Austin SXSW Picks 6 Installations For Upcoming Art Program

AUSTIN, TX — South by Southwest Conference and Festivals officials have announced the six art installations to be showcased at its upcoming second annual Art Program taking place in March.

The program scheduled March 9-18 showcases experiential and conceptual visual artworks that apply emerging technologies and immersive environments to spark discovery, inspiration, and connection, organizers explained. Incorporated into the broader ecosystem of creativity and innovation at SXSW, the art program serves as a launching point for collaborations and discussions around the role of visual and digital media arts in culture, technology, and the public realm, officials added.

“The 2018 SXSW Art Program will once again spotlight leading artists designing installations that will resonate with our audience of filmmakers, musicians, technologists, and creative professionals of all stripes,” said Hugh Forrest, Chief Programming Officer. “These six projects combined with our participation in the UNESCO Media Arts Exhibition and dozens of Conference sessions that intersect with art and design are sure to provoke a number of intriguing conversations.”

The SXSW Art Program brings experiential art installations from global artists to Austin, exploring topics including privacy and surveillance, industrialization, the natural world, and modern human interaction, according to a press advisory. The SXSW curatorial team chose the 2018 selections along with a group of acclaimed creative advisors, including Sara Fitzmaurice of FITZ & Co, Julia Kaganskiy of New Inc and Andrea Mellard of the Contemporary Austin.

Art program details are outlined below, with descriptions provided by SXSW officials.

The 2018 SXSW Art Program

Conductors of the Resistance by Ronen Sharabani

The project ‘Conductors of Resistance’ (2017) is composed of imagery shot at the back of Sharabani’s studio, which was once an active and flourishing weaving factory. The images depict a weaving machine as well as woolen yarns, which were left behind, alongside electric wires, insinuating the inherent, structured, confusion between conductors and resistance. Sharabani seeks to use this particular confusion between Conductors and Resistance, to call upon the viewer to increase the currents of action in regions of high resistance. A conflict occurs where the flow of energy is not high enough to yield a reaction, thus compelling human intervention seeking relief for a blocked situation.

Conductors of the Resistance. by Ronen Sharabani

FEAST by Caitlin Pickall

FEAST is an interactive environment based on a communal dining table. In this multimedia installation, the table serves as projection surface, and a dynamic sound and video program is triggered when people sit at the different seats around the table. Each seat contributes something to the overall effect. Photography, video and archival images related to the cultivation, preparation and consumption of food combine with abstract, computer-generated animations to create a feast for the senses. FEAST was created by Caitlin Pickall as part of the Laboratory Artist Residency program in Spokane, Washington.

Feast, by Caitlin Pickall

Future of Secrets by Sarah Newman, Jessica Yurkofsky, and Rachel Kalmar

Are secrets uniquely human? Our private lives are mediated and recorded by digital devices. Where are our secrets now? Where will they be in the future, and who—or what—might read them? How will intelligent systems of the future process the data we leave behind? Will they know things about us that we don’t (and never could) know about ourselves? The Future of Secrets is an interactive installation created by Sarah Newman, Jessica Yurkofsky, and Rachel Kalmar from metaLAB at Harvard. It is an immersive experience that includes sound, projection, and interaction; the installation asks participants to anonymously share their secrets as a way to question the trust we place in machines, and ultimately reflect back our own humanness. What does it mean for us to share so much of ourselves through complex systems and digitally distributed networks? The installation inspires delight, surprise, and reflection while evoking questions about uncertain technological futures.

Future of Secrets, Sarah Newman

Life Underground by Hervé Cohen

Life Underground invites you on a journey through the subways of the world and into the minds of their passengers. Since June 2016, Hervé Cohen has filmed in 14 subways worldwide. Along the way, dozens of passengers confided in him their stories of love, dreams, family, gender, migration, and much more. Life Underground captures the pulse of these vibrant transit environments through deeply personal passenger portrayals, cinematic travel sequences, and an original soundscape composed from the raw sounds of subways. Relying entirely upon chance encounters, Life Underground is a product of empathy and true human engagement. It challenges our notion of public and private space and reminds us that beneath the surface, we’re all connected.

Created by Hervé Cohen with collaborating artist Tonian Irving and music composer Brian Rodvien © La Huit production & Bellemoon productions.

MTA: Floating Destiny

MTA: Floating Destiny is an interactive art installation with live performance inspired by the ancient Chinese divination text I-Ching:The Book of Changes.

Told from I-Ching, fate has two sides: fixed and constant change.

