Ben Tolman: “Cognitive transformation”

I found this illustration on Mind Hacks first. It reminded me of Fritz Kahn’s artwork for a moment. That was before I explored Ben Tolman’s gallery, featuring ink drawings which can be viewed with great detail through zoomify.

Ben Tolman invites us to a great experience consisting of various wanderings on his website. Mouse scrolls and clicks get transformed into searches for depths, contrasts and unending lines. The themes of internality and externality, of self and other, ego and alter, inside and outside are worked out with both technical skill and idiosyncrasy.

Tolman’s next participation in an exhibition curated by Jon Beinart looks particularly promising. A summary description is found on Tolman’s weblog:

Chaos and ruin. Technological trends corrupting. Deformation, anatomical abnormalities, degradation and displacement. Whether related to the human body and spirit or the human environment, it is the ‘anti’ utopia.

The theme of this show, ‘Dystopia’, will place the viewer in a fictional world where personal and societal fears can be explored. Whether figuratively or more literally, the participating artists will present their own interpretation of ‘Dystopia’.