Woke up early this morning to pre-record the opening panel for the exhibition opening in a few days. Organized and curated by Iris Long (Shanghai) and Claudia Schnugg (Vienna) — presented [Alien] Star Dust: signal to noise with Dr. Christian Koeberl, geologist who commissioned the work while while he was General director of the Museum of Natural History in Vienna and philosopher Lukaš Likavačan. Keep an eye out for the meditation that will feature the Fukang meteorite which fell on China and was discovered in 2000! A few screenshots from the Koeberl’s presentation:
Jointly organised by the NTU Institute of Science and Technology for Humanity (NISTH) and School of Art, Design and Media (ADM), the NTU Global Digital Art Prize is a biennial competition that recognises global artists and technologists with extraordinary creativity in the field of digitally mediated art, design and cultural heritage.
The theme for NTU-GDAP 2022 is Sustainable People, Inspiring Change. Developments in science and technology have accelerated at record speed, which significantly changed living standards but, at the same time, brought in complexity demanding more resources. The recent report by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that human activities are causing changes to the climate that are “widespread, rapid, and intensifying, and unprecedented in thousands of years”. The pandemic has also intensified challenges that we are facing, such as inequality, poverty and domestic violence. It is imperative that we focus on building more equal, inclusive, and sustainable economies and societies to tackle our global challenges.
Opening from 26th November 22 till 27th January 2023, The NTU-GDAP exhibition showcases 20 shortlisted international and local works. Save the date and we’ll see you at the ADM Gallery for the presentation of the NTU Global Digital Art Prize!
Sound walk Composed for the 7th Transdisciplinary Imaging Conference 2022, in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, presented Sept 25. Premiered at UCLA, Sept 23 In between projection of the plankton in Noise Aquarium (North side of UCLA campus) Alien Star Dust at the Planetarium, audiences participate in this sound walk composed by Victoria Vesna and Ivana Dama in collaboration with Anna Nacher (Slovakia), Patricia Cadavid (Columbia / Spain), Clarissa Ribeiro (Brazil).
After almost 3 years of postponement, a group of us finally made it to the Galapagos. It was a truly amazing, mind / life changing trip. August 25 — September 5, 2022
Organized and sponsored by the Quao Artis foundation —
Galapagos Art & Science Journey received UNESCO’s patronage, to be considered an initiative that seeks to promote international cooperation and explore solutions for today’s economic, social and environmental challenges to achieve a sustainable future and, as such, it aligns with the mission of UNESCO.
The trip, which will be carried out on board of Endeavour II – a National Geographic ship with energy-efficient lighting- will have a printed publication by RAED, as well as a digital and printed publication by Quo Artis. MORE INFO
It’s really touching to have a student become a colleague! Mattia Casalegno was at UCLA Design Media Arts many years ago now — he teaches at Pratt now and introduced my talk — first in person-talk and critique afterwards since the pandemic closed down.
I focused in this talk on the Octopus Mandala, Brain Storming, Noise Aquarium and Alien Star Dust starting with the Chernobyl ferris wheel… this was just days before the war around this area broke out, waking up the old Cold War tensions of nuclear disasters / threats. In the audience was Kay Hines who — ages ago — edited the Bhopal Christmas; on the street with Bast performance. Once again the individual and the collective return to some of the old shadows we repress….
Hosted today Franz Giesibl with Jim Gimzewski as moderator — to help launch his book released on this day! Also the birthday of Gerhard Richter who he had a long standing dialogue. They know each other from the late eighties when Jim was a researcher at IBM Zürich working on the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) and Franz was a PhD student under physicist Gerd Bining
Ushered in the year of the Water TIGER with an incredible group! Video will be up soon if you missed it… Ruling organ of the TIGER are the LUNGS — we focused on breathing, food and poetry. Anna Nacher (pig) started us off with a breath meditation, followed by Xtine Burrough who shared her one minute breath poetry project, Debora Giannone read a Rumi poem about breath and spirit, Lili Anamarija No shared info on the year of the tiger (careful for traffic accidents, fires, sudden events) and the NSK exhibition, DUMPLINGS!, CC Hart (snake) shared a beautiful poem connecting St Bridget to the Tiger (east / west!) and an Irish lamb dish with foraged greens / stinging nettles, Aisen Caro Chacin pulled out silicon muscles she is working on in her lab, Ellen K. Levy was interrupted by her parrots who had something to say, Maryam Razi made some Persian crispy rice and reminded us of the Persian tiger that disappeared, Nina Sobell played a video performance from CCTV, Mick Lorusso told us about the bacteria in cat poop that make us crazy and Clarissa Ribeiro read a poem about the TIGER + DRAGON combo. Siddharth and I hosted and brought along our classes — his in neuroscience & ethics, mine in NanoBiotech + Design. They loved it and one student said — “I wish all our classes were like this — I learned so much in such and it was so much fun!”
We are getting close to planning out the installation — replacing the pedestal with a projection on the floor. Tested it at the EDA and think it will work well. Still a lot to do — 2 minute video describing the elements in the piece, AR postcards, info for catalog… Exciting!
Here is a screen capture from the NanoBioTech + Design class playing with their USB microscopes and just zooming in. It was really fun to do this together without rushing. This was after listening to Jim Gimzewski’s lecture on scale and scale free.
