Digital Arts and New Media: MFA: Collaboration, Innovation, Social Impact

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2010 MFA Exhibition: Artist Information

Revised: 15 March 2010

 

Media Contact:

Felicia Rice

fsrice@ucsc.edu

(831) 459-1554

 

Title:  Things That Are Possible

The Digital Arts and New Media MFA program at UC Santa Cruz presents an exhibition of fourteen graduate students whose works employ advanced technologies for creative potential and social impact.

 

Entitled Things That Are Possible, this year's UCSC DANM MFA exhibition is the culmination of two years of research and artistic exploration, and will include new media works that explore performativity, interactivity and participation. These works interrogate the borderlands, edges, and contested territories of contemporary new media art practice.

 

Exhibition Dates: April 30th - May 9th, 10am - 4pm 

 

Reception: Friday May 7th, 5:30 - 7:30pm

 

Location: The NEW Digital Arts Research Center (DARC) located near the Music Recital Hall and Theater Arts on West Campus.

 

Special Event: Exhibition preview April 29 during an opening celebration for the DARC.

 

 

The Digital Arts and New Media MFA Program serves as a center for the development and study of digital media and the cultures they have helped create. Faculty and students are drawn from a variety of backgrounds such as the arts, computer engineering, humanities, the sciences, and social sciences to pursue interdisciplinary artistic and scholarly research and production, in the context of a broad examination of digital arts and cultures.

 

For more information see: http://danm.ucsc.edu/news_events/mfa-exhibition-2010

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ARTIST INFORMATION

 

Karl Baumann

PROJECT NAME:

Livingverse

 

45 WORD DESCRIPTION:

Livingverse is an immersive audio-video walking tour that investigates the entangled relations between memory, media, and power through an interactive semi-fictional exploration of public history.  The fictive tour is an extension of documentary work about the Gulf Wars, Rodney King, and the Iranian “twitter revolution.”

 

100 WORD DESCRIPTION:

Livingverse is an immersive audio-video walking tour that investigates the entangled relations between memory, media, and power through an interactive semi-fictional exploration of public history. The fictive tour is an extension of a documentary, Lebenverse: Living Video Memory, which analyzes the Gulf Wars, Rodney King, and the Iranian “twitter revolution,” focusing on the powerful possibilities and complications of personal media for communicating individual experiences and constructing socio-political realities. By re-imagining the documentary into a semi-fictive tour, Livingverse provides an active and embodied narrative space for exploring the material conditions and political genealogies that underlie our contemporary digital world.

 

MEDIUM FOR WALL LABEL:

Binaural Audio with Video

 

IMAGE CAPTION:

Karl Baumann, Livingverse, Audio-Video Walking Tour.

 

((Livingverse and Lebenverse: Living Video Memory are supposed to be italicized throughout))

 

 

Lyès Belhocine

PROJECT NAME:

Sounds Interesting...

 

45 WORD DESCRIPTION:

Sounds Interesting... is an audio-visual interactive piece that aims to explore modern sound spaces (after the French espaces sonores) by emulating how human-related sounds built up over sounds of nature. By triggering and manipulating audio, the participatory audience also creates a spatialized sound art composition.

 

100 WORD DESCRIPTION:

Sounds Interesting... is an interactive audio-visual piece that aims to explore modern sound spaces (after the French espaces sonores) by emulating how human-related sounds built up over sounds of nature. 

Nowadays, sounds resulting from human activities are present almost everywhere and on enough of a permanent basis to alter our definitions of silence and noise. The piece offers the possibility for an audience to interact with the system and manipulate audio clips in real time. Attributes such as pitch, echo, rhythm, and direction allow people to create a sound art piece mixed down to a multi-channel sound system.

 

MEDIUM FOR WALL LABEL:

Audio-Visual Interactive Installation

 

CAPTION FOR IMAGE:

Lyès Belhocine, Sounds Interesting...

