frost

Maker Made 2022 features work by ATLAS community

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 16:52:05 +0000

Maker Made 2022 features work by ATLAS community Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 02/22/2022 - 09:52

Zack Weaver, an ATLAS lecturer who played a key role in establishing the ATLAS BTU Lab, stands in front of Maker Made 2020. Weaver is a creative technologist at BLDG 61: ��«��Ƶ Library Makerspace and a curator for Maker Made.

A group of six artists and technologists connected to the ATLAS community contributed to ��«��Ƶ Public Library’s Maker Made 2022, which runs through March 28.

If you go

Who: Everyone is invited

What: Maker Made 2022, a gallery show celebrating the diverse and inspiring work by local makers.

When: Runs through March 28. The exhibit is open whenever the library is open.

Where: Canyon Gallery, ��«��Ƶ Public Library, 9th Street and Canyon Boulevard, ��«��Ƶ

Cost: Free

The fourth annual gallery show celebrates the diverse and inspiring work by local makers, representing the collective energy and ambition of a community of inventors, designers, engineers, artists, craftspeople and tinkerers.

“There’s no better way to celebrate a period of creative output than a party and a show-and-tell, and that’s what Maker Made has become,” says Zack Weaver, one of the show’s curators and a creative technologist at BLDG 61: ��«��Ƶ Library Makerspace. BLDG 61’s makerspace provides maker education to the public for free in an “inspiring and inclusive environment.”

Weaver, an ATLAS lecturer who played a key role in establishing the ATLAS BTU Lab, says inspiration for Maker Made dates back to his days as a Carnegie Mellon student of Professor Mark Gross, now director of the ATLAS Institute. Gross, along with university colleagues organized annual exhibitions, similar to the ATLAS Expo, Weaver says.

The ATLAS Connection
Creative Technology and Design graduates Luciano Mejia and Chaz Golin helped curate Maker Made 2022. Hired as "Contract Killer Creative Technologists" in late 2021, the two were major contributors to the show’s success. For exhibits by members of the ATLAS community, see below.

A group of six artists and technologists connected to the ATLAS community contributed to BLDG 61’s Maker Made 2022, which runs through March 28 at the ��«��Ƶ Public Library. Zack Weaver, who played a key role in establishing the ATLAS BTU Lab and the show’s curator, says the inspiration for Maker Made goes back to his days at Carnegie Mellon with ATLAS Director Mark Gross.

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Unstable Design Lab announces open call for second experimental weaving residency

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 16:55:57 +0000

Unstable Design Lab announces open call for second experimental weaving residency Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/19/2021 - 10:55

ATLAS Institute's Unstable Design Lab, directed by Laura Devendorf, will host its second experimental weaving residency with the goal of developing new techniques and open-source resources to support collaboration and innovation across the fiber arts and engineering communities.

Beginning in the spring of 2022, the resident will work with the Unstable Design Lab and other CU ��«��Ƶ researchers to create a series of samples inspired by challenges currently faced by engineering researchers. The resident will be encouraged to work across a wide spectrum of disciplines, bringing their specialized knowledge to bear on such fields as spacesuit design, integration of power harvesting diodes, reusable textile structures for zero-waste manufacturing, structures that dynamically fold and unfold to support mechanical structures or soft robotics.

With dedicated space in the Unstable Design Lab, the resident will have access to a TC2 digital jacquard loom; other weaving, spinning and knitting equipment; traditional and novel weaving materials; programming support for some custom software needs; the fabrication facilities available at the ATLAS Institute; motion-capture and high-end audio equipment in the B2 Center for the Media Art and Performance; and exhibition space to showcase work at the end of the residency.

First residency
The Unstable Design lab received more than 200 applications in 2019 for the first Experimental Weaving Residency to Bridge Art and Engineering, ultimately selecting Sandra Wirtanen. Because of the pandemic, the residency did not occur in 2020 or 2021.

