Contemporary Art in Context: Tom Benincase

The concept behind Benincase’s ongoing Yield series is to group together interchangeable graphic components that create a visual vocabulary. These modules can then be assembled and reassembled to form various compositions which, in turn, communicate different messages. His focus is to construct beings that express matter, sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. These beings can also be viewed as deities or spiritual symbols whose meaning is dependent upon the viewer.

A separate series of digital images entitled Piles of Heads exposes Benincase’s more playful side. The images are somewhat reminiscent of modern mid-century abstract art embraced by graffitist sensibilities. However, when analyzed, these images are perhaps more than what they seem: “These works are an illustration of our attempts, both internally and externally, to come to terms with our own anonymity.”

Art using digital technology began in the 1950s. The individuals involved in the creation of what was then called computer art were, in fact, engineers and scientists because they had access to the only computing resources available at university scientific research labs. By 1967, engineers Billy Klüver and Fred Waldhauer and artists Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whiteman formed the group EAT (Experiments in Art and Technology) to promote collaboration between art and technology.

Although the term digital art wasn’t coined until the 1980s, the Institute of Contemporary Arts saw fit to host an exhibition of computer art in 1968 called Cybernetic Serendipity. Nam June Paik, Frieder Nake, Leslie Mezei, Georg Nees, A. Michael Noll, John Whitney, and Charles Csuri were among the artists creating art using computers, recording equipment, and television.

In 1970, the general public could make digital art using the Apple ll computer with a screen that was able to produce color graphics for the first time on a personal computer. By 1972, the first computer graphics course was being taught at UCLA. The final piece of the puzzle came when computer engineers created a paint program which became known as AARON. Fast-forward to today when artists have access to a myriad of art tech so art can be made and experienced instantaneously and globally, twenty-four hours a day.

ARTIST Q&A
What programs or equipment do you currently use?
Tom Benincase: First and foremost, my eyes, my brain, and my hands. After that, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Procreate, and occasionally Blender 3D. Each one has a specific purpose. My Yield series was created on a desktop computer using Illustrator while my Piles of Heads series was initially drawn in Procreate on an iPad Pro, eventually making its way onto my desktop. Converting iPad drawn images to Illustrator enables me to clean up the drawings if necessary and scale them to any size I would like them printed.

Your work not only comes in print form, but 3D objects as well. Can you talk a little about your Punigods pins?
TB: The pins I make are called Punigods,™ intended to be a talisman of protection against various fears, illnesses, and negative experiences. Their purpose is to help a person direct energy to the talisman, much as it is done in certain forms of psychotherapy. The project was initially conceived as a product targeted to introverts. Being one myself, it came to me that introverts don’t have a lot of the equivalent coping mechanisms available to them that are provided to their extroverted counterparts.

What are some of the biggest influences on your work, including other artists, events, or things outside of the arts?
TB: It is all about music. All my work begins and ends with music. If I hadn’t pursued the visual arts, I would have become a musician. I listen to a wide range of music and certain musicians more often than others. I was listening to Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Young, and Sonic Youth while working on the Piles of Heads series and John Coltrane, Stereolab, and Chopin during the making of my Yield series. Bach Sonatas sprinkled with Radiohead and more Stereolab tend to be in the background when I am working on my collages.

Do you have specific strategies, rituals, or routines that help you work and/or generate ideas?
TB: I mostly work very late at night or very early in the morning. I try to make something every day whatever the style and regardless of if it has any bearing on what I am working on at the time. Occasionally, I lose the drive to draw, not even stick figures. That’s when I tend to switch over to the computer to create. Other times, I recognize the benefits of taking a break to regroup. I have also discovered I tend to have more successful ideas when I stay away from social media. The constant barrage of input from social media tends to make me start to form derivative work subconsciously.

What advice can you offer teachers to help their students successfully create art in an intuitive, open-ended way?
TB: Students who are taught their entire life that they should only make art if they are good at it may find themselves with reduced self-confidence when faced with an art class. Find projects that allow for visual thinking and not ones that rely on a finished product. Use the path to the product as the project itself.

What advice do you have for budding digital artists?
TB: The only way to establish how you work is to work and keep working. Second, don’t be afraid to make a mark on a tangible piece of paper. Ideas don’t necessarily begin while staring at a screen. Keeping a visual diary digitally or on paper is invaluable as well. Don’t spend too much time thinking about your first mark. If you are not satisfied, it is never too late to turn the page and make a new mark. Just make a mark, and the rest will follow. This is the beauty of art and life.

DISCUSSION
Begin by sharing Tom Benincase’s Yield 0506. Ask students what they think each individual symbol stands for (the eyes, the repeated lines around the eyes, the droplets, the separate cubes, exclusion of color, etc.) Have them generate a singular message on what all the symbols mean based on how they are assembled within the artwork. Have students share their discoveries and ask them to identify similar interpretations based on the individual symbols and messages they come up with. Ask students why these interpretations are similar. Do we as humans have a visual language or shared human experience that can be expressed without written language? You may want to include the visual language that Keith Haring invented within his work to compare and contrast with Tom Benincase’s work. To close, have students use the web to locate a piece of artwork by another artist who uses symbols as well.

STUDIO EXPERIENCES

Use any software at your disposal to design five original symbols using only scale, line, and shape. Explain the meaning of each symbol.
Use any software at your disposal to design an original symbol using line and shape. Reproduce the symbol three times using different colors. Does the color change the meaning of the symbol?
Use any software at your disposal to construct an entire piece of artwork using original symbols you have designed. Exchange your artwork with peers and have them determine what the message of the artwork is based on the symbols included. Is their interpretation what you intended?
Use any software at your disposal to create a self-portrait using a series of symbols. You can explore illustrating your face using the symbols or thoughtfully arrange the symbols on their own as representations of who you are.