Acting in Translation, SIGGRAPH 2014.

SIGGRAPH 2014 took place in Vancouver, Canada from August 10–14. I am so glad I was able to participate in the Art Gallery this year. The theme ‘Acting in Translation’ explored alternate meaning, approaches to knowledge, and critical technological experience. I met amazing people: this year’s Art Gallery curator, Basak Senova, an amazing woman and designer; the Art Gallery committee: Mushon Zer-Aviv, Sue Gollifer, Kate Armstrong, and Amit Zoran; and, of course, the other artists exhibiting: especially Emilio Vavarella, Zohar Kfir, Jeff Ong, and Alon Chitayat. They are all a truly inspiring and intelligent group. Meeting and sharing thoughts with them was such a positive and enriching experience. I know it will have a lasting effect on me and on my work. Another amazing PLUS was the fact that Nonie Kimpitak attended SIGGRAPH this year. Nonie was an early contributor to my fundraiser last year for ‘The Evolution of Silence.’ It was great to be able to share the experience with her. This is my first realization of the map and archive as an installation. Emily Luce from DesignInquiry also came down to Vancouver to show her support. Cheers to you all!

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Here is the installation before the show opened, before the lighting was arranged:
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The exhibition was open every day to SIGGRAPH attendees:
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The exhibition was held in a massive convention hall. A metal armature was constructed and a projection screen was mounted at a roughly 25 degree angle. The projector was mounted from high above on the opposite side and in the center stood a kiosk stand with a mouse. A MacMini and sound mixer were inside the stand. Speakers were positioned at the base of the screen. The site was presented live from the web. Anyone attending the conference had access to the work in the Art Gallery. Volunteers were stationed near works to introduce or clarify. I worked with some amazing young people who presented the work well. A great experience all around.

Selected for 2014 SIGGRAPH Art Gallery.

I am so pleased to announce that The Evolution of Silence will be included in the 2014 SIGGRAPH Art Gallery this August! The exhibition will take place from August 11–14, 2014 in Vancouver, BC, and is held in conjunction with 2014 SIGGRAPH: an International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques.

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The theme of the SIGGRAPH 2014 Art Gallery is “Acting in Translation.” (from their open call) ‘Translation indicates a detached and forward movement from the source. It is also a freeing act, which paradoxically contains a burden of responsibility for the source. Therefore, this movement has limits and fine borderlines, yet it could designate “more” than the source. Translation is a call for other realities and also another way to see other realities. Translation can also blend “fact” with fiction by blurring the difference between them. In this vein, “translation” as a term could be interpreted in multiple ways on different layers of perception. While this term indicates a mechanical act, it may also refer to global and local societal developments such as resistance movements, alternative economies, information leaks, migration flows, mobility, etc.’

All types of work are submitted to SIGGRAPH: 2D and 3D artworks, interactive, electronically mediated Augmented Reality (AR), mixed-media installations and performances, web-based art, responsive media, time-based works, works leveraging mobile technologies, works using digital communities and social media, robotics, touch-screens, wearable art, mediated music, sound and audio.

I am very excited to be showing in this context. Instead of showing it from a monitor screen, this time I will be projecting onto a floating screen constructed at an angle. The goal is that the landscape and map will appear as an extension of the space and the user.

This year’s jury includes:
Basak Senova (curator and designer; the Art Gallery Chair 2014; lecturer at Department of Media and Visual Arts at Koç University),
Mona Kasra (artist and educator; the Conference Chair 2016; digital media scholar at University of Texas),
Amit Zoran (HCI and craft researcher; the Art Gallery Chair 2015; Post-Doc at the Fluid Interfaces Group, MIT Media Lab),
Kate Armstrong (curator, artist and writer; Director of the Social + Interactive Media Centre at Emily Carr University of Art + Design),
Cezanne Charles (artist, designer and policywonk; Co-Director of rootoftwo – hybrid design studio, Director of Creative Industries at ArtServe Michigan), and
Mushon Zer-Aviv (designer, educator and media activist, faculty member at Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art).

There will be an opening reception on Tuesday, August 12 from 2–3:30 pm. In addition I will be giving an Artist Talk on Wednesday, August 13. Here is the full schedule of talks and projects:

Tuesday, 12 August 
Art Gallery Talk SESSION 1
Moderator: Basak Senova, Koc University and SIGGRAPH 2014 Art Gallery Chair 
Tuesday, 12 August, 2.00pm -3:30 pm

Art Gallery Panel: On SIGGRAPH Art Gallery: Basak Senova in Conversation Sue Gollifer, Mona Kasra, and Burak Arikan. 

