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Exhibition Statement

Today more and more people are connected to their computers, their phones, their electronics, and their screens. More people today are plugged in to devices and networks that are both connecting and consuming us, creating a new world. This terrain is mostly uncharted, and it falls to the brave and creative pioneers to both explore and define this new paradigm.

In selecting and curating the artists for Plugged In, my choices reflect my own interest in art that displays the intersection of humanity and technology – that is, the joining of art and science. Each of the works of the fifteen chosen artists displays a drive to bring about shifts in our perception of that union and a general desire to take us by surprise.

My selections were guided by my own passion and admiration for all things experimental. I believe that the way in which people interact with new technology will change the way they live and think. This exhibit – not simply propelled by technology, but instead designed and artistically conceived specifically with this progress in mind – attempts to redefine art and the countless ways in which it can be made, encountered, absorbed and processed.

Technology is a wonderfully democratized and ultimately powerful tool of creativity, and, perhaps even more fundamentally crucial, a powerful tool of speech. To the artists' point, this is representative of that vital shift in the community as a whole: these tools allow people to interact on a much more intimate level with the high-concept technology around them and, perhaps, see the lives they lead each day in a new and different light.

Furthermore, these new technologies are capable of much more than just opening eyes. There is the unspoken feeling that technology can be cold, empty, and that it can in fact ruin artistic development. Here, however, these artists seek to actively demonstrate the powerful tool that technology can be – and the more tools in one's arsenal, the more empowered one is to cast off the role as consumer and become the creator. From this exhibition and its concurrent artist talks and seminars, even more new ideas will spring; the ultimate self-sustaining system.

There is a beautiful quote from John Philip Sousa where he states, "I firmly believe that we have more latent musical talent in America than there is in any other country. But to dig it out there must be good music throughout the land, a lot of it. Everyone must hear it, and such a process takes time." Project Sousa's quote on any art form - visual, performance, or aural, and one begins to understand how important it is to constantly keep exposed to new thoughts, ideas and concepts.

My hope for those viewing the exhibition would be, as Baudelaire puts it, "[to] seize on some fragment, and like an able dancer, use it as trampoline, to spring to distant dreams."

I hope that the Plugged In exhibit will showcase these visions, entertaining and educating those who travel down Warren Street. My goal is that this will be the start of a tradition in bravely exploring the frontiers of electronic and interactive art in outdoor public spaces throughout Hudson.

- Melissa Stafford 2008