Cutting-edge digital art performances and site-specific installations as part of the SIGGRAPH 2007 Art Gallery: Global Eyes program will be presented from Aug. 4-6 at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) and the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA) at the University of California, San Diego.
"This is a wonderful opportunity to bring some of the world's leading performance artists to these state-of-the-art venues for a comprehensive program that will lift the eyebrows of even the most discriminating performance art critics," stated Vibeke Sorensen, SIGGRAPH 2007 Art Gallery chair from the University at Buffalo. "Global Eyes is an exciting forum for showcasing alternative ways to think about nature and art, and how the two interact."
These performances are open to the public, but pre-registration is required at the San Diego Convention Center. Free shuttle buses will be available to the performances.
Digital Performance Schedule:
Saturday, Aug. 45:00-7:15 pmCalit2 Auditorium, Atkinson Hall, University of California, San Diego
* SUBSTITUTE JUDGMENTJeffrey TrevinoThis piece explores the synchronization and hybridization of media to create a unified and balanced work of art. Jeffrey Trevino created SUBSTITUTE JUDGMENT as an autonomous solo multi-percussion work, inspired by his readings of philosophical inquiries into the ethics of Alzheimer's Disease patients' legal status as decision makers. Ross Karre created METAL CATALOGUE, a synchronized video response to Trevino's work, from still photographs of decaying metal farm equipment on a 150-year-old ranch (the T-Lazy-7) in Aspen, Colorado.
* E*SCAPESMariela CadizTaking live cinema to a new level, the Cadiz/Clelland/Lelong trio performs live electronic music to live remixed footage and vice versa. By combining contemporary dance music structures and sounds with traditional electro-acoustic music techniques, and by deconstructing the common use of nature documentary footage and exploring its cinematic qualities, the trio's live mixing thrives on mesmerizing, forceful and unexpected relationships.
* WALKING INTO A LEONARDO MASTERPIECEMaurizio SeraciniSeracini has scanned Leonardo da Vinci's "Adoration of the Magi" using infrared, ultraviolet and other imaging techniques, allowing the viewer to see inside the painting to the under-painting where the true genius of da Vinci is revealed in images that have not been seen for 500 years. Working with Seracini, Calit2 researcher Jurgen Schulze has transposed Seracini's work to a virtual-reality system equipped with 3D viewing and a tracking system that allows the visitor to move between the surface of the painting and what's underneath by moving forward and backward in front of the painting-giving the impression that the visitor is literally walking into the masterpiece.
* TAKASHI'S SEASONTakashi KawashimaA sequential live shadow-puppet/video performance of interpretations of the four seasons. Working in precarious unison, the shadows of the puppets are synchronized with the animation, creating a unique live-action performance. Animation and sound are composited with shadows in realtime, and the artist produces "motion pictures" via a combination of seasonal sounds, live shadow-puppet manipulation and projection of shadow-like animation sequences.
* AUTOPOIESIS/MIMESISMaja Cerar and Luibo BorissovAUTOPOIESIS is a work that imagines realities and is, in part, a humorous document of the discussions between the two authors about the beginning of the universe. It is followed and complemented by MIMESIS, a more serious exploration of the ancient tension between imperfect reality and ideal form as furthered by art's mimicry.
7:30-8:00 pmCRCA Studio 1613, Atkinson Hall, University of California, San Diego
* WHAT IF I AM NOT REALKooj ChuhanThree masked figures on rafts at sea appear in each of three screens arranged as a circular triptych: an official, a migrant parent, and a child. The anxious official denies the parent access to safe land and community while engaging in lucrative military games. The conclusion poses an inevitable consequence of current conflicts.
8:00-10 pmCalit2 Theater, Atkinson Hall, University of California, San Diego
* VISUAL MUSIC MARATHONVisual music is an interdisciplinary artistic genre with roots dating back hundreds of years. The emergence of film and video in the 20th century allowed this genre to reach its full potential. The concept can be applied using a variety of approaches, for example, works in which the images and music are directly tied by the sharing of parameters or those where the images "interpret" the music (or vice versa). A third category is pieces in which the visuals are edited in tight synchrony with cues in the music. The common theme is that the music and images are closely related in some form.
Sunday, Aug. 5
11:00am-noonCalit2 Auditorium, Atkinson Hall, University of California, San Diego
* DYNAMIC SPACESPauline OliverosThis project explores the relationships within an acoustic and electronic performing ensemble for improvised music in virtual environments with deliberately varying characteristics. Variations in acoustics provide a new dynamic parameter of music in addition to harmony, melody and rhythm. The performance is enhanced by dynamic visual elements with interwoven artistic images and views of the performers in a shared virtual space.
Noon-12:30 pmCRCA Studio 1613, Atkinson Hall, University of California, San Diego
* WHAT IF I AM NOT REAL
2:00-4:00 pmCalit2 Theater, Atkinson Hall, University of California, San Diego
* RAGE TO KNOWMichael MasucciThis piece utilizes concepts from quantum mechanics and string theory, and attempts to illustrate through dance some of the more complex theories concerning multi-dimensionality, time displacement and the warping of space.
* RHYME OF TANG DYNASTYXiaohua SunA performance that uses interactive audio/visual techniques to enhance the aesthetic effect of Chinese traditional dance. Max/MSP/Jitter generate real-time music and graphics.
