MVR 1.2 (collaboration w/ Eyebeam)

MVR is an event series focused on new forms of exchange between body and technology. With the decreasing size and cost of computer vision, digital components and advances in virtual reality, we are faced with a new awareness of the impact of current digital practices on the physical body. MVR provides a platform for learning and discussion concerning the new interaction between body and information, device, and action.

Presenters:
Cassie Tarakajian
Carlin Wing
Ayodamola Tanimowo Okunseinde
Greg Trefry
Kevin Wiesner & Lukas Bentel
Liat Berdugo

Projects including Virtual Reality, social games, wearable tech and Afrofuturism.

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Cassie Tarakajian: What is VR actually for?

Cassie Tarakajian is an artist and technologist based in Brooklyn, NY. After studying electrical engineering and classical piano at Johns Hopkins University, she moved to New York to work as a software developer at Bloomberg and Big Human. She then became an artist-in-residence at Pioneer Works, creating virtual reality experiences, exploring its uses in storytelling and empathy. She is currently a researcher-in-residence at DBRS Labs working on a project to visualize neural networks in virtual reality. Recent projects include wikison.net, an algorithm which generates sonnets from Wikipedia and mansplainitto.me, an application that will mansplain anything you want to you.

 

Carlin Wing: Bounce: from Ping to Pong and Instruments of Play

Carlin Wing is an artist and a PhD Candidate in Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University where she researches cultural techniques and technologies of interaction in contexts of play, games, and sport. Her dissertation “Bounce: the Material Certainty of Sporting Chance” is a historical theoretical iteration of an ongoing project called Hitting Walls that consists of work made in a variety of media and forms including large format photographs, webgraphs, experimental videos, sound installations, performances, academic papers, and participatory events. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, and has published writing in Games and Culture, Public Books, Cabinet, Art Lies, and The Bulletin of the Serving Library. 

 

Ayodamola Tanimowo Okunseinde: Afrofuturism and it’s Technoartifacts

Ayodamola Tanimowo Okunseinde is an artist and interactive designer living and working in New York. He studied Visual Arts and Philosophy at Rutgers the State University of New Jersey where he earned his B.A. His works range from painting and speculative design to physically interactive works, wearable technology and explorations of Afrofuturism. Okunseinde was the co-founder and creative director of Dissident Display Studios, an award winning studio and art gallery based in Washington DC. As a collaborator with, amongst others, choreographer Maida Withers, Carmen Wong, and Yoko K., Okunseinde has created several interactive performance based works and has performed in several countries including Mexico, Finland, and Croatia. Okunseinde art residency participation includes Finland’s Invitation to Helsinki, IDEO’s Fortnight, and Eyebeam’s Creative Residency. Ayodamola (Ayo) Okunseinde holds an MFA in Design and Technology from The New School, Parsons School of Design in New York where he is currently an adjunct faculty member.

 

Greg Trefry: Hybrid games

Greg Trefry co-founded the experiential entertainment studio Gigantic Mechanic to create engaging experiences through real-world, physical and social play. They have made everything from live-action simulations to documentary video games for clients ranging from museums to amusement parks to TV networks. He serves as director of the real-world game festival, Come Out & Play. Greg teaches at NYU and wrote Casual Game Design: Designing Play for the Gamer in All of Us. www.giganticmechanic.com

Kevin Wiesner & Lukas Bentel

Hello Velocity is a New York-based digital creative studio and artist group, that specializes in absurdist humor and designing for socially interactive experiences. It is founded by Kevin Wiesner, Lukas Bentel, and JS Tan.
Hello Velocity’s autonomous practice creates and publicizes experimental brands and companies. Certain of these such as Bitelabs, and The McMass Project have had viral success across a variety of media and subject matter as speculation, commentary, and criticism.

Pinkhouse is an object and furniture brand created by Hello Velocity and Alicia Valencia which works in thematic collections. The first Pinkhouse collection, “Don’t Be Sad,” consisted of objects inspired by internet content consumption patterns, and was adapted in collaboration with VR work by Prashast Thapan and James Orlando for Living, an exhibition at Babycastles. Pinkhouse’s second collection is currently under development, and applies principles of behavioral enrichment to office furniture.

Hello Velocity currently works out of New Inc, the New Museum’s art+tech incubator.

 

Liat Berdugo

Liat Berdugo is an artist, writer, and curator based in Oakland, CA. Her work strives to create an expanded, thoughtful consideration for new media and digital culture. Berdugo has been exhibited in galleries and festivals internationally, and her new book, The Every Day Maths, was published by Anomalous Press in 2013. She is the co-founder of World Wide West, co-founder and curator of the Living Room Light Exchange, and Net Art and Special Programs Curator for Israel’s Print Screen Festival. Her writing appears in Rhizome, Temporary Art Review, and HZ Journal. She collaborates widely with individuals and archives. Berdugo is currently an assistant professor of Art + Architecture at the University of San Francisco. More at liatberdugo.com.