EVERYTHING ABSTRACT EXPERIMENTAL
Program has concluded
If you are new to digital motion-art, you might find yourself scratching your head while engaging in the offerings found in this mainstay Supernova program, which Denver Digerati has now linked as its own competitive category featuring a cash prize award. Like all good art, that’s the point, even for those who think they’ve seen it all. Digital Animation is the playground for artistic experimentation, whether towards an obvious aim, or one requiring liner notes. Experimental works can be found across all of Supernova's programs, but the offerings in this section deliver a spirit distinctly aligned with our vision to support visionary artists who defy traditional pathways.
Altomare
By Davide Prati
To find oneself in "alto mare" (at high seas), is an Italian expression often used to indicate the condition of being still far away from a goal, for example, to be late for an upcoming deadline. To be in “alto mare” implies that a lot of work still needs to be done. More steps need to be taken before something is complete. Also, it is important to note that you do not need to be at sea to find yourself in "alto mare." On the contrary, such a condition can happen even while hiking a mountain, that, according to your plans, was supposed to be an easy task but instead is not. Its peak just seems to never get closer. While observing abstract shapes, can one feel in "alto mare"?
Individuation
By Chris Speed
Individuation is an animated short by digital artist Chris Speed Visuals (CSV) which serves as a spiritual sequel to his earlier work entitled “SHDW.” By creating dystopian virtual worlds using game engines, the artist is attempting to reflect and individuate with his practice, in a Jungian sense. This work predominantly addresses themes of surveillance, as it tells the story of a simulation controlled by an unseen artificial intelligence akin to AM in the novel I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.We are witness to a Zero-Sum Game, as the AI unleashes a plethora of facial detection technologies while the creature fights back with its own scrambling devices to obscure its identity. Weightless jungle beats soundtrack this immersive experience, as the camera accelerates through the scene leaving behind motion artefacts.
A Confused Mass
By Sophie Rogers
Rogers has been researching the concept of ‘worlding’. Sophie uses digital software including Cinema 4D to create navigable simulations of imagined places and scenes often inspired by world-building practices found in sci-fi. Her latest work, a Confused Mass, combines simulations of alternate realities with research into Donna Harraway’s writing on the Chthulucene.
Gently (& Chainsaw)
By Faiyaz Jafri
Plotlessness, wordlessness, slowness, and alienation, this film doesn’t bother with staging, the hierarchy of information, or Hitchcock’s rule of composition. It leaves it up to the viewer. It invites you to wander around the screen; it’s an open-world video game without a joystick, surveilling actively passive. Gently (& Chainsaw) is the evolution of an impossible response and time.
Devil's Claw + Yucca Seeds
By Cherish Marquez
The Devil's Claw attaches to humans and animals in order to survive. It offers protection, food, and medicine. It is a part of the land It is a part of our culture. It represents resilience and survival.
The yucca was used to make medicine. The yucca has air cleaning properties.
The yucca was used to construct sandals, ropes, and clothing. The yucca symbolizes transmutation, protection, and purification. The yucca leaf is the sword of survival.
Formless Form
By Benjamin Ridgway
Our world. Our lives. Both inner and outer are in a state of change. Sometimes imperceptible yet always knowable.
Tunable Mimoid
By Vladimir Todorovic
This video demonstrates the most recent research achievements of the Centre for Mimoid Studies (CMS), a group from the Giesean Institute of Solaristics. According to their recently published paper, the scientists have discovered that tissue of the extraterrestrial organism (mimoid) regenerates after being exposed to the harmful effects of both ionising and non-ionising radiation. For the experiment, mimoid samples were cryogenically transported from Solaris to Earth. In a noninvasive live-cell imaging solution, the mimoid’s tissue was bombarded with the real-time customizable metamaterials and exposed to the time-varying electromagnetic fields. The researchers claimed that “mimoid samples not only behaved as tunable living systems, but they also exhibited self-organizing behaviour while mimicking patterns of the controlled electromagnetic fields.” This video was produced for the general public in order to promote the benefits of extraterrestrial studies on the Sustain Earth initiative. The research results have opened up new myriad pathways, options and possibilities for modern science and its recent Sisyphean efforts in saving us from the sixth mass extinction.
Sugar Water
By Barry Whittaker
A meditation on the importance of proper hydration and the friction between consumerism and ecosystems.
Breathing
By Allison Tanenhaus
Collaborative video featuring music by Maria Finkelmeier and Tim Hall, with visuals by glitch artist Allison Tanenhaus (https://allisontanenhaus.com/project-...).
Longer version performed at "Project Daydream," a livestreamed event at Boston’s iconic Cyclorama. Made possible through the Celebrity Series of Boston Neighborhood Arts program, Kadence Arts, and a grant from the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture and the City of Boston.
TR4NSM/SS/VE
By Christopher Rutledge
A short experimental film of refractive caustic patterns, optics, dispersion, and transmission in glass and liquid like materials.
Created in Houdini and Redshift, and on and off project between March of 2019 and March 2021. Original score by Myles Emmons.
Avalanche
By Snow Yunxue Fu
Working with 3D scanned models and particle simulation effects of the snowfall, Avalanche is a multi-channel 3D moving image work that illustrates the digital imaging version of the concept of “entropy”, originally from Land Art.
