In this piece and others before it, Takeo takes an interest in finding the core commonality between art and media, a unit that may hold the clue to tying these two apparently opposite subjects together. The easily accessable means to some easily "kitsch-ified." He has observed how people have become obsessed with the media as a source of entertainment, memory and knowledge as well as a repository for those very same things. As the amount of new media technology increases, so too does our dependence on it.

To negotiate this gap between art and media, |reconstruction|'s deconstruction of the captured CNN webpage-- television and the Internet representing two of the highest forms of media in North America-- into image, text, and code, also features what Takeo considers the most basic aspect of the human environment: light. According to him,

The filtration of light translates into Net art as well. Because of the differences in models, platforms and age, monitors also tend to change the hue of the piece depending on where it is viewed. Takeo agrees with this problem and states, "Even though a digital system is far more precise, there is still translation error inherent in all digital display systems. For this reason, it is why I began to consider the pure state of the artwork to be the binary digital form. Output - even digital - is still only an imperfect approximation." In this way, his statement that his works are composed in the same tradition as painting becomes prophetic.

Takeo, who has a bachelor of science, has no formal training in art. He considers his background influential in two areas: precise compositional theory and the application of methodology in the formulation of his artworks; and detachment from artistic clichés. However, like many who wish to break away from classical notions of art, that is, the passive viewing of a piece, Takeo has made |reconstruction| semi-interactive; "semi," because even if the viewer's participation is required to "boot-up" the piece, the mathematical coding behind it acts on this initiative. Only after a long lack of interaction will the peice eventually return to the black canvas. Takeo likens this to channel-surfing: a small action results in a reaction of equal strength which then initiates another reaction and so on and so forth in a domino effect until the viewer loses interest and the piece becomes blank.

All these ties serve not only to underline the Western world's dependance on the media but question its dependance as well. By relying on machines as the mythological Odin with Mimir's head, it can be said that we as a people have given up a part of our conscious, thinking brain. The technical definition of |reconstruction| can then be seen in a parallel light as the historical definition (despite the fact that it has been crossed out in the artist's statement). By destroying an institution and rebuiling it anew, the output throws back at the viewer a different way of looking at it-- as nothing more than a collection of 1's and 0's whose time has passed, that is, without its original context, gibberish.

Written by: K. C. Solano