Ray Kurzweil, prolific inventor, author and futurist prophesized that Virtual Reality would navigate the 21st Century, forever changing the way people interact with each other and evolve as spiritual machines. For the past three decades, internationally noted multimedia artist, Ellen Sandor, has creatively challenged and inspired the public to consider the implications and possibilities that the future may hold within the virtual world Kurzweil envisioned.
Under Sandor's direction, a diverse portfolio comprised of commissioned sculptures, installations and singular pieces were created in collaboration with her Chicago-based collective, (art)n, and an interdisciplinary mix of international artists, scientists and thinkers. (art)n's work addresses subjects that place the most current issues of science, art, history, and technology into the public arena for social discourse and debate, recording an elegant portrait of the virtual world for future generations. Common themes throughout (art)n's oeuvre include the exploration of outer space, the natural environment, and the human body, combined with examination of various forms of human expression ranging in scope from the horrors of war and terrorism to the need for tolerance and creativity.
In a spring 2004 review of The Art of Science exhibition at the International Center of Photography, Seed magazine noted "(art)n is responsible for the three artist-generated pieces in the show . . . These images force a certain duality on the viewer. But it's more than it is certainly an area where their intersection is of significant value. Public access to such amplified images of the body may or may not reinforce the sentimentality we feel about our physical selves. The greater impact of this showcase, however, lies in the recognition that the techniques capable of reducing our bodies to numerical data can also elevate them to interpretive art. "
(art)n's work received early support from Hudson, a Performance Artist, curator and Director of Feature Inc. in Chicago and New York. Hudson represented Post-Modern artists when they were emergent within their respective careers. In a 1987 essay, he speculated "A look at art's recent buzzwords identifies our reorientation: simulation, appropriation, deconstruction, reification, contextualization, suspension, confalte, signify, collapse, rupture. And the overview of this decade's most critically regarded art-works by Prince, Sherman, Levine, Charlesworth, Lawler, Kruger, Welling, Brauntuch and Koons -reveals this common ground-the examination of text/subject, believability/fakery, and authority/multiplicity."
Hudson acknowledged "(art)n's PHSColograms participate in this dialogue regarding the new reality. They present images which are not only more real and believable than those found in traditional photography, but also even more fabricated and fake. As with the works by the seminal artists already mentioned, the life of art is dependent upon the willingness of the viewer to suspend his/her orientation and play both in the believability of lies and the falsehoods appearing true-to-life."
