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Paulina Kolczynska, Art Historian/Advisor talks with
Fernando J. Pando, Algorithmic Architecture, New Media Artist

Paulina Kolczynska: What were your first works of art ? Do you have any background or interests in sound art?

FJP: My first exhibited work was a series of Photocollages which examined identity and sexuality. They were on display at the 1999 SUNY @ Albany Exhibition. I have worked with electronic music my whole life.

PK: The reason I have decided to highlight your past interest because in some very distinctive ways they have found new life in your current work. Please describe your current project.

FJP: The perpetual machine takes video and audio input, and reorganizes the raw data so as to create new “soundimages” that continually change over time. The audio informs the video and the video informs the audio in realtime. The work never repeats. The soundimages continually grow and change, perpetually evolving for infinity. The soundimages can be used to gain a new perspective on the core input. This cut-up process provides insight into the disjointed quality of the superdense oversaturated urban landscape of image representation bombardment.

PK: So in fact you have created two types of images: visual impressions and sound images in which interraction perpetuates creation of new artwork each time that the audio interferes with the video image. This is a very interesting example of a so called "open ended work of art" so characteristic of the direction of art in our still very young XXI century. What also interets me is the almost tactile quality created by this specific interraction between audio & video. Was this intentional?

FJP: Yes. The work is an examination of the sensory input within an environment. In the current version of the machine, the input is related to the Bland Housing Project in Queens, NY, which is full of visual, aural, and tactile stimuli. As urban dwellers, we continually block out sensory information, so this is a way to examine what we unconsciously block out. This machine allowed me to gain a better perspective on the site, which was the raw material for my proposed architectural intervention of the Bland Housing Project. (www.blandmutations.net)

PK: It seems to me that your artwork turned out to be a powerful means of redefining specific space by giving the viewer a new set of eyes. It is almost as if we were given an extra set of abilities which help us uncover what usually remains unseen or unheard. We use one set of senses (ears) in the area which we are used to using others (eyes) that permits this very different perspective. It is a great idea. Inversion which helped to define a space. Is it then correct to say that in fact "this is the space / the architecure" which paradoxically remains in the center of this work?

FJP: I created the machine to be able to “see” underlying themes at work at the site that were not visible by the naked ear/eye, so in this regard it is a success. By giving the viewer a perspective they have not yet been conditioned to ignore (as is necessary in our culture of interwoven representation), the viewer can perceive the raw input through a new perspective. My intention is to feed other cultural phenomenon into the machine in the hopes that new insight can be extracted. I am currently working on a new version of the machine that examines the space of global politics and the American consciousness.

PK: I am very pleased to having this opportunity to talking to you and we will have in depth conversation about it at the Chelsea Art Museum on February 8 in a presentation entitled :"Collecting the New Classics". There is also a video available on The Project Room website at www.TheProjectRoom.org