The large number of applicants for the residency reflects a growing interest in the relationship between textiles and emerging technologies, says Devendorf, who co-founded the initiative with Steven Frost, faculty director of the B2 Center for Media, Arts & Performance.

During the six-week residency, Wirtanen collaborated with university researchers and local partners to conceptualize and develop textiles that engaged technology in their design, production or concept, including data-driven or generative design of textiles, textiles with embedded functionality, and/or textiles that embody critical perspectives of technology and society.

The residency is supported by a grant from the Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design, a non-profit organization based in Asheville, NC, dedicated to advancing the understanding of craft by encouraging and supporting research, critical dialogue and professional development.

Applicants should be open-minded, curious and above all deeply knowledgeable about woven structures and their behaviors. No knowledge of computer science, electronics or engineering is required for participation. The application deadline is Sept. 15.

Information and Application

Publications

Laura Devendorf, Katya Arquilla, Sandra Wirtanen, Allison Anderson, and Steven Frost. 2020. Craftspeople as Technical Collaborators: Lessons Learned through an Experimental Weaving Residency. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1–13. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376820 (Honolulu, Hawaii (virtual)–April 25-30, 2020) [Honorable Mention Award].

ATLAS Institute's Unstable Design Lab, directed by Laura Devendorf, will host its second experimental weaving residency with the goal of developing new techniques and open-source resources that can co-evolve fiber arts and engineering practice.

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B2 Center for Media, Arts & Performance Creative Residencies

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 20:08:36 +0000

B2 Center for Media, Arts & Performance Creative Residencies Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/10/2021 - 13:08

The B2 Center for Media, Arts & Performance will be opening its call for 2022/23 Creative Residencies in January, 2022. All CU faculty, staff, students, and recent CU graduates are welcome to apply.

We will be accepting proposals for art installations, musical performances, theatrical productions, dance, experimental digital media, thesis projects, film productions, immersive experiences, collaborations with other campus organizations and more. Non-traditional proposals from people outside the performing and visual arts are encouraged. We will work with you to take your project to the next level by utilizing our newly updated facilities.

Creative residencies include:

Use of B2’s unique spaces and state-of-the-art equipment: black box theater, 360 audio/visual projection, sound system, broadcast/audio recording studios, professional-quality green screens and motion capture capabilities to name a few.
Technical/production support from B2’s staff, student workers and engineers
Promotion by the ATLAS communications team. (Check out this Q&A with 2020 creative resident Britney Banaei.)
Professional video and photo documentation of the project.
Project consultation/brainstorming/mentorship/collaboration from B2’s diverse community of practitioners.

Check back soon!

[video:https://vimeo.com/519225454]

For more information about our 2021/2022 Creative Residency, email steven.frost@colorado.edu or ondine.geary@colorado.edu.

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Q&A with Brittney Banaei, the artist and designer-of-movement behind “Overworld”

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 20:37:52 +0000

Q&A with Brittney Banaei, the artist and designer-of-movement behind “Overworld” Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/11/2020 - 13:37

As she wraps up the second week of her residency with the B2 Center for Media, Art and Performance in the ATLAS Institute, dancer and performer Brittney Banaei and her collaborators Constance Harris and Laura Conway have completed a vivid and dynamic performance, but they will perform it without an audience. Instead, there will be cameras capturing the work from multiple angles and as soon as they have edited the footage, B2 will share it online.

Banaei is the first artist since the COVID-19 shutdown to have a residency in B2, where interdisciplinary and experimental artists regularly develop and perform works that blends technology, media and science. She is an MFA candidate and instructor in the Department of Theatre and Dance, who describes her research and choreographic work as “exploring culture, history, politics and surveillance through movement of the human body.”

She describes “Overworld,” the project she’s worked on during her residency, as an investigation of the distinction between private and public worlds and the impact of digital spaces on these concepts. The goal is to “delve into the role of visibility and observation on our daily actions and behaviors, considering who has true power in a virtual world. Observers are called to question who determines their actions and to consider their “invisibility” despite heightened external surveillance.

