Fall 2013 Artist Lecture Series
UMaine Intermedia MFA Program Announces Fall 2013 Visiting Artist Series
The University of Maine Intermedia MFA program is pleased to announce the artists for the Fall 2013 Visiting Artist Series. Presenting this Fall are Zach Poff, Alix Pearlstein, Dudley Zopp, Luciano Chessa, Miguel Gutierrez and Joe Winter. Each artist will present a public lecture at the University of Maine campus in Orono, Maine.
The six artists for the Spring 2013 Visiting Artist Series will present on their diverse research and art practices that range from, but are not limited to, experimental music, performance, social activism, computer coding, painting and film.
Zach Poff (September 19) is a New York area digital media artist, educator, and maker-of-things. Through his artwork, teaching, and software he examines the tremendous opportunities and challenges that arise from the translation of our experiences into “information”. His recent work has been focused on how traditional broadcasting reverberates into digital media and influences notions of an emerging post-broadcast discourse.
Alix Pearlstein (October 1) uses conceptual sculpture, multi-channel installation, and performance-based video to create narrative meaning through association. Characterized by deadpan humor and a minimalist aesthetic, Pearlstein’s approach is direct and intimate. Her videotapes engage in wry, self-conscious renderings of icons of style, gender, media, and art historical Modernism. (Sponsored by Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture)
Dudley Zopp (October 29) is a painter whose installations combine articulations constructed from builder’s paper with paintings and found materials. Together, they offer the viewer a walk through geological and cultural history in which simulations of tectonic movements and rock formations give birth to a literate understanding of landscape embodied in image and text.
Miguel Gutierrez (November 9) is a New York based dance and music artist who has been called “one of our most provocative and necessary artistic voices” by Eva Yaa Asantewaa of Dance Magazine. Gutierrez’s work sits inside a legacy of process-focused experimental dance while drawing on far-reaching influences such as endurance based performance art, noise music, ecstatic experience in social and religious rituals, the study of mind/body somatic systems, and various histories of spectacle including Broadway, Vegas, and queer performance in alternative clubs from the 80’s.
Luciano Chessa (November 12) is a musician whose research focuses on twentieth-century and experimental music and can be found in Musica e Storia (Levi Foundation, Venice); he is the author of Luigi Russolo, Futurist (University of California Press), the first English monograph dedicated to the Art of Noises. Chessa is active as a composer, performer and conductor. His scores are published by RAI TRADE and Carrara and performed in Europe, the United States and Australia.
Joe Winter (December 5) makes sculptures that re-purpose familiar technological systems and undermine their functional ”sense.“ Past works have targeted sound-related technologies and objects, and have included: a cassette tape that draws three-dimensional moving images; pianos driving in endless circles; and telephones that talk only to each other. (Sponsored by Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture)
The University of Maine Intermedia department is excited to host this diverse group of artists, as they will undoubtedly appeal to a wide collection of interests of students, faculty and the local community. The public is invited to participate in this lecture series to gain exposure to distinguished and contemporary artists, educationally beneficial engagement opportunities, and interaction with professionals from a variety of cultural and critical backgrounds. All events are free and open to the public.
Individual press releases will follow announcing time and location.
These events are sponsored by the Intermedia MFA Program, the Department of New Media, the University of Maine Cultural Affairs / Distinguished Lecture Series, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and the Correll Professorship in New Media.
For more information contact Bethany Engstrom at bethany.engstrom@maine.edu