Visual Music: controlling Laser and Vector Monitors with sound - in partnership with DU and LEAF.

To sign up, please email info@denverdigerati.org with your name, contact information, and your zip code. We’ll respond with more information on the event including the room location at DU.

Probably as a consequence of the renewed interest towards analog circuitry and modular synthesizers, in the last few years, analog projections have become increasingly popular in the community of electronic musicians and multimedia artists. An easy frst approach is through vector graphics: one can start experimenting with Oscilloscopes and Lasers in a very intuitive way with just a couple of oscillators. The appeal of vector graphics may derive from the seemingly infnite resolution, the line-based aesthetic, and the intrinsic impermanence of the display. Other motivations lie in repurposing obsolescent hardware, reimplementing historical devices, or simply diverging from mainstream digital approaches to video. This is a multidisciplinary workshop that introduces and merges diferent theoretical felds: media archaeology, analog electronics, graphic design, optics, computer vision, coding and early 3d modeling for '80s gaming.

The technique explained is very intuitive especially for musicians as all visuals will be a direct translation of sound signals. Visualizing sound through light reveals for the eyes several sound properties and geometries that could otherwise remain unnoticed by the ears: frequency ratios, phase shifs, detuning and beatings, etc. I call this process Visual Listening: a deeper way of understanding sound through light. Through digital prototyping, the workshop will show possible hardware confgurations to setup an analog video workstation recycling laser, oscilloscopes and old cathode ray tube monitors. In a critique towards consumerism, the workshop will integrate technologies from diferent ages to create new unexpected aesthetic results, while learning about the history and techniques of video art. We will discuss possible solutions on how to setup an all analog audiovisual live show using laser and vector monitors.

WORKSHOP BREAKDOWN

The workshop will be divided into 5 parts:

- introduction about the instructor (www.jestern.com) and what one can do with the techniques explained in the workshop.

- the hardware: how lasers, oscilloscopes and vector monitors are built and work, possible hacks to expand their control using audio signals.

- the sofware: how to code sound signals to drive lasers and oscilloscopes with real time audio sofware (Ableton, MaxMSP, Pure Data, Processing or Supercollider). We will familiarize with the sofware MaxMSP (https://cycling74.com/downloads) and play with some pre-assembled audio patches.

- let's build something: each participant will work on creating his/her own digital/analog system for a live audiovisual performance. We will start prototyping using a simulation sofware then move to real hardware trying each participant system on a laser projector.

- we will fnally discuss possible approaches for a live gig, issues and solutions.

Please join us to celebrate our current resident artist, Julio Alejandro, with an open studio featuring the work made during his time in our space.

Please join us for an open studio with our resident artist: Kiah Butcher. Butcher will share how she has spent her time in our space - with the reveal of a new video piece, and you can opt to have your portrait taken.

Please join us for an evening of performances at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. This evening is in partnership with BMOCA and Kiah Butcher, curator, Media Live. Come early to check out the exhibition before it is gone. Performances co-curated by Cherish Marquez and Sharifa Lafon.

From the exhibition:

“Technology as awareness, awareness as empathy, empathy as healing, healing as change.

From our earliest stone tools to the advent of AI, technology is a catalog of human innovation. MediaLive explores the synergies between art and technology as instruments of positive change for our collective future.”

Door: 6:00 pm

Performances: 6:30 pm

Cost: Cost: Pay from Your Heart*, free for BMoCA members.

Featuring:

Debora and Jason Bernagozzi

Lanx Borealis

Ben Coleman

Meca’Ayo (Tameca L Coleman)

Elle Hong

Kevin Sweet

Zoid Hæm

Debora Bernagozzi works primarily with the mediums of video, photography, and fiber. Her ongoing body of video work consists of gestural, abstracted pieces that are more resonance than representation. She creates her work through a hybrid analog/digital method utilizing real-time video and audio processing techniques. She creates single channel pieces and installations, as well as doing live video performances, sometimes alongside her husband, artist Jason Bernagozzi. Her creative process is experiential, with video as well as with documentary photography and fiber art, including lacemaking.

