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Refraction Exhibition

The works in the Refraction Exhibition encompass diverse mediums, including mechanical sculpture, virtual reality, projection mapping, computer games, and machine assisted drawing. Visitors will walk through a curated group of installations drawing on kinetic light, digital cinema, algorithmically-derived abstraction, alternate worlds, and biologic musical compostion, providing a cross-section of work dealing intimately with the relationship between art and technology.
Exhibition Hours
  • 4/21 7pm-11pm
  • Opening $5-$20 sliding-scale entry
  • 4/22 12pm-6pm
  • Free and Open to Public (Quiet viewing during conference, no VVVR) (closed during night performances)
  • 4/23 12pm-6pm
  • Free and Open to Public (Quiet viewing during conference, no VVVR)
  • 4/23 9pm-1am
  • For ticket holders during night performances (no VVVR)
  • 4/24 11am-6pm
  • Free and Open to Public (Quiet viewing during workshops, no VVVR)
  • 4/24 7:30pm-11pm
  • For ticket holders during night performances (no VVVR)
  • 4/25 10am-6pm
  • Free and Open to Public
  • 4/27 10am-6pm
  • Free and Open to Public
  • 4/28 10am-6pm
  • Free and Open to Public
Revolve (Joris Strijbos, Daan Johan)

Revolve is a kinetic machine designed to scatter abstract light-patterns into its surrounding space. Hundreds of LEDs are mounted on a fast spinning rectangle performing an algorithmic generative composition consisting of stroboscopic pulses and lines of light. Complex patterns emerge between the fast flashing lights, and the spinning of the object. Resulting in some kind of entity which can be seen as a data flow, a morse signal or even an abstract visual language spoken by the machine itself. ‘Revolve’ is looking for the boundaries of human visual perception. Due to a sensory overload, produced by the stroboscopic light, the after image effect occurs. As a result, the imaginary negative light patterns produced by the retina, become an integral part of the experience, as they mix-up with the light produced by the machine.

Moiré Studies (Joris Strijbos, Nicky Assmann)

Moiré Studies is the project name under which Nicky Assmann and Joris Strijbos create kinetic light installations based on the principles of the moiré effect. In their ongoing research the qualities of moiré patterns are investigated in an analogue manner using moving light sources and static grids.

HyperTerra (Gabriel Dunne)

Hyper Terra is a digital light sculpture that depicts an abstract landscape created utilizing parametric fabrication techniques. The sculpture is illuminated by projection-mapped real-time generative light and shadows calculated from solar and lunar positions, derived from a celestial ephemeris. Along with other dynamic settings that change as the piece is observed, such as color, speed, and movement, the piece has the ability to be virtually placed at any long/lat on Earth, at any time in the future or past.

Liquid Solid (Joris Strijbos, Nicky Assmann)

Liquid Solid is a collaborative project between Nicky Assmann and Joris Strijbos in which they research the cinematic qualities of a freezing soap film.

In December 2014 the duo attended the Ars BioArctica residency at the Biological Research Center in the Arctic Region of Finland. During this residency they shot footage of the freezing process of soap films. The footage functioned as the basis for a single channel video and a video installation.

Undulator (Eric Parren)

Undulator is an immersive kinetic installation that explores both the color and reflective properties of light. In similar fashion to Thomas Wilfred’s Lumia machines Undulator is a cinematic display that celebrates light in its purest form. A pulsating pattern of colors and gradients is projected onto a reflective surface, its undulating movement distorts the rays of light. Upon hitting the screen the light has been transformed from a straight beam into a shape that hints at processes that happen at the micro level and the universal scale.

The Drawing Machine (Harvey Moon)

The Drawing Machine project is an ongoing performative collaboration between the machine and its programmer. As a partnership, the programmer is architect to the generative algorithms played out by the machine. In the Sinew Series, radio frequency waves are analyzed and drawn. These waves are our wifi, our phone signals, our microwaves and gps as well as thousands of others we don’t or shouldn’t know about. We depend on these invisible connections without ever seeing them. In this series a software defined radio peers into this invisible world, anonymously gathering the wireless chatter that runs our lives. These transmissions are interpreted visually with a drawing. Each drawing takes a separate frequency and uses data unique to that time and place.

VVVR (Casey McGonagle, Ray McClure)

VVVR is an ongoing experiment that seeks to unlock the power of group meditation and abstract communication. The system combines the voices of two participants in a shared virtual experience. Avatars are seated in an intimate setting that intuitively facilitates meditative droning. Vocal effects are utilized, disguising and augmenting participant’s voices to enhance vocal experimentation.

SUPERHYPERCUBE (KOKOROMI)

SUPERHYPERCUBE is a VR “first person puzzler” with classic controls and intuitive shape-matching gameplay. You control a group of cubes and rotate it to fit through a hole in a wall that is constantly moving toward you. Each time you fit through another wall without crashing, more cubes are added to your cluster. Head tracking is critical in the game – as your cluster of cubes gets bigger, you will need to lean around it to see the hole and quickly determine what rotations to make. Stay alive as long as possible, and add your high scores to the ranks of players around the world!

