Upcoming Events at the Intersection of Art and Faith!

Sunday, Thursday, Saturday...

My recent endeavors coming to fruition

"As Above, So Below," 2014
TRINITY UNITED CHURCH
118 King George Rd, Warren, NJ

3 EVENTS NEXT WEEK:
As Artist of the Month at TUC, the church commissioned me to create an interactive, site specific, new media installation. With this I will be leading 3 exciting events this coming week. You can follow the links below to their respective Facebook Events pages, but more importantly come on out and join me for one or all of them!

1. Artist Talk and Reception
   This Sunday 7/20, Immediately following 10:30 am service (c. 11:30 am)
   I will be speaking about my installation and other work on display, as well as the evolution of my practice in light of the themes of art and faith. All are welcome to join me for the service prior to the talk as well. There will be food and drink (church folks are good about that...)


2. Discussion Forum on Contemporary Issues of Art and Faith
   Next Thursday 7/24, 7-9 pm
   I will be leading a presentation and space for open discussion about the role of art in a spiritual context, and strategies for its effective use within religious institutions.


3. Contemplative Service
   Next Saturday 7/26, 6-7 pm
   I will be facilitating a service of guided and free Contemplation/Meditation aided by my artwork. We will borrow from traditional mystical strategies as well as contemporary phenomenological thought to open ourselves to a new experience of the divine.

 

I hope you can make it out for these events (each at the church address provided above). They are all FREE and open to the public.

* I promise an intriguing set of events regardless of your spiritual leanings, but for my more theologically inquisitive friends, Trinity United Church is an Open and Affirming/More Light congregation (supportive of the LGBTQ community) that combines the Presbyterian and United Church of Christ denominations. It is known for its radical hospitality, inclusivity, and its history of supporting the arts. Every week they welcome guests by saying, "no matter who you are or where you are in life's journey, you are welcome here!"
And so you are.

Continue on to the final post on this project here

As Above So Below, Part II

Tomorrow I will be installing my commissioned projection piece for Trinity United Church, As Above So Below. (See the beginnings of it and more of the conceptual groundwork in my prior post, here).

I've been doing quite a bit of coding, translating my fantasies into Java in Processing, and it's just about all ready to go!

Basically it works like this: a Kinect sensor views the room. The code devides the room into 25 zones (by x y z location, cropped into circles [with the exception of 5 rectangular zones]), and masks those zones so that anything that falls within those given thresholds gets displayed, and anything else gets omitted. 

It then takes those 25 masked depth images (in real time), tints them a color, resizes, repositions, rotates, and then ultimately displays them in a space masked to fit to the real space of the choir loft ceiling when projected. The colors are somewhat transparent to allow for overlays and infinite other incidental color blends.

The position, size, rotation angle, and color of each overlaid image are all chosen at random, and every 50 minutes it resets, randomly reselecting a new configuration to replace the previous one. Since the piece is by nature interactive and dynamic, I wanted the composition itself to be in flux as well; something that cannot be grasped as a fixed absolute. That's absolutely a theological statement too. And should it land on a configuration that's not so aesthetically pleasing, there is grace:  a "minute of jubilee" (after the 49th minute, of course) in which all decisions are forgiven and the canvas is wiped clean to start again.

This will also create an ever changing ambiance in the choir loft chancel area. In dimmer light, the room will become engulfed in the stained-glass projection glow of the ever-changing, layered colors.

Here are some example images. The interaction is limited in these to me waving my hand at my desk, but it will become much more dynamic when the room is filled with people. Yet even with one person, the repetition and fragmentation of form gives what I think is a pleasing kaleidoscopic effect suitable for contemplation-in-motion.

Next to fit it to the space and then watch people interact with it!

Click here for the next post on this project

I Saw the Light

Last week See the Light opened at the Attleboro Arts Museum in Massachusetts, for which my projection negation piece, UnKnowledge, had the distinction of adorning the title wall! As promised, Here are some of pictures of the opening. The show will be on view until 7/23/14, and you can track the beginning of this endeavor in my earlier 2 posts, here.

Me and my work

projection onto painting, calibrated so that they optically negate each other until the viewer interacts and reveals the painting with his shadow

Betsy Connors's transmission holograms 

I love watching kids interact with my projections!

Matthew 18:3

Museum Director Mim Fawcett unveiling the theme of next year's national juried show

Go check it out! This is a show worth seeing in person!