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Elia Vargas

Elia is an Oakland based artist and curator. His work investigates new ecologies of human identity, and is interested in culture, code, cities, and cells as new landscapes and new organisms – or the narrative byproducts.  Signal flow describes the pathway to new geographies and projection hurls information into space.  These mechanisms challenge us to reimagine ourselves.  Vargas has shown internationally and received numerous awards, including the SF Foundation Murphy Cadogan MFA Fellowship and has collaborated with artists such as Bjork and Vincent Moon, among others. He gives frequent talks on the subject of signal flow, objects, and landscapes, most recently at the 2014 College Art Association Annual Conference and Best of 2013 Open Show.  His current work explores interactive projections on canvases of mist and water.  This work was performed for Mediate’s SoundWave Biennial this summer.  Additionally, Vargas’ work can be viewed at the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design in the group show Exquisite Garden, or in the many music videos and live visuals he directs and designs. His work in sound, building modular synthesizers and playing under the moniker systemritual, is informed by a process of drift – an improvisational exercise relying on the embedded scaffolding of situational signal flow, moving outwards to form new spaces.  Vargas’ relationship with sound has led him to host programs at many community and pirate radio stations as well as co-found the music arts collective, One Night Music.