Portrait of A City: A Review of Matt Roberts’ Transfers

• Main Author: Kristin Powers
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Open Library of Humanities 2007-07-01
• Series: Body, Space & Technology Journal
• Online Access: https://www.bstjournal.com/articles/159

"Transfers" by Matt Roberts, Assistant Professor of Art and Program Director of Digital Arts at Stetson University, an interactive car ride of abstract visualization and John Cage-like musical performance, creates individualized portraits of a city.  Sitting in the back seat facing an LCD screen with speakers, the rider/reader, controls the direction of the driver and thus the sights and sounds of the art presentation. Matt Roberts sits next to a laptop and a tangle of wires connecting a camera under the rear-view mirror, taking in the scene in front of the car, the microphones on the truck outside, and a GPS unit to the laptop and its software program.  As the driver, Roberts, relegates the position of creator to the passengers in the seats, he emphasizes how moving through the urban environment directly creates the experience which is delivered to the riders as a video on CD after their ride. The project calls upon the viewer to direct the driver; “where do I go now?” The directions run through a program that modifies the experience of the passenger. The urban landscape, designed to accommodate automobiles, undergoes a 'detournment', it becomes like art and life--constantly shifting.  Each time the art is created it is unique; the project almost thrives on the unexpected. Getting lost becomes the destination. In a very modernist way, the process is more important than the end result. However, it calls into question the satisfaction of an interactive art piece and the necessity of the material object.  Combining high technology with the ubiquity of automobile travel, Matt Roberts’ mobile project moves the audience literally through its own city reinterpreted, reformatted, and reconfigured. The paper will include a video of the visual experience that I saw and heard in Orlando, Florida and several images showing the setup, visualizations, and the artist.