Joe Nicita
Joe Nicita is a multimedia artist, musician and web/graphic designer based in New Jersey. He experiments with various media, but regardless of tools and materials, these explorations are held together by a consistent vision.
The work includes sculpture, installation, scanner and traditional photography, as well as sound. Joe’s most recent project is a set of lightboxes and large format prints of scanned three dimensional objects. He continues work with The Asbury Improvisational Noise Test, an experimental music project.
Scanography
Scanner photography presents its own set of benefits and challenges. This is especially true when capturing three dimensional objects. While far greater resolution than traditional photographs, dramatic falloff of focus and light occur. Joe’s work exploits the inherent flaws in the medium. Tension is created as only small, counter-intuitive areas of an image are in focus, and those surfaces are in stark, hi-resolution detail. Selections from this series were exhibited as large format prints as well as light boxes. With the latter, backlit transparencies enhanced the inherent eerie glow of scanner light.
Kinetic Sculpture
Joe Nicita’s kinetic sculptures utilize found and fabricated objects and, for the most part, are assembled and suspended with monofilament. Key elements suggest the core structure of a given piece and through a balance of planning and experimentation, each takes it’s overall shape. Anchored by weights, gravity and tension give them form. Through this approach, friction is minimized to allow for motion. While some move by wind, physical interaction by the viewer is more likely the cause of action. Meaning is suggested through selection of man made artifacts placed in the context of more primal elements, shapes and forces.
Drawings
This set of images is the result of early experiments in flatbed scanning. No digital effects were applied beyond overmodulation of exposure and contrast, randomly selecting background areas, then further adjusting these variables. Digital noise was exploited to (ironically) create archaic looking images, which coincided with the process of unearthing a personal history culled from years of sketchbook drawings.