The Fixed: the monomer of the installation is four traditional calligraphy tables which are fixed in the indoor space.
Changes: We use modern methods along with traditional techniques to present the essence of changes. The music will be performed by GuQin. The GuQin is then fed into sampling buffers and manipulated and warped in real time and fed back to the GuQin player, constantly changing and morphing.
Various symbols and images will be 3D mapped onto the transparent projection film to visualize the ideas of eight trigrams and sixty-four hexagrams that means all aspects of life. The audience can experience the hybrid melding of ancient and futuristic Chinese culture by changing geometric shapes which correspond to music.

A Colossal Wave! by Marshmallow Laser Feast

Plunge into a sub-aquatic virtual world that reacts to your every action. Sing unique marine “voicefruits” into life. Create your own tsunami by dropping a bowling ball from a great height. Witness an explosion of color under VR umbrellas as the giant virtual wave crashes over you. Merging slapstick with immersive technologies, A Colossal Wave! is a mixed reality experience exploring human impact on the natural world. Taking Newton’s third law as its inspiration, A Colossal Wave! serves as a timely reminder that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. A Marshmallow Laser Feast collaboration with Canadian artists Presstube, Dpt., and Headspace Studio. Presented with the support of Arts Council England as part of their Future Art and Culture programme. Originally co-commissioned by the British Council, Hull UK City of Culture 2017 and Quartier des Spectacles Partnership, with additional support from the GREAT Britain campaign.

A Colossal Wave, photo by Eleanor Whitley

Selection Committee

The following esteemed individuals were among the curators for the SXSW Art Program:
Sara Fitzmaurice - FITZ & Co, Jamie Bennett - ArtPlace America; Kim Cook - Burning Man; Hank Willis Thomas - Artist; Andrea Mellard - Contemporary Austin; Bill Shapiro - Fast Company; Elena Soboleva - Artsy; Julia Kaganskiy of New Inc; and Josette Melchor - GrayArea.org.

This lineup of SXSW artists joins numerous speakers, sessions and events across the entirety of SXSW that showcase innovation, diversity and creativity in visual and media arts, officials said. Organizations and participants doing special events to spotlight conceptual and new media art at SXSW include Meow Wolf, Artprize, and the Contemporary Austin.

Bring Art to life

Art Program’s lead sponsor Meural presents a newly commissioned installation, premiering at SXSW. A to-be-announced artist will use the Meural Canvas—the company's eponymous smart art frame—to challenge, engage, and provoke viewers.

UNESCO MEDIA ARTS EXHIBITION

In addition to the six selected artworks, SXSW is also pleased to announce the UNESCO Media Arts Exhibition at SXSW, highlighting Austin’s designation as the only UNESCO Media Arts City in the US, in collaboration with the City of Austin’s Cultural Arts Division. Hosted March 12-13 as the official art program of the Cities Summit at SXSW, the showcase comprises a mini-exhibition of media art installations and a companion panel discussion highlighting the global initiatives of the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Creative Cities Network.

The exhibition will feature:
Modeled after Edison’s Kinetoscope, Forgotten Landscapes by James Hughes and Ha Na Lee connects viewers to the last known locations of missing persons via virtual reality.

Gathering, by Lisa Woods, is an interactive installation that invites participants to use their hands as a canvas for storytelling.
Yuliya Lanina’s Herstory, a motion-activated sculpture featuring a miniaturized and distorted replica of the artist.
Luke Savisky’s Passage (Variation) conjures cinematic memory and perceptual illusion via a three dimensional, virtual passageway emanating from multiple vintage 16mm projectors.

Meow Wolf

Meow Wolf hits light-speed on course to SXSW. The Santa Fe based arts group, famous for their House of Eternal Return, will transport you into a colorful dimension of story and exploration throughout the SXSWeek. Registrants can expect an experience into the magical earthship that is Meow Wolf. Full details of their participation will be announced in unique and creative ways leading up to the event.

The Living Museum

At this year’s SXSW get ready to be taken on an unforgettable experience. New Dutch Wave proudly invites The Notorious Art Collector of Amsterdam to present The Living Museum.
In the museum, The Notorious Art Collector takes the lucky ones on a +- 60 minute tour presenting an exhilarating mix of the avant-garde art, music, fashion, technology and performance. In a compelling whirlwind, be ensured of an immersive experience of music and art, a visual delight in which all senses are tingled. An experience created in collaboration with groundbreaking Dutch artists, these innovators of the art scene make multidisciplinary crossovers and give a new meaning to the word museum.

