“Children of Arcadia” by Mark Skwarek, Joseph Hocking, Arthur Peters

Exhibiting Artist(s):

• Mark Skwarek
• Joseph Hocking
• Arthur Peters

Throughout history artists have created works to give context to their society’s condition. Children of Arcadia [COA], draws from this tradition. The piece is continually being updated with information gathered from the Internet about the United States and its society as it relates to national socio-economic events. It translates this information into a large-scale Baroque-style projection. As gathered information changes, so does the world of COA. The changes produce shifts in the piece that draw from paintings of the Baroque to Rococo eras.

COA combines important architectural structures from Manhattans’ financial centre (New York Stock Exchange, Federal Hall Memorial, and the Federal Reserve) with a virtual environment of lush, rolling green hills.

The work gathers two types of information from the Internet to determine the outcome of COA and its inhabitants. The first is information from the NYSE, which determines the condition of COA’s environment. For example if the NYSE is up, the environment will be utopian. Conversely, if the market is down, the environment will be harsh and apocalyptic.

The second type of information gathered from Google News Headlines determines whether society is generally good or evil. Google News Headlines will search breaking headlines for phrases associated with ‘American democracy’ and words synonymous with good, and compares it against a search for ‘American democracy’ and words synonymous with evil. Depending on the result the inhabitants will perform a variety of interactions drawn from Baroque and Rococo masterpieces.

Technical support: Damon Baker