The B2 staff are particularly excited about Banaei’s work. After the center was closed for 16 months due to a burst water line in September of 2018, they reopened in January 2020, hosting two artists before their doors were closed for the pandemic.

With work that is compelling both in context and content, we sat down with Banaei to ask about the inspiration, process and challenges she’s encountered in the creation of “Overworld.”

Can you tell us a little about your background and interests?

I’m a dancer with a background in styles of the Middle East and North Africa. I’m Iranian and American and am currently interested in the effects of the 1979 Revolution and the related surveillance culture on the Iranian diasporic identity. In my scholarly pursuits, I am greatly influenced by philosophy, political science, international relations, and international law. I also like powerlifting!

What goals did you have for this residency?

My first and foremost goal with this residency was to have a positive experience building the show, and then to facilitate an environment in which we are encouraged to take care of ourselves. As an artist, I’m not hyper-focused on product or output. I am much more interested in what we can learn during the process. I’m mostly just excited to have the opportunity to make something with people I love and admire during this complicated time.

That being said, the creative goal of this particular show was to create a multilayered alternative universe that investigates the public/private distinction and how those two things commingle and unfold. Some of our central questions are how does being watched (or not watched) influence identity, behavior, and self-perception? How does our choice to be seen or not be seen translate to empowerment? Are we ever “turned off?” What are the social and political implications of hyper-visibility, especially as it relates to marginalized bodies? In a digital world, who is really calling the shots, even behind closed doors?

What drives your creative process?

Information. I wish I was a “once a day” creator, but I’m a “stew-er.” I read, listen, learn, and think about things (often actually unrelated to dance or art), until relationships, patterns, and connections that inspire me emerge. Then, when I feel like my brain is at critical mass and I need to sort it all out, I start making and moving. The body keeps secrets from the mind, and moving illuminates those secrets. Movement is a really good tool for finding missing links that language can’t quite get to.

What changes in your work when you collaborate with others?

Collaboration is my favorite way to work because it changes the work. Collaboration (most of the time) pulls everyone’s egos off of their axes, and what you’re left with is this automatically multi-dimensional concept from the outset. As the project builds, so do the relationships. We all begin to learn from one another, and we walk away with much more than a project. It’s challenging work, but worthwhile. I also like the faster pace; with the right people in the room, decisions are made quickly and you’re less likely to get stuck. It is also way more fun and productive to problem-solve with other people. I am a fan of all things layered and collaged, so bringing multiple perspectives into the process makes good sense to me.

What are your current collaborators allowing you to explore or do in this project that you wouldn’t be able to do/explore otherwise?

As far as this project is concerned, there are lots of special things about this trio: I feel like Laura has a knack for standing back from two options and finding a third option that combines both. She has an eye for aesthetics and brings technical knowledge around film and media. Constance is a stunning and intelligent mover and very patient (which I am not), so her energy alone lends so much to this process. We met numerous times in the lead-up to the residency, which helped clarify our driving questions for the work. Her openness and clarity inspire the people around her to be more open and clear. I can get really stuck in my head and start intellectualizing everything, and Constance keeps the focus on movement and embodiment. We were also so fortunate to have the last-minute addition of DJ Anton Kreuger, whose music brought new and exciting dimensions to the performance.

Most importantly, these artists are people I love, trust and want to be around. They are funny, kind, brilliant and hard-working—what more could you ask for?

How has COVID-19 changed the way you think and create? How have you responded to the pandemic’s challenges?

This question is really hard. I wish I could offer some inspiring words, but I have definitely NOT been resilient and flexible during this time, nor have I been very positive. I found myself asking “What is the point?!” or “Do I even dance anymore?” And yet I came to realize that, while I tried, I can’t just NOT create. It is a little too easy to isolate during this time, so having a reason to get out of the house and make something with my friends is incredibly helpful.