Rodney McMillian: Against a Civic Death February 1 – August 26, 2018
The Contemporary Austin – Jones Center 700 Congress Avenue
Tues through Sat 11 am-7 pm Sun 12-5 pm
Closed Mondays

The inaugural exhibition of The Contemporary Austin’s Suzanne Deal Booth Art Prize, Against a Civic Death features newly commissioned, recent, and site-specific work by Los Angeles-based artist Rodney McMillian, exploring themes of class, gender, race, social history, and culture. Bifurcated into the colors and themes of whiteness on the first floor and blackness on the second floor—white supremacism and black progressive politics—the exhibition includes paintings, sculptural installations, video, and sound-based pieces that further the artist’s ongoing social critique of American histories and injustices.

Ai Weiwei: Forever Bicycles
Through December 2018
The Contemporary Austin – Museum Without Walls Waller Delta, 74 Trinity Street
Always on view

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is considered one of the most important and influential artists working today and one of the leading cultural figures of his generation. Drawing on current global politics, Chinese culture, human rights, and more, Ai pushes the definition of art into new realms, consistently placing himself at risk to effect social change through work that is permeated by social conscience, humor, and compassion.

As part of The Contemporary Austin’s Museum Without Walls program and in partnership with the Waller Creek Conservancy, Ai Weiwei’s large-scale sculpture Forever Bicycles can be seen on a lawn at the Waller Delta, along a downtown stretch of Austin’s popular hike and bike trail. Incorporating more than 1,200 bicycles assembled into a gorgeous, dizzying sculpture, Forever Bicycles takes as its subject the Forever brand bicycle, once ubiquitous on the streets of Beijing. A means of both transportation and social mobility, and a coveted luxury item when the artist was growing up in China, in contemporary times the Forever bicycle has given way to aspirations of car ownership.

15K ArtPrize Artist Challenge

Come hear five artists from around the country pitch their ideas for ambitious art installations they hope to create at ArtPrize 10 on Calder Plaza, in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. Each artist will present for five minutes, using up to five slides to describe their proposal to a live audience and a panel of five judges. One artist receives a $15,000 grant to install the project at ArtPrize 10, slated to take place from September 19 to October 7, 2018. At ArtPrize, the project will compete for $500,000 in prizes determined by jury and public vote.

Bring Art to Life

Art Program lead sponsor Meural presents a newly commissioned installation, premiering at SXSW. A to-be-announced artist will use the Meural Canvas—the company's eponymous smart art frame—to challenge, engage, and provoke viewers.

Art highlights of SXSW conference programming:

AI Creativity in Art, Neuroscience, and the Law

Artificial intelligence now produces compelling works of art, raising questions both metaphysical—does AI creativity raise it on par with the human?

Beyond Bars: Art and Incarceration

Damien Duncan began a three-year sentence in an adult prison at the age of 16, and started writing music while in solitary confinement. He’ll be joined by social justice advocates, artists, and filmmakers for a discussion on the power of art in trauma recovery, and in shifting cultural perceptions about juvenile incarceration.

Breaking the 4th Wall: Drone Swarms in Art

A handful of artists, designers, and engineers discuss how they put arrays of drones, or synthetic swarms, on stage, performing in unison with human performers and all forms of stage technology.

Decrypting the Universe: Science and Art at CERN

Artist and designer Laura Couto Rosado spent three months at CERN with particle physicist James Beacham exploring the elaborate symbols and machines physicists use to extract complex information about the smallest things in existence, elementary particles.

Immerse Yourself: AR & VR in Museum and the Arts

Using cutting edge technology in museums and the arts, parties on each side of the collaborative experience will discuss the technical, creative and legal benefits and challenges presented by the use of AR and VR.

LET’S GET REAL: Practical Uses of Art & Science

This panel will feature experts that have worked to bridge the gap between art & science at places like Google, Constellation Within and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Learn practical techniques on how to create science for art’s sake and vice versa. Join the discussion and learn how to convey scientific concepts through artful thinking.

Life Underground: Meet Subway Riders of the World

LIFE UNDERGROUND, an immersive interactive experience aims to break the anonymity of the crowd, enter commuter’s thoughts, and hear their personal stories of love, migration and life transitions.

Place by Design: Art, Tech & Interaction

Place by Design is a public space design competition that highlights six artists and designers using new media and creative programming to transform the places around us. The six finalists will pitch their work to a panel of jurors at the Cities Summit at SXSW.

Radical Public Space: A New Design Approach

Artist Janet Echelman presents ways to harness the creative power of the flexible, the soft, and the transparent in cities around the world.

Why Machine Learning is the Next Frontier for Art

Can a machine determine the value of art? Just as machine learning has revolutionized other consumer industries such as music, social media, and fashion, Artsy is exploring how it can be used to support a more open, more democratic, and easier-to-navigate art world.
Installation photos and publicity contacts for art installations: artinstallations@sxsw.com

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