wide array of pixelated forms & figures, moiré patterns & architectural structures. His work has long been concerned with the tensions between the pixel and the screen, reflecting on their entanglement and materiality by constraining himself to experiment with pixelated patterns and figures as his sole visual language. This focus on early computer graphics is driven by the sculptural, material and pictorial qualities of this imagery, as well as its limitations and its poetics. Sassoon’s work also manifests in physical space as sculptures, prints, and monumental projections scaled to the architecture in context, generating experiences adjusted to the human body. At large, Sassoon’s practice relates to many histories of abstraction in painting, optical art, moving image and computer graphics. Nicolas Sassoon currently lives between Canada and France. His work has been exhibited at The Whitney Museum of American Art (US), Eyebeam (US), Current Museum (US), Vancouver Art Gallery (CA), Plugin ICA (CA), Contemporary Art Gallery (CA), Charles H.Scott Gallery (CA), Western Front (CA), PRETEEN Gallery (MX), Victoria & Albert Museum (UK), the Centre d’Art Bastille (FR), House of Electronic Arts Basel (SW), Kunsthalle Langenthal (SW), Arti et Amicitiae (NL), MU Eindhoven (NL) , Today Art Museum (CN), Chronus art Center (CN), the Berlin Fashion Week (DE) and the New-York Fashion Week (US).
Rick Silva is a Brazilian-American artist whose videos, websites, and installations explore virtuality, futurology, and speculative ecologies. His work has been exhibited at institutions including The Centre Pompidou, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and The Whitney Museum of American Art. He has been featured in Artforum, Wired, and Rhizome’s Net Art Anthology. Silva lives in Eugene, Oregon where he is an Associate Professor at The University of Oregon.