She received her BFA in Video from the Atlanta College of Art in 1999 and her MFA in Electronic Integrated Art from Alfred University in 2002. Her work has been exhibited in the US and internationally, including at the Denver Art Museum, Burchfield Penney Museum, Ann Arbor Film Festival, and the Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film and Video Festival. She was awarded artist residencies at the Experimental Television Center, Squeaky Wheel Media Arts Center, and in Kuala Lumpur. Her essays “Video Synthesis: Waveforms, Disruptions, Transformations, and Anti-Obsolescence” and “Signal Culture: Experimental Media Art, Community, Preservation, and Play” were published in both English and Polish inVideosyntezy 2, a book accompanying Intermediale Festival of Audiovisual Forms, Legnica, Poland.  Her video performance work was referenced in the National Endowment for the Art publication Tech as Art: Supporting Artists Who Use Technology as a Creative Medium. 

Inspired by residency experiences that were transformational for them both personally and artistically, Debora and Jason Bernagozzi, along with Hank Rudolph co-founded Signal Culture, a nonprofit organization that provides residencies, resources, and exhibition opportunities for artists, researchers, and innovators working in experimental media art. She serves as Executive Director while continuing to make and exhibit her own work.

Jason Bernagozzi is an artist whose work examines and critiques the codes embedded within the psyche of media culture. Their work uses the real-time features of video and electronic media as a way to engage with interdisciplinary concepts as a dialogical system of emerging languages. Bernagozzi’s work has been supported through numerous grants and awards from organizations such as the New York State Council for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts and has been exhibited nationally and internationally at exhibitions such as the European Media Art Festival in Osnabruk, Germany; the Festival Les Instants Vidéo Numériques et Poétiques in Marsaille, France; the Ilman Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea and the Currents New Media Festival in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Jason is also a co-founder of the experimental media art non-profit organization Signal Culture and is currently an Associate Professor of Electronic Art at Colorado State University.

Lanx Borealis is a Canadian-Ukrainian interdisciplinary artist and musician who performs under the stage-name Lanx Borealis. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado and is finishing her BFA in Arts Education. Paint, sound, video, and performance are her primary mediums which she intertwines in her creative practice. Her current work reflects her research into audio/video art, feminism, and folk magic.

Ben Coleman is a British multi-disciplinary artist residing in Denver, CO. His practice is rooted in sound and performance making, but often plays with other media, including music, text, video and installation.

Coleman grew up in theatre and music, forming his first bands in London while studying contemporary performance. Moving to the US in 2006, he dedicated some eventful years to musical projects- later returning to performance alongside new roles as composer, sound designer and installation artist. His practice now embraces curatorial projects, and frequent collaboration with dancer/choreographers, visual artists, and theater practitioners.

His work has been presented by institutions including the High Museum of Art, Denver Art Museum, MCA Denver, Understudy, Alliance Theatre, Atlanta Contemporary, Redline Contemporary Art Centre, Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia, Gibney Dance, Dashboard, Georgia Institute of Technology, Flux Projects, Zuckerman Museum of Art and Emory University.

Coleman’s work has been featured by Hyperallergic, Wire Magazine, Vice, Pitchfork, The Denver Post, Southwest Contemporary, Arts ATL, Burnaway and NPR. He is a resident alumnus and board member at Redline Contemporary Art Centre, Denver.

Visit him and his work at www.bencolemansounds.com

Elle Hong is an antidisciplinary artist currently based in Cheyenne/Ute/Arapaho Territories (Denver, CO). She holds an MFA in Choreography with a Graduate Certificate in Emergent Technologies & Media Arts Practice from the University of Colorado Boulder, and a BA in Dance & Sociology from Wesleyan University. Elle provides dramaturgical support for artists Helanius J. Wilkins (“The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging”) and LA Samuelson (“Telegraph Valley”), and has toured as a performer for Michelle Ellsworth (“Evidence of Labor”; “Post-Verbal Social Network”). Current research interests include improvisational processing as making, ease/effort, being/nothingness, dis/embodiments of femininity, and risk. Ultimately, she aims to feel radically present while in a state of complete dissociation, or, is trying to embody the moment/train for the times. Her work uses dance as a primary text for transcending the (representational) limitations of the body.

"Kevin Sweet, PhD is a multimedia artist and educator currently serving as Assistant Professor of Design and Interactive Arts: Immersive Experiences, at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is an avid collaborator working across the sciences, philosophy, community-based arts-research and education. From developing sonic planetaria to XR community practices in ancestral resilience, his work centers around the potential for narrative and refiguration through embodied forms of creative play."

