Salon 96 // Open Studios

And action.

Hello, and welcome to the 96th Techspressionist Salon. I'm Renada, Yannishawska, and I'm coming to you from the village of Lion's Head in Ontario, Canada. Before we get started. I have an announcement with regard to an exhibition that's taking place this fall in. We're Gench in a museum that has been organized by Cynthia Beth Rubin. The open call for entries is been extended, has been extended to July 6, th and she asked me to let you know that there are but 6 places left open or left available.

Renata Janiszewska

If you'd like to find the entry form, it's on the homepage of Techspressionism.com. If you scroll down to the banner that, says Uzbekistan, you'll be able to find a link to the entry form. So once again the open call for Uzbekistan has been extended until July the 6.th. I'd also like to ask you if the audience could hold their questions. We have 5 artists presenting today. And for the sake of brevity. I've condensed the introductions for each artist, so I'd also like to mention that if you want to know more about each artist, we have put links to their social media and to their website on the salon page of Techspressionism. Lastly, last announcement is that there are close captions in translations for other languages available, and the link to find those has been put in the chat, I believe, is that right? Colin?

Yeah. And also if you wanna access it directly, you can go to the salon page, which is Techspressionism.com slash salon, and that's also accessible via the dropdown menu on the Techspressionism site. And there's instructions and links to the translated captions functionality right under the main graphic there.

Thank you for that. And so, as I mentioned, some of the artists today are very new members of the group, and I'd like to extend a very warm welcome to them. Galina Shevchenko is Chicago-based artist who's been engaging with technology and evolving her creative processes alongside of it. She works with machines as her prosthetics, and is currently exploring mixed realities. She is musing on ideas of post-humanism, post-feminist identity. And mediating across the real the digital and the virtual.

Renata Janiszewska

Please welcome our 1st presenting artist, Galena.

Okay, let me share my screen.

Galina Shevchenko

Okay, hello, everybody. I'm really excited to present here with expressionists. I love this idea of expressing this technology. And I've been doing this for many years. So this is and I'm I live in Chicago. I was born in Moscow, and I have a Ukrainian last name which puts me in this very confused, conflicted like political place right now. But and I'm going to touch upon one of those topics as I present. So this is the 1st slide, and what you can see, which is fascinating is it's a big projection that took place at the Museum of the Art Institute at the modern wing.

Galina Shevchenko

In 2011 and I was 8 months pregnant then, and I projected those gigantic animations with Soviet female fighter pilots on the wall of the Art Institute because it was a closing reception for a big show called Windows on the war. It was a show of Second World War Propaganda posters, Soviet posters and American posters right next to each other. So the Soviet posters are based on this and group called Kukrinix, that would create like every day they would create a different poster sort of mocking Hitler and kind of elevating the spirits, and I had a concurrent project going on about the women during the Second World War. The fighter pilots. There were 3, all women, fighter, pilot regiments, and I was invited because I was a Russian, and I was working on the stuff. I was invited to curate this last party for the event, and this was my big rejection, so I was 11 months, 8 months pregnant then, and then I had my 1st baby, and this was a show for his 1st birthday called Daniel's Dreams, when I animated and projected on his face. Because that's what I've been working all along with Digital video with live video performance. And this was my expression of that.

Galina Shevchenko

And then, after many years of not being in school, I decided to go back and get my Mfa. I had masters in architecture initially, and I was teaching at Harold Washington College in the digital multimedia design program. And then I decided to get my Mfa. And I went to the Sac School of Art Institute in Chicago. And there I really got engaged with doing a lot of machine production, such as laser cutting. And I was doing a lot of work with fabric, so I always involved projections. I never created objects. My stuff is very unconsumable. It's livable. You go inside it, and you leave it, and you explore and the environment along with the objects. So I was really working in this idea of like expanded female body, the grotesque and working across all those different sort of materials, working with fabric, working with projection mapping, creating velvets and projecting video through them.

Galina Shevchenko

So this is a little immersive video that takes you into the. On one of the spaces. I hope I hope my email shows up. It's I don't know. The connections sometimes are weird? Maybe I can. Just I don't know. Why is it so slow? Maybe we can just jump on and look at this at this deal. So this is one of my one of the stills of my installation. So I created. So this piece is made out of metal, and they're plasma cut with this big, gigantic metal Cnc machine, and they become interlocking sculptures along with projection mapped base relief that was laser cut. And it's all projected through my embroidered character. So it becomes this very sort of colorful.

Galina Shevchenko

Multifaceted world that I created basically worlds installations out of different materials. And this was those are the steals from my Mfa thesis show that was called embracing the grotesque. I looked at the idea of grotesque as through the prism of post-feminist writing. And the idea of grotesque comes from, let's see hopefully, this video will play. Okay. So the Grotto was discovered. The grotto of the Narrows Palace in Rome was discovered during the Renaissance, and Raphael would take tours with wine and grapes and cheese to go through the caves and look at the spectacular Roman paintings that were paintings in the 4th style, very colorful, very ornate, very. Also Luscious and sensual kind of bringing all those religions that came together during the time of ancient Rome, Egyptian near Eastern, all those fertility goddesses. So I looked at this idea of grotesque through the prism of post-feminist writing through the idea of the body, post-humanism and mediation. And I created a cave with 5 video projections, multiple laser cut objects that created projection on the wall and animation on the wall. And also did the audio. So this was my big, beautiful, immersive experience with that. So yeah, so that's what I've been focusing on. A few years back.

Galina Shevchenko

And then. Moving on. So a lot of this sort of repeated explorations continued with me, sort of digging more into the body, digging more into being a mother, and this was a show. Those are a bunch of stills from the show at the Surgical Museum, Chicago has this museum called International Museum of Surgical Science, where I had an immersive installation with my big plasma, cut pieces and Projections through them. Then I got engaged in a lot of sort of big live performances. So those are the stills From the live performance that I did. And then I had my second kid. And this is my 1st kid that you saw, and I'm also a member of a group called Mother Archie visited which is a group of artists that are also mothers, and we are sort of following the steps of the original Mother Art Group that started in La in the Women's Building that started by Judy Chicago in the seventies, and in that time women were trying to sort of break out of the traditional roles and become sort of full established artists, but in that building they wouldn't let them. They would allow dogs in the studios, but not kids in the studios. So this woman organized and decided to build a Playground outside of the building and took turns to do the work there, and so similarly to that, being an artist and being a mother, I experienced a few like things like I couldn't go to certain residences. I couldn't go to certain meetings because kids are not allowed. Gallery spaces were not as like whenever I brought my kids everywhere. But sometimes I would get, you know, reprimanded for bringing kids to like, not appropriate events. And so this is the piece that this was a show that I did for the mother art. Show that we had. And of At an art center in Chicago. And this is my kids. This is my kids work right here, so I don't know if I'm running out of time.

