Mark Napier: EMPIRE

New media art pioneer Mark Napier returns to bitforms gallery with a solo exhibition of new, interactive artworks, running from October 22 through November 26. Empire, a series of interactive installations, explores power in a post-national world through an unlikely merger of monumental architecture and software. Napier’s home-grown software puts a scale model of the Empire State Building in a three-dimensional environment. Both fragile and unbreakable, the virtual monument can be destroyed and recreated in a moment.

"I’m a little obsessed with the Empire State building." Napier says. "I love the beauty of the building, but I’m also struck by how prominent it is since the towers collapsed. I see it as a symbol of power, both economic and cultural. Empire is about a virtual monument, my personal take on the real building." In this computer-generated space, a ghostly scale model of the Empire State building wobbles, bends, and tilts. Using a mouse, the viewer can lift, throw, bounce, squeeze, bend, and break the building. Every motion of the building leaves a trail behind. Like thin wisps of paint, these traces coalesce as smoky backdrops starkly contrasting with the building’s facade. With programming techniques borrowed from high-end computer games, Napier creates a unique environment and a rich visual vocabulary.

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Mark Napier: EMPIRE
Interactive Landscapes