State Of The Art

Latest Episodes:

The Art of Interactivity: Sarah Rothberg, Interactive Media Artist Jan 31, 2020

Show notes

Sarah Rothberg chats with Gabe about her creative process working as a VR and AR artist, her journey from the world of poetry to interactive media art, how she incorporates memory into her immersive environments, and debates the use of "users" vs. "participants."

Check out her latest show opening at bitforms gallery, 131 Allen Street, New York, NY 10002. On view February 06 - March 15, 2020.

-About Sarah Rothberg-

Sarah Rothberg is an interactive media artist who captures the interplay between technology, systems, and the personal, creating meaning through unique and idiosyncratic experiences that encourage new ways of thinking, understanding, and communicating.

Sarah's work has been exhibited internationally at venues including Sotheby's S2 gallery, MUTEK festival, Miami Art Week, and bitforms gallery. She teaches new media at NYU's Interactive Media Arts and Interactive Telecommunications Program at Tisch.

Sarah is a current member at NEW INC’s Experiments in Arts and Technology track (in partnership with Rhizome.org, funded by Bell Labs) Sarah is a adjunct faculty and a "Human-in-Residence" at NYU working on artistic applications of AR, avatar research, and VR as a tool for performance.

In the past, she has been an artist-in-residence at Mana Contemporary, Harvestworks, and LMCC with her collective More&More Unlimited, and was an Engadget Alternate Reality Prize awardee. Currently, she is a featured artist in Apple’s [AR]T initiative, for which she co-created an augmented reality art lab that runs at Apple stores around the world.

Learn more about Sarah at https://sarahrothberg.com/

Follow Sarah @rothbergrothberg

The Art of Building a Digital Collection: Dr. Annette Doms, Collector Jan 24, 2020

Show notes

Dr. Annette Doms is an art historian with additional degrees in archaeology and psychology. Her interests have toward becoming a specialist in digital art and the art market. Annette, runs Independent Contemporary Art Advisory (ICAA), established the first art fair dedicated to media art, UNPAINTED, and has built an extensive collection of digital art pieces which exist both in IRL and URL.

Learn more about Annette Doms by visiting http://www.annettedoms.net/en/

Follow her @annettedoms

Tweet her @Anette_Doms

Learn more about ICAA here

The Art of Contemporary Relics: Sophie Kahn, Digital Artist & Sculptor Jan 17, 2020

Show notes

Sophie Kahn uses a 3D laser scanner to create fragmented sculptures that captivate viewers through their haunting beauty and visual association with death masks. Kahn's technique emerges from an interest in the restriction of technology and the narrow agendas of its design; in other words, she uses devices in ways they weren't intended to be used. In this episode, she discusses her discovery of this medium which expanded her practice beyond photography, and shares insights on her latest series currently in the works.

-About Sophie Kahn-

Sophie Kahn is a digital artist and sculptor, whose work addresses technology’s failure to capture the unstable human body.

She grew up in Melbourne, Australia, and is now based in Brooklyn, NY. She earned a BA (Hons) in Fine Art/History of Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London; a Graduate Certificate in Spatial Information Architecture from RMIT University, Melbourne; and an MFA in Art and Technology Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was awarded a full tuition Trustee Scholarship.

Her work explores the resonances of death in the technological image. It owes its fragmented aesthetic to the collision of the body with new imaging devices. The precisely engineered 3d laser scanner she uses was never designed to capture the human body, which is always in motion. When confronted with a moving body, it receives conflicting spatial coordinates, generating glitch. She outputs this damaged data as prints, video and hand-painted, 3D printed sculptures. The works that result draw inspiration from funereal and memorial sculpture, and appear to be faux-historical forgeries – or contemporary relics.

Learn more at https://www.sophiekahn.net/

Follow Sophie at @sophie_k_kahn

The Art of LUNA FÊTE Dec 20, 2019

Show notes

SOTA host Gabe Barcia-Colombo, visited the Big Easy this week to experience LUNA FÊTE, New Orleans' public festival of light, art, and technology. Produced by the New Orleans Arts Council, LUNA FÊTE first emerged in 2014 as a celebration of New Orleans creative industries. Now in it's sixth iteration, Gabe had the opportunity to speak with Lindsay Glatz, New Orleans Arts Council Creative Director and Curator of LUNA FÊTE, as well as two participating artists, Camille Grosse, and Courtney Egan.