Zoid Hæm is a renaissance artist born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and currently living in Denver, Colorado. He uses the medium of art to tell the great myths of life. Zoid is currently receiving a dual master’s degree in art and business from CU Boulder. He is also the founder of Void Art Haus, a design studio which produces art centered community events focused on creating places for people to rest, learn, and commune. Zoid has recently published his book titled Poems Can Fly, which is his first collection of poems and short stories. Zoid’s performance art combines the use of poetry and technology to explore new realms of communication to create thoughtful cathartic experiences in the hopes of inspiring others to share their stories.

*Pay from Your Heart - Whether it's one penny or one hundred dollars, you pick your admission fee to BMoCA! Please note: Cash, Cards & Apple Pay are accepted. There is a $1 minimum charge on credit cards.

Please join us in celebrating Autumn Thomas on Friday, September 29th from 6:00-9:00 pm. Thomas will be showing her video interactive sculptural work entitled Forest of Shadows.

“Forest of Shadows” is an interactive installation that explores the integration of technology and abstract sculpture. Shadows often explore the symbolism of mystery and transformation and embody hidden knowledge and spiritual insight. The integration of technology and shadows creates immersive installations where viewers actively engage with the shifting interplay of light and shadow, abstract and concrete. It serves as a expression of the African diaspora, that which echoes the spiritual connection to ancestors and their guiding presence. I aim to evoke wonder and contemplation, prompting a dialogue between the conscious and subconscious. By blending abstract sculpture and interactive shadows, I welcome viewers to embrace the transformative potential of the unknown, encouraging personal exploration and introspection.”

We will screen 3 programs at the Sie Film Center on Sunday. You will need tickets for each performance that you select and they will be available through our friends at Denver Film the ONLY nonprofit film center in Colorado. We are grateful to all the staff at Denver Film for their support and partnership.

**This year we are implementing a “pay what you want” option for tickets. We want our events to be accessible to the public, but we are also aware that higher attrition occurs with free events. Your ticket price goes towards the support of our nonprofit organization, and in most cases, directly to artists.

The End of Story features visually striking films that defy conventional narratives and showcase innovative uses of technology in art.

Protopia unfolds alternative perspectives and the construction of new realities inviting viewers to envision the future through diverse lenses.

Resonant Dwellings is a diverse collection of films, which redefine the concept of home, evoking fresh and thought-provoking interpretations.

Join us for a closing brunch/hang out before our final screenings.

This will be a casual setting as we all wind down from such a busy weekend.

Please join Brandon Vargas for a special walking tour of the LED screens to celebrate the featured works for this year’s festival.

We will meet outside of Understudy to begin the tour.

We will screen 4 programs at the Sie Film Center on Saturday. You will need tickets for each performance, available through our friends at Denver Film, the ONLY nonprofit film center in Colorado. We are grateful to all the staff at Denver Film for their support and partnership.

**This year we are implementing a “pay what you want” option for tickets. We want our events to be accessible to the public, but we are also aware that higher attrition occurs with free events. Your ticket price goes towards the support of our nonprofit organization, and in most cases, directly to artists.

Digital Dialect, an ongoing signature program curated by Faiyaz Jafri, spotlights pure digital animation and films that embody his distinctive curatorial vision.

Democracy of the Eye features films that emphasize the subjective aspects of viewership. Each of these films challenge the viewer in some aspect of narrative or form. This program is not appropriate for children.

Self and Ego explores films that delve into the intricate layers of human identity and consciousness, sparking introspective conversations and profound insights.

Dystopia is a program dedicated to myriad perspectives of the world that examine the dark undercurrents of societies and the human condition.

Please join us at the bar at the Sie Film Center for a social hour before viewing the opening night screening, curated by our Executive Director and Curator, Sharifa Lafon.

For the opening night program, you’ll experience a glimpse into the films featured throughout the festival. This sampler captures the essence of our theme, Welcome to the Here and Now, showcasing the very best of our innovative and boundary-pushing selections, fostering a conversation about the medium and trends over the last two years.

We will begin our evening with a talk by Alice Scope on the topic of Building Inclusive Communities with Decentralized Technology. Scope is a Ukrainian art curator and the Program Director at Vellum LA, a women-led new media art gallery based in Los Angeles. Alice's passion is to create speculative worlds through gaming, XR, blockchain, and performance. She explores topics such as Posthumanism, potential future adaptations, and authenticity in machines. This talk is in partnership with Union Hall.

