COLLISION17:transformer opens Friday, March 2
Posted on | February 26, 2012 | No Comments
COLLISION17:transformer assembles a wide range of new work from 6 countries to explore the notion of transformation. Power, signal, material and meaning are altered, recast and impedance-matched to underscore and harmonize with the ceaseless change of our lives. Curated by COLLISIONcollective members William Tremblay and Georgina Lewis, COLLISION17:transformer is the seventeenth COLLISIONcollective show and the sixth held at Axiom. The 26 works that comprise the show span sculpture, photography, video, surveillance, interactivity and research, making this the most comprehensive and far-reaching COLLISIONcollective show to date.
A transformer is a device that changes one form of energy to a different form, then changes it back to an altered version of the original. In COLLISION17:transformer we present the artist as transformer of experience though metaphor, translator of ideas between language modes, and transmuter of physical phenomena into forms optimized for human perception.
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Included in the show is work by Natalie Andrew, Ryan Boatright, W. Benjamin Bray, Sophia Brueckner, Alicia Eggert, Juan Escudero, Joseph Farbrook, Antony Flackett, Ben K. Foley, Dave Gordon, Rob Gonsalves, Lori Hepner, Wei-Ming Ho, Faith Holland, Annette Isham, Arnold Koroshegyi, Victor Liu, Andrew Neumann, Bob Kephart, Jean-Michel Rolland, Mark Stock, Wayne Strattman and Topp & Dubio.
Opening Reception: March 2nd from 6-9 pm.
Show dates: March 3rd – April 7th.
Gallery hours: Weds and Thurs: 6-9pm, Fri and Sat: 2-5pm
Eygptian Oracle
Posted on | January 30, 2012 | No Comments
February 16th | 6pm
Axiom is pleased to host a performance and discussion of the Egyptian Oracle, produced by PublicVR and Puppet Showplace Theater. It is a mixed-reality reenactment of an authentic public ceremony from ancient Egypt’s Late Period. The interactive Virtual Egyptian Temple is projected onto the wall at life scale, extending the physical theater into an virtual space. The high priest (on the right in the image) is an avatar controlled by a live human puppeteer, Brad Shur. The supporting actress (Brenda Huggins) stands in front of the screen, in costume, mediating the experience. Audience members represent the Egyptian populace acting out brief roles in the drama. In the drama, the will of the temple god moves the sacred boat to render judgments, bestow blessings, and make predictions. This 90-second video is better than any explanation:
http://publicvr.org/egypt/oracle/shortvid.html
This project was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and continues to develop, as we seek to broaden the interaction, deepen the narrative, and improve the artwork. The full report and the open source code are available at:
http://www.publicvr.org/html/pro_oracle.html
The performance is about 40 minutes long and will begin at 6:00pm. There will be a brief discussion afterward about the show in particular, especially for questions around the Egyptology, the puppetry, and how other cyber artists might employ the open source for the Egyptian Oracle.
After an intermission, Dr. Jacobson, Director of PublicVR, will speak on how we can use technology to extend the psychological space (virtual reality and mixed reality). He will survey the basic methods and approaches and describe the current state-of-the-art. He will introduce methods and tools that the cyber arts community can make immediate use of.
PublicVR is a Boston-area nonprofit dedicated to research in virtual reality for education and the arts. Dr. Jacobson has been involved in virtual reality for 20 years, especially in the area of display design and cultural heritage. For more information see http://publicvr.org.
Update Opens December 2nd
Posted on | November 28, 2011 | No Comments
Axiom presents Update, a solo exhibition by artist John Slepian, opening on December 2nd, 2011. Update is an earnest exploration of the past, the present, and our aspirations for art.
The show introduces humor into some of the most serious work of 20th Century, exploring ideas about the sublime, artistic truth, and Modernism in the context of our ubiquitously self-centered, “interactive” and ironic present. Each of the pieces in this exhibition is a humorous take on a painting by a well known Mid-Century Modernist.
Two pieces are interactive animated versions of a famous painting projected onto a canvas and controlled by custom software and a Microsoft Xbox Kinect game controller. Another is a piece of software for a vintage Commodore 64 “personal computer” that generates over 32,000 variations on the form of Josef Albers’ famous “Homage to the Square” series.
