Spring Open Studios: Experimental Media

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Sculptural Screens
Instructor: Camille Utterback
TA: Miguel Novelo

Sculptural Screens / Malleable Media is a course that experiments with video and computational outputs embedded in physical scenarios. What new artwork and installation formats are made possible by contemporary screens and projection-mapping technologies? How can we make expressive use of LCD screens and projected light in combination with other physical elements? This quarter, in our online learning scenario, students also created work examining the possibility of a networked artwork spatialized across the screens and materials available in their different physical locations.

Little Fires by Cyan D’Anjou
Networked audio visualization projected onto body

“Little Fires” is a networked Touch Designer visualization which reacts to sound. As three people, separated by space, talk on a phone call together, overlayed colored sparks (each with unique color patterns associated with each person) disperse according to the volume of the current speaker. The idea was inspired by how ideas formed in isolation can flourish when spoken out loud. As a result of the conversational context, even one’s jumbled thoughts can spark a new idea in the next person. I loved that even the smallest embers of unfinished thoughts can still contribute to something beautiful, fresh, and whole when put together with the “little fires” of others. When this work was performed with my classmates, I chose to project the visualization of our voices onto my face, to further amplify the idea of speaking.

Untitled (Soft Screens) by Cyan D’Anjou
Projection onto sheer fabric, laptop for audience interaction

“Untitled (Soft Screens)” is a room scale installation in which a laptop desktop environment is projected onto layers of sheer fabric. Audience members are invited to fully interact with any of the imagery on the laptop, exploring and rewriting a series of digital “day in the life” artifacts. Other audience members can pull back layers of the sheer fabric to find themselves between and behind the projection of the screen, which they are able to physically touch, grab, scrunch, and otherwise physically engage.

Hidden Truth by Alex Escudero
Succulent, planter, marble table, projector, stage foil tripod, video content

In “Hidden Truth”, a video projection illuminates the energetic and spiritual nature of a succulent that is invisible to the naked eye. The projection, which features a silhouette of the succulent, shows the true bounds of the plant. Fractal geometry emanates from the origin of the succulent and spills out past its physical bounds into the silhouette, offering a visual for the plant’s invisible energy. The sculpture is accompanied by Essie Jain’s song “Opening”.

closeted by Jianna So
Looping video projected through clothing in a closet

In “closeted”, a silhouette projected onto a bralette in a closet reimagines the queer closeted experience as a positive one, devoid of fear and performativity, that can be defined and exist beautifully in private. The moving projected silhouette contains video clips showing a rainbow in a blue sky, a growing pink flower, and a queer couple from Raveena’s “Headaches” music video. The clips are synced with Dream Koala’s song “We Can’t Be Friends”.

prayer by Jianna So
Looping videos projected onto bed, wall, and rosary

In “prayer”, projections place the viewer in another’s intimate moment. This piece is made up of two projections around a bed: the first consists of two overlaid body silhouettes, and the second displays hands interacting with a phantom rosary projected onto a physical hung rosary. “prayer” captures feelings of chaos and anxiety, as well as the calm performed to or provided by others. The piece incorporates video of the artist, and her lola (grandmother) in the Philippines, seen through the silhouettes, and audio from Moses Sumney's "Plastic", and Asin's "Dahil Sayo".

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Constructing Color
Instructor: Gail Wight
TA: Krystal Ramirez

This hands-on contemporary art class will address color through traditional, digital, and experimental mediums. Students will learn to compose and communicate via color, experimenting with light, paint, code, context, and culture. In addition to exploring color as a powerful tool, students will build personal palettes, learning to use color as an essential component in conceptualizing works of art. Students will create numerous short color experiments, a personal reference notebook, and a final work of art in any medium.