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October 31, 2023 |
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During the last week of October,
Andrei
and I did an artist residency at
Coaxial Arts
in Los Angeles as
Phase Shift Collective. During our our time there, we created an
installation/environment which also served as our stage and
setup for a live performance, titled Synthetic Forest.
The concept was inspired by the time we spent camping in
national forests during our five-month road trip across the US.
Throughout our travels, we made video and sound recordings in
nature, which we sampled and remixed in the performance. We
wanted to create an environment which combined materials from
the natural landscape with the synthetic elements of our
electronic sound and video processing techniques. In our
installation, we used real and synthetic plants and moss, chalk
on the floor, overhead projectors, CRT screens, and a fog
machine.
Andrei performed live video using a combination of liquid light
show techniques, camera feedback, footage from our walks in the
forest, and
gravity_waaaves, a video processor/frame buffer device they created.
I performed quadraphonic sound with field recording samples, a
foley box containing dried leaves, bells, a kalimba and an AM
radio, synths, and granular and spatial processing. It was my
first time performing music in quad, so it was exciting to
create an immersive sonic landscape with Coaxial's multichannel
speaker setup.
I've known about Coaxial for a long time, and it was really cool
to finally get to be there in person. Many thanks to KA, Chloe,
Eva, and Brock for their help and hospitality. We look forward
to visiting again in the future!
📺 Watch a recording of our performance:
Youtube
|
Peertube
October 23, 2023 |
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On October 23, we did a
Phase Shift
artist talk/workshop at
California Institute for the Arts
in Santa Clarita, CA. We visited a class called Creative
Technology Forum with professor Josephine Shetty.
Andrei
and I took turns showing some of our individual artwork and
collaborations, and then the students tried out some of our
video feedback setups in an interactive demo at the end.
I was excited to see that the students in this class were very
engaged with their own unique projects and art practices. They
asked insightful questions which showed that what we were doing
was relevant to their own work. I was impressed with the level
of initiative and self-direction of the students, and the level
of creative cross-pollination that seemed to be taking place
within the class.
Many thanks to Josephine for having us in her class and to
Michael Bailey, audiovisual artist and CalArts student, for
inviting us!
October 19, 2023 |
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On October 19, we led a
Phase Shift
workshop and artist talk at
Indexical
in Santa Cruz, with special guests
Allen Riley
and
Denise Gallant. It was wonderful to see Allen, who is a good friend and
former Brooklyn neighbor, now working on his PhD at UC Santa
Cruz. It was also my first time meeting Denise, who has been
working with video synthesis since the 1970s!
Michael Masaru Flora, my former classmate at Alfred and fellow audiovisual artist,
helped us set up the event. He's now the Executive Director at
Indexical! I'd heard lots of good things about this venue, so it
was cool to finally get to be there in person.
We had a great turnout. Most of the folks who came were somehow
associated with UC Santa Cruz. We had a record number of video
game developers. The event was a combination of an artist talk
and a workshop, beginning with each of us sharing about our art
practice and demonstrating some techniques, and ending with an
interactive opportunity to explore our tools.
Much gratitude to Allen, Denise, and Michael. We look forward to
visiting Santa Cruz again!
October 14, 2023 |
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On October 14, we led a
Phase Shift
video art workshop at Cat Factory, a diy space in San Francisco.
Evan Sirchuk
helped us organize it, and also invited us to visit the
Internet Archive
where he works. We had more help and gear lending from Nathan
Trachimowicz,
Chris Farstad, and
Fetz A/V. Many televisions were activated with mesmerizing patterns,
and fun and educational times were had by all.
October 12, 2023 |
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On October 12, we hosted a
Phase Shift
Video Artist Meetup at
Syzygy
in San Francisco, in collaboration with
AV Club, a local art collective for technology-based performers. We
set up an interactive demo of some of our gear, including
Andrei's
gravity_waaaves, waaave_pool and artificial_life. Our friend
Sean Russell Hallowell
also brought his self-built modular video synthesizer (and we
had some fun sending signals back and forth between our
systems).
Syzygy is a really nice community-run space, and the AV Club
there is an awesome hub of algorave folks in the area. I had a
great time meeting a bunch of new people, including
Sarah GHP, a fellow video artist who I'd only known from online.