88 Constellations for Wittgenstein – David Clark

Winner of the 2011 Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award

Creator: David Clark

Nominator: Bruce Barber (Media and Recording Arts)

Seconder: Sam Fisher, Jan Peacock

David Clark’s 88 Constellations for Wittgenstein (to be played with the left hand) is a highly sophisticated yet playful and accessible digital web work exploring the life and work of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Displaying dazzling technical skill, this elegant, feature-length work employs flash animation to create a rhizome-like network of visual, musical and narrative vignettes that viewers can navigate at their own pace. 88 Constellations was released online in 2008, and has been publicly presented in numerous national and international exhibitions and festivals of electronic art, garnering critical praise as “a rapturous virtuosic labyrinth that confounds, nourishes and provokes.”

This is the first time a web-based work has won the award. In making its selection, the jury commented on the work’s accessibility and its invitation to play, despite being technically very complex and intellectually rigorous. They called it dazzling and elegant—”it sucks you in and you spend hours exploring this delightful labyrinth of ideas, images, poetry and music.”

88 Constellations for Wittgenstein (to be played with the left hand) can be seen on the web at http://88constellations.net/.