** Special note: There is a Colorado Rockies game beginning at 6:40 pm. Please give yourself extra time to park in the downtown area, or plan on using public transportation. We have scheduled the talk early to avoid the height of the traffic.

Union Hall is located inside The Coloradan at 1750 Wewatta Street in Suite 144 on the first floor. From the outside, there are two entrances to the building - one on Wewatta Street between 17th and 18th St, and one just above 17th Street next to the sweetgreen. Both entrances are equipped with power assist doors, and all public areas are wheelchair accessible. You can find wayfinding signage that will lead you to Union Hall in the interior of the building.

Metered street parking is available and there is a parking garage in the building (entrance on 18th and Wewatta). Public transportation options are of course available as well.

Join us at Understudy to open our 8th annual festival, Welcome to the Here and Now. What a better way to begin, than by focusing in on the Denver Theatre District, the organization that founded us by incubating our project. We are grateful for their continued support and partnership.

We will walk to the projection booth for Night Lights Denver from the gallery.

Night Lights Denver is a permanent way for The Denver Theatre District to support innovative artists with an experimental platform while attracting people downtown to experience a free, rotating projection art show. Denver Digerati curates a program of commissioned artists that runs each night during the month of September.

Our Night Lights Denver commissions will run the entirety of September, launching on Friday, September 1st beginning at dusk.

After taking the month of July off for a summer respite, we’re back with a new event that we’re thrilled to share with you. Join us at Evans School next Saturday, 26 August for an evening of word, sound, and image featuring Cass Eddington, Tobias Fike, Paulus van Horne, and Kelly Sears. 

Cass will share new and previously published poetry, Tobias will debut a new performance piece, Paulus will conduct a sound-base performance, and Kelly will screen several short videos. 

Light refreshments will be provided, but feel free to bring snacks or drinks of your own. With an uptick in Covid19 cases, we ask you to refrain from attending if you’re feeling ill or have been exposed to anyone who has been sick. 

THIS EVENT IS CO-HOSTED BY JOSHUA WARE AND SHARIFA LAFON

PERFORMER BIOS 

Cass Eddington (they/them) is a poet, teacher, and community arts organizer. They are the author of Vernal Hurt (Magnificent Field) and TRANSIT (Spiral Editions) with recent work in Annulet, Deluge, and DREGINALD. They run and curate Vocational Poetics -- an accessible space of creative autonomy and radical communion, featuring classes by teaching artists. A PhD candidate in the University of Denver’s Creative Literary Arts Program, Cass teaches community-based and university-funded creative writing classes and is an apprentice in regenerative landscape design. They live with their dog Jupiter in so-called "Denver." 

Tobias Fike (he/him) works in the now by looking to the past and responding to his own life and circumstances, mining out the universally human aspects of that reality. Fike has been fortunate enough to do a few things and this is one of them.  

Paulus van Horne (they/them) is a multimedia artist and technology researcher based in Boulder, Colorado. Paulus’ creative practice encompasses machine learning, game design and large-scale audiovisual installation often featuring (supposedly) autonomous digital technology. Their recent work investigates the possibility of love, intimacy and gender euphoria in the virtual world. Paulus is currently a PhD candidate in Critical Media Practices at the University of Colorado where their academic research focuses on the history and design of gendered computer voices. 

Kelly Sears (she/her) creates hybrid speculative fiction and nonfiction collage animations where the ordinary and the fantastic collide. Her films have been screened at festivals such as Sundance, Slamdance, South by Southwest, American Film Institute, International Film Festival Rotterdam and museums such as MoMA, The Hammer Museum, and the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam. Solo programs of her films have screened at the Pacific Film Archives, Anthology Film Archives, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the San Francisco Cinematheque. She is an Associate Professor in Cinema Studies and Moving Image Arts at the University of Colorado Boulder. 

Denver Digerati is pleased to host the launch party of Femme Salee’s sixth zine release entitled Vague Force curated by Sam Grabowska. This two week exhibition will feature the work of nine artists included in the zine. Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Danielle Fauth, Esther HZ, Sophie Kahn, Amanda Kleinhans, Kara McMullen, Meca’Ayo, Nadine Valcin, and Mary Willette.

Please email femmesalee@gmail.com for accessibility needs and specifications or to reserve an appointment if you can’t make it to the opening.