Galina Shevchenko

I'm just going to jump through quickly. So. Then I was doing a lot of laser cut robots that were moving robots with motors. And then I did a lot of crazy stuff during pandemic and I'm going to sort of jump through the slides and go to my latest work. And this is when I met Renata. So I started doing metaverses a couple of years ago. 1st time when I did the Loop Residency, and this is one of my 1st metaverses that was also show at the Surgical Museum. There is a second metaverse. So these guys are animated gifts.

Galina Shevchenko

And then I started doing more augmented reality and working with zbrush and a lot of like 3D. Stuff. And this is some of my AR pieces that were taken to Florence to be shown in this antique art gallery. So I brought this AR sculptures that were leaving the space in the gallery, and that led to one of my sort of final projects that I want to share. It's called Bianca's Wonderland. It's the wonderland of Bianca Capello who is who was a Venetian beauty that eloped to Florence and became a mistress of Francesco de Medici who started the Uffizi gallery. And so here is Bianca as they are filter, walking through Florence and being in the Uffizi gallery, and then she also lives in this metaverse with the monsters that are Expanded monsters from the Palazzo Bianca Capello in Florence, that is painted with this incredible, grotesque scene. So I'm still playing with the grotesque.

Galina Shevchenko

And currently this is in the show at Harold Washington, where I teach at the Faculty Show, and it's called Bianca's Wonderland. And this is the last video. That kind of shows the installation in the gallery, and also Bianca jumping out of the metaverse and becoming an augmented reality filter walking into her space. So that's where I'm at. Thank you so much. I hope I didn't take too much time, and I'm going to stop my share.

Galena. Thank you so much. I love seeing the immersive works. And I, I wonder, is your immersive room still up at Loop.

Yeah. My immersive room is still up at Loop, and I created a few links, but they upgraded and stuff collapsed. So I have to re establish this link because I have many rooms, and I've been scanning a lot of tulips. I've been scanning a lot of flowers and creating all those different verses with my new, with my new creatures. So it's all. It's all growing. It's the world is growing. It's just. It's been a little like The technical stuff that I'm dealing with, but once it's all up and running again, it'll be probably for them.

Galina Shevchenko

For them family reunion, so I'll have it all up and running by then.

Excellent, and maybe you want to drop the link to it in the chat.

Yeah, I will. Yeah, I will see. Yeah, I mean, it's the loop family reunion. But yeah, I will. I'll drop the link for the chat for the loop studios. Yeah, that sounds good.

Thank you again, and just gorgeous. I just loved it. I want to introduce Michael Pierre Price. He's a long time and very active Techspressionism member. His artworks synthesize modern physics, neuroscience, and spirituality. Some of his works, reference, 20th century art history, notably the surrealist movement. So sometimes artists like Magritte or Dali, or De Kirkow, come to mind when I look at Michael's works. I have 4 truths of Michael's. The 1st one is, the world is not, as it seems. The second. No change is permanent, but changes, nothing is sacred.

Renata Janiszewska

And finally, I am a heretic. So without any further ado, please welcome Michael Pierre Price.

Thank you, Renata. Really happy to be here today and seeing the new work, and being able to share some recent work that I've been working on. So let me go ahead and share my screen.

Michael Pierre Price

Unfortunately, it's gonna take a few seconds for me to ramp up my slideshow. So I'm gonna as that's as that's happening. I'm gonna talk a little bit background here to sort of set the stage. I've been working on an ongoing book project for the last several years. It got sort of sidetracked or delayed after the death of my younger brother Pat 2 years ago, but the book project is important to me, because I'm trying to show the intersection of physics and math with neuroscience and consciousness along with that spirituality where my artwork is sort of the underlying Element that ties all of these things together to that end. What I want to show you today, as you can kind of see here on the 1st slide is a series of interrelated images that I've been working on this year. That uses a Zen Rock garden as a metaphor for field theory. And I'll explain what field theory is in just a moment. It's an important conceptual framework found in physics and neuroscience. Some theories of consciousness and even elements of Buddhism and several different indigenous belief systems.

Michael Pierre Price

The idea, the main theory of field theory is that The field is the fundamental ocean of potential and possibility which everything comes from that comes into existence. So things that are objects are really localized manifestations of a coalescing field. A personal rock garden, a personal Zen Rock Garden, if you will. That you might have at home, maybe even on your desk. Is the metaphor that I'm using here to express this idea of the field at a microscopic level. And then, if you think about a full Zen garden that's fully decked out with.

Michael Pierre Price

You know, elements of complexity that are based on this idea of where complexity arises from simplicity. Then this is where I'm going. And this is what I want to share with you today. So as you look at the slides, it's important to note that everything is connected arising from the field.

Michael Pierre Price

The field ocean of possibilities, a coalescing of the field. In one element, 2 elements.

Michael Pierre Price

The field and a multitude of elements.

Michael Pierre Price

Different fields can create different kinds of things.

Michael Pierre Price

The quality of the field shares the quality of the elements, since it's all connected.

Michael Pierre Price

And the field is a dynamic, alive. Ocean where possibilities can come from. It's not static, it's always always creating.

Michael Pierre Price

And now we change perspective. Here we're no longer looking at things from a top down view. This 3 quarter perspective adds in the element of an environment, light, shadow. The sense of a 3D. World, a landscape. The field as the base and the objects. The rocks arising from the field create a space create something that's dynamic.

Michael Pierre Price

And now here you can see the field is not only the base ground, but it's also a sky plane. And so now you're seeing the field above and below where the rocks, the objects are immersed within the field Begins to give almost a surrealistic quality to what's going on.

