Hello everyone,
During the month of may we started the research about potential artistic research projects and mentors. We have managed to get this further, and we already have invited 2 artistic researcher projects to be part of the program and they have accepted, but we are still researching and thinking about the third project.
The curatorial research log will be delivered the second week of June, where we will include more details about these two amazing research projects, and all other aspects of the curatorial research.
For now we would like to share some introductions about the projects and the artists.
Thank you!
The first project is Stonesong, an artistic research project by Robin Rutenberg which already has a materialization in the form of a VR Soundscape and Poem, and was exhibited at Collegium Hungaricum Berlin last month.
Stonesong is a binaural VR environment implementing experimental storytelling and poetics as the foundations for a feminist methodological approach to world-building. When journeying through this ethereal realm, the listener encounters multiple 3D rendered statues of the artist and other stone structures forged from transcendent matter. Sonic elements of voice and stone compose a soundscape further illuminating themes of materiality, imaginative potential, reflection, resonance, and time. Stonesong contemplates the complex, layered, and shared constitutive conditions of metamorphic stones and trans* and genderqueer bodies, specifically ‘stone butches.’
Robin Rutenberg
Robin Rutenberg is a mixed media sound artist with an emphasis on experiential sound, experimental composition, performance, text, and VR. Their storytelling practice is steeped in ruminations on gender, family, and kinship and asks how [missed]communication and [mis]understanding within our own bodies, other bodies, objects, and environment inform these relations. They are deeply interested in the affective power of using one’s voice, speaking with the body, and being witnessed as generative acts of healing and connection.
The second project is Antenna, a collaborative artistic research project by Chloé Lee, Samuel Perea-Díaz and VanTa.
Antenna is a performative VR/sound installation that centers around the custom-built “willowphone,” a hack of the traditional virtual reality headset, which reimagines how we engage with, and impact, our environment. The first iteration was realized at the lecture hall at Tieranatomisches Theater, Berlin, which was selected for its acoustics. The domed ceiling creates echoes and delays, ‘throwing sounds’ in unexpected ways.
Chloé Lee
Chloé Lee uses color, collage and drawing to create densely layered, moving and still images which explore where digital and analog worlds meet. Her most recent fascination has been with 3D and VR environments and how these new spaces can be used to explore memory, identity, and how we make meaning. Chloé was recently named a Fulbright Scholarship and New Media Caucus grantee for a VR project she is developing called Memory Palace in collaboration with Matters of Activity Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in Germany. She resides in Brooklyn, NY, where she is pursuing her Master of Fine Arts in Integrated Media Arts at Hunter College, a City University of New York.
Samuel Perea-Díaz
Samuel Perea-Díaz is an artist, transdisciplinary spatial designer, and architect based in Berlin. Their practice incorporates exhibition scenography, curating, and sound. Samuel often works with site-specific installations and sound objects. Their installations set contextual data by working with sonification, relocation of sound, field recording, and virtual reality. Recent exhibitions include shows at Tieranatomisches Theater (2022), 48H Neukölln (2021), SoundsAbout (2020-2022), CLB Gallery (2020) and the Akademie der Künste (2019) in the context of the Biennial for Electroacoustic Music and Sound Art, Kontakte´19.
VanTa
VanTa is an experienced developer, with a strong focus in Computer Graphic Images. In his creations, he always tries to find a balance between geometry, abstraction and chaos. At the age of 8 he already left home to found his own aerospace startup at his parents porch with very little venture capital. Having a background in Environmental Sciences, his work revolves around the intersection between art, science and technology. He loves when digital elements align with the real world; either in Augmented Reality overlays, projection mapping on architectural landmarks or pixels floating in thin air. VanTa also performs as a VJ and musician in different locations and festivals all around the world. When he finds time, he teaches coding to designers and artists.