-About LUNA FÊTE-

LUNA Fête is a visionary initiative created by the Arts Council New Orleans to demonstrate the power of art to transform communities.

This free and open to the public festival of light, art, and technology celebrates New Orleans creative industries and provides a memorable experience for diverse event attendees.

Since its 2014 inception, LUNA Fête has presented some of the top light and projection-based artists in the world, while simultaneously providing training to local artists to advance their capabilities to create large-scale and interactive art animated with light. More than 200 New Orleans artists and 60 youth have advanced their technical and artistic skills through this unique educational opportunity.

-About Lindsay Glatz-

Lindsay joined the Arts Council in 2009 after serving as a Senior Communications Strategist for Deveney Communication where she managed communications efforts for the collective New Orleans Tourism Industry following Hurricane Katrina. With a commitment to social innovation, she has served as a Propeller consultant assisting in the launch of Birthmark Doula Collective and Where Y’Art. Lindsay holds degrees in Journalism & Mass Communications and Leadership Studies.

Learn more at https://www.artsneworleans.org/about/staff/

-About Camille Grosse-

Camille Gross is a french visual designer born in 1984. Art passionate since her childhood, she studied at l’ESAT in Paris, where she graduated in section scenography in 2008. The same year, she worked with a french artist video with whom she collaborate for 4 years on international light projects.

Freelance since 2012, she collaborates regulary with the french agency Cosmo Av on various projects

Learn more at http://camillegross.com/

-About Courtney Egan-

Courtney Egan’s projection-based sculptural installations mix botanical themes with shards of technology. In 2010 she presented a solo show, “Field Recordings,” at Heriard-Cimino Gallery in New Orleans. Recent group shows include “Louisiana Contemporary” at the Ogden Museum of Art, “Uniquely Louisiana” at the Louisiana State University Museum of Art, “NOLA Now II” at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, “The World According to New Orleans” at Ballroom Marfa, and “Frontier Preachers,” at The Soap Factory in Minneapolis. Her work has been featured in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, OxfordAmerican.com, PelicanBomb.com, Artforum.com, and in The Gambit.

Courtney has also screened short films at many festivals, including the New Orleans Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, New York Underground Film Festival, MadCat Women’s International Film Festival, Kasseler Dokumentarfilm & VideoFest, and the Black Maria Film Festival.

Courtney was an artist-in-residence at the Santa Fe Art Institute and at Louisiana Artworks in New Orleans. She is a founding member of the New Orleans-based visual arts collective Antenna.

Courtney holds an M.F.A. from Maryland Institute College of Art. She taught art and media in elementary, secondary, and college classrooms since 1991. Courtney is currently a Media Arts faculty member at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA).

Learn more at

http://www.courtneyegan.net/project-type/video-sculpture-installation/

The Art of Conservation: Dr. Hannelore Roemich & Christine Frohnert of the Institute of Fine Arts @ New York University Dec 13, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, Gabe speaks with Dr. Hannelore Roemich and Christine Frohnert who are leading the new Time Based Media (TBM) initiative at NYU. The three discuss the use of technology throughout art history, how conservation is evolving and developing alongside its use, and how the IFA's new Time Based Media initiative is preparing a new generation of art conservators to preserve the integrity of such works well into the future.

-About Dr. Hannelore Roemich-

Dr. Hannelore Roemich (PhD in Chemistry from the University in Heidelberg, Germany) is the Hagop

Kevorkian Professor of Conservation at the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York

University (NYU). Since 2007 Dr. Roemich offers instruction in the core program at NYU, teaching

Preventive Conservation and Materials of Art and Archaeology as well as advanced conservation science

courses. Dr. Roemich served for eighteen years as a conservation scientist at the Fraunhofer-Institut für

Silicatforschung (ISC) in Würzburg, Germany, where she conducted research on the deterioration and

conservation of stained glass and outdoor bronze sculpture, glass sensors for environmental monitoring,

and lectured widely on her work. Dr. Roemich is currently Program Director for the TBM initiative at

NYU.