Michael Pierre Price

And in this series of images the field is all encompassing. It sort of starts to flatten out where you can't tell the ground from the sky that's immersive, and everything begins to flatten into one artistic view of everything.

Michael Pierre Price

And now we go from the microscopic to the macroscopic. We pull back, and we can see the simplicity At the heart of something that looks much more complex. That the design and the aesthetic is based on simple ideas. But that complexity and the beauty that's found there is at the heart of 1st principles. It's a fractal quality of the universe. It's a fractal quality of being and of that oneness.

Michael Pierre Price

And I wanted to end the presentation with this final slide here wanted to honor my brother, my connection to him, my brother Patrick being the crow, me being the owl. And so thank you for letting me share and present my artwork to you today.

Thank you so much, Michael. It's very beautiful, and it's very deep. I liked it a lot, and I'm sure that the subject matter is infinite. There you can just keep on going. Adios! From everywhere is based in Brooklyn, and he comes to new media via a path that includes stop motion, animation. And mixed media collage. He uses a suite of AI tools, including runway pica, cling halo, wo, flux, stable diffusion, midjourney and dolly. He generates complex visual pieces that serve as the foundation for detailed hands-on editing.

Renata Janiszewska

This process allows him to create dreamlike nonlinear narratives where the self is continually deconstructed and reassembled. So please welcome adios! From everywhere.

Hi, everyone! I'm Adios from Everywhere. I go by, Andy, in real life. As Renata just said I. I've been in art for a bit. I started making art seriously about 20 years ago, but my path has been varied. My 1st my 1st real interest was like in literature, poetry, especially experimental poetics. And then I moved on to collage mixed media. I think some stop motion animations. And yeah, I've been sort of kicking it for that long and then recently, it was as of like, 3 years ago, when AI became a thing. I saw some stuff on Instagram that really kind of intrigued me. So I wanted to see what it was all about, and that's how I got into generative media. And so I work with still, imagery as well as I make short experimental films that are sort of like I guess you could compare the music videos, and. I'm losing my train of thought here. But regardless with that, said, I think maybe what I'll do actually is now share my screen.

Andy L

I was had a rather busy week unexpectedly. And so I wasn't able to put together a you know a thing to share as nicely as I would have liked to. But this is this gives you a great idea, and I don't know if I don't know if audio appears in this. When you share a screen or not, but it's accompanied by a song. Let me see here.

Andy L

Okay,.

Andy L

Hear anything.

Andy L

And make you laugh when you're blue that way. I can be close to you from the sky. I play a part while I'm thrills your heart.

Andy L

Part. I must play. That's the way.

Andy L

I laugh, with tears in my eyes like a clown. I wear a disguise, won't let you know I love you so. You love someone else. So on. Show.

Andy L

I must play. That's the way of a god. In my heart I keep praying that someday will come to me. But as I well, that would be. That would be it. That would be. That's what I do in a nutshell, very interested in surrealism, in putting, you know, the incongruous you know, putting 2 different things that you might not seemingly ever expect together together. It's an endless form of fascination for me. I'm into like language games and all that. So it's sort of like basically everything that I've always been. I've been interested in over the years, whether it be film, whether it be poetry, whether it be, you know, whatever all goes into this work that I'm doing right now. I guess that's I mean I don't know. I don't think I have much more to say sorry little nervous.

That's great. Thank you. I have a question actually, quick question.

Sure.

Do you design the work for web, or do you design it for being projected in spaces.

I just well, yeah, I mean, I design it for both. Actually, some of the design, just for web, primarily, and some for like. You know, like a cinematic experience I've had. I've shown some films and like some I live in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. So there are some like warehouses that no longer function as such, but are now, like. You know, spaces for arts, events. And I've shown some productions there. Such I did like a 3 h loop. For example, to a Dj set last year. So yeah, it just depends on the project and what I'm doing who I'm doing it with.

You're open to collaboration. Okay, thanks. I look forward to listening to more information and comments after we finish up with the presentations. Next is Erin Coe, who is a New York based artist. And her practice builds on hybrid approaches to art, sculpture, video and sound with reality, expanding technologies layered and mediated realities. Technosocioisolation digital privilege and transcendence through technology are some of the themes she explores.

Renata Janiszewska

The result is an ongoing mashup of street art, mixed reality, totems, paintings, nfts, performances. Machine learning, wearables, and other collaborative works. She works with many organizations, including the Museum of Moving Image. 3rd Rail art Recess and the Jean Frankel Theatre. She is a member of Krama collective Lumen prize. And Moma's R. And D saloons. Please give a warm welcome to Erin Coe.

Wow! Hi! That was a lot of words. I sent you a lot of words. Thanks, Renada. I'm going to share my screen. And I'm going to, because I think most of you don't have A whole lot of familiarity with my work. I'm kind of going to bust you through what I've done so that there's context for what I'm doing. And I have some videos which I might play after. But mostly we're going to look at still images for bandwidth reasons. I've been working with mixed reality and AR for like since 2011. But I've been working as an artist probably since I was a child. That's how I would count it I've been making since then. My background is I went to school for fine art. I've always been into mixing media installation video and anything I could get my hands on making objects, making real world things, making experiences. And when I told my school I wanted to fold a computer into my practice.

Erin Ko

Their brains crashed. So I became a game developer for like 10 to 15 years, because it was the only way I could get my hands on powerful machines that could make graphics and do interesting things. And then I moved into the web space, and then eventually I came back to art and folded what became a large cross-section of skills into a practice. So I'm just going to show you some of the installations I've made. This is a piece called Flow. And I will try to play it, but probably it's going to be slow, but it is visualized collective consciousness. The idea is that you have layers of flowing fabric and flowing text, and it comes from people's phones so that it ends up being a collaborative work, visualized collective consciousness and collaborative magnetic poetry.

Erin Ko

So this has been installed indoors and outdoors, hotels, restaurants, art venues, and it scales, and we iterate on it a lot as time has gone by. And one thing that's very important about most of my work, I would say, all of my work is, you can opt out of the tech for flow. It's a great example. You don't need to install an app. You just need a smartphone. Or you don't need to use your phone at all. You can just hang out and enjoy the flow. And that's super important to me.

