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RICARDO DOMINGUEZ +                                                                                                              INFINITY STRUCTURES: PARADOXICAL SPACES

DIANE LUDIN                                                                                                                                                                                        21 MAY 2015
                                                                                                                                                                                  CNSI ART|SCI GALLERY
OS FERMENTATION WORKSHOP BY ECOARTTECH
                                                                                                                                                                       Robert Gero’s work—both built and
10 MAY 2015                                                                                                                                                            written—is grounded in the practical
BROAD ART CENTER, RM 5240                                                                                                                                              and theoretical intersection of art
                                                                                                                                                                       practice, philosophy and social-
The OS Fermentation Workshop (OSFW)                                                                                                                                    architectural systems.
was part of artist duo Leila Nadir
and Cary Peppermint’s Edible Ecologies                                                                                                                                 His recent research as an artist has
project—a series of “social sculptures”                                                                                                                                led him to speculate on the existence
that worked collaboratively with                                                                                                                                       of certain unique structures—infinity
local communities (human, bacterial                                                                                                                                    structures—in which there is a stable
and ecological). Taking place thus                                                                                                                                     exterior and an infinitely expanding
far at community gardens, academic                                                                                                                                     interior. A seemingly impossible
institutions and public spaces, the                                                                                                                                    structure, whose internal dimensions
OS Fermentation workshop involved                                                                                                                                      exceed its external ones. These
participants in a process of reviving                                                                                                                                  structures are quantitative additions in
the ancient practice of fermentation as                                                                                                                                space at the same time their movement
an alternative to industrial methods of                                                                                                                                expresses qualitative change. They both
food preservation such as refrigeration                                                                                                                                conceptually and materially transform
and pasteurization. It functioned                                                                                                                                      static space into dynamic space by
simultaneously as a slow-cooking class,                                                                                                                                weaving superfluity, the void and solid
a community-building ritual and a                                                                                                                                      together in an intimate dance.
conceptual art experiment in which both
wild bacteria and food democracy are                                                                                                                                   This project was an empirical one, to
the core concepts. The tangible outcome                                                                                                                                actually generate infinity structures
for participants was jars of fermented                                                                                                                                 and to ground them in the math and
veggies, which the artists envision as                                                                                                                                 philosophy of the infinite to create
an unfinished and interactive artwork.                                                                                                                                 an installation of these paradoxical
                                                                                                                                                                       structures. This exhibition included
Leila Nadir and Cary Peppermint                                                                                                                                        video by AME (Benjamin Lein and Kevin
(collectively called EcoArtTech) are                                                                                                                                   Mitchell) and a soundscape by Randy
a hybrid artist-scholar team whose                                                                                                                                     Greif.
environmental art projects take the form
of architectural interventions and urban
wilderness tours, net art and public
performances, scholarly articles and
poetic essays. This workshop focused
on positioning art as an urgent and
critical social intervention operating
between utility and imagination.

ARTIST ART+ACTIVISM COLLABORATION COMMUNITY EDUCATION LECTURE PUBLICATION RESEARCH RESIDENCY ROBOTICS MIXER SYMPOSIUM ||||       ARTIST ART+ACTIVISM COLLABORATION COMMUNITY EDUCATION LECTURE PUBLICATION RESEARCH RESIDENCY ROBOTICS MIXER SYMPOSIUM ||||
     || SPRING SUMMER FALL WINTER ||||| 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 ||||| UCLA CNSI DMA BEYOND |||||  ||||| SPRING SUMMER FALL WINTER ||||| 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 ||||| UCLA CNSI DMA BEYOND |
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