The exhibition also includes digitally printed miniature versions of classic Mark Rothko paintings, and four mock museum posters, one for each of the artists’ work included in the exhibition, featuring a thumbnail image downloaded from the Internet. Stay tuned for more on this fun, engaging and interactive exhibition! For additional information about John Slepian’s work, please visit http://www.johnslep.net/.
Opening Reception: December 2nd from 6-9 pm.
Show dates: December 2nd – January 28th.
Kaleidoscope Music opens October 6
Posted on | September 19, 2011 | No Comments
Axiom is pleased to present a new exhibition by sound artist Ben Houge, featuring his real-time, six-channel, algorithmic sound installation Kaleidoscope Music, on display from October 6 through November 6. An opening reception for the show will take place on Thursday, October 6, from 6-9 pm.
Kaleidoscope Music takes its inspiration from the idea of a kaleidoscope, a device that refocuses attention on our everyday surroundings, transforming them into something unexpected and beautiful. This real-time, computer-based sound installation manipulates ambient sound from around the Green Street subway stop, layering it and running it through a bank of filters to extract harmonic tones in an ever-changing array of chords and rhythmic patterns. The algorithmic nature of the piece ensures that it never repeats itself; rather it is designed to ebb and flow, evoking the rhythm of natural processes like rainfall and tides. The piece runs continuously, with no beginning or end; visitors are welcome to stay for as long as they like. For more information on the piece, visit Ben’s successful Kickstarter page.
In addition to Kaleidoscope Music, the exhibition will feature digital prints from Ben’s series 29 Giraffes, algorithmic reconfigurations of neon lights from Shanghai’s famous East Nanjing Road.
Ben Houge is a recent transplant to Boston, where he has quickly become embedded in the local new media art community, with presentations of his work at the Boston Cyberarts Festival, MIT, Boston Post-Mortem, Opensound, Outpost 186, and Whitehaus Family Record. Prior to moving to Boston, Ben lived in Shanghai for the past six years, where he was active in the experimental sound and art community, performing and exhibiting widely. Previously, in Seattle, Ben founded the Sound Currents concert series and contributed to the award-winning Seattle School composers’ collective from its inception. Ben currently teaches video game music at the Berklee College of Music and Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts, and this fall he is an Artist in Residence at MIT, working on sonification of real-time sensor data. For more information, visit www.benhouge.com.
You Are My Sunshine Opens August 19
Posted on | August 12, 2011 | No Comments
Five artists from the Axiom Group spent five days wilderness camping on Bumpkin Island in Boston Harbor as part of the Bumpkin Island Art Encampment Residency, where they collaboratively worked on individual cross-disciplinary projects. The product of extreme limitations – artists could bring only the materials which they could carry, including five days of camping supplies, food and water – the works ranged from performance to installation to solar sculpture. Works include a border control/processing station for alien invaders to the island, the absurd use of solar power, an installation made of 75 rolls of film shot on the island, text installations integrated into the landscape, and the unsuccessful construction of a winged costume made of burnt campfire wood.
Featuring work by Meghann Hickson, Heidi Kayser, Georgina Lewis, Alex Reben, Sarah Rushford, and Evan Smith. A limited edition print by Evan Smith will also be given away as part of his piece.
Axiom also says BON VOYAGE to three of our artist members as they go to graduate school and a teaching appointment: a huge thanks and good luck to Nick Marmor, Meghann Hickson and Wayne Madsen! Come celebrate with us at the opening for You Are My Sunshine.
PATTERN RECOGNITION OPENS JUNE 24TH
Posted on | June 19, 2011 | No Comments
Axiom Center for New and Experimental Media is pleased to announce its annual student show, Pattern Recognition. The show features undergraduate, graduate, and recently graduated students working in new media.
Artists were selected from local programs and schools, including the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, MIT, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and UMass Boston and Dartmouth. Exploring a variety of media, themes and strategies, Pattern Recognition showcases the next generation of new media artists in Boston.
How is new media defined for emerging artists who have spent much of their lives in the new millennium, immersed in the web and technologically literate? The artists represented here interpret and alter the massive amounts of raw data they encounter every day, creating meaning from the chaos of contemporary life. Artworks range from digitally glitched photographs to microscopic poetry, appropriated pop songs to musical scores based on bird flight.
Opening reception: June 24, 2011, from 6 – 9pm.