Erin Ko

This was installed in 2019 as part of a show called speculative cultures. It was called the Neo Kingdom, and it was Super mixed. Media used VR experience inside an installation. It had AR overlaid on physical objects which were stone tablets, and this was a meditation on digital privilege, where the idea of, like the Pharaohs, were the only ones who had the access to the Book of the Dead, which was the key to immortality. And so this idea that only some of us actually have our hands on this technology, and it makes us feel very powerful, and it does put us at advantages.

Erin Ko

I know there's movements towards making tech in some. I think romanticization of making tech very egalitarian, where someone say in Africa can make as much money as someone in the us. Through, maybe crypto or something like that, and it goes farther, and that's sort of like a game changer. But mostly what I see is that tech is a very privileged arena. So I wanted to make a piece. That kind of spoke to that. This is a piece called Ghosts in the Rain. It was installed at the Ace Hotel, and it basically Captured people in the venue. There was a performance, live musical performance going on, and it had a little bit of a time delay where it would project and mix people in with the environment. So I guess my idea was to have kind of a time warpy intoxication, feeling, and it kind of echoes.

Erin Ko

I really like things where people can play and play very easily or like, I said, just opt out, you could hang out on this couch and kind of watch the flow of images, ghostly images.

Erin Ko

I'm going to skip over this. Well, no, I'll play a little bit while I talk. So this is just kind of an overview of a show. I did with a lot of AR canvases. Again, to speak to the fact that, like, it's really important for me to have physical objects the canvases have to stand on their own. I think that tech is very ephemeral. It's as ephemeral as street art, because it's changing so much, and it's kind of impossible to future proof this stuff. So the analog layer is really the permanent layer to me in almost everything I do. And lastly, I wanted to show this object, which is a prototype from a series called Rock Gods and Genomes, which combines, I'm very into combining, not just mediums that don't necessarily go together, but old and new, layering ideas and layering materials. So this is traditional stained glass. But this circle behind the bowie figure is actually the data, viz. Of a gene sequence. And so this series is actually about the intersection of art and science and technology. And like, what is it we worship, and why? And are there like correlations in people's greatness and motivations like? I said, going through very quickly. In 2020, I started doing street art because it was kind of the safe thing that you could do making art outside. And of course, in Soho all the windows got boarded up. I'm actually based around there so suddenly. There were canvases everywhere.

Erin Ko

And that was kind of glorious. At the same time I founded an Arts festival in Mexico that was mural heavy. So I really got connected to the street art community here by way of that. And, of course, what that meant is that I started combining AR mixed reality with street art. So I started making portals through custom apps where you could look at these murals, and you could look you could get another layer, and then maybe they could connect to each other across the world.

Erin Ko

So this is in Jersey City. This is in Mexico. And there are different portal styles. Okay? So I'm at 5 min, I think, or 6 min. My current Passion Project is a mixed reality, rock opera working title, the verse and what I wanted to talk about today is a little bit of the world building and the world blending the world mixing because I'm very interested always in combining mediums, but especially with AI and the controversy around say, originality. There's a lot of controversy around a lot of aspects of AI, but the idea of like its legitimacy as a tool. And how do you use it effectively? You know this is something that's interesting to me.

Erin Ko

So because I am a mixed media artist. This image on the left is an altar. I built that had interactive elements. And it comes out of that world. I've been creating a zine. I create tour posters. The premise of this rock opera goes something like this, the divine dreams of human musicians screaming with ego and desire. Traveling to planet dirt for the biggest cosmic concert of the year. She arrives in scarecity, joins an East village band, but finds a metaphysical pandemic which is splitting people apart and turning them to monsters a little bit like what we're going through right now.

Erin Ko

Is there some connection to the mysterious King? Everything overnight, sensation, rock, god of planet dirt. And what of the song that everyone knows yet can't remember the words to will the band manage to save the universe, or even just cut an album. Will the diva and rock God come together? Will the stars align? The verse invites you to connect and find out? That's kind of my elevator pitch. I don't know if I'm talking too fast, but anyway, that's some world building. Here's some stuff I've been doing with AI AI has come along at exactly the right moment, where suddenly I can make a cast of like young seventies, alternate universe, Lovecraftian, half monster, half rock and roller, half punk rock cast.

Erin Ko

It's fabulous, and it's getting better all the time. Obviously. I make productions. I make installations. We have performances, and this project is combining all my skills, which is why I wanted to give you a smattering of stuff I have done before. So in terms of world merging here, I have images of us performing some of the songs. And we have an installation. I actually had a VR piece and projection of a star field with beautiful lighting. And then later, I processed this footage, and this footage is actually serving as inspiration. My next step, this has not actually been realized yet. It's only a video right now is to projection map onto people to try to get this trippy strange effect on players.

Erin Ko

So here you can see some of the transitions. And some of these videos are projected as part of the performance as well. On the right there is a this image of the diva, and she's projected. She's played by multiple actors and multiple characters. Some are just video and some are human. I'm very into this hybrid approach of putting, like Purely artificial, half artificial and human characters in the same space, interacting with each other. It's all very experimental getting it to work. Likewise, this is sort of showing 3 steps. And I'm going to show a video at the end. So you understand a little better. I like to take original footage, I direct, and then I process, and then I edit and add a lot more. So this is part of the storytelling of the diva who's asleep as the universe. As an abstract. She actually starts off as abstract everything, and starts to take human form as she hears music, and she hears someone screaming M. Likewise I've been building the city through AI with the same process. I've been taking photos of New York that I love. I want those iconic water towers. I love the certain like under bridges. And then I've been warping it and changing it with AI to work into a video to create the setting when she comes down from the heavens to find the source of rock and roll the source of the sound that wakes her. She's in scarcity, and it's grungy, and it's dire. And again, it's kind of a thinly veiled metaphor, for now.

Erin Ko

Additional world building you can see over on the right. This is a friend of mine who's a professional athlete. She's a stunt woman and a Wushu champion, and I've done a series of Experiments with live AR where this is what I called call kind of like a. My brain crashed. This is like responsive Xr. So I think of it almost like Djing. Because in this video, at the time I was triggering the tentacles and responding to her performance. So the performance is different each time, and the tentacles kind of have their own behavior, and I'm almost done. I know I'm at 10 min.