 

 

Drew Detweiler

PROJECT NAME:

Roda de Video

 

45 WORD DESCRIPTON:

The Roda de Video is an interactive video installation that invites viewers to mix video and still images in rhythm. The work was created during a series of participatory video workshops with youth in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

 

100 WORD DESCRIPTION:

Roda de Video

The Roda de Video is an interactive video installation that invites viewers to mix video and still images in rhythm. Inspired by the roda of capoeira where participants improvise movements that are both fight and dance, the Roda de Video is a collision and composition of images. Chaos math flips fixed binaries in the creation of organic projections that ultimately decompose images in a void. The footage mixed in the roda was produced during a series of participatory video workshops with youth in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

 

MEDIUM FOR WALL LABEL:

Custom MAX/MSP/JITTER Application, video, multiple format image files

MAX/MSP/JITTER Programming by

Lyès Belhocine, Drew Detweiler, Peter Elsea

 

 

Christoph Girard

PROJECT NAME:

Lady/Applicant: The Lazarus

 

45 WORD DESCRIPTION:

Lady/Applicant: The Lazarus is a multimedia installation and experiment in new media poetics that subverts the identity of renowned confessional poet Sylvia Plath into a ghostly presence. By presenting collaged audio and video recordings, the project questions the role of the author.

 

100 WORD DESCRIPTION:

Lady/Applicant: The Lazarus is a multimedia installation and experiment in new media poetics that subverts the identity of renowned confessional poet Sylvia Plath into a ghostly presence. By presenting collaged audio and video recordings, the project questions the role of the author.

Readers established the poetry of Plath in such a performative way that the conventional characteristics of mental illness construct her identity. Since Plath's suicide almost 50 years ago, she continues to play the role of a depressed wife and mother. The attempt to disembody identity through the collaging of audio and video clips places meaning making on the reader.

 

MEDIUM FOR WALL LABEL:

Audio and Video Installation

 

HI-RES IMAGE:

The 300 dpi high-resolution image will print at approximately 6.25in. x 3.75in. The link to the full-size image can be found here: http://danm.ucsc.edu/~christoph/mfashow/girardmfa10.jpg

 

CAPTION FOR IMAGE:

Christoph Girard, Lady Applicant: The Lazarus, Audio and Video Collages.

 

 

Nik Hanselmann

PROJECT NAME:

bodyfuck and other programs

- or - 

bodyf*ck and other programs

bodyf*** and other programs

 

((“bodyfuck” is a riff off of the programming language “brainfuck” -- if the name must be bowdlerized I understand, but I would prefer it not be))

 

MEDIUM FOR WALL LABEL:

Software Installation

 

45 WORD DESCRIPTION: 

bodyfuck and other programs is a series of software explorations that examine the practice of computer programming as the juncture where the material world is articulated into the digital. bodyfuck reifies programming process as visualizations that foreground how software functions outside of ones and zeroes. 

 

100 WORD DESCRIPTION:

bodyfuck and other programs is a series of software explorations that examine the practice of computer programming as the juncture where the material world is articulated into the digital. The process of articulating code is fraught with difficulty; how programmers conceive reality is made manifest in binary systems that are embedded back into our everyday lives. bodyfuck reifies programming process as visualizations that foreground how software functions outside of ones and zeroes. bodyfuck asks: “What gets left out?” 

 

((Please note the artist has provided three versions of the image with varying bowdlerization.))

 

CAPTION FOR IMAGE:

Nik Hanselmann, bodyfuck and other programs

- or - 

Nik Hanselmann, bodyf*ck and other programs

- or - 

Nik Hanselmann, bodyf*** and other programs

 

 

Jessica Faith Hayden and Christopher Molla

PROJECT NAME:

Seemingly External Things (S.E.T.)

 

45 WORD DESCRIPTION:

Seemingly External Things (S.E.T.) is a mobile theatrical installation in which visitors may play to trigger audio, video and live performance events that reveal a story. The project questions the roles that the spectator and the environment play in generating narrative meaning.

 

100 WORD DESCRIPTION:

Seemingly External Things (S.E.T.) is a mobile theatrical installation that encourages visitors to explore a physical space in order to experience a dramatic performance. Through interaction with a variety of spatial objects (scenery and props) visitors trigger audio, video and live performance events that gradually reveal a larger narrative. In order to piece this narrative together, visitors must explore the space thoroughly and engage substantially with its contents.

The project is an inquiry into the relationship between imagination, creative play, and physical setting, and an examination of the roles that the spectator and the environment play in generating narrative meaning.

