Light and Space movement is one of the most notorious trends in the California art scene that appeared in the 1960s and transformed the relationship between space, light and perception through the works of the artists, such as James turrell and irwin art and technology. These two artists can be characterized by their intense investigation of the senses, by mixing high turrell and Irwin art and technology, science, and depth of philosophy in order to produce immersive spaces. Their performance is an artistic statement on art in itself by placing a perception as the medium.
James Turrell Technology as a Medium of Sculpture Light
Light James turrell, who is a specialist in perception psychology and mathematics considers light as not an art component but rather the piece of art itself. His work is typically based on the latest technology, in which he can control light and space, as with other forms of control, such as projection mapping, fiber optics and astronomical calculation, specifically through control of the light and space.
Remarkable Project: Roden Crater
His magnum opus is a giant land art created in an extinct volcano in Arizona that is Roden Crater by Turrell. The scale of this project is to modify the natural crater into naked-eye observatory through coordination of celestial events with fogged light chambers. The construction combines geology, astronomy, and high precision constructions to create the manner through which viewers view the sky. Many have summed it up as a mixture of old observatories techniques and 21 st century technology accuracy.
Technological Innovations:
- Ganzfeld rooms: These light-wide rooms confuse the viewer who washes away the edges and depth of a controlled lighting system.
- Skyspaces: These are architectural rooms with open ceilings where the natural light and concealed LED lights allow designers to play with the eye sight of the viewers.
A Minimalist and Sensing Technology Rethinking of the Meaning of Experience by Robert Irwin
Robert Irwin was a painter who shifted into an education-based art as installation art, which explored ways of questioning the perception. Like Turrell, Irwin was frequently not employing obvious technological spectacle, although his output had a sound scientific knowledge of both space and material, as well as illumination. His point of view is about art not being the presentation of the objects but the understanding of what is around.
Distinguished Project: Central Garden – Getty Center
The Getty Central Garden, as a design made by Irwin, is a living sculpture through which the theme experience of sensations: sound, sight, smell and space causes centrality. The structure has entangled elements of environmental information and landscape development strategies with the layout creating a responsive piece of artwork that can alter with the seasons and time.
Scientific Approach:
Perceptual experiments: Early experiments carried out by Irwin in studios followed a practice of altering the conditions of the environment (e.g. introducing darkness, stripping walls of ornaments and clocks) to investigate human perception.
- Conditional art: His philosophy of condition art implied that technology and environment co-exist and create the art experience, which sometimes occurs with minimally detectable apparati such as mirrored surfaces, veiled scrims or special lighting displays
A Gateway between Art, Science and Technology
Irwin and Turrell had a coo at the Art and Technology Program at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in the 1960s. In this program art was matched with engineers and organizations such as IBM and NASA. By this program, they were also able to access to aerospace turrell and Irwin art and technology, computer system, and scientific knowledge, which affirmed the notion that technological innovation might be an authentic expression of fine art.
Inheritance and Presence
Turrell and Irwin made the shift to alter the presence of the viewer no longer as the passive observer who was a participant. Those works are foreshadowings of the current immersive digital art worlds, such as those created by teamLab or Refik Anadol, as they combine art with AI and environmental data as well.
Conclusion
James Turrell and Robert Irwin effectively walked a path in which art is the pursuit of the consciousness itself as an extension to the creative process with the incorporation of technology not as a gimmick or even an add on, but the very essence of the creative process but not an object.
