A black and white image of triangles animated to form a self-portrait.Drew Browning

Drew Browning is an electronic artist/designer whose work began with the video art movement of the early '70s, including interactive video installations and video performances, and who now focuses on interactive digital media and virtual reality. His work is about creating dialog around issues of difference, about using the power of technology to challenge viewer perspective, and about calling attention to what makes us human. He is involved in research and development of technology for persons with disabilities and universal design. Browning is an Emeritus Professor of Electronic Visualization and Industrial Design and founder of the Design Visualization Lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Recent works include data driven sculpture (Approach, Prairie Center of the Arts, Peoria 2012 and River Benches, Slane Scholar in Residence, Bradley University 2006), interactive installations (PuffIDMAa Conference 2011 and Elevator Music, Site Unseen, Chicago Cultural Center 2009) and video (Winds of ChangeIDMAa Conference 2011 and New Media Festival Los Angeles 2012).


 


 

Selected work:

Two frames from an animation of the motion data used to build the Approach Installation.“Approach Animation” ©2012 

Video of computer animation; Browning, Barbier; Created using the same source data as sculpture below to be projected large scale on buildings in three cities in Brazil. Video Guerrilha 2012, San Paolo, Rio, Brasilia, November 22-24, 2012. Chicago projection works curated by Mat Rappaport. https://v1b3.com/projects/video-collections/video-guerrilha-2012/

 

A hand holding a phone with a map

Description automatically generated“Expose, Intervene, Occupy: Re-interpreting Public Space” ©2012 (video documentation)

unreal-estates and v1b3 have produced an augmented reality application for internet enabled mobile devices that interrogates the meaning of public space using models, images, text, and movies overlaid on locations in Chicago’s Loop. http://v1b3.com/?page_id=733; Direct link to “Street View” https://www.evl.uic.edu/drew/streetview/

A factory with trees and a fence

Description automatically generated with medium confidence“Approach Installation” ©2012 (video documentation)

Sculptural installation; Browning, Barbier; Created while in residence at Prairie Center of the Arts in Peoria, Illinois, Approach uses motion data of two people, one in a wheelchair and one ambulating, coming together. This life size installation resides on a 75 foot fence adjacent to the Center’s building. With the giant processing plant Archer Daniels Midland in the background, it reminds us of human scale and presence in a highly industrialized environment. And it also speaks to the traces we leave behind us in our passage through life, knowingly or not. documentation-of-approach

A qr code on a white background

Description automatically generated“Fragile” ©2012

Three video pieces with a common theme of fragility represented through QR codes printed in a catalogue of digital media art works entitled SCAN2GO. Although intended to be viewed on smart phones and camera enabled tablet computers, the works can also be seen through any internet browser. Produced by the College Art Association Services to Artists committee in collaboration with v1b3 (v1b3.com). The SCAN2GO catalogue was distributed during the CAA conference in Los Angeles, February 22-25, 2012. Direct link:  http://www.evl.uic.edu/drew/fragile/Fragile.html

A person looking at a computer screen

Description automatically generated“Puff” ©2011 (video documentation)

Interactive installation; Browning, Barbier; Puffing on a wind sensor, the participant sees delightful responses in their self-image or video clips. Exhibited at IDMAa IDEAS, International Digital Media Arts Association Conference, October 13-15th, 2011. http://www.idmaa.org/idmaa2011/

A screen with a screen on it

Description automatically generated“Winds of Change” ©2011

Video - length: 5 min.; Browning, Barbier; Winds of Change addresses the housing boom and bust as seen through a metaphorical window in a formerly modest neighborhood. Includes computer animation driven by statistical data and sound. Exhibited at IDMAa IDEAS (International Digital Media Arts Association Conference), October 13-15th, 2011. http://www.idmaa.org/idmaa2011/

A close-up of a person's face

Description automatically generatedSynthesis: Processing and Collaboration 2011

Exhibition curated by Dan Sandin featuring early image processing videos from the 1970s including works by Drew Browning and Annette Barbier. University of California, San Diego, gallery@calit2, Jan 14 - Mar 11, 2011

A bathroom with a sink and a sink

Description automatically generated“Subsurface Flow” ©2011

Video - length: 4 min.; Browning; A wryly (and sometimes darkly) humorous investigation of this most private and contemplative of spaces and its metaphorical significance as vessel of life. From swimming in the primordial sea (or womb) to contemplating the generations through portraits in the mirror; from emerging through the pipes and from the faucet to meditating on memories found in the tiles, this work follows both an individual life and those elements of consciousness, growth and change common to all human beings.

