Miroslaw Rogala
Encyclopedia
Miroslaw Rogala is a Polish-American
video artist and interactive art
ist, known for performances and installations that challenge man's relationship to nature and to his fellow man. His work weaves transformations of imagery, collage
s of music and motion, and a direct challenge to the audience/user's perceptual control into a dialogue about the nature of art and existence. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
, the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM) at Karlsruhe, Germany, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland, and the Goodman Theatre
, Chicago. He has collaborated frequently with Chicago-based art collective (art)n laboratory.
Rogala has taught at several arts universities, including the Pratt Institute
, Carnegie Mellon, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
, Columbia College
, and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
. He received a PhD
in Interactive Arts from CAiiA/STAR Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts, University of Wales, Newport, Wales in 2000 (now known as the Planetary Collegium
).
Rogala has worked with a wide span of contemporary artists, such as Carolee Schneeman, Ed Paschke
, Raymond Salvatore Harmon
, Zhou Brothers
, Michael Iber, Lee Wells
, Ken Nordine
, Jennifer Guo, Urszula Dudziak
, Werner Herterich, Alexander Horn, among many others.
Rogala's first art work to receive widespread acclaim was his Pulso-Funktory, a multimedia installation created between 1975 and 1979 that contained interactive components. An assemblage of six panels with neon lights and musical sound effects, it allows for up to six viewers at a time to interact with it by specifying an "off" or "on" setting.
Many of Rogala's works have involved live performances. Macbeth: The Witches Scenes was part of a production of Macbeth directed by Byrne Piven in November and December 1988 at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center in Evanston, Illinois. Nature Is Leaving Us was a "video opera" performed at the Goodman Theater is Chicago in October 1989. It involved three 6-foot by 8-foot video walls, with a total of 48 monitors, presented in conjunction with performances by actors, musicians, and dancers.
Rogala has also been preoccupied with interactive media. In 1994-95, he received a stipend from the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, in Karlsruhe, Germany. The result was an installation entitled Lovers Leap. Lovers Leap used two screens facing one another. Depending on when and how the viewer moved or stood still between the screens, the pictures they displayed would change. Rogala's photographic imagery was of a street in Chicago which would, if the triggering viewer provided the right conditions, jump or "leap" to footage shot in Jamaica. The piece was first exhibited at the MultiMediale 4 in Karlsruhe 1995.
In 1996, Rogala produced Electronic Garden/NatuRealization, sometimes known as eGarden, an interactive sound installation produced for Sculpture Chicago ’96. The work was placed in the center of Washington Square Park in Chicago, a site with historic significance as a place where soap box speakers of the early to mid-twentieth century would expound on and debate the issues of the day. By moving through a gazebo-like structure, the listener would trigger the playing of recordings of the words of both historic and contemporary speakers associated with the area. Between one and four recordings might play at a time, but they would be heard only if a visitor moved through the space.
For much of the first decade of the twenty-first century, Rogala has been involved with several series of artworks for which he has manipulated photographs using Mind's-Eye-View computer software developed by Ford Oxaal. The Transformed City series worked with pictures taken in cities such as Krakow or Istanbul. The Transformed Garden series presents still lifes of fruits and vegetables fragmented into unstable, dynamic compositions. Works from the latter series will be published in late 2009 in a book entitled Transformed Garden.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
video artist and interactive art
Interactive art
Interactive art is a form of installation-based art that involves the spectator in a way that allows the art to achieve its purpose. Some installations achieve this by letting the observer or visitor "walk" in, on, and around them; Some others ask the artist to become part of the artwork.Works of...
ist, known for performances and installations that challenge man's relationship to nature and to his fellow man. His work weaves transformations of imagery, collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
s of music and motion, and a direct challenge to the audience/user's perceptual control into a dialogue about the nature of art and existence. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary art venues...
, the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM) at Karlsruhe, Germany, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland, and the Goodman Theatre
Goodman Theatre
The Goodman Theatre is a professional theater company located in Chicago's Loop. A major part of Chicago theatre, it is the city's oldest currently active nonprofit theater organization...
, Chicago. He has collaborated frequently with Chicago-based art collective (art)n laboratory.
Rogala has taught at several arts universities, including the Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
, Carnegie Mellon, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School on November 5, 1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's...
, Columbia College
Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago is one of the largest art colleges in the United States with nearly 12,000 students pursuing degrees within 120 undergraduate and graduate programs...
