Quantizing Effects: The Liminal Art of Jim Campbell

January 17 – June 3, 2007
Organized by SITE Santa Fe in collaboration with MATRIX/University of California, Berkeley and Pacific Film Archive

Jim Campbell (American, born 1956) is widely considered one of the most intriguing artists working with new media today. An engineer, inventor and artist, he utilizes custom-made electronics to explore the relationship between technology and human perception. 'Liminal' describes a sensory threshold, a place where observations are barely perceivable and often create a physiological or psychological response. Cambell's works act as optical filters that suppress extraneous information and leave the viewer to elicit meaningful personal associations.

Campbell holds many patents in video imaging processing. He develops most of the technologies featured in his works, utilizing contemporary technologies—from LED screens to touch-sensitive computers—to transmit images. “My goal has been to move away from the conventional computer screen ‘button pushing’ interface and instead to move towards creating works that have a more intuitive level of interaction,” states Campbell. “I have tried to create installations that are less about a viewer dominating a work and more about viewers participating in the developing personality of a work.”

Campbell possesses both a technical background in engineering and an artistic background in filmmaking. “My work has been very influenced by science. Using technological tools and scientific models as metaphors for memory and illusion, my work seeks to interpret, represent and mirror psychological states and processes, and their breakdown. Time and memory, individual and collective, electronic and real, are the elements of my work.”

This major exhibition includes over thirty works dating from 1993 to 2003. A catalogue accompanies the exhibition.