Victoria Vesna’s work has long focused on immersing her audiences in installation spaces that are meant to slow down time and take us into other dimensions. This led her to work in close collaborations with musicians, sound artists, nanoscientists, biologists, neuro-scientists and buddhist monks among others. Some examples of work in the past two decades are the NanoMandala, Water Bowls, Blue Morph, Octopus Brain Storming, Bird Song Diamond and most recently the Noise Aquarium. In this new work, together with her collaborators from the UCLA Art Sci collective and Harvestworks, she takes us on a meditative journey to outer space.
Premiering with the support of Harvestworks, this work is meant to be experienced as a guided meditation bringing to life the sensations of meteorites and micro-meteorites falling on all continents and mixing with the anthropogenic dust falling on our planet from many dimensions. Layers of sounds from inner and outer space with animations of dust and data driven by corona deaths are presented with the intent of honoring those who left their bodies without preparation and all who are suffering.
This online version was created as a meditation that is guided by the artist following the extra-terrestrial, terrestrial, and human-made dusts traveling far and wide and creating complexity that is part of an invisible reality. Most go about their daily life without being aware of ever thinking about the extraterrestrial dusts that could be on their kitchen floor, right here on earth. The alien signal is lost in the human noise and the group meditation reclaims our vision of planetary citizenship.
We are created from stardust by nuclear fusion, like our myriad siblings – animals, plants, insects, plankton, bacteria, and viruses, and we all function together in vibratory fields – bottom up just as nature and nanotechnology works. [Alien] Star Dust rains on us every day and this piece brings these particles to our attention and reminds us of our interconnected heritage in the larger cosmos. Dust knows no borders.
Friday, 7 September 2018 - 5:00pm to Monday, 10 September 2018 - 6:00pm
Exhibitors / Artists:
Organizers: Dawn Faelnar + Ben Olsen
Art|Sci alumni and current grad student at Interface Cultures, Dawn Faelnar is one of the organizers of Leonardo SLAM, Sept. 7th, 9th and 10th, Ars Electronica Festival 2018, OK center Ursulinensaal, 5-6pm More info >>
The Leonardo Slam is an event for cross contamination of ideas, a short open public gathering based on the format of poetry slam, but more free-form: an individual or group may present work, words, stories, video, sound, ideas about work, work about ideas, work about work, ideas about ideas, work about nothing, ideas about music, music about performances, apples about oranges, oranges about history, history about histories, dance about architecture, et cetera.
Present or demonstrate an artwork, give a serious presentation, give a parody presentation, read a manifesto, tell an anecdote, involve the audience, improvise a song. There is no limit on the form of the presentation other than having a non negative duration and not being too long.
Thursday, 7 September 2017 - 11:45pm to Monday, 11 September 2017 - 12:15pm
Exhibitors / Artists:
Victoria Vesna + Charles Taylor + Hiroo Iwata + Takashi Ikegami
Deep Space 8K features Bird Song Diamond
Victoria Vesna in collaboration with evolutionary biologist Charles Taylor, engineer Hiroo Iwata and physicist Takashi Ikegami.
Bird Song Diamond Mimic is an interactive installation that allows the audience to practice bird songs and experience its complexity as if learning a new language. The project is habitat specific and for Speculum Artium, the bird song the audience is asked to learn and mimic is of a canary in the coal mine. When the participants hear the song and are prompted to imitate the canary, a computer grades the accuracy of their mimic. The work is part of a larger virtual reality installation that is an outgrowth of a research project “Mapping the Acoustic Network of Birds” directed by an evolutionary biologist Charles Taylor. Through this work, the artist and the scientist attempt to remind and alert the public of how birds and their acoustic richness have disappeared from our daily experiences.
Book of Clouds is a 24-hour durational performance on the Spring Equinox in Los Angeles—equal hours of light and dark. The March 16th performance will be followed by a Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER) featuring Machiko Kusahara and Refik Anadol.
