AUBURN - Rochester-based artist Bill Klingensmith loves to drive and easily admits there are few things he likes more than a good, long road trip.
“I love to drive,” Klingensmith said. “And I love road trips and it is something I would do anytime I have the opportunity.”
As an artist with a love for the open road, Klingensmith is a perfect addition to the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center's current show, “Highways & Byways: American Road Culture,” which focuses on art inspired by and reflecting America's open roads.
Klingensmith stopped by the art center Sunday to talk about his work with a focus on one of his largest endeavors to date, “Drive Project.”
This is a multimedia display encompassing digital photography, computer-based technology and time-compressed photo and video images, depicting travels across the country.
Klingensmith said the work began with “Drive Project '05” when he took a cross-country trip from Rochester to Seattle.
“That was a six day drive,” Klingensmith said. “And in that time driving out there I got the idea that this was something that I could do to be creative.”
With his laptop and digital camera, Klingensmith began his efforts in chronicling the American landscape on his return trip from Seattle across I-90.
With the camera clicking away, taking one picture every 10 seconds, Klingensmith had more than 15,486 images by the time he returned home, some of which are on display at the Schweinfurth.
But Klingensmith wasn't completely sure how to present the images, until he decided to combine his artistic interests with one in graphic and web design, creating the drive project Web site.
“Being a graphic designer, I decided to create an interactive map,” Klingensmith said. “You can click on the arrows on the map and see where you are on the trip and they bring up images from that area.”
Klingensmith next decided to try out his ideas with a trip to St. Louis, giving him the opportunity to fine tune his process and the computer technology he was using.
Klingensmith took the images from this trip and also created a time-compressed video display that runs at the art center in a headrest DVD player, showing the trip in a sped-up fashion, going from Rochester to St. Louis in just little more than an hour.
“It creates a sense of place and time,” Klingensmith said. “It is in a compressed way, but you can get a sense of these geographic places and say you want to see what Montana looks like you can click on it and there you are. You can take a trip across the country in about a half-hour.”
And while he was pleased with the results, Klingensmith wanted to offer something more. This led to the creation of the New Orleans Drive Project in 2006.
A year after the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina, Klingensmith drove down and spent days driving around. He captured thousands of images, from the beautiful historic architecture of the French Quarter to the damage from the hurricane, with destroyed homes and the wrecked infrastructure of neighborhoods such as the Ninth Ward.
They're images Klingensmith hopes convey a message that goes deeper than the nightly news.
“I felt it was my responsibility,” Klingensmith said. “As an artist and as a member of this country, I wanted to let people know that this was real and that these were real places and go more in depth than what you might hear on the news or read in the paper and makes places like the Ninth Ward real for people.”
Klingensmith said the Drive Project has been an interesting experience. Having displayed his work as a painter all over the world, through the Internet, he has been able to reach so many more.
“The response has been good,” Klingensmith said. “People all over the world can see this. In a year there have been 25,000 people that have seen the site and this helps get my work out further.”
As an artist with a love for the open road, Klingensmith is a perfect addition to the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center's current show, “Highways & Byways: American Road Culture,” which focuses on art inspired by and reflecting America's open roads.
Klingensmith stopped by the art center Sunday to talk about his work with a focus on one of his largest endeavors to date, “Drive Project.”
This is a multimedia display encompassing digital photography, computer-based technology and time-compressed photo and video images, depicting travels across the country.
Klingensmith said the work began with “Drive Project '05” when he took a cross-country trip from Rochester to Seattle.
“That was a six day drive,” Klingensmith said. “And in that time driving out there I got the idea that this was something that I could do to be creative.”
With his laptop and digital camera, Klingensmith began his efforts in chronicling the American landscape on his return trip from Seattle across I-90.
With the camera clicking away, taking one picture every 10 seconds, Klingensmith had more than 15,486 images by the time he returned home, some of which are on display at the Schweinfurth.
But Klingensmith wasn't completely sure how to present the images, until he decided to combine his artistic interests with one in graphic and web design, creating the drive project Web site.
“Being a graphic designer, I decided to create an interactive map,” Klingensmith said. “You can click on the arrows on the map and see where you are on the trip and they bring up images from that area.”
Klingensmith next decided to try out his ideas with a trip to St. Louis, giving him the opportunity to fine tune his process and the computer technology he was using.
Klingensmith took the images from this trip and also created a time-compressed video display that runs at the art center in a headrest DVD player, showing the trip in a sped-up fashion, going from Rochester to St. Louis in just little more than an hour.
“It creates a sense of place and time,” Klingensmith said. “It is in a compressed way, but you can get a sense of these geographic places and say you want to see what Montana looks like you can click on it and there you are. You can take a trip across the country in about a half-hour.”
And while he was pleased with the results, Klingensmith wanted to offer something more. This led to the creation of the New Orleans Drive Project in 2006.
A year after the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina, Klingensmith drove down and spent days driving around. He captured thousands of images, from the beautiful historic architecture of the French Quarter to the damage from the hurricane, with destroyed homes and the wrecked infrastructure of neighborhoods such as the Ninth Ward.
They're images Klingensmith hopes convey a message that goes deeper than the nightly news.
“I felt it was my responsibility,” Klingensmith said. “As an artist and as a member of this country, I wanted to let people know that this was real and that these were real places and go more in depth than what you might hear on the news or read in the paper and makes places like the Ninth Ward real for people.”
Klingensmith said the Drive Project has been an interesting experience. Having displayed his work as a painter all over the world, through the Internet, he has been able to reach so many more.
“The response has been good,” Klingensmith said. “People all over the world can see this. In a year there have been 25,000 people that have seen the site and this helps get my work out further.”
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