Qanat is an interactive sound and light installation named after the ancient Iranian underground water channel system. By amplifying the resonant qualities of a traditional rug with the sound of water, a pendulum microphone above picks up rug vibrations, movement, and room tone, creating a live feedback loop. Visitors are invited to sit, lie, or stand on the rug, altering the transmission of sound throughout the gallery. The exhibition also includes embossed topographical prints created by Asgary’s breath and a video work referencing water, transmission, and incommunicability. Qanat reminds us that we are all born into the comforting darkness of sound and water.
Performance and Special Event
Date and Time: Friday, May 9, 2025, 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM
Location: Botanical Gardens
Details: Live vocal rendition of Qanat 5 by Sholeh Asgary, with a potential live performance featuring Electronic_Khipu_ by Patricia Cadavid.
Speaker: JoAnn Kuchera-Morin and Frederick Janka
Responders: Shannon Kennedy and Manjari Sharma
Our two co-presenters will be discussing four objects from the David Bermant Foundation Collection: Nam June Paik, Participation TV, 1969; Otto Piene, Light Ballet I; Marcel Duchamp, Rotorelief (optical discs) 1935-1953, edition c. 1965, and Alejandro & Moira Sina, Spinning Shaft 1978, 1983. Drawing connections between these artworks and current and upcoming artworks and projects at the Allosphere and the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, including DJ Javier: San Milano Drive (October 2025) and Falling into the Future: Kinetic Art at the Edge of the World (October 2026)
COLOR, LIGHT, MOTION is an online series featuring media artists and scholars in dialogue about artworks from the Bermant Collection of media and kinetic arts. Each featured presenter will discuss selected artworks in history and context and in relation to their own work and connections. This series is produced in collaboration with Harvestworks NY and the David Bermant Foundation.
Sholeh Asgary’s Qanat is an interactive sound and light installation named after the ancient Iranian underground water channel system. Asgary amplifies the resonant qualities of a traditional rug with the sound of water, as a pendulum microphone hung above picks up the amplified sounds of the rug, movements, and room tone, creating a live feedback loop. Visitors are invited to sit, lay or stand on the rug, affecting the transmission of sound throughout the gallery. The exhibition also includes a series of embossed prints that are topographical mappings created by Asgary’s breath and a video work that references water, transmission, and incommunicability. Qanat reminds us that we are all born into the comforting darkness of sound and water.
Opening on Friday, May 9: 4:00 – 6:00 PM
Location: CNSI Lobby and Art Sci Gallery, 5th Floor of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI)
570 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Parking: Parking Structure 9
675 Charles E Young Dr S, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Navigation: After parking, proceed to the top floor of the structure. Take the gangway along the north side of the lot, then navigate around the CNSI building to its east entrance on the 3rd floor. From there, you can access the lobby and the Art Sci Gallery on the 5th floor.
This Spring, the UCLA Art|Sci Center proudly presents Sound + Science 3.0, the third installment of its trailblazing symposium series, following editions in 2009 and 2019.
Taking place in person on May 1–2, 2025, the symposium will be hosted across three iconic UCLA locations: the Fowler Museum, the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), and the Botanical Gardens.
Held in conjunction with 20 years of the Art|Sci Center and the Center’s exhibition in Getty’s region-wide initiative PST ART: Art & Science Collide, Atmosphere of Sound: Sonic Arts in Times of Climate Disruption, this year’s event brings together leading artists, scientists and scholars to explore the dynamic intersections of sound, science and environmental change.
On view are two works: In Silence… by Joel Ong at the CNSI Art|Sci Gallery, and Electronic Khipu by Patricia Cadavid at the Fowler Museum. Additionally, the Art|Sci Center will launch Leonardo (MIT Press) Volume 58, Issue 2, spotlighting a special theme on Acoustics — a collection of critical discourse on sonic research and artistic experimentation.
