Admission: Free admission to exhibition, events and reception

UA’s Myers School of Art Presents New Media Exhibition

Akron, OH, January 18, 2010: The third installment of The University of Akron’s New Media Exhibition Series will run from March 22 to April 16 at the Emily Davis Gallery in Folk Hall, 150 E. Exchange St. Collider 3: Transform features the work of UA Assistant Professor Eunsu Kang as well as projects from other significant contributors to the New Media field Hari Ju and Graham Wakefield, Philomène Longpré, Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar, and local artist Chris Yanc.

The Collider series is co-curated by UA Assistant Professor of Graphic Design Tony Samangy and University Art Galleries Director Rod Bengston. The series explores the influences and implications of new media within design practice and the fine arts. Collider 3: Transform addresses how technology shapes the essence of what it means to be human. The fusion of man and machine is constantly evolving and affecting the human experience; several manifestations of this evolution are presented the Emily Davis Gallery.

UA Assistant Professor Eunsu Kang presents Shin’m, an interactive audiovisual environment exploring the relationship between the body and installation area. The performer, Diana Garcia-Synder, wears an interface and connects herself to the space. Her movements provoke changes in the swirling, projected lights as body, sound, and lights dance, draw and transform each other. Later, participants can share the role of a performer in the Shin'm experience.

Haru Ji and Graham Wakefield developed Artificial Nature as an evolving art installation in which digital organisms consume, grow, metabolize, reproduce and respond to activities within an endless fluid environment. The human viewers are transformed by the space as their movements and actions influence the ecosystem as it unfolds. This innovative new media work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including SIGGRAPH Asia (Yokohama, Japan, 2009).

Philomène Longpré is a multimedia artist whose work establishes communication between the physical and virtual worlds. In Formica, a projected virtual character seeks to create a connection with participants as they enter the system's environment. Visitors transform and trigger new links or bonds with the virtual character as infrared sensors pick up their movements and polaroid sensors pinpoint their location. These interactions are visually expressed on the membrane, much like firing neurons weaving a tapestry of associations.

Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar use a series of playful interfaces to transform intangible emotion into concrete visual representations. Since August 2005, We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from a large number of weblogs. The result is an ever-changing database of several million human feelings that will be projected onto the Emily Davis Gallery walls.

Chris Yanc brings his unique brand of interactive design to the Emily Davis Gallery. Yanc, based in Cleveland, participated in the first installment of the Collider exhibition series with an innovative multi-touch table. His installations directly engage visitors and invite them to transform their physical input into visual representations using custom software.

Preceding the exhibition installation, Artificial Nature artists Haru Ji and Graham Wakefield will lead a Max/MSP/Jitter workshop on March 5. This software allows beginning artists to easily create interactive pieces. As a hands-on presentation of Max/MSP/Jitter software, Ji and Wakefield will help workshop participants design their own projects in the Folk Hall computer lab, room 124. The workshop is presented by the Collider Exhibition Series and Akron Film. On March 10, Haru Ji and Graham Wakefield will also give a talk about the technical aspects of the projects, namely creating interactive artwork as an infinite game. In affiliation with the UA Computer Science program, the lecture will take place Leigh Hall.

A public event will be held every Tuesday night of the exhibition. At the opening reception, UA Assistant Professor and Collider co-curator Tony Samangy will speak about the creation of the exhibition series. The next Tuesday, a panel of UA New Media professors and artists will address potential careers and professional development issues of the field. Tuesday, April 5 will feature a public screening of footage and interviews collected during the Collider 3 installation week. On the last Tuesday, dancer Diana Garcia-Snyder will engage with artist Eunsu Kang’s work in a performance of Shin’m in the main Emily Davis Gallery.

The exhibition and all events are free. UA’s Emily Davis Gallery is open Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The gallery is closed Sundays and university holidays. For more information call (330) 972-6030 or visit www.colliderexhibitseries.com.

This exhibition is partially sponsored by the UA School of Dance, Theatre, and Arts Administration and the UA Department of Computer Science.

Curator Statement from Assistant Professor Tony Samangy

“The artwork of Collider 3 transforms space and time, emotion and human interaction. Our adaptable nature alters the world in which we live, as documented and expressed through our art. The art in this show transforms the visitor’s state of being. Physical and emotional human input is translated by the artworks into visual representations.

As we design our environments to reflect how we interact with one another, the use of technology has become essential. The individual stage for human expression has been transformed and expanded by technology into a highly interconnected public platform. The aesthetics, design and technology presented in Collider 3 allow the viewer to change from a passive observer to an integral component of the artwork itself. Now acting as producer, viewers are partially responsible for mutual transformation as they influence the works with which they interact.

Technology transforms the way we live.
Design transforms the way we interact.
Art transforms the way we see.”