-About Christine Frohnert-

Christine Frohnert (Graduate degree 2003, Conservation of Modern Materials and Media, University of

Arts, Berne, CH) is partner of Bek & Frohnert LLC, Conservation of Contemporary Art, based in New

York City since 2012. Previously, Ms. Frohnert served for 12 years as a conservator and later as chief

conservator at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany. She was Chair of the Electronic Media Group

from 2008 - 2012 and initiated the conference series TechFocus. Ms. Frohnert was named the inaugural

Judith Praska Distinguished Visiting Professor in Conservation and Technical Studies at the Conservation

Center of the Institute of Fine arts, NYU, in 2012. Since then, as Institute Lecturer, she offered instruction

in time-based media art, including the course Art With A Plug: The Conservation of Artwork Containing

Motion, Sound, Light, Moving Images and Interactivity; Topics in Time-Based Media Art Conservation as

well as Technology and Structure of Works of Art -Time-based Media. Christine Frohnert is currently

Program Coordinator for the TBM initiative at NYU.

The Art of Remembering: Andrea Wolf, Multimedia Artist Dec 09, 2019

Show notes

In this episode we speak with Chilean-born artist, Andrea Wolf about her multimedia installations which explore memory-making, the act of remembering, and shared memories. Together with host Gabe Barcia-Colombo, Andrea discusses her obsession with memories, where and how she sources her preferred art-making materials, what she means by the “cultural practices of remembering,” and how tech affects and transforms our methods of remembering and storytelling.

Artworks Discussed in this Episode:

Future Past News

Weather has been Nice

Deer (Little Memories Series)

-About Andrea Wolf-

Andrea's work consists of ongoing research into the relationship between personal memory and cultural practices of remembering. She creates multimedia installations that explore how technology, media and memory affect and transform each other, creating models of remembrance that are culturally shaped.

Working with an archive of found footage, with anonymous stories - Andrea leaves an open space to be filled by the meaning that each of us brings to the work through our personal experience. Her installations are places in which memory becomes an action that is constantly actualized in the present, while recognizing a system in which the function of the past is not that of truth but of desire.

Andrea holds MFAs in Documentary Filmmaking from Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona and in Digital Arts from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and an MPA in Interactive Telecommunications from NYU. In 2013, she was a fellow at the Artist in the Marketplace Program at the Bronx Museum, culminating in the biennial exhibition “The Bronx Calling”. In 2015, Andrea was an artist in residence at the IFP New York Media Center and is currently a member at NEW INC, the New Museum’s incubator program. She has shown her work and given lectures and workshops widely in New York and internationally, in venues such as: Festival Sonar Santiago; New Media Biennial (2009 & 2011) at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santiago, Chile; Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos, Santiago; Centro Cultural Palacio de La Moneda, Santiago; Galería AFA, Santiago, Sala de Arte CCU; SPRING/BREAK Art Show (2015 & 2017), New York; NEW INC’s “Public Beta” at the New Museum, New York; Bitforms Gallery, New York; Dumbo Arts Festival, New York; the Paley Center for Media, New York; Scholes 319, New York; Brooklyn Fire Proof, New York; Wave Hill, New York; MIT Media Lab, Boston; Utah Arts Center; Digital Culture Center, Mexico City; VIZZI Festival, Kiev, Ukraine; Tou Scene, Stavanger, Norway; and Medialab-Prado, Madrid.

She also founded and directed REVERSE, a non profit art space in New York for the development of new ideas and interdisciplinary practices, promoting artistic collaboration and innovative projects at the intersection of art, science and technology. Between 2012 and 2016, REVERSE hosted more than 30 exhibitions, multiple performances and an active calendar of workshops taught by a diverse roster of artists.

Learn More at http://www.andreawolf.me/

Follow Andrea @andreawolf

The Art of Humanitarian Design: Benedetta Piantella, Humanitarian Technologist Nov 22, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, self-described Humanitarian Technologist, Benedetta Piantella discusses her work and describes what a "humanitarian technologist" is/does, how her 2004 trip to Sri Lanka changed the course of her life shifting her practice from artist to designer and developer, and why she's an advocate for open source.