 

MEDIUM FOR WALL LABEL:

Audio, Video and Live Performance Installation

 

 

CAPTION FOR IMAGE

Jessica Faith Hayden and Christopher Molla, Seemingly External Things, Interactive Narrative Installation

 

 

Antoine A. Jaoude

PROJECT NAME:

CCI (Culture Custom Identity)

 

MEDIUM FOR WALL LABEL:

Custom software application and conceptual hardware drawings

 iphone application developed by Sonia M. Arteaga 

 

45 WORD DESCRIPTION OF YOUR WORK:

The first of its kind, CCI (Culture Custom Identity) is a new media device that lets you customize musical identities. Choose a track from its large database (your favorite 80’s childhood hit, for example) and tweak its cultural identity: make it either Westernized or Easternized.

 

100 WORD DESCRIPTION:

CCI (Culture Custom Identity) is a conceptual new media device and an iPhone application in-the-making that fades between two melodies, one is “Easternized” and the other is “Westernized.” The user of this device will be granted access to customize the identity of any given artwork or music uploaded to the application by mixing it with other uploaded artwork or music. Choose a track from its large database, such as Depeche Mode’s I just Can’t Get Enough, Michael Jackson’s Beat it, Boney M and many more.  Tweak its identity to match your cultural desires.

 

CAPTION FOR IMAGE:

A CCI user: “When I was a child, I always dreamt of having something like that; a device that enables me to impose the volume of my beliefs onto any song.”

 

 

Kathleen M. Kralowec

45 WORD DESCRIPTION OF YOUR WORK:

Voyage of the Inner Mask is a 3-part animated science fiction about a creature with no identity, who explores surreal landscapes searching for its history, destiny and desires.  These different worlds comprise a garden, a medieval bridge and a red light district.

 

100 WORD DESCRIPTION:

Voyage of the Inner Mask is a 3-part animated science fiction about a creature with no identity, who explores surreal landscapes searching for its history, destiny and desires.  While wandering through these different worlds, which comprise a garden, a medieval bridge and a red light district, the creature encounters beings who are living out strange realities of their own. The story branches from a body of illustrations done by the artist/animator during the last several years, which were drawn mostly while living in Prague, Czech Republic.

 

MEDIUM FOR WALL LABEL:  

Digital Animation

 

CAPTION FOR IMAGES:

In Voyage of the Inner Mask, Part I, the Inner Mask comes into existence in a garden, and becomes entranced by a butterfly that has been caught inside its mind.  

 

Modeling and rendering foliage for a scene from Voyage of the Inner Mask, Part I.

 

Scene from Voyage of the Inner Mask, Part III, a digital animation about a voyage through imaginary landscapes in pursuit of self-understanding.

 

Screen shot from Voyage of the Inner Mask, Part II, “The Statues”

 

 

Nick Lally

45 WORD DESCRIPTION OF YOUR WORK:

Untitled is a series of software experiments which enact situations that create spaces for social participation, dialogue and reflection on complex systems. These works are interventions into the everyday, which lead to open-ended, experiential modes of engagement with software, the material world, and other participants.

 

100 WORD DESCRIPTION:

Untitled is a series of software experiments which enact and mediate events and situations which are an expression of authorial intent, and which open up new spaces for social participation, dialogue and reflection on complex systems. These works are interventions into the everyday, which lead to open-ended, experiential modes of engagement with software, the material world, and other participants. These experiments will be part of an installation entitled building, which will be informed by a series of games, workshops and experiments that explore critical spatial practices and participatory software in collaboration with Kyle McKinley and selected participants. 

 

MEDIUM FOR WALL LABEL:

Installation

 

CAPTION FOR IMAGE

Text message game

 

 

Chris(Topher) Maraffi

PROJECT NAME:

Mimesis & Mocap: Realizing Craig’s Ubermarionette as the Synthespian of the Future

 

45 WORD DESCRIPTION:

Mimesis & Mocap is a realtime performance study where virtual and live actors interact and improvise together in a hybrid play space. Utilizing motion capture technology, it creates a virtual rendition of the classic Marx Brother’s Mirror Game between a live actor and his digital double in a backstage dressing room.

