CAMILLE UTTERBACK
b. 1970 Bloomington, IN

Camille Utterback is a pioneer in digital and interactive art who began her studies as a painter. She makes interactive art projects that track the movement of viewers and transform that information into abstract and evolving painting-like projections. Utterback is interested in blurring the boundaries between the physical and the virtual, exploring the interactions of the body’s systems and digital systems. Camille Utterback creates complex algorithms, or series of rules, that dictate the changes in her artwork and designs the computer vision systems they use.

Observe

• What is going on here? What images and symbols appear on the screen?
   
• Watch the artwork for several minutes. How does the artwork change? Note any patterns of cause and effect that you notice.
• What do you notice about the colors, marks, and positive and negative space that is being created by movements?

INTERPRET

This is Utterback’s first time using two-sided projection through scrims, or sheer screens. 

• How might designing a two-sided piece be different from designing a similar artwork on a flat, one-sided screen? How does this impact the depth, texture, and use of positive and negative space in the painting?
   
• How do visitors respond to this artwork?  Does their behavior change once they realize they can impact the artwork? How? What is your response to this piece?
   
• What is the role of the visitor in this artwork?

Utterback is interested in the human relationship with digital technology and screens.

• How would you interpret this artwork with this knowledge in mind? How might the title, Entangled, relate? What do you think the imagery in the artwork might mean? 

Utterback is also interested in getting us to think about the impact of humans on various systems.

• What kinds of systems do you impact during your daily life? What is your impact on these systems? In light of this, what might the artist want us to get out of the artwork?

HYPOTHESIZE, TEST, AND CONCLUDE

• Based on the changes and patterns you noticed, what might be going on here? What theories can you develop about when, how, and why the artwork changes?
   
• If you visit The Museum, test your hypothesis by observing the artwork in the gallery, as well as how visitors (including you) interact with the art.
   
• After observing, see if you can determine what some of these rules are. If possible, see if you can frame the cause and effect in terms of if x, then y. Think about movement, speed, colors, images, what happens when visitors enter/leave the frame, and what happens to the screens over time.

Learn about algorithms by designing a “system” governed by student-created rules. In small groups, create the rules (ex. When Sarah stands up, the teacher closes the door. When the teacher closes the door, Brian turns off the lights. When Brian turns off the lights, the whole class raises their hands.) “Perform” the rules for the rest of the class to see if they can guess the “algorithm.” As an extension, try writing out the algorithm using words or symbols.

Draw with movement using Glowdoodle. It’s a free download and all you need is a webcam. Or, use it with smartphones or iPads using a $1 app.

DRAW WITH GLOWDOODLE

Experience the possibilities of building a set of rules to create artwork based on a dancer’s movements, then try the robot and gardens challenge to learn about the importance of rules in coding.

DANCE WITH CODE

PROGRAM A ROBOT

Dynamic Algorithm

Computer Vision

Coding