| Q: |
You’ve said you consider yourself an “artist
and programmer.” When did you begin programming? Was it
a separate interest from your other creative pursuits? When
and how did the concept for light and sound sculptures emerge
for you? |
| LV: |
I began programming when I was about fourteen on my Apple
II+, producing simple graphics and sound routines. In graduate
school at the Interactive Telecommunications Program (NYU),
I got into multimedia. I worked extensively with Macromedia
Director, VPL’s Body Electric (early virtual reality authoring
software), and several microcontroller systems. I feel like
it took me several years to figure out what tools I wanted to
use and to become proficient with them. I program because that
is what I need to do to make my work. I see the art and programming
as completely integrated. I started working with sound when
I was a member of the research staff at Interval Research.
I had access to many kinds of tracking systems I would link
to elaborate speaker arrays.
My first light work was produced for the Burning Man festival
(www.burningman.com) as a navigational aid. It is very disorienting
in the desert and it was a kind of beacon or star visible
for miles that helped me get back to my camp at night.
|
| Q: |
Because of the technical demands of the work, it
would seem you must have a very clear idea of how you want the
piece to communicate before you even start producing it. Is
this the case or do the pieces evolve more gradually as production
progresses? |
| LV: |
There are certain basic technologies I’ve had to
develop to do my work -- simple circuits that turn lights
on and off or dim them, for instance. I use these in many
different pieces. I first determine how the lights will be
configured and then begin finding patterns and sequences within
that arrangement. I feel like I need to keep things as open
as possible and, on some level, let the work make itself.
I often find strange artifacts that are caused by the layout
or the circuit itself that I build into the final piece. I
am always surprised at what emerges in the end.
|
| Q: |
Do you enjoy watching people interact with the pieces?
Have you witnessed any unusual/unexpected responses to the work? |
| LV: |
I very much enjoy seeing how people interact with the work.
My piece, Sound Box, was an interactive sound installation in
the form of an eight-foot cube that participants would enter.
Reclining inside a pitch black and foam-covered interior, they
would explore a sonic terrain by moving their bodies. A video
image of their activity, captured by an infrared camera used
as part of the tracking system, was projected on the wall outside
the cube. It was fascinating to see how people’s understanding
of the experience and body language would evolve as they spent
more time inside the piece.
|
| Q: |
You’ve participated in (and arranged) several
very well received group shows, like the “Massless Medium”
show in the Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage, which employed a strong
overarching concept tying the experience of several individual
pieces by individual artists together for the audience. Do you
enjoy that type of collaboration? Do you even see it as collaborative
since one would assume your primary focus would be how your
piece(s) will be presented? |
| LV: |
Massless Medium was a great show and it was very satisfying
to work with Creative
Time, whose vision made the show as tight as it was. It
is always nice be in a context in which each individual artist’s
work resonates with the next and the sum of its parts adds up
to something bigger and more unexpected. In the summer of 2001,
I organized a show at White
Columns called Synth. It was my first curatorial experience
and I learned a lot by putting together a group of artists and
presenting our work as a larger whole.
|
| Q: |
Your work often includes music/audio elements. Do
you create the sound elements as well as the visual or do you
collaborate with someone? How do you see the audio fitting into
the overall experience of a piece? |
| LV: |
I am interested in creating immersive experiences. I like
making art you get inside of. Sound is very helpful in producing
this effect. I have made my own sound installations and have
also collaborated with other artists to design soundscapes for
specific pieces and shows.
|
| Q: |
Theater practitioners often refer to the audience
as the final element essential to completing and enabling a
theatrical experience. In your own work you have created specific
spaces for the viewer to fit into various pieces rather than
simply stand apart from them. How important is the interaction
of the viewer to your work? |
| LV: |
I love making a place for the viewer. Often this involves
creating customized installations and seating that physically
alters the position of a viewer’s (or listener’s)
body. It’s all about creating an experience and that
can’t happen without an audience.
|
| Q: |
You’ve installed pieces in many environments
(clubs, galleries, commercial buildings) and even encouraged
people to use your light boxes as furniture. Are you interested
in interior design? |
| LV: |
I am interested in putting my work in a lot of different
environments, not just art contexts. I want to participate in
a larger world and it seems that many boundaries are blurring.
I will be working on more public art projects in the future.
|
| Q: |
In your upcoming show at Conner Contemporary, you
are including several of your light sculptures. How did you
decide which pieces to include and how would you characterize
the theme of the show? |
| LV: |
The first consideration is space, what will fit and what
feels right. I am very concerned with giving each piece enough
room to “breathe.” Each light work has its own
personality and I am careful to manage what goes where. The
show at Conner Contemporary covers a lot of terrain -- from
my early strobe sculptures to pieces that use light bulbs
and finally my newest work with LEDs -- that I think will
demonstrate a range of what’s possible with sequenced
light.
|
A reception for the artist will be held on Friday, November 1 from
7-9 pm. The show runs through December 4. The strobe installation
will be viewable until midnight.
