The Butler Institute of American Art
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New Media

Jun 14, 2023 | Collection

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New Media

Red, blue, and green orbs intertwined in New Media Collection

About The Art

The Butler Institute has become identified with works of new media. The David Bermant Gallery contains works generated by mechanical motors and computers. Light works are also featured in this space-age gallery.

LOCATION: Bermant Gallery, second floor Beecher Center Wing, Novak Gallery, first floor Beecher Center Wing

Selected Works

a glass sculpture made of chain links with built-in red, blue, and green LEDs. The lights reflect and blend to create shifting patterns of color and shadow on nearby walls, forming a dynamic, abstract experience through light.

Built on the Spot

Milton Komisar

a light-based artwork that uses specially coated glass to bend and split white light into rich, vibrant colors. As light shines through layered, angled glass panels, it projects a radiant array of overlapping shapes—like beams and bursts—across the wall.

Cantabile

Stephen Knapp

a glowing glass sphere suspended in a large, clear cylinder filled with liquid. Inside the sphere, bursts of electric light flicker and crackle like tiny lightning bolts. As the electricity dances, it sends out shifting purple and blue glows that reflect through the liquid and bounce off the walls.

Corona Discharge #3

Alejandro and Moira Sina

Tiny grayish brown moss stalks neatly displayed in compact rows. This textured diorama is enclosed under glass. When a visitor presses a button, the landscape “awakens”—dozens of delicate, brush-like stalks begin to sway, pulse, and oscillate gently to music, as if performing a choreographed dance.

Dancing Trees

David Durlach

a three-dimensional assembly of acrylic rods radiating from central points, suspended in space. At each node, computer-controlled RGB lights emit shifting hues, red, green, white, and their blends—resulting in a dynamic, pulsating constellation of glowing beams.

Little Bang

Milton Komisar

triangle-shaped sculpture. When lit from within, it appears to glow with shifting colors; neon pinks, blues, greens and seems to open infinitely inward through reflections that recede beyond sight

Love Triangle

Ray Howlett

A round picture that looks like you are looking into a round black tunnel that is surrounded by a ring of tiny yellow lights on the inside.

Space Warp (Infinity Mirror)

Earl Reiback

a seated robot-like sculpture made from vintage TVs, showing moving faces and images. One arm holds a brass megaphone, the other a telescope. It sits at a desk covered in tech papers and screens, blending old media with playful, human-like form.

Virtually Wise

Nam June Paik

A lively wall-mounted machine made of twisting tracks, copper tubes, and metal chimes. Rolling balls move through loops, trigger sounds, and animate colorful parts in a rhythmic, playful motion.

Wall Piece ’89 XVI Clear Chris

George Rhoads

Centered on a square black box frame are Spinning circular discs with hypnotic black-and-white patterns that create optical illusions of depth and motion. Designed to be viewed while rotating, they play with visual perception and early ideas of kinetic art.

Rotorelief

Marcel Duchamp

*Please note that the artworks in the permanent collection on display may undergo periodic changes and rotations. We suggest that if you’re traveling to the museum to view a specific piece of artwork, call us ahead of time to confirm it is currently on display (330-743-1107 ext. 1108)

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