Art and performance are vital. I know that now more than ever. I’ve moved from a place of nihilism—convinced that artistic life as we knew it was dying—to the understanding that we are actually renegotiating what art looks like and creating new pathways. We are making tunnels, overpasses, underpasses and altering time in order to continue to reach one another and make art. That doesn’t mean we are gleaming with dewy positivity; we are disheveled, sweating and dirty from the work. But we are carving a future with each effort, however uncertain it may be.

So I ask, “Can I make low-stakes art and let the meaning be found in the making?” and “Can it still be a performance if no one sees it?” and “How is the visibility of the body, with its increased duality (digital and physical), contributing to the social, political and emotional development of an emerging era?”

What has working in B2 let you accomplish that you may not have been able to elsewhere?

We are so thankful to the amazing crew we've had the opportunity to work with at B2. Their help (and patience) has made a profound difference in how we’ve realized the vision for this show. We've not only had access to space, lighting, sound and projection equipment, but we’ve also had support from experienced professionals who helped us put the technology to work and realize the ideas we had in mind. Anyone who has ever self-produced, or produced with few resources (dancers, I'm looking at you), knows how valuable this is. This project would have looked much different without it and we are incredibly grateful. We are also grateful to the Department of Theatre and Dance for procuring all the props and set pieces we needed, and David Leclerc for coding our “movement randomizer.”

Creating during COVID has been a little weird, but the experience has been so positive.

Banaei's Website

“Overworld” Collaborators

Constance Harris

Constance Harris is an MFA dance student in the Department of Theatre and Dance. A New Jersey native with a bachelor's in anthropology, Harris has a passion for go-go dancing and nightlife culture. She has over 20 years of experience in a variety of dance genres ranging from modern to Middle Eastern, nightlife entertainment, and vernacular dances based on Africanist aesthetics. Harris's choreographic work currently uses her experiences as a performer in nightlife culture to create loosely structured improvisation-based pieces that find truth and agency within that which unsettles. As a black, second-generation, female-identifying, fluid and cerebral individual, how does one make sense of finding delight in exhibition that has the potential to novelize, exoticize and demonize the self through a voyeur’s eyes? Her work interrogates the grey area of preconceived notions and popular truths versus personal realities.

Harris's website

Laura Conway

Laura Conway is a filmmaker, DJ and curator based in Denver, Colorado. She holds an MFA in studio arts with an emphasis on moving image arts from the University of Colorado, ��«��Ƶ. Conway's filmmaking practice uses absurdity and surrealism to grapple with the complexities of life in late capitalism. As a DJ and musician, Conway's films operate as visual remixes and often start with music as a center point. Employing whimsy to confront power structures, Conway’s films navigate a terrain between the grotesque and the sensual, the sonic and the visual, and the cliched and the still-possible.

Conway's website

Anton Kreuger

Anton Kreuger is a Denver-based producer and musician.

Kreuger’s website

Update: The Overworld video premiered on February 18 via livestream. We’re delighted to be able to also share the team's work with you here.

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Q&A with new B2 director Steven Frost

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 19:20:45 +0000

Q&A with new B2 director Steven Frost Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/22/2020 - 13:20

B2 Reimagined: New B2 director Steven Frost shares the opportunities and difficulties of opening ATLAS Institute’s B2 Center for Media, Arts and Performance during the pandemic and his vision for B2’s future.

On September 29, 2018, water from a burst line outside the Roser ATLAS building flooded the basement, destroying equipment and causing extensive damage to the ATLAS Black Box and related studios and equipment operated by the institute’s Center for Media, Arts and Performance.

Two years later, the center is back online with updated equipment, new leadership, a new name and a new graphic identity. The mission of the B2 Center for Media, Arts and Performance is to support interdisciplinary experimentation and radical creativity that blends art, technology, media, science and performance. In more normal times, B2, as it is casually called, supports a series of artists through the year, who take advantage of the space and equipment to push the boundaries of performance art, performing for small audiences at the end of two-week residencies.