Day 01: Thursday, May 1 2025 — Fowler Museum
Time
Program
10:00 – 11:00 am
Refreshments
11:00 – 11:30 am
Victoria Vesna — Welcome & Introduction
11:30 – 12:00 pm
Paul DeMarinis — Talk / Demo
12:00 – 01:00 pm
Lunch
01:00 – 01:30 pm
Carol Parkinson — Talk
01:30 – 02:00 pm
Sergey Kasich — Talk / Demo
02:00 – 02:15 pm
Break
02:15 – 02:30 pm
Anuradha Vikram — Introduction
02:30 – 03:00 pm
David Rothenberg & Sholeh Asgary — Performance
03:00 – 03:15 pm
Break
03:15 – 03:30 pm
David Familian — Introduction
03:30 – 04:15 pm
UCI Group Improvisation — Demo / Performance
04:15 – 04:30 pm
Break
04:30 – 05:00 pm
Roxanne Harris — Performance
05:00 – 06:00 pm
Patricia Cadavid — Performance / Tour
Day 02: Friday, May 2 2025 — Botanical Garden & CNSI Auditorium
Time
Program
09:00 – 10:00 am
Refreshments
10:00 – 10:15 am
Victoria Vesna — Welcome & Introduction
10:15 – 10:45 am
Adam Stieg — Talk
10:45 – 11:15 am
Andrew Pelling — Talk
11:15 – 11:30 am
Break
11:30 – 12:00 pm
JoAnn Kuchera-Morin — Demo / Performance
12:00 – 12:15 pm
Break
12:15 – 12:45 pm
Rachel Mayeri — Screening / Panel
01:00 – 02:00 pm
Break
02:00 – 02:15 pm
Ivana Dama — Introduction
02:15 – 02:45 pm
Seth Cluett — Demo / Performance
02:45 – 03:00 pm
Break
03:00 – 03:30 pm
Patrick Shiroishi — Sound Walk
03:30 – 04:00 pm
Jazzy Romero — Demo / Performance
04:00 – 04:30 pm
Break
04:30 – 05:00 pm
Diana Ayton: Leonardo Special Issue — Event Launch
05:00 – 07:30 pm
Reflection Reception — Closing Event
Locations
Fowler Museum
308 Charles E Young Dr N, Los Angeles, CA 90024
Exit Parking Lot 4 and walk north along Charles E. Young Drive. Turn left onto the pathway leading into North Campus. The Fowler Museum will be straight ahead.
Botanical Garden
707 Tiverton Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Exit south to Charles E Young Drive East and Manning Drive. Walk south along Charles E Young Drive East. Turn left to enter La Kretz Garden Pavilion.
CNSI Auditorium
570 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Walk to the top floor of the parking structure. Take the gangway along the north side of the lot. Navigate around the CNSI building to its East entrance (3rd floor).
Speaker: Val Ravaglia will discuss works from the David Bermant Collection including: Wen-Ying Tsai, Martha Boto, and Julio Le Parc
Responders: Francesca Franco and Darko Fritz
Val Ravaglia is Curator, Displays and International Art at Tate Modern, London, and Curator of Electric Dreams: Art and Technology before the Internet. They assisted with the complete rehang of Tate Modern's Collection Displays in 2015-16 and have curated numerous collection display rooms since 2012. They co-curated the Tate Modern exhibition A Year in Art: Australia 1992 (2021-2023) and led the touring Tate exhibition The Dynamic Eye: Beyond Op and Kinetic Art. They were the Assistant Curator for the 2017 Turbine Hall Commission by SUPERFLEX and Tate Modern’s Nam June Paik retrospective. Their research interests include the intersections of art, science, and technology, as well as non-anthropocentric philosophies and the posthumanities.
Joel Ong’s installation, In Silence …, takes a selection of anecdotal stories abstracted from interviews with individuals at medical, ecological, and socio-cultural frontlines, and “narrates” them through actors limited to non-vocal expressions. A reflecting pool reveals patterns that alternate between emergence and disappearance in synchrony with the story’s emotional valences and as cymatic visualizations of speech. The audio for these stories is accessible through a bone-conductance railing nearby, audible through touch. Ong’s work pays tribute to the resilience of these frontline communities through emotional turmoil and uncertainty that has made them feel they were in a perpetual suspension and immobility. This iteration of In Silence at the UCLA Art Sci Gallery also features two survivor testimonials from the Climate Disaster Project (https://climatedisasterproject.com/stories-archive/).
Opening on Friday, April 4: 2:00 – 5:00 PM
Location: CNSI Lobby and Art Sci Gallery, 5th Floor of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI)
570 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Parking: Parking Structure 9
675 Charles E Young Dr S, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Navigation: After parking, proceed to the top floor of the structure. Take the gangway along the north side of the lot, then navigate around the CNSI building to its east entrance on the 3rd floor. From there, you can access the lobby and the Art Sci Gallery on the 5th floor.
