Prospectives of the Digital Era

I had a wonderful, delightful, insightful time during the Prospectives.09 festival in Reno, Nevada. I must say the downtown area of Reno is quite bizarre, and the people inside the casinos look like zombies waiting to feed themselves on coin machine's quarters. Not to mention the awkward scent of coconut trying to diminish the intense smoke smell as you enter the lobby of the many casinos around town. Oh, and the clowns...just straightforward weird.

The creepy clown at the Circus Circus Hotel

Now, the festival was another completely different experience. The three days event was divided as follow: on the first day (Thursday, November 12) some of the artists gave presentations about their work, they had roughly 15 minutes to talk and about 5 or 10 to answer questions. On that night we all went to the opening reception for the exhibition at the UNR gallery, which feature works by Jonah Brucker-Cohen, Rob Duarte, Joshua Fishburn, Jason Nelson, John Walters, Samson Young, Sven Goyvaerts and outside the gallery there was a beautiful performance by Doo-Sung Yoo.

Jonah Brucker-Cohen's piece Altering Infrastructure

Sven Goyvaerts's Self Portrait (what I called: the Skype piece)

--Highlight: spilling wine over my sweater after hearing Rob Duarte’s piece explode, brilliant work!

Rob Duarte's Bang (Machine Peformance) -- the image should be vertical..

The following day (Friday, November 13) we had the pleasure to watch and listen to video and sound pieces inside the UNR planetarium, a sixty person dome with reclining seats and a $30,000 projector. Works by Mattia Casalegno, Stephanie Dodes, Josh Goldman, George Marie, and David Snedegar were presented.

--Highlight: Mattia Casalegno video piece made in Jitter just for the dome, it was so good it made me dizzy.

Before the night's event we took a small road trip to the Pyramid Lake in Reno. The light was beautiful.

Finally, and on the last day of the festival (Saturday, November 14) it was the performance artist’s turn to present their work. This time it was the Nevada Museum of Art who hosted us, and who were kind enough to help us during our tech rehearsal. The artists featured on this day were: Giuseppe Di Bella, Stephanie Lie, Tara Rynders, Karl Mendonca, Elle Mehrmand and Micha Cárdenas, and yours truly Natalia Jaeger.

My piece Miranda closed the entire festival (wow! I said to myself). I was so exited and interested in finding out how the piece would translate in a big theater. I must say it went terrifically well: I handed out almost one hundred bananas to my audience, I managed to project my voice well enough so everyone could hear me, and yes, the projection in my underwear was visible (maybe not as much as I would like, but the ideas was understood, I think).




--Highlight: the wonderful help, support, and flattering comments I received before and after the piece was shown. Thank you.

The festival was very much a success. A small community of artists was formed over the course of three days, and let me tell you, I was inspired by many people during that small period of time. I love art!

The floral and eatable arrangement I left behind in my hotel room.

What's She Bulding In There?

Wow, time flies!

In the past few weeks I have been performing a new role: I have become a non-professional and heavily improvisational carpenter, yes sir!

I figured that if I needed “things” for my show I better start making them, and the fact is that having these objects around my studio make me feel confident about my show.

My studio has suffered the consequences of an entire weekend of cutting, hammering, nailing, punching, and kicking wood (the last two were performed in a few instances of pure frustration).

The kitchen table, which plays a big role in my show, is partly done. I now need to think about tabletops and stain colors.
The other two structures you see in the picture bellow were given to me for free. Most likely they will become tables, one for cooking and one...well...for something.

As you can see it is getting harder and harder to walk into my studio…I do not want to imagine how is going to look like in a month.

Prospectives.09

I am exited to be part of this year's Prospectives.09 International Digital Arts Festival in Reno, Nevada. I will be performing my piece Miranda at the Wayne and Miriam Prim Theater in the Nevada Museum of Art (Saturday, November 14th).

Here's part of Prospectives.09 press release:

Prospectives.09 International Digital Arts Festival November 12- 14, 2009, University of Nevada, Reno
http://www.unr.edu/art/prospectives09.html

Exhibit > Present > Perform > Project > NetArt
Prospectives.09 is the international festival showcasing the work of graduate and Phd candidates working across a diverse spectrum of digital arts practice. The festival showcases the work of 37 artists and performers from throughout the United States and internationally (including artists from Australia, United Kingdom, India, South Africa, Chile, Sweden and Portugal).

This event presents a unique opportunity to experience the cutting edge of digital production in the visual, performing and auditory arts. Artists working in and across disciplines were invited to submit works to be considered for five interrelated events: Exhibi t; Pr ese n t/Symposi um; Pr oje c t: A/V; Perform; and NetAr t. Venues include: The University of Nevada, Reno, Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery, Joe Crowley Student Union, Fleishmann Planetarium and Science Center and the Nevada Museum of Art.

Prospectives.09 features a wide range visual and performative media incorporating digital systems, including but not limited to: interactive art, movement/dance, internet art, video art, generative systems, telepresence, computer gaming, electronic music and “mixed reality” performance art.

Produce, Time, and Nothing in Particular

This past two weeks have been so busy that is quite difficult to keep the mind in one single place. Graduate school is getting difficult to manage these days. It seems to me that there are endless piles of things to do, little tasks here and there, teaching, and many, many other things that are succeeding at taking my focus away.

This weekend I decided to ground myself, at least for a few hours, by visiting the Downtown Phoenix Public Market. I cannot tell you what a wonderful atmosphere that was: people eating, dogs playing, coffee being poured, and fresh produce mostly everywhere. I love to go on these little field trips, yet I am afraid that soon enough these might need to be transformed into weekend studio hours (soon, like this week soon).

Fresh, organic produce from the public market.

Another important grounding element of my weekend was actual research time with my good friends: the history/theory books. I have compiled a list of those books that are helping me develop my show. If you are interested about food and its relationship to culture you might want to check out some of these:


Abbott, Elizabeth. Sugar: A Bittersweet History. Ontario: Penguin, 2008.

Graeber, David. Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value. New York: Palgrave, 2001.

McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. New York: Scribner, 2004.

Meigs, Anna. “Food as a Cultural Construction.” In Food and Culture, edited by Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Mintz, Sidney W. “Time, Sugar, and Sweetness.” In Food and Culture, edited by Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Pendergrast, Mark. Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World. New York: Texere, 2001.

Strong, Roy. Feast: A History of Grand Eating. London: Jonathan Cape, 2002.

Symons, Michael. A History of Cooks and Cooking. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000.