On November 11, 2021, TOPO announced a new window exhibition featuring media art by artists Rob Feulner and Sam Meech, entitled Unstable Intermediated Forms. The artists presented a series of generative works featuring video feedback and analog distortion that explored fluid dynamics, pattern generation, and interactivity. The installation connected a variety of interdependent devices to generate new forms and interpretations beyond their control. Real-time video processing, the diversion of technology, and the exploitation of technical limitations are at the heart of Rob Feulner and Sam Meech's approach.

This installation includes video and interactive works already exhibited by the artists, as well as the results of recent video feedback experiments. The artists use non-linear systems that generate order and chaos, transforming video artifacts by sometimes giving them natural movements, such as the oscillation of water. The works from the artists' original corpus are intertwined here through mediated systems that influence each other, with each work being affected and mediated by the others, constantly shaping and modeling the installation.

The multichannel device presented in the TOPO showcase contrasts with the notion of “stable intermediate forms,” which refers to works that develop through iteration, i.e., through programming processes that combine experimentation and predictable results in order to achieve a defined artistic goal. Several works previously created by Feulner and Meech conform to this notion. They were born out of experimentation, but ultimately crystallized in a fixed media process for exhibitions.

In this exhibition, by proposing unstable and mediated forms, Feulner and Meech seek to expand the potential for failure. The exploratory interconnection of technological devices to generate unpredictable results multiplies the possibilities for new collisions or harmonies. This remix can create new dynamics and generate new models of cooperative behavior.

The artists use a combination of analog processing, live camera capture, digital projection, and interactive design (using Isadora software). A set of LED lights is also programmed to react with the works in the space.

Re-staging digital art is often difficult, and in this case, the intention is to reverse engineer the artists' original works in order to hack them together. The artists know that some elements of the installation will not work as intended, but that does not mean they do not “work.” They will certainly have to visit the exhibition site to adjust settings, camera angles, replace faulty televisions, or work around software bugs. In the end, distortions don't matter, dead leaves make excellent compost, and spare parts build machines.

Just as video streams influence each other in their very form, Feulner and Meech's artistic collaboration is mutually contagious. Their collaboration influences both their aesthetics and their mode of production. Unstable Intermediated Forms encourages them to break out of their comfort zone and broaden their field of exploration.

We will enter a new era of the Internet, because changes to interfaces mean that users will no longer have direct access to the virtual world, since everything will be intermediated. 

Guillaume Ledit, “All the growth that the Internet has enabled could disappear in 15 years.”
in Usbek & Rica, July 28, 2017
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