Digital Incarnate: The Body, Identity and Interactive Media :: February 8 - April 2, 2010 :: Reception: February 11; 6:00 - 9:00 pm :: The Arcade, Columbia College, 618 S Michigan Avenue, 2nd floor, Chicago, IL.

Whether through motion capture, live processing, animation or other means of data visualization, the body is the referent and inspiration for many digital media artists working with interactive technologies. Digital Incarnate: The Body, Identity, and Interactive Media is an investigation into this confluence, gazing through multiple lenses to explore the body and identity as they are transformed and represented through technological evolution. As the body is digitally reflected and reborn, are we looking towards technology to experience ourselves in a redeemed form outside of human societal constructs? When technology captures kinetic energy, is our essence embodied in the pixilation, or is our “self” lost in the process?

Through dynamic works by Luftwerk, OpenEnded Group, and Troika Ranch, as well as the Synchronous Objects web kiosk created by William Forsythe, Maria Palazzi, and Norah Zuniga Shaw, we hope to bring forward exploratory ideas that push and pull our perceptions of the body and impulses to move beyond it into uncharted cyber territory. This exhibition is co-curated by Alycia Scott and Sara Slawnik.

Digital Incarnate is presented by Columbia College Chicago’s Department of Exhibition and Performance Spaces, The Dance Center, the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media and the Interactive Arts and Media Department.

RELATED PROGRAMMING: Gallery Talks with Exhibition Artists :: The Arcade, 618 S. Michigan, 2nd Floor, Chicago, IL 60605 :: Free and open to the public.

•    OpenEnded Group, February 12, 12:15 pm
•    Synchronous Objects, March 2, 12:15 pm
•    Troika Ranch, March 4, 12:15 pm
•    Luftwerk, March 25, 12:15 pm

Panel Discussion: “Corporeality and the Digital Gaze” :: Monday, March 1, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. ::
Stage 2, 618 S Michigan Ave, 2nd Floor, Chicago, IL 60605 :: Free and open to the public

This panel discussion will investigate “the body” when explored through collaborative possibilities of performance and technology. It will feature a conversation among pioneering artists whose work engages the body and digital media, specifically interrogating the ever-increasing digitized gaze, the transcription of the body through data visualization, and the impact it has on the body’s cultural contexts. Panelists will include:

•    Grisha Coleman: composer, performer and choreographer; Assistant Professor in Arts, Media and Engineering at Arizona State University.
•    Marianne Kim: artist and educator working in dance, theatre and video art; Assistant Professor at Arizona State University’s Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies Department.
•    Maria Palazzi: co-creative director of Synchronous Objects; Director of the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design, and Associate Professor of Design at The Ohio State University.
•    Dawn Stoppiello: choreographer and dancer; Executive Director and Artistic Co-Director of Troika Ranch.
•    Moderated by Raquel Monroe: Assistant Professor at The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
http://www.colum.edu/deps&lt
http://www.colum.edu/engage
http://www.colum.edu/institutewomengender

CONTACT:
Alycia Scott, Co-Curator, 312-369-8341, ascott [at] colum.edu
Sara Slawnik, Co-Curator, 312-369-8845, sslawnik [at] colum.edu