In partnership with Month of Video, Denver Digerati's resident artist, Tobias Fike, will debut his experimental video work entitled: Fractions. The installation features home videos of the artist as a child and of his own children are projected onto a mirrorball as the images reflect back into the surrounding space in a newly arranged cosmos of light and color. 

This exhibition is part of Denver Month of Video, a month-long exhibition, event, and curatorial platform held citywide, showcasing a diverse array of video works, including video art, video games, performance art for video, and more. More info at denvermov.com

We are postponing Autumn’s event tonight due to unforeseen circumstances. Please check back for updates!

Please join us in celebrating our current resident, Autumn Thomas on Friday, July 14 from 6:00-9:00 pm. Thomas will be showing her video interactive sculptural work entitled Forest of Shadows.

“Forest of Shadows” is an interactive installation that explores the integration of technology and abstract sculpture. Shadows often explore the symbolism of mystery and transformation and embody hidden knowledge and spiritual insight. The integration of technology and shadows creates immersive installations where viewers actively engage with the shifting interplay of light and shadow, abstract and concrete. It serves as a expression of the African diaspora, that which echoes the spiritual connection to ancestors and their guiding presence. I aim to evoke wonder and contemplation, prompting a dialogue between the conscious and subconscious. By blending abstract sculpture and interactive shadows, I welcome viewers to embrace the transformative potential of the unknown, encouraging personal exploration and introspection.”

Trans Praxis at Denver Digerati marks the debut of Teague McDaniel’s ongoing art series that explores transgender identities through an intersectional lens. In this iteration of “Trans Praxis”, McDaniel invites viewers to contemplate the multifaceted nature of transgender experiences through augmented reality and interactive two-dimensional artwork. They sift through potential common assumptions about gender binaries in an attempt to problematize notions of gender perception that may often be taken for granted. Please RSVP HERE.

Please also fill out Teague’s Gender Expression Survey found HERE.

Praxis Sessions: Reflect

June 21st

12:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Drop-in Lunch

Praxis Sessions: Practice

June 22nd

10:00 pm - 12:00 pm

Drop-in studio time

Praxis Sessions: Make

June 23rd

2:30 pm - 3:30 pm

Drop-in skill share

Teague McDaniel (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist and curator. Their current roles include acting as the founder and curator at Creative Integration Initiative (CII), adjunct professor in the Department of Art at MSU Denver, as an art writer for Out Front Magazine, and as an artist in residence through Denver Digerati with art that includes an AR component. Their art practice is media agnostic and frequently traverses installation, performance, social practice, painting, and printmaking. Teague approaches their practice through their lens as a single parent, queer, trans, artist and art consultant who is white, multiply-disabled, and neurodivergent. They hold an MA in Art from Colorado Western University and BA in Studio Art from MSU Denver.

We are happy to announce another event at the historic Evans School. For this month’s installment, Noa Fodrie will perform her monologue In an Effort to be More Honest, and Teague McDaniel will deliver a rendition of their performance art piece Sift. The Weirdo from Another Planet will play two sets of saxophone-based, experimental music. We are thrilled to host these three performers and look forward to seeing you at the event next weekend. 

PERFORMER BIOS: 

Noa Fodrie (she/her) is a Memphis born and bred educator and artist. As a black biracial woman, Noa uses the materiality of painting, installation, written word, and performance to negotiate the conversation of body, space, and audience while finding the place to exist in between. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Painting and Drawing at the University of Colorado Boulder. 

Teague McDaniel (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Boulder, CO and the current Denver Digerati artist in residence. Their art practice is media agnostic and frequently traverses installation, performance, social practice, painting, and printmaking. They are the founder and curator of local arts organization, CII, teach art at MSU Denver, and write for OFM's art section. They hold an MA in Art from Colorado Western University and BA in Studio Art from MSU Denver. 

The Weirdo From Another Planet (he/him) has been performing beatific sound manipulations for over twenty years, ten of those spent as one of the Boulder area's most steadfast experimental musicians. His main practices are sample-based sound collage, experimental electronics, and contemporary classical composition. The Weirdo co-founded the Shadowtrash Tape Group, has hosted multiple radio shows in the area presenting new underground music and live radio-play stagings (as well as once getting locked in KVCU's broadcast room for 48 hours during a snowstorm and performing live music nonstop), and has played everywhere from the Fiske Planetarium—opening for DJ Spooky—to the interior of a sewer tunnel for a broadcast to an audience at La Générale in Paris, France. More propaganda can be found at www.weirdo.love

A video art exhibition investigating truth and artifice.