Erin Ko

Oh, and look at that. I'm at the last slide. Thank you. I'm going to show you one video. Is that okay? Can I have one more minute, or, Yeah.

Yeah, please, please, Aaron, take your time. We okay. So we have.

Okay, okay? So I'm gonna show. Okay? So I'm gonna show part of a sequence of one of the songs with some of the elements integrated.

Erin Ko

Let's see, can you hear that? I cannot hear that? I can't believe that you're satisfied when you work in navy. Now in the back you can actually see that there is a well, maybe not. Maybe it went by too quickly. There. That's.

Erin. We have sound, but we have no movement of the video. It's frozen.

Okay. Well, maybe it's better to just look at it. It's that's direct off Vimeo. So I don't really know that it's going to get any better. You know what I mean.

Yeah.

So that's okay. I'll send you guys the links. I guess one more thing I'll say that you can see in that video. Is that. So because I make a bunch of different apps, there's a custom app for this performance piece where that lets the audience interact, choose how much they want to interact. For example, in that music video, you can see a projection with emojis behind it. And what I had was assistants go through the audience and take selfies. There's very much an emphasis on social media and external validation, and these it is very cosmic horror to have this huge, unnameable invisible force that we all know is making things terrible, and that is all dividing that is dividing us all, and that is making us treat each other inhumanely.

Erin Ko

So social media. And a thing a force called the Black Lonely is the metaphor for this. So social plays into it quite a bit. So in this video. You can see there are assistants filming, taking selfies with the audience members, and that gets projected in real time. And their faces get replaced with emoji. So that's another example. Likewise, through AR at some point you might turn to an audience member and see that they've turned into a monster, and you have to decide what to do about that. There are moments where you get to decide what Storyline you're viewing, based on how much tech you engage with through your phone or otherwise.

Erin Ko

That's kind of the big idea. And I know I busted through that really fast. But ask me all the questions, or if there's any projects you want to hear more about at the end. Please let me know. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Erin. I'm sure people have a lot to ask you. It was very all encompassing, and thank you for sharing with us. Egan is an Istanbul based artist, generative artist, and he uses pixels and particles to create digital works that feel almost alive. He's been sharing his work publicly for the past 2 years, and has participated in 19 immersive exhibitions. So far. Internationally. I 1st really got in touch with his work through the projects Atariana that we did here about a year ago with to expressionist artists in a metaverse.

Renata Janiszewska

And I've been a big fan of his work ever since. Please welcome a gun.

Hello, everyone! It's very nice to be here. Thank you so much, Reneta, for your kind words. One second.

eegun

So I'm Egan to talk about my practice. And I create art with algorithmic systems. I sometimes incorporate AI into my systems. And from my childhood I was always doing collections. When I'm on a seaside. I was picking seashells. I was picking bird feathers from streets I was collecting buttons. The colorful mixtures I made. And when I look at what I'm doing right now. I feel like I'm doing the same thing. But in the digital world, and mostly I use natural elements. But I'm not limiting myself at nature, only it's more like a tendency, because it's a big inspiration for me, and I feel like we are all collectively drifting away from it.

eegun

And I try to create that reconnection for all of us, and it also feels like a dilemma to me because I'm taking something. What's really real. And I replace it on something super artificial. But I'm enjoying it. So. Mostly it's what I'm doing. And to get back on the collection logic for me. It's also feels like a preservation. I believe art is a perfect way to preserve things. For example, today, we know that carrots or potatoes weren't looking the same way as today, thousands years ago. And we know that because of the drawings they made today that day 1,000 years ago on rocks or other stuff. And of course we have Google now. So I don't have to preserve something for the future or for the humanity. But I can preserve things, objects, or memories. For myself.

eegun

I wanted to show you my works. And here I created a system. And basically the system takes a 3D object and turns it into a galaxy phone. And the meaning behind is about the connection between all of us, no matter how small, not just special for us humans. But it's for everything, for animals, for plants, for microorganisms. There's a connection on a divine level, not from a religious perspective, but more like a spiritual and the rule of the universe.

eegun

And here you can see flowers are turning into galaxy shapes. I also use the same style for other elements. We were 5 artists sharing the stand at this exhibition. And I did the work with retro TV screens. We used 42 retro TV screens, and each one has a fish inside. The artwork names is fish market. It has the same style, and you can see the fish right here. And this is how it looks in motion, and I also try to make an experience to you're seeing fish in Tvs. And it's actually like a fish tank, and you can grab the one you like and take it with you. And this is another work. It was a collaboration with very talented painter, Maderick Turay. Let me show you his art first.st It's very chaotic, and it has very interesting characters inside. So for the 1st work, I transferred his characters into these shapes, and it was looking like this. It's so sorry.

eegun

I can touch that.

eegun

It transforms, and then it goes back to its original form. And for the second part of the exhibition we use those screens, and I directly take his characters this time, and I animated them. And you can see behind as a background his original pieces. It was a very playful approach. And, as I said, nature is a big inspiration for me. Ocean, sea, and water is a big part of it, and this is my experimentation with reflecting sea ocean in the digital, with that flow and texture with also sound.

eegun

This is an audio reactive work. So it moves with the sound.

eegun

And this is another bank.

eegun

And now you will see the works I made with 3D. Scanning. These were from my trip to Berlin, and unfortunately, I couldn't find the sculpture who made this sculptures. They are looking like this. You can see the particles.

eegun

And this is very similar. These were from cracks The sculpture's name as David's surname. Prague was very old city, I mean. It was giving that beautiful energy, and I tried to reflect it with a more modern approach. So it was more like combining 2 very different approach.

eegun

Beautiful. You can see the laser that I try to give that features like no feeling. And this is also a 3D scan. It's from a mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. And here I try to reflect the culture. And also this is from Berlin. There was a big exhibition about the painter Bosch, and I was very amazed by his painting the Garden of Earthly Delights because of the details and the depth. And unfortunately, I don't have the video, because the size was too big. But I tried to create a show that zooms out and zooms in very closely to a specific detail, and there was also an audio that you can see the transformation sound. And whatever you see in that detail, birds sometimes screams different sounds.

