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Thursday,
November 21, 2002
Better living through chemistry
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Of The Examiner Staff
Name:
Scott Sona Snibbe
Age: 32
Neighborhood: Potrero Hill
Scott Snibbe knows his coasts. He grew up in
Massachusetts and California, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in
computer science from Brown University in Rhode Island, and moved back to the
West Coast for research and animation jobs in Seattle and the Bay Area.
Drawing on his professional experience, Snibbe
creates screen-based works, sculpture and installations that explore technology
and the body. His piece "Boundary Functions" is on display at the Exploratorium
(3601 Lyon St., San Francisco) through May 4; some of his screen-based work is
accessible on the Web at http://www.snibbe.com/.
Fresh off his honeymoon, he is adjusting to life as a
full-time artist, as well as a married man. He also spends time doing charitable
work with a variety of Buddhist organizations.
Getting started
Snibbe grew up surrounded by creative influences:
Both his parents are sculptors, his paternal grandfather was an architect
and his mother's family boasted a couple of musicians. He and his brother
and sister learned to make sculpture using their parents' shop equipment at
an early age, which he says gave him a good creative foundation.
He set his sights on science and art as a child and
in college channeled his interests into computer animation. He made several
films, worked on a movie special-effects program and conducted professional
research, but he decided to focus on what he calls "useless programs" --
programs based on phenomena or ideas rather than productivity -- after showing
one at a 1995 conference for computer graphics professionals and discovering the
relatively small art and technology world.
On medium
Snibbe was drawn to art that incorporates technology
because of its experiential qualities.
"The idea that you can perceive things directly with
your body is really important to me, and with technology you can make ideas
tangible -- you can make an abstraction or a conceptual analysis of your body,
or people, something tangible and physical or visible," he explains.
And by creating pieces that rely on interactivity,
"the process is the product," he adds. "You don't have to think about it. It's
an experience."
Snibbe says his ideas often lead him to projects he
doesn't know how to realize -- and which may or may not be technically possible.
In these cases, he relies heavily on the expertise of a small network of friends
who help him learn new skills and point him in the direction of the information
he needs.
"That makes it really fun because it's really
creative," he says.
On process
"I don't really trust ideas when they're new," Snibbe
says. "I think only time tells you whether you have a good idea or not, so
I usually will write things down and leave them for a while. If I'm still
excited, then I'll know it's a good thing to follow through on."
If an idea makes the cut, Snibbe then plans out the
project in great detail, though he says his approach is much like an actor with
a script.
"In the execution there's interpretation, which I
learned when I was doing animation. You have to plan it so precisely because
it's so much effort to do the work," he says. But there's still plenty of room
for making creative decisions along the way, especially with screen-based work.
"Up to the day that I'm showing, I'm changing things and changing shapes.
There's a lot of creativity and inspiration in the details."
On artistic themes
Snibbe says most of his ideas for projects stem from
basic philosophical or spiritual concepts, often Buddhist teachings. He tries
to examine our relationship to the world and to our bodies, our minds, our
breath -- things we think of as belonging to us but which he believes have
little to do with our true identity.
He's drawn to the idea of the self being illusory and
of existence being defined instead by interactions with our environment.
On communication
Snibbe says the ideas he hopes to communicate vary
from piece to piece, but with each he wants the first experience to be visceral.
"I think there's different levels of experience with
art. Kids come along and it's just a fun thing to do, and then a very
intellectual person might like the intellectual end, or an emotional person
might get a more spiritual message from it. I try to make the pieces work at a
number of different levels.
"If people appreciate the work on any level, then I'm
happy. Really, you're lucky if people are interested in what you're doing and
you communicate something useful. Sometimes I get a little frustrated with
myself because there are more philosophical or spiritual ideas that I'm trying
to communicate in the work, and I'm not sure that always comes through." But
some thoughts are difficult to communicate even by talking, he adds.
On the allure of art
"I think it's seeing something made tangible that's
intangible. That's the number one satisfaction," Snibbe says. "When I first
get something working, that's really exciting. When I conceptualize something,
it's hard work."
Upon completing a piece to which he's dedicated hours
and even years of thought and energy, he feels invigorated, he says. "Then I
think there's a quieter satisfaction, because the point of making something is
to have an audience and to share it with people. All the work is interactive, so
people have to engage with it. ... The whole point is to be part of society and
to be part of the loop with the audience."