Game Art: Joy Ndidi Adebayo's “You Are What We Say" (2012)
Joy Ndidi Adebayo's new installation, “You Are What We Say”, is comprised of several large LED screens connected to a camera array. The screens replicate how people are behaving in front of them, somewhat like a large digital mirror. The Watch Dogs wikia adds that "This piece represents all the existent data in the world and how it can be represented in the digital world, or even recreated. Adebayo expects that the viewers will find it both exciting and frightening." The installation is featured in the upcoming videogame Watch Dogs, by Ubisoft, which will be released in 2013. In case you are not familiar with Adebayo's work, here's a short bio:
"Joy Ndidi Adebayo is an artist that contributed to Dot ConneXion expo. Adebayo was born in Nigeria, and moved to Chicago when was 5, as soon as the occupation of her parents were both about digital interactivity and history, being raised in that environment shaped Adebayo's world view more than anything else."
In an interview hosted on the memorial site Dot ConneXion for the philantrophist Joseph De Marco - who was shot dead by Aiden Pearce - Ndidi Adebayo spoke about her key influences:
"Visually, I have to start with Nam June Paik’s pioneering work in video art. I’ve always been amazed by his ability to fuse sculpture with moving images in a way that communicates such grand ideas. Tim White-Sobieski has been an important influence on how I perceive both space and light. The music of John Cage and Brian Eno have also had an impact on how I think about visual art; their work in ambient soundscapes and the musicality of silence opened my thinking into entirely new realms. And finally, I credit the author William Gibson, whose book Idoru fundamentally changed my perception of what it means to be a “person”." (Ndidi Adebayo)
My favorite bit in the interview is the epilogue, when Ndidi Adebayo says:
"For the record, I think the term “social media” is ridiculous. All media is inherently social. What could be more social than the exchange of ideas, regardless of the method of that exchange? If I am able to play any part in the death of that phrase, I will consider my life a success." (Ndidi Adebayo)LINK:
Joy Ndidi Adebayo
Submitted by Matteo Bittanti (via Aram Bartholl)