Show dates: June 24-July 16, 2011.
Featuring work by Kevin Benisvy, Ashley Bell Clark, Keegan Grandbois, Aimee Harrison, Zuzana Husarova, Fatima Hussain, Dyllan Nguyen, Victoria Shen, Kyle Thiboutot, Matej Vakula & Matt Kushan, and Amber Vistein.
Move Me Opens April 28th
Posted on | April 6, 2011 | No Comments
Tom Haney: Dreamtime
Opening Reception and Artist’s Talk:
Thursday, April 28, 2011 | 6-8 pm | Informal Artist’s Talk starts at 7 pm
Move Me, curated by Heidi Kayser, presents the sculpture of Chris Fitch, Arthur Ganson, Tom Haney, Steve Hollinger and Erica von Schilgen. The works explore the intimate, poetic drama created as electricity, clockworks or human interaction physically “moves” kinetic sculpture but also emotionally “moves” an observer. Ranging from the clandestine use of mechanics and electronics to the intentionally obvious revelation of the inner workings, the show explores the relationship created between artwork and viewer when moving sculpture’s narratives unfold in real time.
April 28 – May 28, 2011
Artists + Researchers Redux: Radical Reference Librarians
Posted on | March 11, 2011 | No Comments
Artists + Researchers Redux: Radical Reference Librarians Offer Research Assistance in Jamaica Plain
Friday, March 18, 7:30 pm: meet and greet and snacks; 8 p.m., presentation followed by discussion
Co-presented by Artists in Context and Boston Radical Reference Collective
Calling all artists, activists and other engaged practitioners. Overwhelmed by the amount of information on the internet? Unable to find the data you know is out there? Confused about the ethics of research? Boston Radical Reference Collective (BRRC) can help! Radical Reference is a collective of volunteer library workers who believe in social justice and equality. They provide professional research support, education and access to information. Join us for our second Researchers+Artists conversation and walk away ready to find and use the wealth of information available.
BRRC members Alana Kumbier and Heather McCann will discuss freely-available online research resources and ways the BRRC can provide local assistance. After the presentation, we will open up the conversation for questions and discussion of ongoing (or potential) projects.
For artists: This event will be especially relevant to artists those whose work and creative practice engages specific social issues, is in some way community- or locally-oriented, or just requires access to information, data, or research resources beyond one’s area of expertise.
For researchers: You don’t have to be a librarian, or a member of Radical Reference, to participate! We’re hoping to create a space in which all kinds of researchers — librarians, data and GIS specialists, journalists, government document sleuths, grad students and intellectually-curious intrepid investigators — can meet local artists, and each other, and instigate collaborations.
Free and open to the public
COLLISION16:fluid Opens Friday Feb 25
Posted on | February 21, 2011 | No Comments
COLLISION16:fluid, the sixteenth COLLISIONcollective group show of new work, explores the concept of the fluid and the changing, in a wide variety of manifestations and interpretations. These works range from a piece in which pixels on screen are programed to act like a liquid, to works that explores the fluid boundaries of our perception, from work that aesthetisizes the “glitch” —an unanticipated or undesired change in the media stream, to a work that uses images projected on ice to explore our changing climate. What these works have in common is that they they express the contingent and the unforeseeable. As technology’s rate of change continues to get faster and faster, it has dramatic consequences for our culture. In order to reflect our would, our art must be able to embody the fluid. The work in COLLISION16:fluid does exactly that.
Co-curated by John Slepian and William Tremblay.
Opening reception: February 25, 2011, from 6 – 9pm.
Show dates: February 25-March 26, 2011.
Work by: Jonathan Bachrach and Jonathan Ward, Kevin Benisvy, W. Benjamin Bray, Chris Fitch, John Craig Freeman, Rob Gonsavles, Giles Hall, Ben Houge, Heidi Kayser, Georgina Lewis, dan paluska, Dan Roe, John Slepian, Mark J. Stock, Wayne Strattman
Identity Element Opening Photos Posted
Posted on | January 18, 2011 | Comments Off
Check out photos from Identity Element: Works from the New Axiom Group opening reception on January 14 2011. A wonderful evening was has by all!
Follow our photostream here.
Identity Element: Works From The New Axiom Group
January 14, 2011 Opening Reception
PHOTOS ON FLICKR
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