Presented by students in the University of Denver’s Emergent Digital Practices Program

with support from Denver Digerati.

Featuring the work of:

Mills Coleman

Jack Gould

Luke Molé

Amalia Theodoredis

Bella Gagen

Clayton Haberman

Reese Nickerson

Nick Urba

Pierce Geene

Kaila Lacagnina

Luke Penton

Ian Warren

GG Gibson

Thomas Lusk

Will Randolph

Kathryn Woodward

Mariel Gousuch

Jordan Messer

Sapar Shayanov

Curated by Professor Jullian Young

Please join us to celebrate Qinru Zhang’s film, Homecore. Zhang will be part of the Denver Digerati mini-residency program at the Denver Evans School. For her work, we will be screening the film as part of SOUND BODY IMAGE co-hosted with Joshua Ware.

In addition to this event, Homecore will be set up in the Denver Digerati space and available for viewing.

Please join us on May 6th to meet the artist who will be in town from NYC.

New York City-based interdisciplinary artist Qinru Zhang has been exploring uncanniness and femininity using digital mediums including 3D animation and mixed reality. Through observing society’s sexualization of femininity, Zhang appropriates, détourns, and normalizes feminine stereotypes to challenge existing gender norms. With Zhang’s unique use of eerie aesthetics in her feminine narrations, she advocates for freedom of choice in women’s self-representation and lifestyles and calls for female empowerment.

Homecore is an animation speaking to the nostalgic complications between future and past, memory and reality, self and others. Inspired by Lacan’s Mirror Theory, Homecore sees urban domesticity as an enchanting no-exit space of self-reflection through the protagonist’s looped daily life. While the content mixes dreams with reality, the viewing medium also lies on the verge of reality. Audiences can choose to watch a 360 animation on a flat screen or experience the protagonist’s mentality in virtual reality.

Please join us for SOUND IMAGE BODY - co-hosted by Joshua Ware and Sharifa Lafon

Door 7:00 pm / Event 7:30

Algae & Tentacles (aka John Melillo of Tuscon, AZ) will perform a sound/music set, and New York City-based interdisciplinary-artist Qinru Zhang will screen an animated film. These out-of-town artists will be joined by local digital/performance artist Phillip Stearns and dancer/body movement artist Cassidy Wagner. It is sure to be an eclectic and exciting evening 

There will be light refreshments, but you are encouraged to bring your own snacks or drinks if you feel so inclined. 

ARTIST BIOS: 

John Melillo makes music, noise, and various sound experiments under the name Algae & Tentacles. Based in Tucson, Arizona and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Melillo sings and improvises using a range of genres, from folk song to concrete sound poetry and electro-acoustic improvisation. As Algae & Tentacles, Melillo has released a self-titled album with Lightning Records and collaborative albums with Geoff Saba (Dry River) and Cecyl Ruehlen (Where Tremble Heart). His latest album The Mouth Is a Resonant Field was released in April of 2023 by 2182 Recording Company. Melillo is also a writer, teacher, and researcher, and his book The Poetics of Noise from Dada to Punk was published by Bloomsbury Sound Studies in 2020. 

Phillip Stearns (He/Him) is a Denver based, self-identified grizzled veteran of electronic art, working with both physical and digital media. A major through line in his work is the use of media technologies to reveal hidden worlds that are integral to our daily existence but reside just beyond our sense perceptions. He has performed and exhibited work internationally in art festivals, museums, and galleries including Tate Britain, Park Avenue Armory, NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, ELEKTRA BIAN, Transmediale, FILE, Festival de Arte Digital, Thoma Foundation, Denver Art Museum, Zhangzhou Museum of Art and Haus Der Elektronischen Künste. 

