The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, is currently hosting the first career survey of innovative Net artist Auriea Harvey, showcasing her groundbreaking work that explores themes of mortality and survival in the digital age.
Harvey, born in 1971 in Indianapolis, has been a pioneer in the world of digital art since the 1990s. Her boundary-bending imagery created with GIFs, Shockwave animations, and programming languages like HTML and Java helped expand the vistas of digital art. Her personal website, Entropy8.com, even won Webby Awards in 1997 and 1998.
In recent years, Harvey has turned to sculpting imaginary artifacts that exist as both 3-D printed statuary and glossy virtual models. Visitors to the museum can interact with these “mixed reality” sculptures by waving their hands to make them rotate on transparent screens, incorporating ancient artwork, hand-shaped clay, and Harvey’s own facial features.
Harvey’s story is also a cybernetic romance, as she found love on a site called Hell.com in 1999 with Belgian digital artist Michael Samyn, who has been her romantic and creative partner ever since. The exhibition at the Museum of the Moving Image showcases their collaborations as Entropy8Zuper!, which imbued the world of code and terminals with intimate poetry.
The show features influential projects by Entropy8Zuper!, such as “The Godlove Museum,” a gothic digital novella that narrates their romance through abstract mini-games and animations. Visitors can also explore their video games, which feature atmospheric settings, diverse characters, and open-ended stories.
Despite their success, Harvey and Samyn announced their exit from the gaming industry after the disappointing sales of their 2015 title “Sunset.” The exhibition at the Museum of the Moving Image serves as a reminder of the fleeting nature of digital art, especially with the discontinuation of support for the Flash plug-in in 2021.
The retrospective of Auriea Harvey’s work at the Museum of the Moving Image is a must-see for fans of digital art and gaming, offering a glimpse into the innovative and romantic world she has created over the years. The exhibition runs through July 7th, giving visitors a chance to experience the beauty and complexity of Harvey’s art before it fades into digital obscurity.
