MVR 3.3

With the decreasing size and cost of computer vision, digital components, and advances in virtual reality, we are faced with a renewed awareness of the impact of current digital practices on the physical body. Returning for its third season, MVR is a lecture event series focused on new forms of exchange between body and technology developed by Eyebeam alumni Nancy Nowacek and David Sheinkopf, Director of Technology at Pioneer Works.

The third iteration of a four part series will be presented by Salome Asega, Javier Molina, and Kristin Lucas.

Salome Asega is an artist, researcher, and co-host of speculative talk show Hyperopia: 20/30 Vision on bel-air radio and Director of Partnerships at POWRPLNT, a digital art collaboratory. Salome has participated in residencies and fellowships at Eyebeam, New Museum, and the Laundromat Project, and has given presentations at New Inc, Performa, Eyeo, and the Gather Festival.

Javier Molina is an engineer, actor and media artist working with virtual reality, motion capture, interactive installations, performance art and experimental film. He is focusing his academic research on rituals and live performances in mixed reality.

Kristin Lucas reinvents the familiar in uncanny circuitous works that lie somewhere between reality and “reality”. Her current project entitled “Dance with flARmingos” reimagines kinship between humans and flamingos from the ethical distance of a Mixed Reality experience and involves partnership with international flamingo researchers. The project is one of five projects  selected out of hundreds for Engadget’s 2017 Alternative Realities grant.

Reanimation Library, an ongoing project by Andrew Beccone, is a collection of 2000+ obscure or out-of-print publications the artist has been collecting over 15 years. Chosen primarily for the visual material they contain, this collection of books has been culled from thrift stores, rummage sales, flea markets, municipal dumps, library sales, give-away piles, and used bookstores across the country. With the intended purpose for creative interpretation and reuse, this collection is an investigation into the visual narratives constructed by and disseminated through the encyclopedic publication in the 20th century.

Housed at Pioneer Books, Reanimation Library operates as a public non-circulating collection of books for visitors through December 2018. The library space includes tools to use the collection including a computer, scanner, and copier.

MVR is a platform for sharing projects and ideas concerning these new interactions between body and information, device, and action and explores an expansive breadth of subjects and technologies including Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, robots, video games, choreography, and machine learning. Speakers represent a wide spectrum of expertise–coding, dance, anthropology, furniture design–and have included Gene Kogan, Liat Berdugo, Daniel Temkin, and Robert Yang.

Image: “+Level Up: The Real Harlem Shake” by Salome Asega, Ali Rosa-Salas, and Chrybaby Cozie (2014)