eegun

And it's supposed to show his details in a different level like you're experiencing it. And lastly, I want to talk about the recent project. I was the art director, and I was also a participating artist. Our topic was about the digital art, history, and digital culture. So we divided digital art history into 7 different eras, starting from fifties, and it was also about the modern echoes of that era. So I created introductions for each era that resembles that era itself.

eegun

Like inspiring by Vera Molnar, Ben Laposky, Marfa. Pioneers like that. And after the introduction, you see, the modern echoes with the today's artists. Unfortunately, we don't have the professional videos yet, but there's some image, but it's a very long show. It's like 28 min long. So they're very different level details. And it will take a place on 20 second August to 20 second September. This was just a 3 day opening we did this month. And I tried to show you very different styles I used so it might feel a little mixed up. But I wanted to show you my approach and my website and my Instagram address is this, and that's it.

eegun

Thank you so much for listening to me.

Thank you so much for taking part and showing us your beautiful works.

Thank you, Renata. Of course it was lovely.

It's time for questions from the audience. If you want to use the raise hand, I see I have one here already, Judith. Go ahead. No, your hand was raised accidentally. Okay. If you have a question for any of the artists or artists who participated today, I actually have a question for Erin. It's about the concept of digital privilege and the opting out of the tech. Concept that you introduced in multiple ways. Can you just speak a little bit more about how you came up with that, and.

Oh, sure! Hello! I will try to speak a little slower this time as well. I think that's just near and dear to my heart and who I am. I started off as an analog traditional artist of many mediums. I did grow up in Boston, and I was surrounded by a lot of tech. So I am. The older I get, the more I realize what a product of my environment I am because I was surrounded by old things. It's the oldest part of the us, you know, young by other country standards. But yeah, actual old things, houses, antiques.

Erin Ko

Words, vocabulary, and at the same time I was surrounded by a lot of cutting edge stuff, and those things were both in my life all my life. And for me it's very, very important to have both, and to have the option of both. And I also, being an early adopter of this stuff really noticed when people don't have. When people aren't tech savvy? And when they don't have that privilege of having access or understanding whether it's to the actual, expensive, often very expensive equipment or the knowledge. I've seen that as well. I grew up in a working class town, honestly, you know. So Yeah, I think those subjects are near and dear to my heart. I'm also very cynical as a longtime developer, especially as a game developer, because game development has infested every corner of our lives. I'm so cynical of the promise of technology. And that also sort of comes along with what I'm saying about being able to opt out.

Erin Ko

Because that stuff is quite often someone else's dream and serving someone else. So that's where that's coming from, more or less.

Thank you, though. That really makes sense. We have a couple of people here who were game developers for quite some time as well. And it's a different mentality from what I hear.

Renata Janiszewska

Any questions for any other artists or for Erin again. Yes.

I have a question for Egan. I'm wondering if you spend time in the ocean, because I spend time in the ocean, and I use a lot of ocean imagery in place of space and in place of divine. So that's what I saw in your work, and I'm wondering if you spend time in the ocean. I actually never seen ocean in my entire life. What.

I love sea, and I mean I live in Istanbul, and it's not connected to an ocean. But I love sea, and I mean it's the same thing. Basically.

Okay.

It's something very special to me, very inspiring.

Michael, send me a couple of images like you promised.

We have. Lee has his hand up. Go ahead, Lee, please.

Hi Aaron, I was just wondering in terms of the interactive quality you were talking about. If the if the person next to you turns into a monster. Is this done through your phone or goggles? Or you know, how do you? How does that person become a monster on.

Yeah.

Back of you.

So that example is basically through AR, and that would be through your phone. I have several ideas. And the way I've been developing it is in baby steps and just making weird art projects where I try one thing at a time, and eventually we'll put everything together in one app and hopefully, don't blow the phone up. But yes, that particular example would be through AR. Other examples of the phone usage is so the diva wakes up and she needs to get to planet dirt, which is planet Earth mistranslated. But it's a dirty place compared to where she's from.

Erin Ko

And so that is probably going to end up on playing with motion control like the mercury switch that your phone knows where it is in space. So the idea that the audience can help charge her up through her musical number so that she has enough star power to get to where she's going. That type of thing. I want to make some social media Engagement things that are actually part of the show and kind of part of our real world. Because I also like to blur. You know, it's 1 of the reasons I'm also making these real world objects. The idea that I'm breaking the 4th wall. And you are, too, through your phone. So Yeah.

Thank you. Cynthia has a question.

Yes, I have a question for Erin Ko as well. You talked about projection of the video or animation on people. Could you tell me more about what that means.

Yeah, I have. So like, I said, that's almost what I showed you is almost concept imagery, for, like what I would like it to look like, because when I ran our footage through, we're already in costumes, and we already look kind of crazy, cosmic otherworldly. But all this other texture was happening, planets exploding, and it was kind of a nice halfway between. Again, the divine, which is super abstract and kind of stylized and coming down to earth.

Erin Ko

I have, you know, I play with projection mapping, and I actually have a friend who's been doing live drawing on people in real time with projection, and it looks super cool. So that's what I want to play with. It may not end up looking exactly like that. It may not be accurate, as I imagine it. But I'm also into happy accidents. So really, the idea is that to make these warping strange textures and put them on the performers so that the audience feels like they're going from that purely digital world into some halfway space is the idea.

Thank you. I also have a question for Michael. Michael, when you created the prompt for your piece did you throw out everything that you wanted initially, so that you began to move through different versions of that prompt. Could you tell me about your prompt making.

Yeah. Good question. It's definitely been an iteration in my thought process of Illustrating this idea of the field and what it could mean, and how I might be able. The Zen Rock Garden seemed like a nice 1st idea, because it's a simple principle to start with, and there's a fractal quality when you look at it from a holistic standpoint. And so what I did was again going back to my Physics background is starting from 1st principles. What can what can you derive from there and then? What can you derive from those derivatives? And you keep going? And that was sort of my exploration mode. And what I what I wanted to be able to do is to create pieces that could be meditative in some way, but then also get people to think about how they might relate that to their own views of the universe. Because we're again. I'm piggybacking a little bit on. What Aaron was saying is that we're living in such a fractured time that we see things as individuals, and we other those individuals.