Social Re:Order
By Tyler Calkin
Social Re:Order explores the ghosts of human contact after prolonged social distancing. Colorful 3D models that rotate around, stand between, and pass through human figures are generated from the motion capture data of social interactions such as handshakes and hugs. Meanwhile, the accompanying soundtrack plays Morse code transcriptions of state and federal Stay At Home orders.
the gleaners, and: ritual for signaled bodies
By Benjamin Rosenthal & Eric Souther
“the gleaners, and: ritual for signaled bodies" performs at the edges between body and the external, oscillating and eroding those boundaries. A ritual for creating new worlds and situations for fragmented bodies, signals pass through the joints of animated and genderless bodies and body parts entangling the body-signal-actions both materially and conceptually as these control mechanisms interfere with pre-animated content. Perpetually shifting surfaces and skins serve as sites of projection and interference, contributing to the further "queering" of the state of these bodies and fragments that are stretched and submerged into and outside of the environment they inhabit, as they encounter desire, distress, and ritualized oscillations. Signals that generate sounds and compel movement, the making of the images, and the body, further challenges the stability and integrity of the space in its otherworldliness and the spatial relationships it establishes with the audience. At the edge between crisis and satisfaction, the work adopts the role of Millet's own "gleaners," making-do on the boundary between sustenance and the devoid.
SINOPSIS EN ESPAÑOL:
"las espigadoras, y: ritual para cuerpos señalizados" opera en los límites entre el cuerpo y lo externo, oscilando y erosionando esas fronteras. Un ritual para la creación de mundos y situaciones nuevas para cuerpos fragmentados, las señales digitales atraviesan las articulaciones de los cuerpos y fragmentos animados y sin género, enredando el núcleo cuerpo-señal-acción tanto material como conceptualmente, ya que esos mismos mecanismos de control están interferidos por contenidos preanimados. Las superficies y las pieles cambian constantemente, y sirven como espacio de proyección e interferencia , contribuyendo aún más al estado “queer” de dichos cuerpos y fragmentos que se extienden y sumergen dentro y fuera del entorno que habitan, y se encuentran con el deseo, la angustia y otras oscilaciones ritualizadas. Las señales digitales generan sonidos y movimientos, la creación de las imágenes, y los cuerpos desafían aún más la estabilidad e integridad de ese espacio así como las relaciones espaciales establecidas con el público, dado su carácter supraterrenal. Al borde entre la crisis y la satisfacción, la obra adopta el papel de las "espigadoras" del mismo Millet, que se las arreglan al límite entre el sustento y la carencia.
Nicolas Sassoon’s work has long been concerned with the tensions between the pixel and the screen, reflecting on their entanglement and materiality by integrating pixelated figures, moiré patterns and early computer graphics into experiential displays. This focus on early computer graphics is driven by the sculptural, material and pictorial qualities of this imagery, as well as its limitations and its poetics. Sassoon's work often explores the projective dimensions of screen- based space, and the many relationships between computer technology and the natural world. His research leads him to engage in cross-disciplinary projects in the fields of architecture, electronic music, textiles, and art. Nicolas Sassoon lives and works in Vancouver BC Canada, on the unceded lands of the Sḵwxw̱ ú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səlí̓lwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil- Waututh) and xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. His work has been exhibited at The Whitney Museum of American Art (US) Eyebeam (US), Current Museum (US), Vancouver Art Gallery (CA), Plugin ICA (CA), Contemporary Art Gallery (CA), Charles H.Scott Gallery (CA), Western Front (CA), PRETEEN Gallery (MX), Victoria & Albert Museum (UK), the Centre Pompidou (FR), House of Electronic Basel (SW), Arti et Amicitiae (NL), MU Eindhoven (NL) , Today Art Museum (CN), Chronus Art Center (CN), the Berlin Fashion Week (DE)) and the New-York Fashion Week (US).
Nicolas Sassoon emploie des techniques d’animations issues des débuts du graphisme informatique pour manifester un éventail de formes et de figures - encodées visuellement par des motifs pixélisés et des palettes de couleurs limitées. L’artiste utilise cette imagerie pour ses propriétés optiques et picturales, ainsi que pour ses qualités poétiques et ses limites en termes de représentation. Le travail de Nicolas Sassoon explore souvent les dimensions contemplatives, fantastiques et projectives de l’espace de nos écrans, et comment l’image numérique peut exprimer des qualités optiques, architecturales et sculpturales en relation avec l’espace physique. Sa recherche dans le domaine des arts visuels l’amène régulièrement à collaborer sur des projets interdisciplinaires dans les domaines de l’architecture, de la musique électronique, de l’industrie textile et de l’art contemporain. Nicolas Sassoon vit et travaille actuellement à Vancouver BC au Canada, sur les territoires non cédés des Nations Sḵwxw̱ ú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō et Səlí̓lwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) et xwməθkwəyə̓ m (Musqueam) . Son travail a été exposé au Whitney Museum of American Art (US) Eyebeam (US), Current Museum (US), Hammer Museum (US), Vancouver Art Gallery (CA), Plugin ICA (CA), Contemporary Art Gallery (CA), Charles H.Scott Gallery (CA), Western Front (CA), PRETEEN Gallery (MX), Victoria & Albert Museum (UK), Centre Pompidou (FR), Centre Multimedia Gantner (FR), House of Electronic Art Basel (SW), Arti et Amicitiae (NL), MU Eindhoven (NL) , Today Art Museum (CN), la Berlin Fashion Week (DE)) et la New-York Fashion Week (US).
Regeneration marks the first time Denver Digerati will determine an award for our Everything Abstract Experimental program. We are thrilled to have Nicolas Sassoon serve as the juror in this category, an artist who has been featured in Supernova’s programming in prior years who is one of the most successful and intriguing pioneers in the digital realm in contemporary art today.