A digital tool created for this year’s Lumiere Arts Festival in Sydney, New South Wales attempts to answer questions that may be on visitors’ minds, such as:
Is it really art?
Eric Rorty teaches at a school in Sydney aimed at supporting aspiring technology entrepreneurs and has developed a website and accompanying gallery exhibition called IZIDART?.
He said the idea for the project came from conversations with colleagues in the technology industry “about the fact that we don’t have access to art.”
“We write code. We’re programmers,” Rorty said.
“Are websites art? Are video games art? Are things that we think are beautiful considered art?
“Those aren’t things you typically see in a gallery environment, so we thought, ‘Okay, let’s find a way to quantify that.'”
Eric Rorty said the website’s content will be built overnight in response to audience feedback. (Holly Connors/CBC)
“This is not art”
He asked about a dozen non-artists to submit works to be displayed in the temporary gallery.
“A friend of mine is building something huge out of plywood and cardboard,” Rorty said.
It will also include found items, such as a $24.99 canvas by Winners that simply says, “This is not art.”
Visitors are provided with a website accessible on their mobile phones where they can find images of the works in the gallery.
“They can click on the artwork on their phone and be able to add comments, vote and rate it,” he said.
Rorty said the content on the website will be built overnight in response to audience feedback.
Art “About relationships”
Organizers expect between 8,000 and 10,000 people to attend Lumiere Festival, which will be held downtown Saturday night. This year’s exhibit includes a pop-up dim sum restaurant and a 22.7-meter spine sculpture.
Event and Outreach Coordinator Sarah Ross said, “IZIDART?” This project is perfect for a contemporary art festival.
“Contemporary art is really about relationships; what happens between the artist, the work, and the audience,” Ross said.
“I think sometimes, as an audience, we feel like we don’t have a right to an opinion, especially when we’re not educated in the arts and we don’t know anything about the artist.
“One of the great things about this project is that we’re making the entire conversation public.”
Rorty said there are no plans to develop the project beyond Lumiere events, but he thinks it has potential for use in galleries and public spaces where art is sold.
Regardless of whether his project is considered art or not, he said he just wants to “promote calm discussion about something that everyone has different opinions on.”
