Getchyo New Media Art On--M.A.T. show at UC-Santa Barbara

I left work early yesterday to drive up to Santa Barbara and see the end of year show for the Media Art & Technology program at UCSB. It was awesomely held at the Calfornia Nanosystems Institute. I went to support my partner in crime's boyfriend and his work...but I also wanted to check out the work coming out of the program since I recently finished my time at the Center for Integrated Media at CalArts...competing programs and all.

What I saw was a lot of concern with the z-axis. Every program has its trends. At CIM this year it was about looking at the differences between metaphor and metonymy, and the issues surrounding highly participatory (often Relational) art. The MAT boys (and like 3 girls) were all really interested in negotiating virtual space. Some of the work was interesting--Andres Burbano's new take on the camera obscura for example--but largely it fell flat for me. A lot of the pieces would have been better had the tracking been tighter, the sensor delays shorter, etc...but I was a bit bored.

Karl Yerke's hard disk reclamation work was strong. He takes objects whose carbon footprints have already been spent, re-works them, and turns them into tools for music. Interesting outcomes, and satisfying interface.

I got to check out the Allosphere, and talked with JoAnn Kuchera-Morin who recently spoke at TED, which is a life goal for me (TED, not talking to her). It was a nice merging of my current world (art, new media) and my hopefully world-to-be, NeuroPsych.

Soon I'm going to have to post on the far more interesting part of this trip--the sociological craziness. The smell of douche/tool was thick in the air, but more on that later.