OneDotZero

This week I thought I'd blog about probably the coolest multimedia exhibition you'll ever see. OneDotZero is an international traveling exhibition of incredible artistic talent and new media technology. It gives an international platform for video artists, graphic artists, plastic media artists from the underground and from well known studios. I was lucky enough to attend it in Buenos Aires while I was studying there my junior year. There was a room with independent short film using digital video in urban environments, an animation room featuring cutting edge demo reels from Japanese and European studios and artists, and a gallery of paintings and hand drawn concepts from various artists around the globe. One of my favorite rooms was the animation room, where 2 big inflated cartoon robots had a conversation while their changing emotions were projected onto their faces by overhead projectors. A really dynamic and whimsical exhibit.

Another incredible room was filled with viewscreens and what I can only describe as "holocubes". Each cube had a specific object or image built into it, and when you picked up the cube and brought it over a specific sensor, you could see yourself on a viewscreen holding a holographic representation of blossoming tree or a raging snowstorm. As you held the cube at different angles, the tree (or other object) on the screen would grow, bloom, and eventually wilt up, left, right, or totally upside down right in your hands. I spent a lot of time in this combination of actual and digital space, soaking in the image of the virtual cherry blossoms falling any way I directed them.
What's more, the whole process of discovery was being simulcast on the web at the official website, adding yet another level of mediation, perhaps even approaching hypermediation? (That was for the MedS peeps).


The whole exhibition is a tour de force of creative talent and relentless expansion of the boundaries of traditional media. Check out the website, and for jeebus' sake, if you're anywhere nearby when it comes to town, GO!

www.onedotzero.com



~Ben D

community arts network (rocks)

So I was recently reccomended the website communityarts.net and it is amazing. According to their website:

The Community Arts Network (CAN) supports the belief that the arts are an integral part of a healthy culture, providing both intellectual nourishment and social benefit, and that community-based arts provide significant value both to communities and artists.


I used the site when I decided to study abroad in Argentina, and found out about political theatre practice in Buenos Aires. While I'm primarily on this site for information on theatre, there is a whole section on "media arts." Every article on there is a pleasure to read and incredibly inspiring. I can procrastinate for hours deaming about ways to get involved in the multitudes of projects presented on the site, and the many more they inspire in my own mind. Check it out!

~Julia