-About Benedetta Piantella-

Benedetta was born and raised in Parma, Italy. She received a BFA from Tufts University and SMFA Boston in 2004, while taking courses at Harvard, MIT and Mass Art. During her time in Boston, she worked as teaching assistant at SMFA introducing new technologies in the world of digital photography and light sensitive materials. She assisted in the preparation of the American Pavilion of the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003, while working for the MIT LIST Visual Arts Center in Cambridge. The same year she organized her own emergency response efforts during the Tsunami of 2004 in Sri Lanka. In 2008 she obtained a Master's from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU and a Master's from CUNY and La Sapienza University in online community management and journalism; during this time she taught Lego robotics in New York schools.She has worked for companies like Tinker.it! and ARDUINO in Milan and Smart Design in NY, brainstorming and producing fully functioning prototypes for high-end clients.

Benedetta is Co-founder of GROUND Lab®, an Engineering R&D company focused on building sustainable solutions to humanitarian, social and environmental challenges worldwide. For GROUND Lab, she has built partnerships with organizations such as the UN, UNICEF and the Earth Institute, as well as with Universities such as NYU, Columbia, University of California Berkeley and Princeton. With their support she has designed, prototyped, manufactured and field tested a multitude of projects in many countries such as Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

She is a frequent lecturer and speaker at conferences and is currently an Adjunct Professor at NYU ITP.

Learn more at https://www.benedetta.cc/index.html

The Art of Social Disruption: Glenn Cantave, Activist and Founder of Movers & Shakers NYC Nov 15, 2019

Show notes

Today we speak with activist, Glenn Cantave about his use of A/R to create interactive interruptions addressing social issues and highlighting the histories of overlooked communities.

-About Glenn Cantave-

Glenn Cantave is an activist, performance artist and social entrepreneur who uses immersive technology to highlight the narratives of the oppressed. Through his non-profit Movers & Shakers NYC, he organized a pop up slave auction performance piece/AR exhibit, ran the NYC Marathon in chains, and is creating AR educational content focused on highlighting the narratives of marginalized communities. He is also the Creator, Executive Producer of We the People, a 360 documentary focused on activism in the age of Trump. His team has documented the actions of several New York based activist groups and captured footage from events such as the Trump Inauguration, Charlottesville Riots, and a White Lives Matter Rally in Tennessee. He is a TED Resident, incoming artist in resident at Eyebeam NYU Something un Residence and a member at New Inc, an arts/tech incubator with the New Museum. He will be speaking about his work at TEDx in Ghent, Belgium this December.

The Art of Room Wave: Neon Saltwater, Artist Nov 08, 2019

Show notes

SOTA host Gabe Barcia-Colombo speaks with Neon Saltwater, an artist who creates digital renderings of lonely interiors immersed in sentiments of false nostalgia. In this episode, the two discuss Neon Saltwater's aesthetic, her obsession with interiors, how her spaces moved from the digital to the physical sphere, and how she came to found the Room Wave Movement.

-About Neon Saltwater-

Neon Saltwater (aka Abbey Dougherty) has built a steady Instagram following through her digital renderings of pale, empty rooms erected in geographic grids and glossy marble, with fluorescent lights bouncing off of their reflective surfaces.

Neon Saltwater has designed spaces for Barneys, her work has been featured in Vogue and she is the founder of Room Wave.

Follow her @NeonSaltwater

The Art of Experimental Prototyping: Abhishek Singh, Creator Oct 31, 2019

Show notes

On Halloween, we speak with startup founder, artist, and engineer Abhishek Singh who's inventions include everything from bringing Super Mario and The Ring into "reality" to building a robot that communicates entirely through GIFs.

-About Abhishek Singh-

Wearer of many hats, experienced startup founder, part artist, part engineer with a love for building delightful physical & digital products & experiences. Work has been featured on BBC, Techcrunch, Mashable, Wired, Verge, Vice, Motherboard, Times of India, Fast Company, Cnet, UploadVR & countless more.

Learn more about Abhishek at http://shek.it/

Tweet him @shekitup

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