CURRENT:LA / VICTORIA VESNA / OLIVIA OSBORNE / DAWN FAELNAR / MICK LORUSSO / CLAUDIA JACQUES / ART|SCI COLLECTIVE
As part of the CURRENT:LA Public Art Biennial, the Art|Sci Collective presents a sculptural installation consisting of glass jars containing water from throughout the region that sets the stage for a water awareness workshop that includes instructions for creative tasks on the topic that participants can perform and upload to waterbodies.org. In collaboration with the Art|Sci Collective, Dr. Olivia Osborne will present her research on how silver nanoparticles in consumer products end up in water bodies/rivers affecting the aquatic environment.
WATER CANNING Sunday, July 24 and Sunday, August 7
4:00–7:00PM at Westside Neighborhood Park
2999 Clyde Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90016
About CURRENT LA:
Every two years, the CURRENT:LA Public Art Biennial will focus on an issue affecting Los Angeles and other global cities to inspire civic discourse and use contemporary art to deepen connections between people. Putting a new spin on the international biennial, CURRENT:LA democratizes the way people access art by featuring temporary art projects and public programs at outdoor locations, taking art out of the museum environment and into LA's diverse neighborhoods. This citywide cultural event is presented by Mayor Eric Garcetti and the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. The first presentation of the CURRENT:LA Public Art Biennial in 2016 is funded by DCA and Bloomberg Philanthropies through its Public Art Challenge initiative.
CURRENT:LA / VICTORIA VESNA / CHARLES TAYLOR / DAWN FAELNAR / MICK LORUSSO / CLAUDIA JACQUES / ART|SCI COLLECTIVE
In collaboration with UCLA evolutionary biologists and nanotechnology experts, the Art|Sci Collective will introduce the wetlands’ diverse resident bird species and life in the water at Del Rey Lagoon, as part of the CURRENT LA Public Art Biennial. Experience bird song in its purest form—unsullied by the noise of daily activities—with our bird mimicking contraption and an introduction to the wetlands' diverse resident birds!
BIRD SONG DIAMOND WETLANDS Tuesday, July 19 and Saturday, July 30
4:00–7:00PM at Del Rey Lagoon
6840 Esplanade Street, Los Angeles CA 90293
About CURRENT LA:
Every two years, the CURRENT:LA Public Art Biennial will focus on an issue affecting Los Angeles and other global cities to inspire civic discourse and use contemporary art to deepen connections between people. Putting a new spin on the international biennial, CURRENT:LA democratizes the way people access art by featuring temporary art projects and public programs at outdoor locations, taking art out of the museum environment and into LA's diverse neighborhoods. This citywide cultural event is presented by Mayor Eric Garcetti and the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. The first presentation of the CURRENT:LA Public Art Biennial in 2016 is funded by DCA and Bloomberg Philanthropies through its Public Art Challenge initiative.
HOX ZODIAC DINNER (BETA) Victoria Vesna and Siddarth Ramakrishnan
04 DECEMBER 2014
CNSI ART|SCI GALLERY
Hox Zodiac Dinner is an on-going collaboration between Art|Sci director Victoria Vesna and neuroscientist Siddharth Ramakrishnan. Inspired by the Hox genes which codify body plans across the animal kingdoms, Hox Zodiac offered the audience a seat at the dinner table, enabling conversations on mutations, morphology, and metamorphosis, on humans in relation to animals and the food we eat, on animals feral and laboratory raised. This first-ever iteration of the participatory project aimed to heighten consciousness about our animal bodies, mutations, art, and science.
An acoustic construction: hyper sound speakers amplify and present sounds from nature.
UCLA Professors Charles Taylor, Evolutionary Biology and Victoria Vesna, Design | Media Arts present the work of Professor Takashi Ikegami and his students Atsushi Masumori, Itzuki Doi, and Norihiro Maruyama. This is one aspect of a multi-year transdisciplinary collaborative project “Mapping the Acoustic Communication Networks of Birds” funded by NSF and will be presented at the upcoming Artificial Life conference in New York.
In this installation the participant/viewer experience sound that can be directed to give a 3D experience and “view” the soundscape from different angles and reflections — similar to the reflections/refraction of light seen through diamonds. Highly directional hyper sound speakers and motion sensors create immersive, targeted soundscape patterns in some ways richer than those which occur naturally. By moving around the viewer can view and review their sound environment with a heightened awareness. We anticipate that Birdsong Diamond will leave viewers with new questions about their soundscape environment.
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