public art

New Interactive Public Art Sculpture: Neodya II sneak preview at the Artisan’s Asylum

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

Somerville open studios is this weekend, on Saturday and Sunday from 12-6pm.  One of the newest studio spaces to open up is the Artisan’s Asylum’s new space- over a hundred studios are there.  Expect to see a lot of work.  I will be showing work I have built in collaboration with New American Public Art, called Neodya II.

The sculpture itself encourages generative construction.  It is built with hundreds of tiny magnets, serving as seeds for tiny metal cities.  We received a grant from Figment to produce the piece, and it will be displayed on the Rose Kennedy Greenway in June.  You can see the piece earlier at open studios this weekend.

I learned a few new construction processes while building this piece: how to use resin, fiberglass, and expanding foam.

The Artisan’s Asylum is on 10 Tyler St., Somerville, Massachusetts.

Posted on May 3rd, 2012 under Blog. Tags: , , , , , ,

International Public Art Residencies – Panel Session by Swissnex

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

Swissnex hosted a panel on international art residencies – focusing in particular on a new residency in the Swiss alps, the Verbier 3-D sculpture park residency.  The panel was led by Caitlin Strokosch, the Executive Director at Alliance of Artists Communities, which is based in Providence and has impressive resources for artists.  Panelists included artists who had created work for the sculpture park, as well as artists with general experience in international residencies.

One of the artists, Mary Sherman, began a conference for artists to share information on international art residencies, providing many connections.  It was interesting to hear that the American representation outside in international festivals used to be much higher than it currently is- giving the sense that there is a demand for american artist representation internationally.

Specifically on the Verbier residency- artists would build their pieces in huge tents, and every day the tents would open up for the locals to check out.  Artists would also have workshops kids would attend.  The town of Verbier is a ski resort town, so in the summer months the population shrinks to about two thousand.

It was cool to hear about the experiences at residencies all around the world.  Some social like the Verbier one, some isolated.  The most exciting ones though were those without fees, that included housing, a stipend, and funding for materials. What a great way to travel.  Some residencies are competitive, some have few applications.  The general advice was that if there is a good fit, just apply.

Posted on May 2nd, 2012 under Blog. Tags: , ,

video: Urban Bloom on the Marquee

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

A beautiful video clip by Laura Bradford of my piece Urban Bloom. It is pretty high quality so you can watch it full screen.

Posted on March 28th, 2012 under Blog. Tags: , , , , ,

video: thought follows action, from TEDxSomerville

Sunday, March 25th, 2012

I finished editing the video of thought follows action, the interactive public art we made for TEDx Somerville. Here it is:

 

Posted on March 25th, 2012 under Blog. Tags: , , , ,

bringing public art to TEDx somerville

Saturday, March 3rd, 2012

image of the spheres

Recently, I have been working with Dan and Bevan to build an interactive public art piece, Thought Follows Action, to be displayed in front of the Armory at TEDx Somerville.

We’re bringing public art to TEDx, and are excited to share it with you. TEDx has been an inspiring initiative, to take the energizing ideas and format of TED and decentralize to make it local focused and charge up communities.

At New American Public Art, we love the idea that Public Space can be used as a medium of conversation and discourse through interactive art.

This piece is PUBLIC. So even if you don’t have a pass to the event, you are still invited to come explore the work, tell us your thoughts, and even better, tell us what you’re excited to see grow around Somerville.

The piece will be right outside the Somerville Armory, 191 Highland Avenue, Somerville, MA, on March 4th, 2012, from 10am to 6:30 pm.

What excites me in particular about this piece is that it provides an interface between conference attendees and anyone in the public who wishes to participate, regardless of whether or not they have a ticket, opening up the discourse of the conference by making it more accessible.  It is in the public space, so anyone can go to it.

I love thinking about the intersection of art and community- in particular how art can be used to grow a community.  In this case, we’re creating a piece at the entrance of the event, inviting attendees, people passing by, and those  who heard of the piece, to come play with it.  This is something people can interact with together, this is something that can generate conversations opening up a platform to share other ideas and projects.

For more information: Facebook event page, new american public art, tumblr page.

Posted on March 3rd, 2012 under Blog. Tags: , , , , , , ,

New media public art pieces currently on display around Boston

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012

I have two public art pieces currently on display in the city.  You can see Lighthouse until mid march.  It consists of three projectors and an LED screen.  It is just steps away from the Aquarium T stop, and right by Quincy Market, at the Harbor Islands Pavilion.

