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 Blue Window Pane, Man Ray Series (above). Still from CAVE Environment.
Blue Window Pane, The Hallway Series (below). Still from CAVE Environment © Margaret Dolinsky 1999 Man Ray photograph courtesy of Sandor Family Collection |
Margaret Dolinsky, a "first-generation virtual reality artist," has accepted a visiting professorship at Indiana University.
Through a collaborative effort between University Information Technology Services (UITS) and the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts, Dolinsky will serve as a visiting assistant professor of fine arts with a corresponding appointment as research scientist in UITS' Advanced Information Technology Laboratory (AITL).
Dolinsky's innovative work in combining computer technology and art to create new forms of visual expression and experience has gained international acclaim. Her work with the AITL was recently featured in U.S. News and World Report and is slated for an upcoming ABC News segment.
"Creating art through virtual environments is my passion," said Dolinsky, who describes her work as visual poetry. "The creative process has me hooked--it compels me to forge a connection between my imagination and the irony and humor in this world. That is the true essence of art."
Dolinsky is enthusiastic about her new role at IU. "I am looking forward to teaching a new generation of artists this medium. Virtual reality offers a new way of looking, thinking and appreciating. I believe that it may fire synapses in ways [that] they have never been fired before."
"As a first-generation virtual reality artist, Professor Dolinsky is literally helping to 'invent' the field of virtual reality art," said Donald McMullen, principal scientist at the AITL. "She will have a significant influence on collaborations between the fine arts and the sciences which we expect will result in applications of immersive technology for both artistic expression and scientific understanding. She will also be instrumental in raising awareness among students in these fields."
"The School of Fine Arts is delighted to have someone like Margaret on our faculty," said Jeffrey Wolin, chairman of the School of Fine Arts. "With her strong fine arts background and technological skills, she provides students with a tremendous learning opportunity. The partnership between fine arts and UITS should be a model for future endeavors."
Dolinsky's background includes formal training in print making, painting, drawing and art therapy, as well as electronic visualization. She has exhibited computer images and animations in dozens of invitational and one-person shows, including Digital Salon '99, SIGGRAPH '99 and Ars Electronica '99, Europe's premier digital media festival, and has authored numerous papers on creating art using virtual reality, new media and digital technologies. Dolinsky earned a master of fine arts degree from the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
As an artist committed to new levels of expression as well as to empowering the viewer, Dolinsky's focus is on developing the artistic metaphors created in her paintings and establishing their dynamics with the viewer. "Art created through virtual environments allows participants to become actively engaged in the completion of an artistic creation and develop artistic appreciation," remarked Dolinsky. "For me, virtual reality is more than an artistic endeavor toward self satisfaction and enlightenment. It is an opportunity to create for others, who must in turn complete the piece through their participation. Unlike a landscape painting where the artist's desire creates the view, virtual reality offers multiple views updated by the participant's active desire."
Dolinsky will teach courses in virtual reality and the digital arts and will help to augment collaborations between researchers and faculty in the sciences, information technologies and visual arts. "Art is the cultivation of possibilities; science is the reproduction of conformity," explained Dolinsky. "The two disciplines establish different philosophical methods, yet they both attempt to invent and uncover truths in our world. It took an oxymoron like 'virtual reality' to bring the arts and sciences together to produce 3-D realtime graphical environments for creative discovery."
See some of Dolinsky's work on line at:
http://www.avl.iu.edu/dolinsky/
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