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Throughout his creative process, Alexandre Castonguay is conscious of people's reactions to his interactive environments, and the relationships that develop between them and his viewers. "Digital media art is often criticised because it leads the viewer into its own space, which results in a loss of subjectivity. Rather than presenting the cold face of technology, I try to give a measure of control and self-awareness to its viewers. I want people to leave with the notion that they weren't manipulated, that they were in control." Digitale allows its users to capture a soft focus image with a retro Brownie Hawkeye camera, which gradually becomes abstracted. Castonguay was attentive to the ergonomics of the work's design by introducing a comfortable divan, which contains a special effects touch screen that viewers use to preview their image before capturing it. "Digitale creates an evanescent photo where an effacement of the image occurs until it disappears altogether. As the software drains a person away, it brings together the idea of memory and loss. The experience for viewers is twofold-- there's the piece and then there's what happens within it," Castonguay says. Castonguay remarks on the ephemerality inherent in his work, as digital media has an innate fragility and is not necessarily enduring. "This is the problem for anyone using contemporary material," states Castonguay. "At all levels, there is an obsolecence in time." Also on view are Castonguay's 360-degree panoramas, Construction, Observatoire and Chantier. "I think of the works as environments. I select a place, and look at the world from that perspective. The photos I take do not have a specific focus. It's more about the photography itself." Castonguay's work tends to embrace form and content as one and the same. "I start with the software and the work happens through the process of creation. I don't use technology to get from point A to point B. It's not a closed system, but a loop. I peek into the black box and perceive its inner workings." Alexandre Castonguay is well known for his work in new media
and digital art. His 2003 exhibition at Pierre-François
Ouellette Art Contemporain in Montréal featured
his eight-channel video installation Chutes as
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