Christina Freeman

Visiting Assistant Professor, Haverford College

Presentations by the following NMC members:
Thomas Asmuth, Victoria Bradbury, Billy Colbert, Andrew Demirjian, Zoe Doubleday, Ashley S. Ferro-Murray, Brandon S. Gellis, Lydia Grey, Rebecca Hackemann, James Huckenpahler, Randall Packer, Ashley Scarlett, Tamiko Thiel, Maida Withers, and Andreas Zingerle and Linda Kronman (KairUs Art collective).

In the first century BCE, the Roman architect Vitruvius theorized that the structure for ancient Greek columns originated from the tree trunk. This idea is later supported in accounts by the geographer, Pausanias, who traveled throughout Greece during the 2nd Century CE, noting that the “first temple to Apollo at Delphi was a hut made of laurel trees.” [1] That trees were the original architectural supports for sacred spaces used in ceremonial activities is almost certainly not an accident: the tree’s form is a network of roots, stems and nodes, a design that reminds us of a larger interconnectedness. We make visual reference to trees when mapping family or other social relations, to brainstorm thoughts, and in charting electronic networks. The tree serves both as a literal and figurative source of life and knowledge.

The seventh annual New Media Caucus Showcase took place on the stage of the Armand Hammer Auditorium in the Corcoran School of Arts & Design in Washington D.C. Marked by Doric columns reminiscent of ancient temples, and tiered seating styled after the Greek amphitheater, the auditorium’s design added a layer of historical grounding to the night’s activities. While the presenters were selected by lottery and ordered alphabetically, areas of overlap surfaced throughout the evening: an overwhelming number presented work with a social, interactive or collaborative element. Inside this setting inspired by classical architecture within the nation’s capital, the origins of democracy, civic engagement, and social interdependence were extant.

Victoria Bradbury’s 2014 work, Data Raft, gives participants the opportunity to create tangible versions of the otherwise invisible world of their own email metadata. Once inside the gallery space, participants work with the artist to access their data points contained in code, translating the information into the physical form of a small raft with data embroidered on its sail.

Billy Colbert makes short films sourcing found footage from vintage home videos of African American families. While he is not personally connected to the particular people in the films, he is interested in archiving their stories to bring forward a complex and nuanced image of African Americans lives in the United States. By re-contextualizing the vernacular imagery, Colbert makes the potentially invisible content available to a new audience.

Color Yourself Inspired™ is a collaborative project created by Andrew Demirjian and James Proctor. Reversing the relationship of color and language typically employed in commercial color-naming systems, the pair play with the possibilities of language dictating color. Working with the Benjamin Moore Color Gallery and the linguistic parameters that come with it, Demirjian and Proctor let the grammatical structure of language determine various algorithms for outputting color relationships. As such, the rules of language replace the traditional role of color theory.

Zoe Doubleday’s Haptika proposes a DIY method for survivors of trauma to reduce the debilitating effects of their past experience. Doubleday’s wearable kits invite participants to build haptic gloves using open source technology and Arduino. The Empower glove connects the action of clenching a fist to a light going on, reinforcing somatic awareness. By connecting the Galaxy Glove to an external visual environment, the user’s motion is correlated with play, change and possibility.

Ashley Ferro-Murray’s choreography looks at corporeal relationships to digital media. All elements of her process—from sensors to the dancing body itself—are considered as technological elements within the stage setting. Her works address sensory oversaturation, the objectifying gaze, illness, and the line between the virtual and the real. In Noisence, dancers improvised monologues about media presence in their own lives, while mimicking movements by the audience. Costumes, interactive sound panels, contact mics and projected images created an immersive environment.