Primavera

Festival of Contemporary Arts and Digital Media

April 20–24, 2009, UCSB

In the Spirit of Henry B.

April 24 — Media Garden

Media Garden is a combined art exhibition and performance event featuring art installations, audio-visual works, and computer music compositions by students in UCSB’s Media Arts and Technology Program and Music Department. Contributors of new art include Justin Hoffman, Pehr Hovey, Andrès Burbano, Aaron McLeran, Anıl Çamcı, and Salman Bakht, as well as forceful output from instructor Matt Wright and his Rhythm Seminar.

Image on left by Salman Bakht; images on right by Pehr Hovey.

Contributors

Salman Bakht is a new media artist and composer currently studying in the Media Arts and Technology Program at the UCSB. Salman’s work focuses on the reuse and transformation of recorded audio (music samples, recorded speech, environmental recordings). He is interested in creating art which analyzes, represents, and integrates with the physical environment and the media landscape.

Andrès Burbano, originally from Colombia, explores the interactions of science, art and technology in various capacities: as a researcher, as an individual artist and in collaborations with other artists and designers. Burbano’s work ranges from documentary video (in both science and art), sound and telecommunication art to the exploration of algorithmic cinematic narratives. The broad spectrum of his work illustrates the importance — indeed, the prevalence — of interdisciplinary collaborative work in the field of digital art. Andrès Burbano is currently a Ph.D. candidate of Media Arts and Technology at University of California Santa Barbara.

Anıl Çamcı, an Istanbul based composer/artist, is currently a graduate student in the Media Arts and Technology Department, University of California, Santa Barbara as an Electronic Music and Sound Design major. He holds degrees in Electrical Engineering from Istanbul Technical University and Sound Engineering and Design from ITU Centre for Advanced Studies in Music. He composes for computers and instruments, and studies the creation of new means to generate electronic music and visuals.

Justin Hoffman is an immersive fine artist researching sensory environments, live performance audio/visuals, and interactive integration. His current curatorial work with art performances and exhibitions focuses on an infusion of new genres/contemporary art in low income areas of the urban landscape.

Pehr Hovey is a Master’s Student in MAT pursuing an M.S. in Multimedia Engineering. He comes to MAT from a Computer Science & Computer Engineering background and is interested in using electronics and novel computer programs to create live visual performances. He is especially interested in developing ways for the audience to interact with and contribute to the evolving visual presentation. Website

Aaron McLeran studied physics and music at the liberal arts school, Kalamazoo College, and later earned a masters degree in physics from Notre Dame. In 2007, he worked as an interactive music composer for the computer game, SPORE. He is currently a graduate student in the Media Arts and Technology program pursuing a masters degree in computer music composition. Aaron is interested in generative media, granular synthesis, and musical interface and interactivity. He is currently developing an application which allows for the real-time visualization and interaction of atomic decompositions (i.e. a granular synthesis model) of sound.