A house with a sign in front of it

Description automatically generated“The American Dream” ©2010

Video - length: 2 min.; Browning, Barbier; "The American Dream" was projected on the Emily Carr University of Art + Design building. In this typical suburban neighborhood, each house has a secret, and each comment on our way of life:  our desire for privacy, the difficulty of finding balance, the fragile nature of our illusions, and ultimately the undermining of the American dream. Exhibited at v1b3 (Video in the Built Environment) FALL 2010 SHELTER, IDMAA (International Digital Media Arts Association Conference), November 4-6th, 2010. Shelter: Fall2010 Vancouver, BC

A person pushing a luggage cart

Description automatically generated“Elevator Music”©2009

Site-specific Installation; Browning, Barbier; "Elevator Music", a commissioned audio installation installed in an elevator at the Chicago Cultural Center, grapples with the difference between two distinctly different views of disability: the medical model, which promotes the idea of cure and the political model, which accepts and celebrates disability as an identity. It replaces the traditional easy-listening music with commentary and analysis using writings, interviews and documentary sounds of disabled rights activists and the medical, media and fundraising communities. So the elevator, a place of passage particularly adapted to the needs of the disabled, also becomes a site for the movement from definition by others to self-definition. Site Unseen Performance

A person standing in a room with a projection screen

Description automatically generated“Search Terms” ©2007

Site-specific Installation; Browning, Barbier; Exhibition of "Search Terms", an interactive installation that critiques ubiquitous surveillance, tracking visitors' movements as they explore "dangerous" and "suspicious" book listings and including surreptitious views of gallery visitors projected on the gallery floor. Group show “Echelon: who is watching you?” Polvo, August 3 - September 1, 2007

A spiraling structure with a white circle in the middle

Description automatically generated“You Are Here” ©2006

Site-specific Installation; Browning, Barbier; Koscielak Gallery; "You Are Here" was projected onto the facade of the gallery building taking live image information from the nearby expressway to create an abstracted meditation on our frenetic pace of travel. The title of the work plays on the common kiosk guide map dot and familiar spiritual phrase "Be Here Now" (Ram Dass), reflecting on the pace of our existence and gently questioning whether our obsession with speed is really getting us anywhere. Viewed from the Kennedy Expressway (I-94) at North Ave, Chicago.

A computer mouse with lights on it

Description automatically generated with medium confidence“Stream-ing” ©2006

Interactive installation; Browning, Barbier, Ferolo; “Stream-ing" is about the interdependent relationship of people and the environment. The Illinois Waterway from Chicago through Peoria, which includes the Chicago and Illinois rivers, is the metaphor for this interconnectedness. Exhibited at the Fifth Annual Discovery Forum, Peoria, IL, and WTVP, Central Illinois's public television station. Produced as Slane Scholar in Residence at Bradley University, Peoria, IL.

A building with a ladder going down

Description automatically generated“Preserving Disorder” ©2005
Flanked by the former Chicago Police Headquarters at 11th and State and the anti war protests at Michigan Ave, "Preserving Disorder", an interactive sidewalk installation at 11th and Wabash, recalls the images and dynamics of the summer of '68 in Chicago. University Film and Video Association Conference (UFVA) August 2005.

A bridge over water with trees and bushes

Description automatically generated“Path of the Dragon” ©2005
The river journey is the form of this installation in which a participant is a traveler in a mythic voyage through the ages of a nation, Vietnam. Beginning at dawn, the participant navigates through three levels: a past lived close to nature, a time of horrific upheaval and violence, and a time of adapting and rebuilding. University Film and Video Association Conference (UFVA) August 2005 and Gosia Koscielak Gallery April/May,.2006.

A close-up of a spider web

Description automatically generated“Wave Harmonies” ©2005
Interactive Installation; Browning, Barbier. "Wave Harmonies", an interactive installation that represents the visual world in terms of waveforms, "International Digital Media and Arts Association Conference 2005", Orlando, FL, Juried exhibition March 16-19, 2005; AWARDED Second Place. For more information: Wave Harmonies.htm.

A poster for a performance

Description automatically generated “River of Many Sides” ©2004
Interactive, multimedia performance; Browning, Barbier, Krinkle, Minh Ngoc, Quoc Thao. Commissioned by United States Vietnam Arts Program (USVAP formerly ArtSynergy), River of Many Sides addresses issues of violence and its effects. In June of 2003, five artists embarked on a journey of collaboration and understanding that began with travels to one another's countries and that culminated in the performance: River of Many Sides.  Each of the artists has profound personal and cultural associations to our countries' intertwined histories. For more information http://iam.colum.edu/abarbier/ROMSwebdoc/ROMSprospectus.htm.

Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: WIL0“Waiting in Line” ©2003
Interactive Installation; Browning, Barbier. Commissioned by the Museum of Science and Industry Chicago, "Waiting In Line" is an interactive computer installation of visually rich, graphical representations of waveforms.  The exhibit encouraged those waiting in line for tickets in the Great Hall to participate in creating a series of Lissajous figures, a pattern of lines which may be familiar from science fiction movies of the 1950's.  The images were displayed on a large-scale screen.  Guests used sheets of colored paper to control the horizontal and vertical frequencies of the complex, changing patterns. For more information: http://www.msichicago.org/scrapbook/scrapbook_events/experiments/.

A flag and a target

Description automatically generated “Homeland Insecurity” ©2003
Interactive web3D; Browning. This suite of works addresses our national paranoia inspired by the events of 9/11. The pieces collectively respond to our need for security and our fear of exposure in a threatening climate.  The touch screen (installation mode) allows the viewer to put his finger on the source of our discomfort; the act of touching makes the viewer complicit in creating our collective malaise. Installed at the University Film and Video Conference (UFVA) 2003, University of South Carolina. For the complete interactive web3D work visit http://www.evl.uic.edu/drew/HI

 

A road leading to a sign

Description automatically generated“HOME” ©2001
Interactive web3D; Browning, Barbier. Home is an interactive work-in-progress which explores various concepts of home by allowing the viewer to move through a virtual building created in the computer. The action of moving through the space calls up images, stories, movies, animations and sounds contributed by writers and artists in music, film, and graphic art on the meaning and nature of home. Since 1999 HOME has been installed in over a dozen exhibitions.

A person sitting on a platform

Description automatically generated“Disability Perspective #1” ©1997
Interactive web3D; Browning. The newly built Franklin Delano Roosevelt National Monument serves as a focal point for this immersive experience which addresses issues germane to the disabled community and to representation of minorities in general. Virtual Spaces exhibited at ISEA Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts 1997

 

A group of police officers being arrested

Description automatically generated“Disability Activism” ©1991
Video - length: 12 min.; Browning; Documentary in style, this videotape covers an eight year span of personal activism in the Disability Rights Movement. Significant to the approach was a desire to look at the Movement from inside. At times this perspective proved to be at odds with my participation as an activist while at other times it proved to be a tool for empowerment, changing the course of events.

A close-up of a pattern

Description automatically generated“Louis Sullivan: The Function of Ornament” ©1986
Video - length: 7 min.; Barbier, Browning; Produced for the Chicago Historical Society. Promoting the exhibit "Louis Sullivan: The Function of Ornament" at the Chicago Historical Society, this tape shows some of Sullivan's themes and sources, using computer graphics to clarify some of his basic concepts.

A person holding a child

Description automatically generated“Now or Later” ©1984
Video - length: 5 min., Co-produced with Barbier, Moyemont, and Skura. A series of video dance/performance "sketches" leading to the production of "Chase Scene," the performance.

A blurry image of a person in a garment

Description automatically generatedSo To Speak” ©1981
Video - length: 16 min.; Co-produced with Barbier, Moyemont, and Kast. Based on the video/dance performance "So To Speak." This videotape combines the elements of the original videotape created for the performance with the live dance into a new multi-layered entity using digital and analog effects to achieve a synthesis.

A blurry image of a person

Description automatically generated“Stereopticon III” ©1979
Video - length: 20 min.; Co-produced with Barbier, Moyemont, Fahrenwald, and Gerber. Improvisational Video/Dance works which are sometimes dark and spare, sometimes spacious and soaring. Produced live, involving two camera people, two musicians, a video artist, and a dancer all with a common focus -- the video monitor. BEST VIDEOTAPE AND HONORS AWARD Eighth Annual Dance Video and Film Festival; New York, June, 1979.

A person in green shirt and black pants

Description automatically generated with medium confidence“SRAM Rap” ©1979
Video - length: 20 min.; Co-produced with Barbier. Documentation of a childrens' video play produced for the Chicago Artists in Residence Program featuring live video effects on stage as a character in the play. Performed throughout the summer of 1979 at: Chicago Public Library Cultural Center, Chicago, and Walt Disney Magnet School, Chicago.

A black and yellow object with a black background

Description automatically generated with medium confidence“Trilogy” ©1978
Video - length: 8 min.; Co-produced with Barbier. Early Video/Dance works produced live, exploring movement of a dancer in counterpart with movement created by video and computer graphic technology. ONE OF TEN PRIZE-WINNING VIDEOTAPES Videotape: The Meaning is the Use; Bergman Gallery, University of Chicago, Chicago, May, 1978

A purple and green image

Description automatically generated“Nancy Drew Patch” ©1974
A pioneering work in Video/Dance performed in real time. One of the first works produced in color on the Sandin Image Processor.


 


© Drew Browning