Exhibition May 31-July 29, 2001
Thursday-Sunday 1-6pm
Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage


Andreas Angelidakis with nanogod, Antenna Design, Erwin Redl, Marco Brambilla, Liz Phillips/Anney Bonney, Francisco López, Leo Villareal

Massless Medium features seven ambitious, site-specific installations by a group of international artists who create media environments that shift our experience of space and time, blurring the boundaries between body and environment, solid and immaterial, immersion and isolation, disorientation and the sublime. Using both technology's basic building blocks and new hybrid configurations, the artists reference and expand upon the minimalist and ambient work of 1960's and 70's artists like John Cage, Dan Flavin, and James Turrell. The work in Massless Medium sensitizes and disarms, forcing us to re-examine our relationship with our environment in an increasingly technological world.

Andreas Angelidakis is an architect who has designed future homes based on NASA's Bioplex, transformed a storefront into an "office for future information" and designed many other spaces, virtual and land-bound. The artist uses technology to explore how structures can reflect or deflect both their environment and usage. Angelidakis' installation, My Anchorage, features a component by nanogod and gives a projected tour of a virtual "non-place", expanding the viewer's imagination and relationship to the Anchorage.

Masamichi Udagawa and Sigi Moeslinger, Antenna Design, introduce Firefly, a project consisting of skeletal, self-illuminated objects staggered throughout the Anchorage. By holding a wireless device (Palm OS) over each piece, the viewer (through infrared "beaming") will see effects associated with the particular object such as rippling water from a skeletal faucet. In addition, the duo provides a grassy slope intended for viewer relaxation and contemplation.

Erwin Redl heightens visual awareness with Matrix IV by creating an illusory, radiant space with his grid of thousands of red and blue LED lights. Over the last three years, in an attempt to liberate the temporal and visual effects of his computer-generated work from the confines of the monitor, Redl has used LEDs (a building block of digital imaging) as a sculptural medium.

Marco Brambilla's Arcadia consists of two, four meter-high monolithic metal towers containing plasma screens that take the viewer on a visceral ride of one of the world's largest roller coasters, Millennium Force. Combined with a soundtrack of mechanical sounds of the ascent and screams from the descent, viewers experience speed, time and movement without actually moving.

Anney Bonney and Liz Phillips, video and sound artists respectively,present Shaded Bandwidths, an interactive video and sound environment that explores the phenomenon of "ghosting" (the interference of radio transmissions by architectural and geological formations). In this dramatic installation of large screens, viewers trigger ghosting with their movements, subtly effecting the projected video and sound.

Sonic architect, Francisco López, presents Buildings [New York]; a sound installation composed of field recordings of white noise in New York City buildings. By recording and integrating sounds in our collective environment - e.g. from boiler rooms, light fixtures, and air filters - López transforms peripheral noise into an encompassing physiological experience.

Leo Villareal presents Firmament, a ceiling-mounted light sculpture composed of strobe lights arranged in concentric rings. The lights are sequenced into constellation-like, animated patterns. Viewers recline beneath the lights and ponder the artist's use of the synthetic matter to mimic the organic and transcendent.

Adjunct Events:

June 13
An evening of music and readings with The Paris Review, hosted by George Plimpton.

The Paris Review celebrated the new writers issue (#158) with a summer revel in collaboration with Creative Time at the Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage. Beginning at 8 p.m., George Plimpton introduced writers Jim Carroll (reading from Basketball Diaries), Denis Johnson (reading from Car Crash While Hitch-Hiking), Rick Moody (reading from Twister) and Helen Schulman (reading from Revisionist). Music by Carol C. (Luaka Bop) followed.

June 20
A special performance by sonic architect, Francisco López, followed by a discussion about the Massless Medium exhibition between its artists and writer, Christoph Cox. The event was co-hosted by Cabinet Magazine.