THE DIODE GALLERY FOR ELECTRONIC ART
After half a decade curating pop-up art shows Josh opened his first permanent gallery in Portland, Oregon in May 2014. The Diode Gallery for Electronic Art operated as an experimental gallery for over a year featuring a range of artists and shows that pushed the limits of art, technology, and community. The gallery was best known for hosting the full spectrum of Portland creative talent from fine artists to makers to designers to programmers. The shows broke down lines between disciplines in an attempt to create community by inspiring creative collaboration at the intersection of technology & the arts.
Deviant Cartography
The first solo show from San Francisco based artist Doug McCune, Deviant Cartography brings together maps, map data, and cutting edge production techniques to explore difficult subject matters. Doug explores publicly available data sets on topics ranging from environmental disasters to criminal activity. He then uses novel methods to craft prints and physical objects based on the data. This collection of work utilizes 3D printers, laser cutters, aluminum, and acrylic prints. Deviant Cartography was on display April & May 2015. More information on the show is available on the exhibition website here.
Portland Drunk Traffic. Doug McCune 2015.
PINS
Local creative team Second Story worked with the Diode Gallery and Portland Creative Coders to craft this beautiful window installation inspired by pin art. The installation uses two displays and two Microsoft Kinect's to enable passers by to interact with stylized pins. PINS doubled as a research experiment in storefront traffic utilizing the Kinect to gather analytics on participants which could then be used to improve the installation. PINS was on display in March 2015.
Portland crew Lumenal Code worked with the Diode Gallery to craft this seemingly simple show of illustrations that was anything but. Hidden inside this installation of hand-illustrated art is a complete augmented reality game that can be played with a phone or tablet. Artworks included characters, weapons, and bosses that could be scanned to reveal 3D versions which functioned as playing cards. Viewers could simply enjoy the art, or play through the game, receiving prizes for beating the mega boss "The Gibson." Dungeon Hacker was on display in Feburary 2015. More information on the show is available on the exhibition website here.
Uncontext: Duel
This combination hack day, mystery, and gallery show was crafted by local Portland artists John Brown and Josh Michaels in conjunction with PDX Creative Coders and the Diode Gallery. Participating artists were given basic code to receive a stream of unknown data from a server. The artists were not given any explanation as to what the data meant, simply what format it was in. Artists then worked to create individual works based on this data set. At the gallery installation it was revealed that the dataset was a historical database of chess games. Uncontext: Duel was on display at the Diode Gallery in December 2014.
Together
This combination art hack day and gallery show was organized by Surya Buchwald and Josh Michaels in conjunction with PDX Creative Coders and the Diode Gallery. The vision for the show was a single gallery with many electronic art installations that all reacted to the same touch surface. Artists were given a basic interface for receiving touch data from a large interactive touch screen. They then crafted individual artworks to react to this data. The gallery install featured a single central touch screen and twelve different installations from Portland artists that all reacted in tandem. Together was on display at the Diode Gallery in August 2014.
The church of Robotron
The great and holy Church of Robotron put on an exhibition at the Diode Gallery in September 2014 featuring three interactive alters to the game Robotron 2084. The show included a fully playable window installation with touch interface, sound, and a leaderboard. Walking into the gallery was like opening a game cabinet. Inside guests found an Oculus Rift alter, an electric shock alter, video sermons, and more. Openings included live preaching and street acting. More than two thousand unique players interacted with the window display over the course of the show. More information is available on the Church of Robotron website here.