Contributing Artists - Dana Moser

Artist's Bio:

Dana Moser is a musician and multimedia artist who works in a variety of digital and analog media including film, video, performance, installation and telecommunications. He is currently an associate professor at the Massachusetts College of Art in the Department of Media and Performing Arts' Studio for Interrelated Media.

Moser's films and videotapes have been seen in numerous venues in the United States and abroad.

He has created live events using digital video and performance for The Kitchen, NYC; The International Gartenbauaustellung, Munich; The Visible Language Workshop at M.I.T.; and the 42nd International Venice Biennale. He also orchestrated a satellite-telecast between the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, and The National Museum of Science and Technology, Ottawa.

Since the mid-90's, he has been preoccupied with creating solo and ensemble musical performances ("Adult Children of Heterosexuals" and "Bay Village People") and working with computer-controlled media.

Artist's Statement:

Mr. Moser kindly and gladly agreed to serve as coordinator for a number of the artists creating works for 'Spirited Ruins' after seeing the work being done by the Scientific Computing and Visualization Group at Boston University His own sculpture for the gallery is a reference to pre-Socratic Greek philosophy, in particular the Pythagoreans, as he found "Spirited Ruins" to have an aesthetic kinship with that community's obsession with the spiritual connection between number, proportionality and perfection. A particular 4-on-a-side triangle called the "Tetractys of the Decad" was regarded by them as a symbol of perfection ("10 = 1+2+3+4"), and apparently they swore oaths on it as people use the bible in some contexts today. Mr. Moser is grateful to Gerald Hoyt for doing the 3-D modelling for the piece.

Technical Description:
In physical space, a sensor detects a viewer's proximity to the sculpture and initiates animation of both the physical sculpture (fig 2) and the virtual model (fig1). Animation of the virtual model is accompanied by pre-recorded audio. There is no audio for the physical piece. An avatar's proximity to the virtual piece initiates the same actions in both virtual and physical space.