The First of its Kind: Seeing Art Digitally
-By Amy Hunter

In the heart of Chelsea-the art epicenter of New York City-the new gallery bitforms is fast becoming the talk of the art world. A brilliant collision between art and technology, bitforms is devoted to digital and digitally influenced art, "providing a forum to display . some of the most vibrant and relevant art being made today," said Pepperdine alumnus Steve Sacks, founder of the gallery.

In the same way that the electronic guitar revolutionized the world of music, digital media used for creative purposes are now influencing and hopefully rejuvenating the art arena.

"In ten years, it will simply be called 'art,'" Sacks said. But today, bitforms gallery exists to act as a bridge between traditional art and its new domain in technology.

Sacks, born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1966 and raised in a family of art buyers and dealers, recognized the value of aesthetics in culture from a young age. But it wasn't until he discovered the potential of the computer that his creativity began to flourish.

Having earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Albany State, Sacks applied for

the MBA program at Pepperdine's Graziadio School of Business and Management, where he was drawn to the beautiful coastline, a new environment, and the personalized business program. "I was introduced to the Mac at Pepperdine," said Sacks, who added that the discovery has changed his life forever.

In 1995, Sacks co-founded Digital Pulp, a company that combined Web development and advertising to better reach its target population, the dotcoms. Digital Pulp assisted companies in defining the image they wanted to portray while moving quickly and efficiently across the digital divide.

"We spoke the language of the companies better than advertising agencies," Sacks said. "Their budgets were large, and they needed experts to get the job done."

But with the fall of the dot-com industry and a fast-approaching burnout level, Sacks resigned after five years with the company. After attending groundbreaking exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Whitney, he became intrigued by the growing field of digital art. As his research persisted, Sacks found that not a single gallery existed to highlight the growing digital medium, so he decided to open one himself, and thus bitforms was born.

Designed by Winka Dubbeldam's award-winning New York architecture firm Archi-Tectonics, bitforms' gallery space is as forward-looking as the work it displays. The gallery has

two separate areas to explore: a rotating feature exhibit and a permanent digital display. Visitors experience large-scale reactive sculptures, elegantly encased software art, and digitally influenced mixed-media pieces.

Also included in the gallery is a specially designed interactive digital catalog where visitors can view artist information such as images, artist statements, and price.

In his quest to show the work of today's best digital artists, Sacks has traveled around the world and attended numerous exhibitions exploring the digital influence. Already, the gallery has displayed work from artists around the world. The opening alone featured seven artists representing Italy, New Zealand, and the United States. Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, an artist featured in a recent bitforms exhibit, was born in Mexico City and educated in Canada, and has been welcomed internationally with his creations. "Each artist has uniquely discovered and interpreted the digital realm, showing the breadth and depth of digitally influenced art," Sacks said.

The gallery's interactive digital catalog provides information about the art.

The artists featured in the gallery employ unique approaches to art, making each exhibit intriguing and mesmerizing in its own right. Some exhibits respond to bodily movement, using projected images, lights, and shadows. Others capture the viewer's attention through interaction with the personal space of an audience, such as making cell phones ring inexplicably.

Sacks, who calls himself a "conceptor," may not create most of the art on display, but he carefully designs and maintains the vehicle through which it can best be presented to the public.

"Bitforms positions digital art as an influential and innovative art form that is evolving and warrants recognition," Sacks said. "The gallery appeals not only to our sense of aesthetics, but also to our sense of discovery."

Considering the constraints of promoting a new business and a new genre within the industry in a year that has been economically discouraging for many, Sacks said that the gallery has done well enough. Living with his wife Aimeé, an arts advocate in education, and their two children, Sawyer and Esmé, in Greenwich, Connecticut, Sacks is grateful for the opportunities at hand and looks forward to what the future will bring.

For more information on the gallery, visit www.bitforms.com or call (212) 366-6939.