View Larger Map

The installation uses three overlapping analogue projections to create a simple interactive light scape. The work’s form and materials echo the flow of the existing architecture and allude to old canvas ship sales and whale bones. These forms are reflected in the projected images as well as the generative animations shown on the 2 large video screens. [from the press release]

At the Boston Convention Center, you may see Urban Bloom. It is part of a series of works bringing art to the LED Marquee.  It is thirty seconds long, and will play alongside other pieces on the Marquee.  See the review by the Dig.  Because of it’s size, the Marquee is visible in several parts of South Boston.  The closest T stop is the World Trade Center T stop on the Silver Line.  It is visible as soon as you leave through the upper exit.


View Larger Map

“Urban Bloom,” is designed to convey the microcosm of city movement amongst the deeper, cyclical expanse of space. Spatially, the piece will be divided into panels representing movement in the city with linear cellular automata patterns juxtaposed against panels conveying the environment in which this city simulation is embedded – Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie meets Villareal’s Multiverse, with particles moving through the border passageways set against fading panels of saturated deep tones of pure color. The piece was developed using custom software to generate the automata patterns and gradual color shifting. [artonthemarquee.com]

It is very exciting to be showing work in the public space of Boston.  If you are in the Boston area, I encourage you to check out Lighthouse and Urban Bloom.

Posted on February 28th, 2012 under Blog. Tags: , , , , , ,

Art on the Marquee opening

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

 

Next Thursday will be an opening for Art on the Marquee, featuring work by local digital and video artists.  Urban Bloom will be one of the pieces presented.  See the press release below:

Boston Cyberarts and the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority Present

ART ON THE MARQUEE
at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center

415 Summer Street, Boston

February 23, 5:30-8 p.m.
Boston Cyberarts and the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority are kicking off “Art on the Marquee,” an ongoing project to commission public media art for display on the new 80-foot-tall multi-screen LED marquee outside the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in South Boston.  The largest urban screen in New England, this unique digital canvas will be one of the first of its kind in the U.S. to integrate art alongside commercial and informational content as part of the MCCA’s longstanding neighborhood art program.

Six Massachusetts artists – Nell Breyer, Falling Men, Dennis Miller, Marathon, John Slepian, *sigh*, Kawandeep Virdee, Urban Bloom, Jeffu Warmouth, Fall, and Ellen Wetmore, Pacing and Blue Boy Jumping – will be featured.

A media and artist reception will be held at the BCEC on Thursday, February 23 from 5:30-8 p.m. Visit artonthemarquee.com for more information. 

Enter through Summer Street entrance, reception on 2nd floor
Please R.S.V.P.  to events@artonthemarquee.com by February 21

Posted on February 15th, 2012 under Blog. Tags: , , , , , ,

Lighthouse

Monday, January 30th, 2012

In a collaboration of New American Public Art and goodgood, I designed, built, and installed an interactive public art piece on the Rose Kennedy Greenway alongside Karen, Ben, Dan, Mattie, and Namita.

The piece consists of three analog projectors, a sculptural housing, and an LED video animation. The opening reception was on January 12th, 2012, and featured modern dancer Yuka Takahashi.

We took the opportunity to introduce a work of interactivity to a public space in Boston, exploring themes of play and creativity, while unifying the work with the goals of the Greenway and the Boston Harbor Islands.


Photos by Matthew Shanley.

Support for the materials for the work was provided by the Rose Kennedy Greenway. The Harbor Islands graciously provided the pavilion and the LED screens, which were integrated with the assistance of Boston Cyberarts and the Pavilion.

The work shows from January 2012 to mid March 2012, and is a block from the Aquarium T stop.

See associated posts with Lighthouse, including coverage by the Boston Dig, and a press release.

Posted on January 30th, 2012 under Blog, Projects. Tags: , , , , , , ,

Lighthouse, from the reception

Sunday, January 15th, 2012

Photo by the Greenway, at the Waterline bar.

Posted on January 15th, 2012 under Blog. Tags: , , ,

Lighthouse opening covered in the Boston Dig

Friday, January 13th, 2012

The Boston Dig wrote up an article on the opening for Lighthouse.  They got a pic of us with the screen part of the piece:

Lighthouse is an interactive public art piece on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. It is up for the next three months.  Pictured here are the collaborators for the piece: Matthew Shanley, Karen Stein, Dan Sternof Beyer, Ben Gaydos and I. Namita Dharia also helped design and build the piece, but is currently researching in India.  We also had a dancer, Yuka Takahashi, which was incredible.

Posted on January 13th, 2012 under Blog. Tags: , , , , ,

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