 Pygoya
(Dr. Rodney Chang)
'Sonic II' by Laurie Spiegel
I have been practicing and promoting
"computer art" since 1985. Much of my thoughts are
documented on my personal "diary/library" of writings,
thoughts as a working artist, and predictions about digital art
@- http://www.lastplace.com/page49.htm. I go by Pygoya and not
Dr. Rodney Chang as a web artist. My favorite works were recently installed into a brand new VRML (3D) museum ~ cyberart in the true sense, as the virtual museums provide a multi-level cultural experience to viewers, providing an ambiance in which to review Retrospectives of my work. Now works don't merely float as jpegs files centered on the monitor but are psychologically within exhibit space, and even that space itself is a jpeg work of art! The "Soho Too" Museum houses about 75 "cyberpaintings" online. These are 3rd generation images, scanned from photographs of original hand-painted canvases and based upon original digital imagery (period of effort: 1985-97). Then there is the 3D Pygoya Museum with more recent pure digital works: 1997-2001. More precisely, they are "cyberart". I don't call myself a "digital artist" anymore but a "cyberist". We cyberists create art for the sheer joy of sharing our works on the Web, literally providing lst generation virtual art for world cyberspace's cyberculture. It is an identified mission that I continually promote, as with the recent East Hawaii Art Center global cyberart exhibition, which I curated. The images below are screen grabs ~ ed.)        Why "Soho too"? Well, from 1980-85 I supported and lived in a warehouse gallery in NYC. It had graffiti on the walls like any industrial building in old New York City, and was called the "SOHO too Gallery & Loft" ~ suggesting by the title that avant garde and revolutionary art was displayed here, not scenic tourist art like other local galleries. Of course the other galleries continued to sell well and I lost a fortune for this cause. My first computer art and paintings were exhibited in this warehouse gallery ~ a bit of Pygoyan history. PC fine arts started back then in 1985 and I was well received nationally in securing shows promoting this new "computer art" among fellow Americans. I have passed through life stations of working in paint, photography, ceramics, bronze sculpture, mixed media, art installation and performance (dancing). To cap this, I've now logged 16 years as a digital artist. I hate mistakes in published history and am a bit of a fanatic for correction in this arena. I believe in taking charge of my own art historical destiny, unlike other artists, like Van Gogh and Picasso, who relied too much on critics/historians interpretation of just what they accomplished. Browsers of The IDEA will hopefully conclude that my art goes beyond the pictorial "frame" as I try to be truly multimedia with a diverse range of aesthetically and creatively controlled works and situations. For example, there's my world-renowned disco-dental clinic environment (TV: national US, Europe, Australia, Japan), and now my Earthberth.com and Eobituary.com 'alternative' or "supplementary" to actual cemetery burial and memorial. I am pretty sure that nobody from the Death & Dying industry has come up with the most imaginative element of MY eobituary.com ~ actual "for sale" 3D virtual burial plots (artists have to derive income from their works too!). If anything, others probably have standard memorial pages with picture of person and text information ~ standard HTML stuff. I am using state of the art VRML software with custom work by company programmers ~ Copyrighted. I now have my "renovated" VRML museums completed. Next is the 3d cemetery. So what's after that? Well, next will be the building (by me) of a virtual city that will include the museums and the cemetery. Hey, where else but in cyberspace can you FIRST build the cemetery and then later the town? I hope to build a community of homes with interactivity to each other and within their 3D house domain on the web. A true web address! I have the special software to accomplish all this but am still stuck digging the VRML cemetery. ~ Gravedigger assignment now as a cyberartist. My associates in India wanted to go with FLASH animation instead, on the plea that 'VRML' is too slow and not practical for the Web ~ so I"M DOING IT MYSELF" (one's artistic vision cannot be denied by the true artist, practical or impractical, yes?). Besides the notorious dance-dental clinic and the virtual 3D cemetery art project, I'd like to also mention my third ongoing project now for 40 years weekly ~ disco dance performance by myself. I become every Saturday night in Waikiki, a performing dance object, programmed to react to music, triggered by whatever music the hired club DJ plays. It's wonderful to BE the ART, very interactive for the audience and the artist's soul.
Here are specific URLs that make targeting my material quick and easy for you on the net:
  ~ Dr. Rodney Chang (Pygoya) East Hawai'I Cultural Centre PO Box 1312 Hilo, HI 96721 USA |