Seaquence (Gabriel Dunne, Ryan Alexander, Daniel Massey)

Seaquence is an experiment in musical composition. Adopting a biological metaphor, you can create and combine musical lifeforms resulting in an organic, dynamic composition.

Artists

Eric Parren

Eric Parren (NL / US) is an interdisciplinary artist operating out of Los Angeles. His work lives at the intersection of art, science, and technology and investigates the human connection to ideas and technologies that shape our future, such as artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and space exploration. The works are often deeply sensory experiences dealing with modes of perception and the physics of light and sound. Through close study of the histories of media arts, composition, and film, Eric’s work makes connections between the past, the present, and what is to come. Eric hosts a bi-weekly radio show called La Force Sauvage on the artist run radio collective KCHUNG. Eric studied at the Interfaculty ArtScience of the Royal Academy of Art and Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where he received his BFA in 2009. He went on to study at the Design Media Arts department of the University of California Los Angeles, where he was awarded his MFA in 2012. He has been exhibiting internationally since 2008.

Nicky Assmann

Nicky Assmann [NL] explores in her work how the body with all its senses perceives and relates to objects and spaces and is interested in the mental process and physical activity of seeing. She refers to scientific research and natural phenomena and experiments with the properties, behaviour and aesthetics of solid and liquid materials. The skin, both visible as invisible is a recurring metaphor in her work and is extended into the space. This phenomenological approach results in the use of different media, like self-made instruments & objects, video, AV-performances and kinetic light installations. With these spatial installations she creates dynamic and temporary spaces in which the sensorial embodied experience takes a central point. She was nominated for the Prix de Rome 2015 and her work was nominated for the StartPoint Prize 2011 [Honorary Mention] & the Artificial Light Award on Reflection 2010. She has presented her work amongst others at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts [Taiwan], Wood Street Galleries [Pittsburgh], Saatchi Gallery [London], Art Rotterdam Week [NL], Quartier 21 [Vienna], V2_Institute [NL], Exit Festival [Paris], ISMAR/SHIFT Festival [Basel], ]Interstice[ [FR], Almost Cinema [B], 5 Minutes Museum [NL], STRP Festival [NL], 5 Days Off Media [NL], Future Textiles [DK] and the Biennale of Carrara [I]. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Media & Culture [Major Film Science] from the University of Amsterdam and a Master in ArtScience from the Interfaculty of the Royal Conservatoire & the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague.

Joris Strijbos

Joris Strijbos is a Rotterdam-based artist whose work focuses on the synaesthetic relation and interaction between moving image and sound. His work consists of a series of kinetic audiovisual installations and new media performances inspired by an ongoing research into cybernetics, emergent systems, artificial life and communication networks within groups. In his installations he combines artificial, electronic and digital media with models and algorithms based on biological systems. In many of the pieces, the viewer witnesses a process in which machines, computer programs and the physical world interact with each other, resulting in a generative and multi sensorial composition. Joris Strijbos studied ArtScience at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague where he earned his Bachelor degree and received his master degree at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. His work has been widely shown at festivals, galleries and museums like Ars Electronica – Linz, Sonic Acts Festival – Amsterdam, DEAF Biennale – Rotterdam, Woodstreet Galleries – Pittsburgh, WRO International Media Art Biennale – Wroclaw, Van Gogh Museum – Amsterdam.

Casey McGonagle

Casey McGonagle (1977) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles, California working primarily in the medium of video installation. His grotesque and psychedelic narrative approach blends chaotic free association with dystopian pop music to test the boundaries of contemporary social commentary. McGonagle has exhibited in two one-person shows, at HungryMan Gallery in Chicago (2010) and at Kokoro Studio in San Francisco (2009). His work has also been included in numerous group shows, some of which include Photography Sees the Surface, Higher Pictures, NY (2015), Post Internet/Pre Cyborg, University of New Haven Seton Gallery, Connecticut (2015), Deep End, Flag Art Foundation, New York (2014) and Ceaseless Blooms in Jobless Colors, Johalla Projects, Chicago (2011). He is the recipient of the John Ferguson Weir Award, The Endsley Memorial Fellowship, The World Less Travelled Grant and recently participated in The Convergence Residency at The Banff Centre in Canada. He holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2011) and an MFA from the Yale School of Art (2014). McGonagle is currently partnering with Ray McClure on a multi-user, virtual experience that intuitively facilitates abstract visual communication through freeform vocal experimentation.

