August 4- 24, 2008
DIGITAL ART PROJECT RESIDENCY

Application Deadline: April 4, 2008

CAMILLE UTTERBACK, interactive installation artist

Camille Utterback is an internationally acclaimed artist whose interactive installations engage participants in a dynamic process of kinesthetic discovery and play. Utterback’s work explores the aesthetic and experiential possibilities of linking computational systems to human movement and gesture in layered and often humorous ways. Her work focuses attention on the continued relevance and richness of the body in our increasingly mediated world.

Utterbacks extensive exhibit history includes more than fifty shows on four continents. Highlights include The Valencia Institute of Modern Art, Spain (2007); The Itau Cultural Center, So Paulo, Brazil (2006); The San Jose Museum of Art, California (2005); The New Museum of Contemporary Art, The American Museum of the Moving Image, New York (2003); The Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art (2001); The Seoul Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Ars Electronica Center, Austria (2000).

Utterback's awards include an IBM Innovation Merit Award (2007), a Transmediale International Media Art Festival Award (2005), a Rockefeller Foundation New Media Fellowship (2002), a Whitney Museum commission (2002), and a US Patent (2004). Her work has been collected by The La Caixa Foundation, Hewlett Packard, The Pittsburgh Childrens Museum, and others. She recently finished a new temporary commission for the City of San Jose, and is currently working on a permanent commission for the City of Fontana, California’s new library.

Utterback holds a BA in Art from Williams College, and a Masters degree from The Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts. She lives and works in San Francisco.

More information on her work can be found at www.camilleutterback.com

RESIDENCY STATEMENT

I am interested in working with Associates whose artistic practice addresses spatial or temporal disruptions and/or interconnections – particularly as a means to create new ways of thinking about systems of recording, mapping, or memory. The technology of writing both fixes and releases the spoken word - allowing it to transcend the moment of speaking. Photography allows us to ‘freeze’ or ‘capture’ a visual moment and visit or revisit it later in a different time or place. Film and video further this ability by allowing us to ‘play back’ a series of moments in some other time, and perhaps with some other time sequence (faster, slower, backwards etc.). Of course, experiences with all of these technologies have changed our relationships to our physical bodies and sense of self. Presently, the combination of various sensing technologies with computational media (code, scripted digital media) give us an even more fluid means not only to record information about various moments in time, but also to activate or enact these moments again later or in another space or form. We can analyze, reorganize, and act on or interact with spatio-temporal information in previously unimagined ways. Effects of this can be subversive, sublime, or excessively controlling.

During my residency I will explore with the Associates how the combination of various types of sensors (cameras, motion sensors, GPS technology, cell phones etc.) and computational media (code, scripted digital media) allow us to create new temporal disruptions and displacements that challenge or change the possibilities for memory and for engaging with moments or times that have passed (or have not yet happened) – within a single space, or between spaces – and what these have to do with our contemporary relationship to embodiment. In my work, I have typically explored these ideas through interactive installations using video tracking to extract and react to information about human gesture and movement in spaces. I plan to use the residency to work on smaller quicker exercises related to these ideas as a way to refresh and expand my thinking. While some of these studies may use computer code and sensing devices, I look at the residency as an opportunity for sketching and idea generation that will result in larger scale projects after the residency.

I look forward to the Associates ideas about how we might explore the ideas outlined above together.

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

1. work sample:

• up to 12 images and/or 10 minutes of video to illustrate your current work.
• digital format – CD/DVD preferred
• if your work needs to be experienced in another format – web/executable file etc. please send whatever info is necessary for me to experience it on a PC computer with net access. (please give instructions on how best to experience 10 minutes of material)
• in all cases provide a list of the work samples with brief descriptions or supplemental descriptive material (1-2 paragraphs max per piece) as necessary

2. current CV

3. artist statement (1 page max.)

4. residency statement:

• 2-4 written pages about the ideas you’d like to explore during the residency and how you might do this. Your ideas and plans can be open ended and are apt to change, but will give me an idea of the kinds of exercises/explorations you are interested in.
• Ideally I see the residency as a collaborative process where we work and learn from each other. Please discuss one idea/exercise we could explore as a group of 6-8 people, and one assignment you would give to yourself. These exercises can be simple + quick, or take all three weeks, but should relate to the themes you want to explore.
• What are you overly familiar with in your work? Where would you like to grow / push / learn?
• Why do you want to do this residency with me?
• Please also briefly list the various specific technologies you have worked with and in what capacity (i.e. digital video editing with final cut, BX-24 microcontrollers, java coding, etc.). I am primarily interested in your work and ideas, not these skills, but it is helpful to know your practical experience when thinking about exercises we can do during the residency.