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The Prix Ars Electronica Archive is a collection enabling search and viewing of all the submissions since 1987. The award-winning projects are documented with catalogue texts and audio-visual media. All other submissions can be searched by title/artist and displayed with year, category in list form. Please cite the credits (artwork name, artist and photographer) and only use the materials if your article is related to Ars Electronica.
Deep Wounds
Brian Knep
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In spring 2006, Harvard University commissioned a work of art by Brian Knep as the culmination of his year-long artist-in-residency. He chose the Memorial Hall as a venue, and using the Civil War as a metaphor for unfinished healing, created Deep Wounds, a site-specific, interactive installation about memory, history, pain and reconciliation.
Built between 1870 and 1878, the Memorial Hall honors the Harvard graduates who died in the Civil War while fighting for the Union. Surrounded by beautiful stained-glass windows and cathedral ceilings, each of these men’s names, year of graduation, date of death and date of battle are permanently inscribed on the marble walls. Deep Wounds used this space to consider unfinished healing and reconciliation. “Wounds have a lasting effect,” says Knep, “that can shape the course of history.”
Hints of inscribed text are projected onto the glowing, white marble floor. As one walks across, the luminous floor, skin blisters and opens to reveal descriptions of Harvard graduates who died while fighting for the Confederacy. Each man’s year of graduation, state, date of death and date of battle are projected onto the floor. Instead of a name, however, one sees a description such as “father” or “classmate” describing a family relationship or a relationship to schoolmates on the wall. After the uncovering, the skin mends itself, covering the names once again.
Links: http://www.blep.com/deepWounds
Built between 1870 and 1878, the Memorial Hall honors the Harvard graduates who died in the Civil War while fighting for the Union. Surrounded by beautiful stained-glass windows and cathedral ceilings, each of these men’s names, year of graduation, date of death and date of battle are permanently inscribed on the marble walls. Deep Wounds used this space to consider unfinished healing and reconciliation. “Wounds have a lasting effect,” says Knep, “that can shape the course of history.”
Hints of inscribed text are projected onto the glowing, white marble floor. As one walks across, the luminous floor, skin blisters and opens to reveal descriptions of Harvard graduates who died while fighting for the Confederacy. Each man’s year of graduation, state, date of death and date of battle are projected onto the floor. Instead of a name, however, one sees a description such as “father” or “classmate” describing a family relationship or a relationship to schoolmates on the wall. After the uncovering, the skin mends itself, covering the names once again.
Links: http://www.blep.com/deepWounds
Supported by: Office for the Arts at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Brian Knep (US) combines art, architecture and science in work that has been shown widely throughout the United States, Europe and Korea. He uses custom software to create pieces that are dynamic and react to changes in their environment. Some are simply aware of the passage of time, changing, evolving and never repeating. Others are interactive, aware of the people around them and reacting in response. Some of the pieces are small and intimate but most are large in scale, projected onto walls and floors. They feel organic and alive.