Ray McClure

Ray McClure founded his interactive studio Dreamboat in 2009 to develop web and installation experiences. Notable creations include PollySynth, a multiplayer polyphonic synthesizer, and 808 Cube which combines a Roland TR-808 drum machine with a Rubik's cube. As a member of the Gray Area Cultural Incubator program he created the mixed reality installation Amazing Grace and Computers. In 2016 he started the virtual reality studio Plus Four with partner Casey McGonagle. Their voice controlled VR project VVVR was developed at the Convergence residency in Banff, Canada and featured at both the 2016 Gray Area Festival and David Lynch's Festival of Disruption. 

Gabriel Dunne

Gabriel Dunne (b.1981 San Francisco) is an audiovisual artist who creates works that explore visual, audible, and physical frequencies, drawing influence from natural systems, sensory patterns, structures and rhythms of the perceivable and imperceivable universe. He integrates a wide range of mediums including sculpture, music, sound, visualization/sonification, digital manufacturing and fabrication, parametric software, and site-specific installation. He has performed and shown his work internationally at venues including Barcelona Festival Sonar, Interferenze Italia, and is featured in the permanent collection of NY MoMA, and has been featured in WIRED Magazine, Mondo India, FOCUS Italia, Discover, Contemporary Art of Science and Technology, and Architectural Digest.

In addition to his studio practice, Dunne is an educator and conducts workshops in various communities, schools, and orgs. He’s developed curricula for visual programming, audio/visual graphics, and integrative media arts practice which contextualizes computing and technology as a language and creative medium. In 2010 he co-founded the group [O_o] oooshiny, which has grown to include an international community of designers, technologists, and artists. In 2012, he produced ‘NAAG’ in collaboration with Vishal K Dar, a 14′ tall site-specific sculpture which comes to life through an integrative digital fabrication and projection mapping process, aspiring to deconstruct the notion of sculpture as a static object. The work was installed in an abandoned factory in central Delhi, India during the India Art Faire — an event that included the local community in its process resulting in magical stories of its appearance. In 2015, ‘NAAG’ a larger version was installed in Mumbai, and most recently featured in the N.E.A.T. exhibition at the CJM in San Francisco in 2015/16. Dunne was an Artist in Residence at Gray Area in 2009/10 and Autodesk in 2014/15. He holds a B.A. from UCLA DMA.

Heather Kelley

Heather Kelley is an award-winning game designer, curator, and Assistant Teaching Professor in the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University. Named in 2013 as one of the five most powerful women in gaming by Inc. magazine, and in 2011 by Fast Company as one of the most influential women in technology, Ms. Kelley co-curated the groundbreaking 2012 exhibition Joue le jeu / Play Along at La Gaîté lyrique in Paris, France. She is co-founder of Kokoromi, an experimental game collective, with whom she has produced and curated the renowned GAMMA event promoting experimental games as creative expression in a social context. In Autumn 2009, she was Artist in Residence for Subotron at Quartier21, MuseumsQuartier Vienna, where she created “SUGAR,” a cross media collaborative event featuring an original game, scent-generating networked electronics, and couture fashion. Ms. Kelley was Creative Director on the UNFPA Electronic Game to End Gender Violence, at the Emergent Media Center at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. Heather’s extensive career in the games industry has included design and production of AAA next-gen console games, interactive smart toys, handheld games, research games, and web communities for girls. In 2008, she was Kraus Visiting Assistant Professor of Art, and Adjunct Faculty at the Entertainment Technology Center, at Carnegie Mellon University, where she organized The Art of Play symposium and art game arcade. She is known for designing the original version of OhMiBod Remote application, which used the iPhone touch screen to control a connected vibrator. As moboid, Heather has created interactive projections using game engines such as Quake and Unreal. Her experimental art game work with Lynn Hughes, “Fabulous/Fabuleux,” was created at Montreal’s Hexagram Institute and integrates gameplay into a full-body interactive installation using custom “squishy” interface hardware. For seven years, Heather served as co-chair of the IGDA’s Women in Game Development Special Interest Group. She holds an MA from the University of Texas at Austin, where she is an alumna of the Advanced Communications Technologies Laboratory.

Kokoromi

Kokoromi is a group with the intent of promoting video games as an art form, and experimental gameplay worldwide. The collective consists of game pioneers and curators Damien Di Fede, Phil Fish, Heather Kelley, and Cindy Poremba.

Ryan Alexander

Ryan Alexander is a multidisciplinary artist currently focused on interactive audio/visual software design. The scope of his work includes generative systems, interfaces for live performance, graphic design, and small scale manufacturing. Together with Gabriel Dunne and Daniel Massey, Ryan created the original Seaquence.org website in 2010. Since then he has worked with Stamen Design, Bloom, and OtherLab on various projects, as well as continuing his own practice.

Harvey Moon

Harvey Moon is a new media artist and a creator of tools and machines. His work centers around the ways technology mediates our perception of the world. Technology has always been used to extend our abilities beyond our human potential. With this inspiration, Moon creates custom software, electronics or kinetic systems to produce new and unique works of art. Harvey Moon received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has exhibited internationally including the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts and the Nuit Blanche Festival in Toronto. He currently lives and works in San Francisco, CA.

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