 

100 WORD DESCRIPTION:

Over a hundred years ago Gordon Craig predicted the future invention of a theatrical medium that would create more believable stage characters, which he termed the Ubermarionette. Since then animated 3D synthespians have been designed in digital media, but have yet to be fully realized in live theatrical performances. Mimesis & Mocap is a realtime performance study where virtual and live actors interact and improvise together in a hybrid play space. This study utilizes motion capture technology to create a virtual rendition of the classic Marx Brother’s Mirror Game, played by a live actor and his digital double in a backstage dressing room between performances of Stop the Press

 

MEDIUM FOR WALL LABEL:

Live and virtual performance in a realtime theatrical space.

 

CAPTION FOR IMAGE:

Topher Maraffi performs the Mirror Gag with his digital double in Mimesis & Mocap.

 

 

Kyle McKinley

PROJECT NAME:

Pedalgogy

 

45 WORD DESCRIPTION OF YOUR WORK:

Kyle McKinley's Pedalgogy is one work from the on-going series bicilogues, all of which use dialogue as metaphor for how personal and collective narratives are inscribed on space through the act of bicycling. Participants interact with video by reproducing the gestures of cycling.

 

100 WORD DESCRIPTION:

Kyle McKinley's Pedalgogy is one work from the on-going series bicilogues, all of which use dialogue as metaphor for how personal and collective narratives are inscribed on space through the act of bicycling. In this piece participants reproduce the gestures of cycling, cooperating with one another, and the piece itself, in order to activate the collected stories about bikes. Pedalgogy appears as part of an installation entitled building, which will be informed by a series of games, workshops and experiments which explore critical spatial practices and participatory software in collaboration with Nick Lally and selected participants.

 

MEDIUM FOR WALL LABEL:

Wood, bicycles, software. Dimensions variable.

hi-res version here: http://danm.ucsc.edu/~kyle/images/bicalouges/press_image_2_small.jpg

4" by 6" at 300 dpi

 

CAPTION FOR IMAGE:

Kyle McKinley bicilogues bicycles, software, spatial practice.

 

 

Elizabeth Travelslight

PROJECT NAME:

Elsewhere

 

45 WORD DESCRIPTION:

Elsewhere is an outdoor installation that invites viewers to pause and consider the influence of new media upon our experiences with the material world.  Situated in and around a life-sized toy sailboat, participants are implicated into playful re-imaginations of location, connection, and destination.

 

100 WORD DESCRIPTION:

Elsewhere is an outdoor installation that invites viewers to pause and consider the influence of new media upon our experiences with the material world.  Situated in and around a life-sized toy sailboat, participants are implicated into playful re-imaginations of location, connection, and destination.

 

Borrowed from the writing of Donna J. Haraway, “elsewhere” designates the possibilities of collaborative work in the worthwhile, though never entirely knowable, aspiration toward a better world.  The boat is offered as a hybrid vessel for situating our variously mediated pasts as well as for collectively negotiating our digital and material futures.

 

MEDIUM FOR WALL LABEL:

mixed media installation

 

CAPTION FOR IMAGE:

Elizabeth Travelslight, Elsewhere, conceptual sketch for outdoor installation, 2010.

 

 

Alex Walter

45-WORD DESCRIPTION:

CA Blues is an experimental autobiographical documentary mashup filmed and performed in the past perfect (in)tense, across two continents and several different countries. Playback order of each video sequence on all six virtual screens is determined randomly and in real time by custom programmed software ensuring that no two viewings will ever look exactly the same.

 

100-WORD DESCRIPTION:

CA Blues is an experimental autobiographical documentary mashup filmed and performed in the past perfect (in)tense, across two continents and several different countries. Using newly acquired and old home made videos, archival television news and found film footage, Alex Walter offers fluid personal identities and proposes alternate selfhoods in his conceptual road trip down memory lane filled with Eastern European socialist era kitsch and pop-culture Americana of yesteryear, today, and tomorrow. Playback order of each video sequence on all six virtual screens is determined randomly and in real time by custom programmed software ensuring that no two viewings will ever look exactly the same.

 

MEDIUM FOR WALL LABEL:

Six-channel color video projection with sound. Video sequence editing and playback determined and conducted randomly and in real time by custom programmed software. Assisted by Lyès Belhocine (programming & technical support).

 

CAPTION FOR IMAGE:

Alex Walter, When Narratives Collide (CA Blues, 2010)