Gene A Felice II

PORTFOLIO WEBSITE:  http://www.genefelice.com

I am an artist, educator, designer and instigator in search of creative community.   For the past five years I have lived and worked in the city of Asheville North Carolina and found illumination within its mountains and forests.  I’ve built bridges between artists, non-profits and local businesses, cultivating inventive collaboration.

Digital Arts and New Media form a fluid nexus for my work, providing a point of intersection to evolve new hybrids of nature and technology.  Through motors, sensors and microcontrollers such as the Arduino or Basic Stamp I am able to interact directly with the viewer. Video & Animated Imagery viewed through projection and alternative screens give me the ability to transform 3D space and surface through the vehicle of light. To support these new modes of technology, I created a portable power generating system titled the “P2“ supplying off-the-grid electricity. Rapid Prototyping gives me a precise method to export my visualizations as fully realized objects. A hybrid of these interests culminates in my outdoor, interactive installation titled “The Screen Doors of Perception”.

My undergraduate work in Ken Rinaldo and Amy Young’s Art & Tech program at the Ohio State University, established a fluent vocabulary in this ever shifting, hybrid medium. During a yearlong internship in Ann Hamilton’s studio, I developed a greater sense of empathy, history and quality in my work.  After graduation, I was quickly sucked into the world of graphic / web design, becoming versed in industry level production work and creative exhaustion. Opening a new door to education, I was asked to teach as a visiting artist at OSU.  In a way, I was privileged to experience an unofficial grad school experience for the two years that I worked there.  While teaching the beginner and advanced 3D modeling and animation classes and developing a new Rapid Prototyping lab, I became intimately woven into the graduate, undergraduate and faculty communities. Rapid Prototyping gave me a new creative process for realizing my ideas with unparalleled accuracy and speed. My interactive sculpture series titled “A Rapid Progression” is the product of leading this unique program.

At this point in my life I realized it was time for a massive shift in my work and environment.  I was seeking a new balance between the technology-saturated world that I was sinking into and the call of the mountain, the river and the tree.  Backcountry hikes in the Smokey Mountains led me to the city of Asheville North Carolina where I quickly found the perfect place to find the balance that I was seeking.  Since moving to Asheville, my newfound balance between technology and nature has been equaled only by my search for and cultivation of new artistic communities.  This includes volunteering as the Art Director with the Bob Moog Foundation, producing three major projects including 3D visualizations of the future Moogseum, The “Mini-Moogseum” permanent installation and the group show “Pushing the Envelope:  Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release”.  For two years I’ve worked with the Media Arts Project and the Black Mountain College museum on the {Re}HAPPENING community art event on the original campus of BMC.  I am the lead instigator of this event, coordinating over 50 artists and 400 guests each year.  It is a rare moment in time where I am able to make use of all my skill sets while also bridging the gap between all of the students, educators, non-profits, businesses and fellow artists that I work with throughout the year.  As a participating artist I have collaborated on two projects including “Omni-Present Orbs” a floating, sculptural projection installation anchored to the surface of Lake Eden and “Quasi-Equivalence” a floating performance space and projection sphere, dedicated to the legacy of Buckminster Fuller.

I have had the opportunity to teach at the University of North Carolina Asheville in their New Media program, instructing in advanced flash development and alternative video installation and performance.  I’ve taught at the Odyssey Community School for the past 3 years, leading their high & middle school art and technology programs and have co-created the Creative Technology & Arts Center where I am the director of visual arts.  This 5,000 sq. ft. space has given me the room, tools and opportunity to develop a community arts space from the ground up.

I now begin the next chapter in the adventure at the University of California Santa Cruz, within the Digital Arts & New Media MFA program.  I look forward to new directions & collaborations within the realms of art and technology and hope to build bridges between disciplines and focus within.