This fall B2’s reduced schedule features two artists, but the team is planning for a more normal program in the spring, albeit with no live performances. These artists will be the first to make use of some of the new equipment, which includes. fifth-order ambisonic speakers, wave field synthesis, 360-video projection, motion capture technology and a Network Device Interface that enables almost instantaneous video transmission over wifi.

In May 2020, ATLAS also named a new faculty director for B2, interdisciplinary artist and media studies instructor Steven Frost, who is supported by a new executive director, Ondine Geary. Geary doubles as the outreach coordinator for the Department of Theatre and Dance. In the interview that follows, Frost discusses his vision for the center and how they are navigating the challenges posed by the pandemic.

As a textile artist, why were you interested in B2’s faculty director position?

I have a master’s degree in fiber and material studies, and I work with textiles, but much of my work is interdisciplinary. In my practice I work with people who do digital fabrication in various makerspaces, and I know how essential collaboration with electrical engineers and other creatives is for artists. Really my art practice is about building community and creating crossovers between technology and traditional art mediums—exactly the kind of collaborations for which ATLAS is known.

What distinguishes B2 from other studios?

B2 provides an opportunity for artists to picture possibilities that they had not previously imagined for their practices by working with our skilled and patient team of technicians and a center with a wealth of connections. Not only do we have many artists inside ATLAS, but the institute is connected to an engineering college, we share a wall with the art museum, film studies shares our building, and the Theatre and Dance Department is just down the street. Our physical location and relationships provide amazing opportunities, and it’s extremely exciting to see that cross-pollination across disciplines and ideas.

What is your vision for the future of the B2 space?

My vision is for writers, dancers and scientists to come into B2 and learn what they can achieve within the space. I’m also interested in bringing people to B2 who are not as comfortable working in technologically advanced spaces, so we can show them the facilities and possibilities and support experimentation. Historically, the development of music and art was led by people willing to experiment with new technologies that fall outside their typical fields, playing with experimental media and finding a new vibe or a new approach. I am really excited to make that opportunity more available to the CU ��«��Ƶ campus. I also want students to be able to take classes inside B2 that are taught by instructors from across the university, again to encourage interdisciplinary thinking and introduce new ideas to the performing arts.

As an artist, what are you thinking about these days?

When you are trying to create a creative space, subtlety is important, and I often talk about this in my media studies class. With emails, texts and even video, the subtext is difficult to convey. The idea of subtext has become so much harder in this digital world where people kind of say what they mean and you are left wondering where authenticity lives.

How are things going for B2 during the COVID-19 pandemic?

It's been an interesting time for B2 to relaunch. The space is quite active. There aren’t immediate plans for live audiences, but instead we are focusing on student and faculty research inside the space. Ten resident artists will come here this year, including some from the dance and media studies departments. The projects that most of these artists envisioned were pre-COVID, so they have made adjustments and will share their work in other ways, including livestreaming via social media.

Due to the remote format, students have had more time to experiment during the pandemic. The normal two-week residency has not been enough time for some students to complete a live show in. Now, they can make the most of the facilities and create work for digital broadcast or their portfolios using a longer production time frame.

Will the ATLAS Black Box be offering livestream events during the pandemic?

We are finishing our renovations on a three-camera broadcast studio, one of the best facilities to do a livestream, and we will definitely broadcast some events. We’re also interested in exploring live media in the Zoom world; we have the technical ability and the staff expertise for it to look great.

Do you see any lasting benefits of the COVID-related restrictions to B2?

In the creative world, digital media art has been questioned because of its lack of analog tangibility. However, in COVID times it’s taken on more significance and relevance to art instructors in particular. When we come out of COVID, my hope is that digital art will have a more prominent place in creative spaces and that B2 will be in a position to house, nurture and promote it.

Photo by Elliot Whitehead

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