I recently became a member of the New Media Caucus, a really great non-profit group for the advancement of the conceptual and artistic use of digital media. They presented some very great discussion panels and exhibitions this past week in Chicago.

New Media Caucus

This week I am lucky enough to be working/living in Chicago where the annual CAA conference is being held. There are a lot of interesting discussions and work being shown. I plan on attending the following tomorrow and Saturday.

Intersections of Art and Design

Friday, February 12, 6:30 PM–9:00 PM

Grand A, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago

Chair: Debra Riley Parr, Columbia College Chicago

Recycle, Reuse, Readymade

Amanda Gluibizzi, Ohio State University

Environmental Affections: Women, Art, and Ecology

Adrian Parr, University of Cincinnati

An Art and Design Imperative: Ecomodernism Hybrid

Eric Benson, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Beyond Eco-Art: Twenty-First-Century Eco-visualization

Tiffany G. Holmes, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Discussant:Annette Ferrara, IDEO

CAA Student and Emerging Professionals Committee

How Technology is Changing the Teaching of Art and Art History

Saturday, February 13, 12:30 PM–2:00 PM

Buckingham, Bronze Level, West Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago

Chairs: Randall Griffin, Southern Methodist University; Jennifer L. Stoneking-Steward, Belmont University

Catherine Zurybida, DePaul University

James Sullivan, Southern Methodist University

Sara Lasser, American Folk Art Museum

Shaurya Kumar, Bowling Green State University

Northern California Art Historians

ECOART: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Sustainability

Saturday, February 13, 12:30 PM–2:00 PM

Grand CD South, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago

Chair: Anthony Raynsford, San Jose State University

Governing Geometries: Buckminster Fuller’s Sumptuary Aesthetic

Jonathan Massey, Syracuse University

The Solar House in the 1950s: Aesthetics Politics and Research in Architecture

Daniel Barber, Oberlin College

Andy Goldsworthy: An Aesthetics of Sustainability

Stuart Kendall

Art and Sound in the Premodern Era

Saturday, February 13, 2:30 PM–5:00 PM

Regency A, Gold Level, West Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago

Chairs: Diane J. Reilly, Indiana University, Bloomington; Sheri F. Shaneyfelt, Vanderbilt University

In choro sed non in tympano: Music-Making and Its Representations in the Premodern Church

Eric Rice, University of Connecticut

An Enduring Resonance: Sound in Chinese Painting

Theresa McNichol, Mercer County Community College

A Multisensorial Message of the Divine and the Personal: Qur’anic Inscriptions and Recitation in Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Mosques

Nina Ergin, Koc University

Discussant:Adam Herring, Southern Methodist University

I am just beginning my second semester of graduate school in the Electronic Visualization/New Media program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I am beginning to draft new ideas for installations and will be posting inspiration, drawings, 3d models, thoughts, and ideas to this blog. I will be updating frequently. Here are the first set of conceptual models for a new series of robotic sound sculpture devices controlled by insects. I am hoping to use either zophobas beetles, North American millipedes, or giant drummer cockroaches in this installation. Conceptually I am still thinking about the application and lifestyles of these insects and how they play in to the type of sound I want these mobile sound devices to make. Unlike the model below, the mobile sound platforms will enclose an environment for the insects to healthily exist in (meaning the interior environment will not be blank, it will be covered with the natural plants and moisture levels that are needed for the insects to survive). The insects will control the movement of the mobile platform. This idea is still in the very early developmental stage. Below are the rough conceptual models with brief descriptions:

Conceptual model of the mobile sound bot being controlled by insects. This unit will likely be programmed using either the Basic Stamp or Arduino.

The top of the sound bot showing the speaker mounted at the top that will project the mobile sound. The poorly modeled blue capsules represent LED’s that will be illuminated when the platform comes in contact with a human.

Possible enclosure for the electronics. Tube coming from the top is a channel for wiring. The electronics and batteries visible are ‘place holders’ for the actual components.