, and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
. He received a PhD
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in Interactive Arts from CAiiA/STAR Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts, University of Wales, Newport, Wales in 2000 (now known as the Planetary Collegium
Planetary Collegium
The Planetary Collegium is an international platform for research in art, technology and consciousness, with its hub based in the University of Plymouth, with linked centers in Zurich and Milan...
).
Rogala has worked with a wide span of contemporary artists, such as Carolee Schneeman, Ed Paschke
Ed Paschke
Edward Francis Paschke was a Polish American painter. His childhood interest in animation and cartoons, as well as his father's creativity in wood carving and construction, led him toward a career in art...
, Raymond Salvatore Harmon
Raymond Salvatore Harmon
Raymond Salvatore Harmon is an American media artist, painter, and filmmaker. As a graffiti artist Harmon has used the tags BETA and RSH...
, Zhou Brothers
Zhou brothers
Zhou Brothers are contemporary Chinese American artists. They work together on their paintings, performances, sculptures, and prints, often communicating without words in a so-called dream dialogue. Shan Zuo and Da Huang Zhou, were born in China 1952 and 1957 respectively...
, Michael Iber, Lee Wells
Lee Wells
Lee Wells is an artist, independent curator, as well as a technology and art consultant currently living and working New York. He is a co-founder and director of IFAC-arts, and Co-Founder of Perpetual art machine, [PAM]...
, Ken Nordine
Ken Nordine
Ken Nordine is an American voiceover and recording artist best known for his series of Word Jazz albums. His deep, resonant voice has also been featured in many commercial advertisements and movie trailers. One critic wrote that "you may not know Ken Nordine by name or face, but you'll almost...
, Jennifer Guo, Urszula Dudziak
Urszula Dudziak
Urszula Bogumiła Dudziak-Urbaniak is a leading Polish jazz vocalist. She has worked with such artists as Krzysztof Komeda, Michał Urbaniak , Gil Evans, Archie Shepp, and Lester Bowie...
, Werner Herterich, Alexander Horn, among many others.
Works
Some of his best known works include:- Nature Is Leaving Us (1989)
- MacBeth:The Witches Scenes (1988)
- Lovers Leap (1995)
- Electronic Garden/Naturealization (1996)
- Divided We Stand (1997)
- Transformed City Series (2000–2011)
Rogala's first art work to receive widespread acclaim was his Pulso-Funktory, a multimedia installation created between 1975 and 1979 that contained interactive components. An assemblage of six panels with neon lights and musical sound effects, it allows for up to six viewers at a time to interact with it by specifying an "off" or "on" setting.
Many of Rogala's works have involved live performances. Macbeth: The Witches Scenes was part of a production of Macbeth directed by Byrne Piven in November and December 1988 at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center in Evanston, Illinois. Nature Is Leaving Us was a "video opera" performed at the Goodman Theater is Chicago in October 1989. It involved three 6-foot by 8-foot video walls, with a total of 48 monitors, presented in conjunction with performances by actors, musicians, and dancers.
Rogala has also been preoccupied with interactive media. In 1994-95, he received a stipend from the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, in Karlsruhe, Germany. The result was an installation entitled Lovers Leap. Lovers Leap used two screens facing one another. Depending on when and how the viewer moved or stood still between the screens, the pictures they displayed would change. Rogala's photographic imagery was of a street in Chicago which would, if the triggering viewer provided the right conditions, jump or "leap" to footage shot in Jamaica. The piece was first exhibited at the MultiMediale 4 in Karlsruhe 1995.
In 1996, Rogala produced Electronic Garden/NatuRealization, sometimes known as eGarden, an interactive sound installation produced for Sculpture Chicago ’96. The work was placed in the center of Washington Square Park in Chicago, a site with historic significance as a place where soap box speakers of the early to mid-twentieth century would expound on and debate the issues of the day. By moving through a gazebo-like structure, the listener would trigger the playing of recordings of the words of both historic and contemporary speakers associated with the area. Between one and four recordings might play at a time, but they would be heard only if a visitor moved through the space.
For much of the first decade of the twenty-first century, Rogala has been involved with several series of artworks for which he has manipulated photographs using Mind's-Eye-View computer software developed by Ford Oxaal. The Transformed City series worked with pictures taken in cities such as Krakow or Istanbul. The Transformed Garden series presents still lifes of fruits and vegetables fragmented into unstable, dynamic compositions. Works from the latter series will be published in late 2009 in a book entitled Transformed Garden.