Celia Hollander + Jenna Caravello, Ivana Dama, Iman Person, Paige Emery
Sound & Science: From Signal to Noise is a curated showcase of sound art performances inspired and informed by scientific fields such as physics, biology, and botany, exploring the vast landscape of auditory and visual experiences. Featuring local LA-based and emerging experimental sonic artists working in ‘eco-acoustics,’ this concert presents sound as a post-object art form.
The performances are intrinsically connected to the artists’ activist work, addressing ecological, social, and ancestral issues. Immerse yourself in a unique auditory landscape complemented by live visual elements.
Artists
Celia Hollander + Jenna Caravello
Ivana Dama
Iman Person
Paige Emery
Patricia Cadavid’s Electronic _Khipu_ is an instrument for interaction and experimental sound generation operated by weaving knots with conductive rubber cords into which sound compositions are encoded. This instrument is based on an Andean quipu, the ancient textile “computer” used for the processing, encryption, and transmission of information in knots and cords of cotton and wool. KHIPUMANCY is a Performance Documentation Video that documents the performance of KHIPUMANCY, presented at the Ars Electronica Festival in 2021. In this collaborative performance, Patricia Cadavid and Paola Torres Núñez del Prado explore the interplay between tradition and technology, performing with their respective khipus: the Electronic_Khipu and the ML: Knot() Khipu. Together, they reimagine the Andean khipu as instruments of sound, storytelling, and cultural resilience.
Location: Fowler Museum
Parking: Parking Structure 4
221 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Navigation: Exit Parking Lot 4 and walk north along Charles E. Young Drive. Turn left onto the pathway leading into North Campus. The Fowler Museum will be straight ahead.
Memory Garden by Iman Person is an immersive sonic installation that explores Black speculative archives through somatic memory, ethnobotany, and land extraction. Suspended glass sculptures with ceramic embellishments represent the shape of the hippocampus—the brain’s memory center. Historical and live weather data from St. Ann, Jamaica—such as humidity, air quality, and temperature—triggers layered audio throughout the gallery and the soundscape features a soft drone of 40-hertz tonal frequencies, a potential tool for improving cognitive functions in individuals with memory loss conditions. Memory Garden serves as a manifestation of the codification of language and experience by journeying peoples.
Location: CNSI Lobby and Art Sci Gallery, 5th Floor of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI)
570 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Parking: Parking Structure 9
675 Charles E Young Dr S, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Navigation: After parking, proceed to the top floor of the structure. Take the gangway along the north side of the lot, then navigate around the CNSI building to its east entrance on the 3rd floor. From there, you can access the lobby and the Art Sci Gallery on the 5th floor.
Please join us on Friday, November 15th, 2024, for the opening reception of Robertina Šebjanič’s exhibition, “CO_SONIC 1884 KM2.”
Robertina Šebjanič’s Co_Sonic 1884 km² is an audio/visual-poetic reflection and AI-powered soundscape which explores the Ljubljanica river’s seven distinctly named sections as one integrated whole. Using the sounds and images of different lifeforms who (co)habit along the river’s path, dwelling both above and below the water, this multichannel video and sound installation tells the story of (co)existence among river environments and their human and non-human inhabitants.
Location: CNSI Lobby and Art Sci Gallery, 5th Floor of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI)
570 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Parking: Parking Structure 9
675 Charles E Young Dr S, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Navigation: After parking, proceed to the top floor of the structure. Take the gangway along the north side of the lot, then navigate around the CNSI building to its east entrance on the 3rd floor. From there, you can access the lobby and the Art Sci Gallery on the 5th floor.
>>Video Screening Running in Parallel to the Exhibition
Location: CAP UCLA Nimoy Theater (Nimoy REEL)
The multi-channel video installation at CNSI will be complemented by single- and two-channel presentations of Co_Sonic 1884 km² at the CAP UCLA Nimoy Theater.
No RSVP required https://soundofatmosphere.com/nimoy-theater/
>>Co_Sonic 1884 km² Presentation by the Featured Artist
Date: Friday, December 6, 2024, 4 - 6 PM
Location: EDA (Experimental Digital Art)
A three-channel presentation of Co_Sonic 1884 km² with live audio will be performed by the artist, followed by a conversation on water ecology and the rights of nature with invited guests.
RSVP required