* BIBIGIHyung Min LeeIn this music scoring and sequencing device, pitch, timbre, and loudness are computed based on the transformed images' hue, saturation and intensity.
* IMAGOJoreg DiesslIn imago, a piece for solo vocalist about multimedia representation, the singer is reduced to face and voice, and stylized as a triptych: his real head flanked left and right by three-dimensional clones. He relinquishes himself to the point of self-abnegation. His digital portraits begin to develop lives of their own.
* PERFORMING ARTS FOR THE FUTURE MOBILE GENERATIONHiroshi MatobaThese two performance works predict new styles of play that children will enjoy with future mobile phones. One is made from six units of wireless displays based on LCD technology. The other is based on three units of wireless LED projectors.
4:00-4:30 pmCRCA Studio 1613, Atkinson Hall, University of California, San Diego
* WHAT IF I AM NOT REAL
5:00-7:00 pmCalit2 Auditorium, Atkinson Hall, University of California, San Diego
* E*SCAPES
* SUBSTITUTE JUDGMENT
* PERFORMING ARTS FOR THE FUTURE MOBILE GENERATION
* AUTOPOIESIS/MIMESIS
7:00-9:00 pmCalit2 Theater, Atkinson Hall, University of California, San Diego
* VISUAL MUSIC MARATHON
Monday, Aug. 6
11:00 am-1:00 pmCalit2 Theater, Atkinson Hall, University of California, San Diego
* RAGE TO KNOW
* RHYME OF TANG DYNASTY
* BIBIGI
* IMAGO
* PERFORMING ARTS FOR THE FUTURE MOBILE GENERATION
2:00-4:15 pmCalit2 Auditorium, Atkinson Hall, University of California, San Diego
* AUTOCOSM 2007J. Walt AdamczykThis piece is a continuation of the ongoing AUTOCOSM project, in which the artist creates artificial worlds in solo live performances. An "autocosm" is a self-contained personal world, apart from the world we all share. In this case, it is a world of growth and evolution, of life and transformation.
* DYNAMIC SPACES
* TAKASHI'S SEASON
* PERFORMING ARTS FOR THE FUTURE MOBILE GENERATION
4:15-4:45 pmCRCA Studio 1613, Atkinson Hall, University of California, San Diego
* WHAT IF I AM NOT REAL
The following SIGGRAPH 2007 Art Gallery Interactive Installations will be Showcased at Calit2, University of California, San Diego:
* METROBOSCO: MORE THAN A GREEN BELT FOR A CITYChiara BoeriThis installation will be a discussion and meeting point for citizens and whoever visits the city, to face the never ending problems of a metropolis and to design urban environments as easily as flying and touching in a new interface merging art and technologies. Through an apparently naive game, with an important technological side, we mean to spread the consciousness of a necessity to change our way of living, and come out with new and feasible proposals in a constructive way.
* HYDRODYNAMICS OCEANYoichiro KawaguchiIn "Hydrodynamics Ocean", when a visitor stands at the front of a round screen, big waves are coming towards the visitor, from the calm ocean. Visitors will enjoy a kind of scientific beauty, as if they can visit the storming ocean. This is an attempt to have an incredible experience of cutting-edge scientific visualization and physical simulation.
* RUTOPIA 2Daria TsoupikovaRUTOPIA2 Is a virtual reality (VR) art project built for the C-wall VR system. It explores the aesthetics of virtual art in relation to traditional Russian folk arts and crafts. The project describes a magic garden with interactive sculptural trees linked to a matrix of several other unique virtual environments that together create a shared network community.
* SCREENNoah Wardrip-FruinScreen explores memory as a virtual experience -- a form of virtuality that cuts across all times and cultures, but that we experience anew with the rise of digital virtuality. Here memories begin displayed as we wish they were: fixed texts, stable like pages. But soon the language of memory begins to peel loose. You can hit words back with your hand, but they don't always return to their origins, they break apart, and they peel faster and faster.
* ATLAS IN SILICORuth West, Todd Margolis, JP Lewis, Iman Mostafavi, Ben Hackbarth, Joachim Gossman, Alex S. Horn, Trevor Henthorn, Sam Fernald, Iman Sadeghi, Jurgen Schulze, Weizhong Li, Raj Singh, Javier I. Girardo, Tommy Chheng, Jeffrey Lien, Tom Cassey
ATLAS IN SILICO reflects upon humanity's long-standing quest for an understanding of the nature, origins, and unity of life by interrogating metagenomics and its resultant shift from an organism-centric to a sequence-centric view of nature. Participants playfully and intuitively interact with millions of sequences from the Global Ocean Survey within a dynamic 3D environment enhanced by a unique sonic microworld. The installation employs an infrared motion tracking system, custom computer vision, advanced networking, spatialized interactive audio and 3D computer graphics together with the Varrier 60 panel, 100 million pixel barrier strip auto-stereoscopic tiled display.
For complete details on SIGGRAPH 2007, visit www.siggraph.org/s2007.
SIGGRAPH 2007 will bring an estimated 25,000 computer graphics and interactive technology professionals from six continents to San Diego, California, for the industry's most respected technical and creative programs focusing on research, science, art, animation, gaming, interactivity, education and the web from Aug. 5-9 at the San Diego Convention Center. SIGGRAPH 2007 includes a three-day exhibition of products and services from the computer graphics and interactive marketplace from Aug. 7-9. More than 250 international exhibiting companies are expected. Registration for the conference and exhibition is open to the public.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