Michael Pierre Price

But then, looking at Aegon's work with the ocean is. We have 4 billion years of evolution that started in water. And we're all intimately connected on a genome and genetic level. And so this idea of oneness to me is more than just a nice sounding meme. It's real. It's what's the actual reality, and not this false narrative of individuals and separation. And so I'm not a political person, but I think that science and truth matters. And that we can look to those things. And to me there's a deep spiritual quality in all of that. So it was a thought process that looked at the environment textures, colors. The viewpoint for me was really important as well, because your viewpoint colors how you see things.

Michael Pierre Price

And if you just look top down, it's very flat, and you get a lot of beauty from there. But then, all of a sudden, you change your perspective. And now you see a landscape. And then what does that mean? And then, when you can see the field, not only in the ground plane, but then into the sky. You know that field envelops everything. And so it was a pro. It was a process where I was consciously trying to look at little snippets of lessons, if you will, that I might try to impart, imbued in the artwork again, wanting the art to be beautiful to start with, but allowing for contemplation around a simple concept that leads to complex interactions and interconnectivity. So there's my long, minute answer for you.

Thank you. Michael.

Colin has a question, and after Colin Cheryl, do you still have a question? No, not okay. Colin Goldberg.

Yeah. So I have a question for Aaron. I guess it's kind of like a technical question. As far as you know, Viewers slash participants interacting with your work through mobile apps. Do you make those accessible as like web apps? Or are they native apps that people have to download like, how does that work.

Usually what I do. I have a few different apps. Sometimes I let them expire. I usually publish my apps to the app store, and sometimes to what's called Google, what's their storefront called? But anyway, yeah, yeah, Google play. Thank you. I mostly make apple apps these days. And then I mean, this is true of my objects. You know my canvases and my physical objects. If someone buys a piece, they're buying that piece, and then the app is free to download, and that would be true for the verse as well. And the cool thing about that is actually sometimes with my work, I'll update the digital layer. So there are changes over time on that layer. And you know, I don't know kind of keeps it fresh. But yeah.

Erin Ko

Yeah, that's my process.

Okay, I just have one other follow up. So the responsive Xr piece is really fascinating to me. At 1st I thought that the actual actor was, was controlling like those tentacles with her arms like, is that something that you think is technically possible, or like? I know you mentioned you were sort of controlling that component of the of the animation.

That's yeah. I mean, I think that's definitely possible. I played a long time ago with a simulation where, like. You could like wiggle around, and it would make fire like, because, you know, your motion was detected. I very specifically did it this way, because I wanted to try to have a human to human performance with the digital media in between. Again, I'm always trying to like Merge them in this weird way to make a hybrid. And what I love about the human to human is like I said, so that video you saw was the 3rd take. And it was like the nicest take, because I kind of knew her choreography at that point. She didn't like plan it exactly. She was kind of riffing, but she was making it Relatively consistent, but not exact. And then I kind of anticipated where to put those paint, those I was painting, those tentacles responding to her, and so each performance was different, and each one evolved as we. And so that gave it kind of a real theater, a classic theater quality to it. I thought, because we're practicing together, which I love, you know.

Gotcha gotcha. Yeah, I really enjoyed the fact that a lot of the work that was shared today, you know, crosses over multiple media. And I think that to me that's really something that exemplifies my own personal Definition of what expressionism is all about is, you know, work that doesn't really fit neatly into A box called digital art. Where, you know, technology is a component but it also is sort of integrated with all sorts of other media. So yeah, really enjoyable spectrum of work today. And I appreciate all you guys coming. And also I would encourage each one of you who are new to the salon, you know, to invite other friends of yours in that are also working in, you know, interesting ways, and certainly to, you know, encourage them to be involved sharing their work with us. Because that I think that's how a lot of the formation of this group has grown is like just people come in, and then they have a whole Network of their own with other artists that may all may also use tech or appreciate the work. So but it's really great to see some new phases in here. So yeah, thanks to all you guys.

Colin, can I ask what's the best way to get like I had a friend that I meant to invite to today, and I kind of forgot. But what's the best way to get someone involved? They just have him jump on the mailing list. Come to the next salon. Can anyone jump into the co-working sessions like.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, the coworking sessions are open, I would say, you know, definitely like, invite them to come to the next salon. The mailing list. Pretty much. The only thing that I use that for currently is to send out invites to the salons. But the coworking is a really good way to get involved. And also, you know, to you know, to message. We're not as the Curator of the Instagram account, you know. So that's another great way for people to get involved is sharing their work through these the hashtag and just reaching out to us, you know, on an individual basis, for sure. But yeah, absolutely. You know, we encourage. It's, you know, kind of just very, very open. So, yeah.

I'm going to add to that by saying it's a 100% volunteer. Not hierarchical at all, inclusive community group. And you can do as much or as little as you want, and cost nothing other than your energy, and that makes it, I think, attractive for a lot of artists who don't necessarily have a community around them that can be supportive.

Yeah, and just to piggyback off, that The term itself is something that is. You know, essentially open source in that everything published on the site is Creative Commons licensed. We encourage people to. You know, build off of this idea and make it their own. You know what I mean. So people have asked me like, Oh, is it okay? If I, you know, do this, or whatever it's like. You know, I like to think of Techspressionism as something that is sort of like publicly Owned, you know, like intellectual property is not a concern so like, certainly, you know, anybody that wants to organize stuff or whatever it's. You know, most of what's really happened has been other artists in involved in the group coming up with ideas, and just like using the group to grow them out. So yeah, definitely, highly encourage that.

Colin Goldberg

And also, like, I know, Aaron, that we met at the Chelsea show, and you mentioned a bunch of like curatorial interests and stuff like that. So like, that's also, I think, a really interesting way that this can move in a variety of different directions is that you know people of like mind can sort of like start finding each other through the group and developing initiatives and all that kind of stuff, you know. Certainly, you know, based on Geographical proximity. Also, I think that's a big part of what has made the physical exhibitions work is that like, if there's a point person who has access to a space, and then there's sort of like a radius of other artists that might be involved or that can be pulled in that have physical work, then that can also be supplemented with screen based work or real that we've been kind of like porting around from location to location stuff like that.

