Caleb Larsen + Brett Walker

Come join us for the December Upgrade! Seattle meeting featuring Caleb Larsen and Brett Walker on Thursday December 14 at 7pm at 911 Media Arts Center.

Upgrade! Seattle is a once a month event for new media artists working in the Seattle area. Every second Thursday of each month Upgrade! Seattle invites artists / curators / thinkers / everyone to gather at 911 Media Arts Center to see and critically discuss new media work. Upgrade! Seattle is hosted by the 911 artists2artists group and is affiliated with the Upgrade! International network. If you are interested in presenting your work, please contact Carrie Bodle (artists2artists[at]911media.org).

Caleb Larsen is a young Seattle based new media and installation artist. He was raised in the northern reaches of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and attended school in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Originally trained as a painter, Larsen attempts to treat technology, not as a gimmick, but as natural addition to the artistic practice. His most recent works loosely revolve around two central concepts: Language and Mapping. Larsen��s current point of inspection involves creating intersections of digital and physical culture by reinterpreting online information and resources from community based websites.

At the present Larsen is working on a suite of projects based on Google News headlines. The headlines are processed in realtime and produce simultaneous outcomes ranging from bizarre video montages to large generated associative word drawings. Using computer programming, Legos, video, dynamic images, and printed text Larsen aims to create an alternate methodology for exploring contemporary culture.

Larsen holds his Bachleor of Fine Arts from Western Michigan University. He has exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Canada, Greece and Romania. He attended the Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art, the School of Visual Art Artist Residency, and most recently the I-Park Artist Residency in Connecticut.

Seattle resident Brett Walker grew up in suburban Portland, Oregon, and became interested in art early in life. Walker attended the Art Institute of Seattle and graduated in 2002 with an Associates degree in Commercial Photography. Shortly after, he moved to Maine and attended the Maine College of Art, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Photography and graduated in May of 2006.

Walker's work is created as a response to life and the environments in which he lives and interacts. He is interested in duration and repetition, and in re-thinking societal norms and commonly-held truths. Much of his work is done in film and video, as well as in photography and sound. The physicality of these mediums allows Walker space to form a more real and honest artistic practice.

During the past several years, Walker has exhibited work in a variety of locations: the Institute for Contemporary Art in Portland, Maine, the 916 Gallery in Seattle, the Student Gallery at the Maine College of Art, the SPACE Gallery in Portland, Maine, and at an outdoor video screening in Tampa, Florida. He has shown work in a variety of mediums ranging from photographs, to video work, to a custom-built 1977 Puch moped.