Jean-Pierre Hébert, Bruce Shapiro, Denny Bollay, David Bothman, Scott Masch: Sisyphus and Ulysses

Artist(s):

Title:

Sisyphus and Ulysses

Exhibition:

SIGGRAPH 1999: technOasis

Creation Year:

1998

Medium:

Sand

Size:

1 foot x 3 feet x 3 feet

Artist Statement:

Sisyphus is the first embodiment of an idea by Jean-Pierre Hebert using sand as a digital art medium. Sisyphus was made by Ho, a collaboration between Jean-Pierre Hebert and Bruce Shapiro. Sisyphus is a quiet piece inspiring awe and calm, an invitation to relax and encouragement to meditate. Utilizing the means and resources of our time, the work extends humanity’s old sacred traditions of scratching the surface of the earth and working, with sand. Our historical use of patterns and designs, from Aegean spirals to modern geometries is incorporated. At rest, an innocent sandbox, Sisyphus contains mechanisms, controls, and software that animate and shape its surface. Original etchings in plays of sand, light and shadow, geometries and colours unfold a new space of consciousness and inspiration.

Ulysses is the second generation development of this idea, created by Jean-Pierre Hebert with help from Denny Bollay, David Bothman and Scott Masch. While Sisyphus was sly, Ulysses is shrewd and having landed on many beaches, knows silicon better. Ulysses can be a quieter Zen garden for the meditative. It can also mutate into a quicker interactive piece evolving to advanced graphics capabilities and internet connectivity, stimulating a sharp mind and keen wit. Currently in infancy, Ulysses‘ new capabilities will bloom rapidly. Why Ulysses and not Odysseus? Because James Joyce envisioned hypertext.