[June 11] Birdsong Mimic Workshop: Mobile App to Installation Space by Max Kazemzadeh

This Birdsong Mimic Workshop introduces attendees to the overall structure for building and connecting interactive mobile apps, using the Ketai and Cassette Libraries, via a web server to automatically generate realtime kinetic events in an interactive installation anywhere in the world via Processing and Arduino. This investigation in ubiquitous computing, locative media, and hardware and kinetic extensions in the exhibition space, are some of the topics presently undergoing research leading to the expansion of the Birdsong Diamond: Mimic Project.

June 11th 2016, 1:30-2:30pm – Presentation on Governor’s Island at The TEAM Lab: Artworks and Experiences

Governors Island Nolan Park Building 5b

Ferry Schedule:

The presentation on Governors Island will be about the technology developed and used in Egyrithms(2013), Dabarithms(2014), and Beirithms(2016) projects as well as the next phase of Birdsong Diamond: Mimic

June 25, Workshop on Governors Island

Workshop attendees will learn how to set up the overall communication structure from phone or Arduino in one location through a web server and out to a computer and Arduino in another location. Also introduced will be the next steps necessary to scale the project up for larger installations, which would allow for more data transfer and management using node.js. Those with some experience with Processing and Arduino will be able to pick up quickly, however, the workshop is geared to introduce a scalable easy to teach model for data communication from phone to physical installation from the ground up.

Bio

Max Kazemzadeh is an Associate Professor and Program Director of Art & Media Design in the Art, Communication & Theater Department at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, and is presently completing a Ph.D. with the Planetary Collegium at the University of Plymouth (UK) under the Supervision of Roy Ascott, Victoria Vesna, and Mike Phillips. Kazemzadeh uses a syncretic approach to investigate connections between art, technology, and consciousness within his research, experiments and interactive installations. His work over the last ten years focused on how constructed, semi-conscious interfaces influence human perception and interaction. Directly connected to elements within machine perception and recognition, his work feeds naturally into his research, which investigates the significance and value of errors in perception and identification (via the senses) as essential contributions to creativity and innovative thought.

This summer, Kazemzadeh completed a work entitled Beirithms, in collaboration with artist Reza Safavi, which employs the process of the French Situationist into Algorithms for a phone app that directed him around the city of Beijing, and map those activities to a 3 x 3 meter physical rice dropping system to create a topological map representing time in different locations of the city. Egyrithms was a previous system exhibiting in Egypt in 2013 at Di-Egy Festival and Dabarithms exhibited in Dubai at ISEA 2014, each with different systems. Kazemzadeh has been invited to be the first artist in residence at the Medialab Prado in Madrid during the month of June, where he will build and exhibit Madritmos in July.

In June, 2015, collaborating with UCLA Professor Dr. Victoria Vesna, Joel Ong, and John Brumley. “Birdsong Diamond: Mimic” exhibited at the New York Electronic Art Festival (NYEAF) with Harvestworks, on Governors Island, and then performed it between 46th and 47th Streets in Times Square, and then again at the home of Linda Weintraub. The second iteration is on exhibit now again with Harvestworks on Governor’s Island. Kazemzadeh exhibits internationally, gives workshops, and lectures on innovative uses with a wide array of technology along with natural systems.

Kazemzadeh also serves as a contributing advisor to the Cultural Programs of the National Academy of the Sciences’ DASER events (DC Art Science Evening Rendezvous) in Washington, DC, and is presently working on an interactive kinetic skateboard-tracking/data-visualization project using hardware, software and a skateboard bowl relocated from the Kennedy Center’s “Finding a Line” Project (with necessary gyroscopic and bluetooth hardware provided by a grant from NASA).