Wednesday, 13 August
Art Gallery Talk SESSION 2
Moderator: Basak Senova, Koc University and SIGGRAPH 2014 Art Gallery Chair 
Wednesday, 13 August, 10.45-12.15 pm 

Points of View
Zohar Kfir
 
Subway Stories 
Alon Chitayat Animishmish Studio/ITP and Jeff Ong ITP, New York University
 
The Evolution of Silence
Rachele Riley

Art Gallery Talk SESSION 3
Moderator: Basak Senova, Koc University and SIGGRAPH 2014 Art Gallery Chair 
Wednesday. 13 August, 2:00pm -3:30pm

Can digital art have the same emotional impact and historical significance as masterworks in painting, drawing, and sculpture?
Joseph Farbrook, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
 
Mother 
Inmi Lee, Kutztown University

Thursday, 14 August
Art Gallery Talk SESSION 4
Moderator: Basak Senova, Koc University and SIGGRAPH 2014 Art Gallery Chair 
Thursday, 14 August, 10.45-12.15
 
On Everyware
Hyunwoo Bang 
Yunsil Heo
Everyware

Technological Error, Power and Metamorphosis
Emilio Vavarella

From Virtual to Reality
Ed Konowal/GraphicsNet

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Thanks again, everyone, for helping me fund my project and enabling me to take it to this level. I am very grateful!

Fundraising at USA Projects.

I just posted ‘The Evolution of Silence’ to USA Projects!

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I have been working on the writing for about two weeks, and just finished the video yesterday. I have one month to fund the project and I need your help. Please consider contributing, and do share the link with others! Thank you!

http://www.usaprojects.org/project/the_evolution_of_silence

About USA Projects: a nonprofit organization that provides a platform for artists and designers to raise money for their independent work. Supported by separate donations, they charge no fee to artists to use their website tool.

Interacting with Pages, Experiments.

I am in the studio, finding a creative work flow, and engaging some of my material (drawings, prints, photos) in different ways. In describing these experiments to a friend, she said they sounded meditative. I love this insight. She offered thoughts on documentation, documentation of performance, and animation. After our talk, I am inspired to continue the experiments, now with greater emphasis on time structure and meaning. Currently, these are shot without much thought to duration and pacing (though there were clearly ‘seasons’ to nuclear testing, periods of intense activity and then of pause). I would like to be more sensitive to this in my project.

Interacting with Pages (First 199 nuclear detonations at Yucca Flat), Experiment 4
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I don’t know how these experiments will exactly influence my project yet, but I feel it is important to try some new things in my studio, especially as I test ideas that relate to these questions: What lies at the core of successful interaction? Is the process of mapping and dismantling a reflective practice? How do I create the conditions for this, for myself and for others?

An Introduction to The Evolution of Silence.

An exploration of memory and destruction, ‘The Evolution of Silence’ is a multi-dimensional project that encompasses drawing, interactive design, mapping, printmaking, and installation. It is a creative investigation into the dramatic transformation of the Yucca Flat valley of the Nevada Test Site (Nevada National Security Site)—the site of experimental, post-World War II nuclear detonations.

I am creating a web-based archive, installation, and publication that present an exploration of a restricted landscape, and a visual mapping and interpretation of its destruction. ‘The Evolution of Silence’ allows one to bypass government boundaries and control of the area, making it possible for any individual to experience a cold war’s aftermath and silence.

The project gives form and expression to the data that I have gathered and organized, and is unique to other existing documentation of the Nevada Test Site in that it preserves an individual view of every nuclear detonation that occurred in Yucca Flat valley (828 nuclear explosions in total). The valley’s pockmarked surface of sink-hole craters is simultaneously beautiful and horrific. Considering the toll on the environment and the cost to human life, the valley is an important symbol of the impact of war.

I have been working on ‘The Evolution of Silence’ for a few years. The University of North Carolina at Charlotte funded my initial field research in 2008 (thank you), and since then, I have been working to design and develop an experience of a place of conflict for others. Thanks to The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, I have a sabbatical for the Fall 2012 semester and am going to be finishing Part 1 of the project: a web-based archive that presents multiple perspectives and experiences of the destruction. Part 2 will take place in 2013, as I prepare for the project’s extension and arrange for its public exhibition.