Limitations of space and communication are challenged in Space to Space, a spring 2020 virtual exhibition by CalArts Center for Integrated Media (CIM).
The exhibition title is inspired by a quote from Korean American artist Nam June Paik, known as the “father of video art”:
Telephone is point to point communication system. Radio-TV is a point to space communication system … like fish egg. Ultimate goal of video revolution is the establishment of space to space, or plain to plain communication without confusion and interference each other.
With the exhibition stymied by coronavirus and migrated to a virtual platform, CIM and Program in Art and Technology Director Tom Leeser questions: “What happens to the artist’s ability to communicate due to an undesired eviction from their common space––an unwanted revolution caused by a virus that instills interference and confusion. What ensues when the artist’s physical space is no longer deemed safe and it is forcibly replaced by the virtual?”
Space to Space showcases projects ranging from a choose your own adventure experience to an augmented reality (AR) mobile app to even an ASMR video. Kai-Luen Liang’s (Music MFA 20) Flag ASMR is filmed with all the characteristics used to elicit the autonomous sensory meridian response: whispers and soft speech, slow movements, and deliberate noises. The installation seeks to draw the viewer’s attention to their sensory memories, inspired by the artist’s “silent” recollections of 9/11.
Participants include: Lillian Liyuan Yang (Art MFA 20), Mia Yao Meng (Art MFA 20), Jenny Eom (Art MFA 20), Alexeis Reyes (Art MFA 20), Sterling Hedges (Art MFA 20), Xiaoyun Zeng (Art MFA 20), Freddy Ruiz (Art MFA 20), Tracy Yue Fang (Art MFA 20), Weilu Ge (Interschool MFA 20), Kai-Luen Liang (Music MFA 20), Marc Laroussini (Music MFA 20), Woohee Cho (Art MFA 20), Huizhen Zhong (Theater MFA 21), and Kathleen Fox (Art MFA 21).
CIM is an interdisciplinary, peer-to-peer, project-based learning environment for qualified graduate students wanting to explore and critique: multimedia performance, electronics, interactive systems, immersion, non-linear narrative, and the Internet as part of their creative practice. In 2019, CIM presented Project Scream, an eclectic digital sound archive hosted on its online curatorial space viralnet-v4.net.
Check out the Space by Space CIM online exhibition here.