Jim Campbell
Still Image from “Running Falling Apart” – 2004
29 x 22 inches. Custom Electronics, 768 LEDs, treated plexiglass diffusion screen
Video Excerpt: White Circle
Still image from “Dynamism of an Observer In The Weeds” – 2002
Averaged over 93 minutes. 24 x 18 inches. Duratrans, light box.
Still Image from “Shadow for Heisenberg”
Dimensions variable. Custom electronics, video camera, glass cube with LCD material, statue.
Video Excerpt: Shadow for Heisenberg
Quotes from “Shadow of Heisenberg”
“The installation consists of a statue of a Buddha sitting on a piece of paper with text on it. Both are positioned in a glass cube on a pedestal; lights set inside the cube illuminate the statue. When a person walks toward the pedestal the glass cube fogs up, gradually obscuring the Buddha and the paper. The closer the spectator gets to the statue the more the glass fogs, and the shadow becomes clearer.”
Notes on “Shadow of Heisenberg”
Jim Campbell’s “Dynamism” pieces along with the rest of his work, relates to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. In the Dynamism series in particular, the pieces tempt the viewer to move closer to the object to bring it into focus, but the image becomes less legible as the distance decreases.
Still Image from “Memory/Recollection” – 1990
Dimensions variable. Black and White camera , five CRT’s, PC computer, custom electronics.
Quote about “Memory/Recollection”
“This work captures and displays a sequence of real-time still images of the viewers and their environment, permanently storing some of these images for later display. The frozen images slowly propagate to the right, getting noisier and noisier as the stored images of past viewers are interspersed with the live images.”
Personal Information
Jim Campbell (b. 1956, Chicago, IL) is a contemporary San Francisco based artist who primarily works with LED light installations. Cambpell began his artistic career in film making but soon switched to the LED pieces he is known for in the 1980s. His current work combines film, sound, and LED light installations. He has emerged as a leading figure in new media arts.
In the fall of 2010, Campbell’s work, “Scattered Light” was installed in the Madison Square Park Conservancy in Manhattan making it the largest and most extensive public art piece of his to date. Hundreds of hovering tiny lights made up a large-scale, three-dimensional public installation.
Quotes:
“No, I would call it contrived. For me now, it is the idea of a work that is important. Not setting up a bunch of symbols around the idea.”
“Right, but it goes further than that. It says that if you even try to measure something at all, you affect it.”
- Jim Campbell on interactivity with regard to computers.