2020 Sponsored Projects

Victoria Vesna

VICTORIA VESNA, Ph.D., is an artist and professor in the UCLA Department of Design Media Arts and the founder/director of the Art|Sci Center at the School of the Arts and California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI). Trained as a painter at the University of Belgrade, her work now resides at the intersection of disciplines and technologies, focusing on experimental creative research. Her installations explore how communication technologies affect collective behavior and perceptions of identity in relation to scientific innovation. (Ph.D., CAiiA-STAR, University of Wales, 2000).

Victoria’s work involves long-term collaborations with composers, nanoscientists, neuroscientists, and evolutionary biologists, enriching her students’ learning experience. She has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows and delivered over 100 invited talks in the past decade. She serves as the North American editor of the AI & Society journal (Springer Verlag, UK). Her publications include “Database Aesthetics: Art in the Age of Information Overflow” (Minnesota Press, 2007) and “Context Providers: Conditions of Meaning in Media Arts” (co-edited with Christiane Paul and Margot Lovejoy, Intellect Ltd, 2011). Currently, she is co-curating the exhibition “Atmosphere of Sound: Sonic Arts in Times of Climate Disruption” and working on a new book, “Vibrations Matter: Art & Science of Listening” (Routledge Press, forthcoming fall 2024).

Associated project: Alien Star Dust

Premiering with the support of Harvestworks, Alien Star Dust is meant to be experienced as a guided meditation bringing to life the sensations of meteorites and micro-meteorites falling on all continents and mixing with the anthropogenic dust falling on our planet from many dimensions. Layers of sounds from inner and outer space with animations of dust and data driven by corona deaths are presented with the intent of honoring those who left their bodies without preparation and all who are suffering.

Edin Velez

Through rich imagery and an acute sense of visual metaphor, Edin Velez, one of the pioneers in video art, has consistently expanded the paradigms of the genre. Velez’s work in video and photography has always relocated the fabric and rhythms of a culture in the gestures and rituals of everyday life. Eschewing a conventional narrative voice, he orchestrates a confluence of associative elements to evoke, rather than analyze, the textures of a specific culture. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, he studied painting at the University of Puerto Rico and the School of Fine Arts of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture.

Associated project: 66 Stories and a Love Poem

This 66 minute experimental video by Velez examines how we confront aging and decay. It is an impressionistic road movie where the viewer travels through a literal and figurative landscape of aging human faces, towns, and landscapes. This project was made with support from New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) via Harvestworks.

Joe Diebes

Joe Diebes combines sound, visual media, and the human voice in multifarious ways. His sound installations, video, performances and works on paper have been exhibited in numerous galleries, museums, and public spaces including Paul Rodgers/9W (New York), The Hammer Museum, the Torino Winter Olympics, David Winton Bell Gallery (Brown University), Yuanfen Gallery (Beijing), Prix Ars Electronica and the Liverpool Biennial.

Associated project: AITA

AITA is a music and image installation that critically and poetically excavates the history of Verdi’s opera for Cairo through archival images, present-day Western representation of Egypt, and a radical scrambling of the libretto and score. AITA was made with support from New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) via Harvestworks.

Kristin Lucas

Kristin Lucas creates works about blurring the boundary between the body and technology, further complicated by issues of gender and the ties it has to the global economy. Kristen often investigates the uncanny and liminal spaces of our everyday interaction with technology in imaginative, circuitous works that lie somewhere between reality and “reality”.

Associated project: mARine MamMLs

Marine MamMLs is an interactive WebXR project that visually sonifies whale communication and cargo ship noise in the NY Bight to demonstrate how close in range their sound frequency is, and how ship noise interference with whale communication can increase the risk of whale injury and casualty. The project integrates data and recordings collected by marina scientists who monitor whale migration and population through the use of present day sensors, microphones, and machine learning (ML) processes.

Lauren Petty

Lauren Petty is a digital media artist working in video, film, sound, installation, interactive design and performance, she is a longtime collaborator of multi-disciplinary artist Shaun Irons. Their work has been exhibited in diverse locations in New York and internationally and was recently seen at BAM’s Next Wave Festival, Abrons Arts Center, The Chocolate Factory, HERE, The Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, The Governors Island Art Fair, and was broadcast on PBS’s Reel NY.

Associated project: All Over Everywhere

“All Over Everywhere” by Lauren Petty is a multifaceted, trans-disciplinary performance art installation, which addresses jeopardized natural environments, by engaging connections and confrontations between human beings, technology and the natural world. This project was made with support from New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) via Harvestworks.