Command Z: Artists

Working with Phenomena & Code

March 29 – April 28, 2012

Opening Reception, Lecture & Performance: March 29

Command Z features installations by three artists and one artist team: Ingrid Bachmann (Montreal), Paul DeMarinis (San Francisco), Nina Katchadourian (New York), and the artist team of Émile Morin and Jocelyn Robert (Quebec City).

A digital/acoustic grand piano (Yamaha Disklavier), a Bunsen burner, bronzed popcorn, a birdcage, 54 leather shoes, 8 worn suitcases, and a traditional theater-style popcorn maker are all informed by a technological code or phenomena and are on display at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, at UMBC. These artists explore the long trajectory of communication technologies, how they are framed within a material form, and how social practices are framed around them. By building unique digital and physical behaviors, without the use of screens, these works bring the virtual and material realms into one gesture. Watch letters fall like rain playing a piano, hear what popcorn is saying or a flame singing, find shoes automatically tapping or stomping, peek inside suitcases, and listen to sounds from the moon in pitch-blackness.

Adjunct programming includes original compositions for the Yamaha Disklavier, an acoustic and digital grand piano performed live; and kinetic sculpture on display by Baltimore City Public School children. Special thanks to Jordan Kitts Music for their generosity towards the Disklavier.