That's cool. Actually, can I add on to that? On that note I am curating the I don't know new media portion of the every woman biennial, which takes place in March of next year, and I will definitely spread the word to the group again. But I like saying things over and over, so people can get the seed in their mind. You know, it's a fabulous show. It actually has traditionally been non-digital media, and they invited me this year to ask for stuff that was more cutting edge. They're adding to that portion. So it's kind of like Evny medium is now welcome. It's an awesome show. They have a great space. It's a 2 22 floor gallery on, like 26th Street in Manhattan. It's a fantastic space, so I think it's going to be a really good show.

Erin Ko

So please keep an ear out. I will send email around, apply, show your work. Get some good eyes on it.

Awesome. Yeah, if there's a link for that or anything just definitely posted in the chat. Also that we have a Facebook group that's fairly active. As far as people sharing stuff I usually don't send out like calls or other stuff for external shows other than things that have been organized by people around Techspressionism with the mailing list. But the Facebook group, you know, people use to like share personal exhibitions that are coming up and all sorts of other stuff. And it's again a fairly active group. And also, like, I know, on Instagram, like, if you tag expressionism in stories, you know, that could easily be shared to the, to the account story and stuff like that. So, you know, we try to use social media with discretion. I think it's also interesting how you know your work provides a commentary on social media, and the Pros and cons of that or anti-social media.

I want to thank all the artists who participated today. I was completely blown away by all of your work, so colorful, so beautiful, so deeply considered and with such profound themes. There's 1 thing about this group is that there's a lot of heart, and there's a lot of compassion. And it's not just a kind of mechanical situation. It's very organic, and you could feel it. I think I think that's 1 of the great things about the Saloms is, you can make connections with people from all over through your ideas.

Renata Janiszewska

So with that I invite everybody to stay for the after party or the Advisory Council, as Colin likes to call it.

The after party. The after party idea was sort of a reaction to the proposal that we should have an advisory board at some point which I kind of. Just felt like it was really in the spirit of what we're doing here. But yeah, certainly the after party is kind of a, you know, a nice hangout, and a lot of times, too. We'll discuss things in the after party that involve like coming up with the topic for an upcoming salon or exhibition ideas or other stuff that maybe doesn't make sense to include in the recording. But it's just kind of like a chat session. So certainly encourage anyone that wants to stick around. And also, like, if you guys have, if anyone on here has ideas for a salon in terms of an area of personal interest. You know, that's definitely something that's highly encouraged to you know, to share, because that's what keeps it interesting. And I think, having, you know, like rotating moderators and rotating topics. We do this sort of like open studios format, you know once every couple of salons. And it's I think it's nice to mix it up with sort of topic. Based things. And then just kind of open sharing. So Yeah.

Hey? Can I just say something again about the digital screens in er dench, in case people came in late. Which is off of the model of exhibits that Colin was just talking about. A few of us are actually traveling to Uzbekistan, to the Museum of Contemporary art, but we also wanted to have an aspect of it that was open, much more open. And so these, the submissions that we're looking for now are for the digital screens which are almost filled. But there's some time to put things on the digital screen to submit in the next few days.

Cynthia Beth Rubin

So.

For yep for anyone. Also, that's on watching this on YouTube, you can go to Techspressionism.com slash Oozebeck, UZBE, K, and that will take you to the micro site that Cynthia and the rest of the participants have put together, and that's got you know, information about that call and the exhibition in general.

Great.

I think we're going to have a salon based on the organsch show at some point. Are we not.

Yes, we decided that we will do it because the salons happen early in the month, and we're opening in September. So October is too soon so probably we'd like to do it in November.

Yeah, that's going to be really, really interesting, because you'll be back from it by then. So you'll be able to tell us about your experiences.

Yeah, that's actually the idea. And then we can take pictures in this space. But with the time difference, trying to do something, live from there, and the tight schedule of arriving several days in advance to drop off the work. You know you know how it is with a shop. So it should be very interesting. And digital is very new to the community where we're presenting they. It's a very good museum, but they have not had digital yet.

Cynthia Beth Rubin

Oh.

Alright. Well, I guess. No, we're now. Do you have anything you'd like to add, as far as closing remarks or.

I'd like to add something I forgot to unmute. That was a suggestion of not only Joey Zaza, but his collaboration with Carrie Ann Shimshan as a close, close collaborator in that coding A couple. And I'd also like to propose a salon collaboration that inspired my thinking. Well, they collaborate on coding together. They should be in this coding salon coming up definitely. But then I said, Well. Maybe I would like to contribute with my team of collaborators on our current gamma time.

Nina Sobell

And, by the way, we're doing a gamma time. August 3.rd At Microsoft Gallery. August 30.th At 4 30 gamut time, everybody's welcome to come.

Awesome if you could post a link to that in the chat, Nina, that'd be great as well. And just historically, we did. You know, some of our very 1st work as a community was collaborative in terms of the very 1st exhibitions we did were these collabs that were conceived of by Davo, Davonte Bradley, who came up with this idea that was really inspired by Basquiat and Warhol's collaborations, in which they both worked on a shared canvas so like that was involved one artist starting a file, passing it to another artist, who then remixed it, played with it back and forth, and then we ended up with a finished piece, and then we exhibited them all in this Kunst matrix sort of virtual space, which was a lot of fun. So certainly, you know.

Colin Goldberg

Thinking outside of the box is certainly encouraged, you know, like we don't have to be constrained to just salons. Coworking shows like it could be pretty much anything that would be kind of like an armature off this whole social sculpture idea. So certainly, you know. Bring it on so. On that note I will be stopping this recording. And then, like Renata said, Whoever wants to stay and hang out, I would encourage it. So, thanks again to all of the artists, presenters, and thanks so much to Renata for organizing and moderating the salon.

Colin Goldberg

And I will see you all well, I'll still be here. But I'll see everyone else on YouTube in a month. Okay, so we will stop recording in 3, 2, 1, and.