In Jennifer Steinkamp’s art, purely optical phenomena become profoundly physical. Phase = Time was created by Steinkamp for the Henry Art Gallery as the first project of Future Forward, a series that commissions new works from artists working with new technologies. Steinkamp built a curved scrim and used rear-screen projection and what she calls “found object” computer software technology to alter a vertical space with rhythmically pulsating patterned light. The re-materialized space fluctuates between presenting itself as an object and as a background. Steinkamp used shifts in focus, time, pattern, color and sound to explore the position and subjectivity of the spectator in an environment of changing colors and patterns. Her use of technology challenges our expectations of machine-dependent art and our sensations and responses as organic beings; in the process, she renews the experience of abstraction.

The Future Forward: Projects in New Media series included two additional commissions and residencies: Inigo Manglano-Ovalle in January, 2000 and Tony Oursler in May, 2000. This series of exhibitions was sponsored in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, allowing for artists to travel to Seattle to participate in a three-week collaborative residency which included the opportunity to work with University of Washington departments and private companies engaged in technologies relating to their work. Jennifer Steinkamp’s project was also sponsored by the Seattle Arts Commission.