UCSC's 2013 DANM MFA exhibition, ground(ctrl)

Santa Cruz graduate students' annual exhibition features amplified CB radios, playable wrestling games about nutrition, and buildings that grow in the dark!

ground(ctrl)
April 27–28 and May 2–5, 2013

Reception: Thursday, May 2, 8:00–10:00pm
Gallery Hours: 10am–4pm
Digital Arts Research Center (DARC)
University of California, Santa Cruz

—located off Meyer Drive between the UCSC Music Center and Theater Arts Center—

In the Digital Arts and New Media MFA Program (DANM) at UC Santa Cruz two years of intensive study culminate in the development of individual projects, which premiere in an annual MFA exhibition. This year’s works range from repurposed communication technologies to cutting edge playable media and provide participants with thought-provoking and entertaining experiences.

Graduate student artists are: John-Patrick Ayson, Derek Franz, Jacob Garbe, Catalina Giraldo, Dan Heller, Andrew Siller, Eve Warnock, Laura Wright.

Curated by Shelby Graham, ground (ctrl) breeds fresh materiality, creating tangible art pieces through collaborative digital research. Soil, light and interactivity provide the main motifs bridging all artworks in the exhibition and allowing the artists to purposefully transform the Digital Arts Research Center into a living entity. Don’t miss the opening when Catalina Giraldo literally makes the building grow in the dark and Laura Wright brings old school CB radios back to life.

Collectively, the eight artists invite you to join in their attempts to redefine the meanings of "digital arts" and "new media" by way of hybridized video installations, interactive experiences, and improvisational performance; individually, within those digitized formats, each artist and their work examine the social impact new media has in our lives. Two out of the eight artists,Jacob Garbe and Andrew Siller, have created unpredictable playable games highlighting UCSC’s award-winning gaming program.

Prior to the ground (ctrl) reception on Thursday, May 2, Will Wright, renowned video game designer and co-founder of the game development company Maxis, will speak in the 2013 Arts Division Lecture Series at 6:00PM in the UCSC Media Theater. Wright is best known for his games SimCity and Spore, which feature gameplay based upon the model of evolution. He has been an inspiration to many of the DANM students who explore gaming as a conceptual
framework: http://arts.ucsc.edu/news_events/gaming-lens-world.

Audiences are invited to experience and participate in the latest digital technologies and experimental performance. Additionally, the artists will be on hand to discuss their work and give tours of the exhibition in the state-of-the-art Digital Arts Research Center (DARC).

If you go:
Thursday, May 2,
Will Wright, 6pm @ Media Theater
DANM Reception: Thursday, May 2, 8:00–10:00pm

Regular Gallery Hours: 10am–4pm
Digital Arts Research Center (DARC)
University of California, Santa Cruz