Home Movie

For the past seven years, Jim Campbell has presented pixilated representations created with so few L.E.D.s (more than a thousand times fewer than the number of pixels on your computer screen) that a viewer should not be able to comprehend what they are seeing. And yet, because of the brainís ability to interpret abstract data and "fill in" the gaps in the information needed to create a complete idea, a viewer recognizes an image.

Campbell's is a unique and humanistic approach to information theory. He explores the distinction between the analogue world and its digital representation as a metaphor for the human ability for poetic understanding or "knowledge" as opposed to the mathematics of "data". In the recent 'Home Movie', Campbell abstracts the data even further while manipulating our voyeuristic tendencies by revealing information and at the same time obscuring it. The pixilated imagery is turned away from the viewer, toward the wall. There is no longer a visible "image", only the reflection of an image.

Jim Campbell was born in Chicago in 1956 and lives in San Francisco. He received degrees in Mathematics and Engineering from MIT in 1978. He transitioned from filmmaking to interactive video installations in the mid 1980s. His custom electronic sculptures and installations have made him a leading figure in the use of computer technology as an art form.