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Allen, Mark

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Digital access to this material is pending artist's approval. Materials may be viewed onsite at the Goldsen Archive, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Kroch Library, Cornell University.

Almost every aspect of culture that is created today is deeply dependent on technology for its production. Through litigation, the digital millennium act, and laws against reverse engineering, various forces attempt to tum the individual into a passive consumer as opposed to an active creator of culture. My interest in fostering unexpected, creative and unsanctioned uses of technology in the production of art is in direct support of the idea that technology is a tool which can be used by any motivated individual. It is not my expectation that every collaboration I work on will become an elaborate media experiment, but that the work will convey the idea that technology is a medium available to anyone with interest and research skills, empowering the individual's relationship to the use of technology in cultural production.

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Recent Submissions

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  • Item
    2007 Rockefeller New Media Foundation Supplementary Material
    Allen, Mark (2009-03-31T19:33:28Z)
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    2007 Rockefeller New Media Foundation Proposal
    Allen, Mark (2009-03-27T19:28:09Z)
    Inventor's Paradise is an interactive installation that allows audience members to realize spectacular inventions within the space of the gallery. Extending the interactive claims of new media artworks into collaborative territory, this installation will be a performative atmosphere that combines pedagogical, social and technological themes. With a fully outfitted workshop, complete with an electronics lab, programmable chips, and machining facilities, Inventor's Paradise will offer "invention production services" to visitors who can work with Mark Allen during gallery hours to realize various inventions. While the scope of the project may at first appear somewhat limited by the parameters of time, the gallery context and visitors' ability to visualize complex schemes, the installation will playfully perform as an environment that transforms the audiences role from passive consumer to engaged producer of technological culture. Drawing on the rich legacy of interactivity, the role of the artist in Inventor's Paradise becomes a facilitator in an improvisational project that will yield a three-dimensional prototype and documentation of each interaction.