Tabor Robak

Drinking Bird Universe (2018)

Tabor Robak (1986, USA) work employs computer generated imaging to create videos of invented worlds. Working in programs including Unity, After Effects, Photoshop and Cinema 4D, the artist explores a secondary, digital reality, rendered in what he refers to as a “Photoshop tutorial aesthetic” or a “desktop screensaver aesthetic.” His meticulously produced and filmed environments are cobbled together from sources both sampled and hand-modeled.

In Drinking Bird Universe (2018), Tabor Robak comments on the anxiety induced by the present-day use of smartphones. The work touches upon the around-the-clock newsfeed, consisting of fear-mongering international news and mind-numbing celebrity updates, which stream into the mobile phone. The screen resembles an oversized smartphone that displays live data, including time, date and an RSS feed of the latest news. The video loop is created from a highly detailed fluid simulation, a churning liquid composition of brightly coloured layers. The motion of these layers resembles that of liquid in a jar being constantly shaken, a motion that triggers anxiety and discomfort. The generative artwork shows the fleeting and ephemeral character of current times, wherein overstimulation and uncertainty is omnipresent.

1080P video, live date, time, and news feed

Dimensions variable

Duration 30 min. background loop

Edition of 3 plus 2 artist’s proofs (#1/3)