The Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU was packed when I arrived on Wednesday night.  I decided to spread my coverage over several posts as there’s so much good stuff at the show.

Self-Portrait in Latex by Benjamin Brown was probably the strongest piece in the show in terms of what people might consider "modern" art by today’s standards.

The Self Portrait in the show is different than this photo which does not reflect some changes the artist made with a black border frame and interior lighting.  The latex the center of the self portrait represents the different "pulls" and distortions the artist feels he goes though, and I can relate to it; that’s why this piece, as it stands, was the strongest visually in the show - many of the other works were more conceptual but this one is all object.

Atlas Gloves by Dan Phiffer and Moshe Zer-Aviv looks like a new interactive interface to Google Earth.   I would not be surprised to see Google hire one or both of these artists and there’s a Demo of Atlas Gloves you can watch here.

One of my favorite works in the show is Surface Memory - The Story of a Moment by Arianna Orland whom I spoke with.  Here’s a short movie of Surace Memory - the is a think film of soap (bubble) that serves as a lens for a projected picture - usually black and white; you can manipulate the image by touching or blowing on the thin soap film making a very interesting effect.  I found Arianna’s work intriquing.

Attending the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU is fairly expensive undertaking - a 2 year program, including living expenses probably runs over 100K - and while there’s many types of jobs in interactive marketing and programming one could go to - it’s not at all clear to me that any of the work I saw at the show fits into most advertising or programming jobs that I know of.  I’m sure it does fit somewhere and I have to take my hat (I don’t wear one though) off to students who have undertaken this program because it really is the art of the 21st century.