Colorado native Cassidy Wagner started her dance journey drenched in ballet, studying with the Miami City Ballet School when she was only a High School student. After some years, Cassidy graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in Dance and danced her way with the Second Avenue Dance Company in the East Village, NYC, and later in Brooklyn -- performing at venues like Roulette and Triskelion Arts. In NYC, Cassidy freelance danced with Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener (both Merce Cunningham Dancers), and Netta Yerushalmy (Guggenheim Fellow), and furthered her education through international workshops and company immersions. In 2019 Cassidy was invited by Ohad Naharin to participate in the Gaga teacher training program. Cassidy was selected as one of a small group of dance artists for this specialized training. She considers Gaga to be her primary movement practice, and is committed to exploring this research daily. Cassidy has been based in Denver since covid, and teaches weekly Saturday Gaga classes open to the public, and as well has collaborated with The Lab on Santa Fe, and Habitat Gallery using the SKYLIGHT Event Center for First Friday Art Walk events and collaborative work-in-progress artist centric events -- she loves dancing in unlikely spaces and performing at events that are multi-medium. 

New York City-based interdisciplinary artist Qinru Zhang has been exploring uncanniness and femininity using digital mediums including 3D animation and mixed reality. Through observing society’s sexualization of femininity, Zhang appropriates, détourns, and normalizes feminine stereotypes to challenge existing gender norms. With Zhang’s unique use of eerie aesthetics in her feminine narrations, she advocates for freedom of choice in women’s self-representation and lifestyles and calls for female empowerment.

We've partnered with our friends at Denver Film for the local premier of Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. The film is sure to be pure joy for fans of Murakami and we've included a special reel of content to promote the Digerati Emergent Media Festival. Use the special Denver Digerati code for $2 off your ticket: DDBWSW23 

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman runs April 21-27 at the Sie Film Center. The discount code will work for any showing, but join us for a Denver Digerati day at the movies for the 3:45 pm showing on Sunday, April 23rd. Purchase your tickets here!

About the film: A lost cat, a giant talkative frog and a tsunami help a bank employee without ambition, his frustrated wife and a schizophrenic accountant to save Tokyo from an earthquake and find a meaning to their lives in the animated feature Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. Based on stories by acclaimed Japanese author Haruki Murakami (Drive My Car), the debut of composer Pierre Földes won the Jury Special Mention award at the renowned Annency Animation Film Festival.

In memento sanctum (remember the holy), Shana Cruz-Thompson and Jensina Endresen explore the dark side of nostalgia. Through a series of found-object sculptural vignettes upon which both vintage 8mm film and AI-generated images are projected, the artists implore you to ask, what’s worth saving? Rituals of re-use and resurrection that surround the process of archival documentation can be used as a tool to move forward while still holding true to the holy ghosts that ground us.

Please join us in celebrating our board treasurer, Shana Cruz-Thompson in the release of her Vigilante Dark Room Zine issue 4: Film Soup Community Cookbook. Pick up one of 8 limited edition issues that come with a print and a roll of souped film from guest artist Iosune de Goñi OR you can get your hands on a cookbook (without the film and artist print) featuring over 20 recipes and 40 images from contributing artists. All proceeds from the sales of the zines go towards Shana's workshops in the community teaching photography to youth in the Denver Metro area through Project Photo Op.

Image courtesy Iosune de Goñi

Organic Abstractions

Audio/Visual Performance and Open House

Light refreshments will be served

7pm (doors), 7:30 (performance)

Maggie Mather invites you to a reception for their residency with Denver Digerati at The Evans School. The night will include an audio-visual performance by Maggie Mather and Austin Słominski, exploring the creative process of abstracting the natural world through generative programming. Their performance utilizes a variety of live-coding techniques to control real-time visuals and electronic, plunderphonic-influenced music. The night will also include viewing of Mather’s work during their residency, including “Hall of Mirrors;” an interactive installation exploring the intimacy and discomfort of perceiving the self as a digital shadow.

Maggie Mather is a new media artist exploring embodiment, identity, and imaginary worlds through creative digital storytelling. Coming from and family of artists and growing up around the vibrant Denver art scene inspired Mather to be creative from a young age. Mather graduated from Occidental College in 2017 started a MFA program in Emergent Digital Practices from the University of Denver in 2021. Mather enjoys making small poetic narrative games, and interactive exhibits that encourage people to experience their bodies in new ways.

Austin Slominski is an audiovisual artist based in Denver, CO, originally from Missoula, MT. His work uses custom software to create sounds and visuals that explore ideas around how we interact and navigate with others within networks, through multimedia works, performance, installation, and web art. Austin recently received his MFA from University of Denver's Emergent Digital Practices program, where his thesis focus is on building networked tools for artists and other creative tools.