Although he did not say whether he was Team Jacob or Team Edward, "Twilight" (2008) cinematographer Harry Dawson discussed ways that digital technology innovations are shaping artist's approach to their craft at the Neukom Institute's Donoho Colloquium on Tuesday in Loew Auditorium.
Dawson employed various video clips to emphasize the roles that technology plays in creating art that aims to capture reality.
At the beginning of his lecture, Dawson asked for the lights to be turned off, though Loew Auditorium staff initially requested that they be kept on. Dawson said the lights detracted from the art and that his lecture was about the art, not him.
Dawson screened the short film "Tristan's Death," a piece that he worked on with contemporary artist Bill Viola. Dawson observed silently as the audience watched the performer in the film elegantly ascend from the water into the air.
After the piece concluded, Dawson challenged the audience's preconceptions of "technology" in art.
"The charcoal used on the cavemen paintings are considered technology available to those artists," Dawson said.
Dawson's pieces attempt to recreate aesthetic themes of Italian painter Giotto di Bondone's frescoes in Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy.
After he compared his work's theme with that of Giotto's, Dawson said it is often hard to define the reciprocal relationship between technology and art.
"It's a two-way street," Dawson said. "Artists are shaped by the technology available, but when there isn't an available method, artists also create them."
Filmmakers are currently searching for a digital camera that will look better than film, what they call the "Holy Grail," Dawson said.
Digital cameras allow post-production editing during filming and provide a sharpness that distinguishes the final product.
"A camera nowadays is a specialized computer," he said.
Although filmmaking methods are constantly changing, Dawson said the aesthetic values he creates can be traced back to cavemen paintings and Giotto's frescoes.
"I am just trying to see most of the world, while trying to capture some of the human spirit," Dawson said.
In his 30-year career, Dawson has worked for various television series, including t"NOVA," "Frontline" and "Nature," and his films include the box-office hit "Twilight" and the festival award-winning documentary "Corso: The Last Beat" (2009). He has received acclaim in the Los Angeles Times, American Cinematographer and The New Yorker.
His lecture was the third in the Donoho Colloquium, which aims to explore various places in everyday life where "computational ideas" are relevant.
"The three lectures all show different ways in which computation, mathematics and computer science has played a significant role in modern art and in ways people produce art," said Dan Rockmore, the director of the Neukom Institute and a mathematics and computer science professor.
Rockmore said Dawson's work embodies what the colloquium aims to celebrate.
"Harry was a natural," Rockmore said.
"Using such technology, he is able to bring Viola's vision to life in an extraordinary, provocative and emotional way."
Allie Young '13, a film and media studies major, said she was impressed by how Dawson played with technology used to capture everyday life.
"He invokes art and meaning into the pieces, and that is amazing," she said.
