Upgrade! Boston

rss-feed

Tag Archives: history

Events March 11, 2010; 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
ACT - MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, 3rd Floor, Room N51-390, Cambridge, MA.

soldier_machineHere’s a PDF of Pete’s presentation.

Pete Froslie received his MFA from the Studio for Interrelated Media at the Massachusetts College of Art in 2008. He moved to Boston in 2005 from Reno, Nevada, where he earned his BFA in Digital Media. He returns to Reno periodically to teach courses at the University of Nevada, Reno, and to remain an active part of the community. In 2008 he was recognized as one of the top five graduating visual artists by the Boston Globe. His work has been discussed and highlighted online and in print, including MAKE, Gizmodo, the Boston Globe, RN&R, and the Reno Gazette.

Currently living and working in Boston, Froslie explores diverse tangents ranging from alternative historical fiction and documentary, to electro-mechanical sculpture and prostheses. The work is often created giving attention to playfulness and toys, while considering automated movement between surface and infrastructure in the context of New Media.

Booth_on_vacationWorking with an expanding narrative for nearly five years, Froslie’s ongoing project Booth focuses on research into journey aesthetics. A surface, or skin, is appropriated from John Wilkes Booth, and automated according to a fictional expedition that weaves through historical sites, online networks, and kinetic sculptures. Booth, an assassin from the US Civil War, is summoned back into existence as he moves between physical and virtual spaces. His journey through the work is cataloged and recorded meticulously in an evolving manual with an undetermined point of conclusion.

Events May 19, 2009; 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
Center for Advanced Visual Studies/MIT, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, 3rd Floor, Room N51-390, Cambridge

lilyhongleiPLEASE NOTE: DIFFERENT VENUE :: May 19, 2009; 7:00 – 9:00 pm [CAVS/MIT, entrance next to the MIT Museum] [Red Line Train to Central Square]

Lily & Honglei (杨熙瑛, 李宏磊), the artist team from Beijing, recently initiated the DSL Cyber Museum of Contemporary Art / DSL 虚拟当代艺术馆_中文网, based on the DSL Collection and their artwork Land of Illusion in Second Life. Cyber MoCA — built with virtual traditional Chinese architecture — houses a series of virtual installations, multimedia presentations and online performances accomplished through cross-continental artist collaborations (since 2007). Cyber MoCA is a cultural meditation engaging history, philosophy, and the Chinese diaspora. It examines the current economic development of China within the context of globalization, while simultaneously exploring the meaning of virtual online communities in terms of global dialogues as they relate to cultural roots and the “fantasy” of China.

lilyLand of Illusion functions as a net-art platform aiming to fulfill the promise that the Internet is the direct continuation of Enlightenment thought, namely promoting cultural openness, decentralization and independent thinking. As Chinese contemporary artists, Lily & Honglei consider these aspects extremely relevant to art-making.

The DSL Collection represents 90 of the leading Chinese avant-garde artists who have a major influence on the development of contemporary art in China today. It was started from a museum approach, which means that we are collecting a wide range of media including painting, sculpture, installation, video, and photography. We want to share the experience of contemporary culture and to make it more accessible and meaningful for a broader public. DSL Collection participates in conferences, seminars, and talks hosted by institutions or at special events. The DSL Collection has participated in seminar at Tsinghua and Shanghai Universities, and been scheduled for a seminar at ARCO Madrid 2009 and a lecture at New York University.

DSL Cyber MoCA will officially open in Second Life on April 30, 2009. All Second Life users (instructions here) can teleport directly to the museum.

Lily & Honglei (杨熙瑛, 李宏磊) currently live and work in Massachusetts. They have been collaborating and actively presenting their creative projects, including net-art, video installation and multimedia, since 2005. Lily Yang is a lecturer in Visual & Media Arts Department at the Emerson College where she teaches Digital Media at graduate-level with emphasis on Web-Based Interactivity. Honglei Li teaches at Massachusetts Cultural Council Art Program. They both received BFA in painting from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1997. In 2007, Honglei earned his MFA in painting from UMass Dartmouth, while Lily received her MFA in Digital Media in UMass Dartmouth in 2008.

firewallLily & Honglei worked as designers and independent artists in Beijing several years before moving to the States. Their paintings and mixed-media works were collected and exhibited internationally. During the years living in America, they have dedicated to experimental projects combining traditional artistic approaches and digital technology in the Internet era. They consider their work are interpreting ancient eastern folklore and philosophy with language in contemporary art, creating significant expressions to achieve cross-cultural communications in a globalized world.

Lily & Honglei’s new media solo exhibitions include, Land of Illusion at Department of Arts, Monash University in Australia (2008), Land of Illusion at American Library Association in New York (2008), Forbidden City at College of Visual and Performing Arts in UMass Dartmouth (2007), Prosperity at Artworks! Gallery in City of New Bedford in Massachusetts (2006).

Supported by:
mcc_starhsim_logo_sm