Posts Tagged ‘EMPAC’

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Catch Radiohole’s “Inflatable Frankenstein” at EMPAC, March 22 [Berkshire on Stage]

Wednesday, March 20th, 2013

The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute announces Inflatable Frankenstein, a theatrical performance by Brooklyn-based collective Radiohole. The event will take place in EMPAC’s Theater on Friday, March 22 at 8 PM.

Inspired by meditations on horror films, the work of Antonin Artaud, and Ardunio open-source electronics, Radiohole’s Inflatable Frankenstein is a visually and sonically driven performance based on Mary Shelley’s early life and her novel Frankenstein.

Arising from a world of gods and monsters (and thousands of Walmart and Price Chopper grocery bags) is a desecration too terrible to behold and too beautiful to turn away from, leading to an improbable question: what is it like to be a metaphor for everything?

Click to read the rest at Berkshire on Stage.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Be Here Now: Previews | 1 Comment »

Advertisement

Is It Neurons Firing or Is It the Art? Alva Noë Explores Perceptions at EMPAC [Berkshire on Stage]

Tuesday, March 19th, 2013
Alva Noë (Photo: KUG/Wenzel)

Alva Noë (Photo: KUG/Wenzel)

Why do so many people love art? And what, exactly, comprises art? It’s a question often proffered by cable channels as fodder to fill the spaces between commercials, barely scratching the actual topic’s depth. Thinking deeply about art and how we humans experience it helps us understand a lot of things about ourselves, our lives, our cosmos.

Once again EMPAC at RPI gives us a rare chance to get deep into the subject, exploring new ways of thinking. Coming up is a chance to hear one of the leading experts on the nature of visual consciousness whose talk will allow us to reconsider art and its place in our lives. In this lecture, Alva Noë, a leading figure in cognitive science, will argue that art is philosophical and philosophy is aesthetic. Against this background, new possibilities are presented for understanding what it is to be a person, questioning if our experience of the world stems from the firing of neurons in our brains or from our interactions with our surroundings…

Click to read the rest at Berkshire on Stage.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Art, Be Here Now: Previews | Comments Off

LIVE: Laurie Anderson @ EMPAC at RPI, 2/14/13

Tuesday, March 12th, 2013

Shane Koss, Laurie Anderson, Liubo Borissov and Konrad Kaczmarek (via Skype)

Shane Koss, Laurie Anderson, Liubo Borissov and Konrad Kaczmarek (via Skype)


Review by Greg Haymes
Photographs by Sara Ayers

As EMPAC’s inaugural distinguished artist-in-residence, Laurie Anderson is committed to engage with RPI and the greater Capital Region community through events that bring focus and insight to her unique and wide-ranging artistic work.

The first public event of Anderson’s residency was a talk held last month, “Designing + Customizing Instruments for Performance and Recording.” It was an informal and fun affair, which managed to deftly blend arts and technology – a perfect fit for EMPAC.

For the first hour, Anderson served up a somewhat rambling, chronological talk about the variety of “instruments” that she has utilized throughout her artistic career, including the Tape Violin Bow, the Neon Violin, the Handphone Table and the Electric Chair. Utilizing photos, videos, audio clips and sometimes live demonstrations, Anderson also explained how she put technology to unusual purposes – for example, attaching a lipstick camera to the end of her violin bow or putting a pillow speaker in her mouth to orally control the sound of a violin.

(more…)

Tags: , ,
Posted in LIVE | Comments Off

Free EMPAC Talk: Bard’s Greg Moynahan Connects Science and Experimentation with the Arts [Berkshire on Stage]

Tuesday, March 5th, 2013

Bard’s Greg Moynahan Connects Science and Experimentation with the Arts

Troy, NY: On Wednesday, March 6 at 6pm, the Observer Effects series will continue with Experience and Experiment in Early Modern Europe, a free talk by Bard College professor Greg Moynahan that considers the rise of scientific experimentation and its relation to experimentation in the arts. Moynahan is an associate professor in the history and science, technology, and society programs at Bard College will examine the early history of both science and the arts through their common location in collections and museums, suggesting that the appearance of the problem of infinity in natural philosophy was important for the modern relationship between scientific and artistic experimentation. The talk will focus on thinkers such as Nicholas of Cusa and Gottfried Leibniz (the inventor of calculus and founder of modern computing), whose article “An Odd Thought Concerning a New Sort of Exhibition” described a “museum of everything that could be imagined,” which informed the first plan for the Prussian Academy of Science.

Click to read the rest at Berkshire on Stage.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Be Here Now: Previews, Real Good For Free | Comments Off

Visionary “The Machine Starts” interactive media performance at RPI’s EMPAC [Berkshire on Stage]

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013
In a dystopian future how will people live and go about their daily business?

In a dystopian future how will people live and go about their daily business?

Troy, NY: An interactive performance piece – the product of collaboration between Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students in arts and architecture – will incorporate interactive video, performers drawn from parkour and a capella, and audience participation in a narrative based on E.M. Forster’s 1909 sci-fi novella The Machine Stops.

The Machine Starts, developed in the Production, Installation, and Performance (PIP) design studio, will be presented in six performances on Feb. 28, March 1, and 2 in the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), according to Michael Oatman, professor of architecture and co-coordinator of PIP.

Click to read the rest at Berkshire on Stage.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Art, Be Here Now: Previews, Theater | Comments Off

EMPAC-Neil Rolnick Feb. 27 Concert has music for violin, piano and…..computer? [Berkshire on Stage]

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

Troy, NY: Neil Rolnick, professor of music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, will present a concert of music for violin, piano, and computer at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 27, at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer. The concert, which is free and open to the public, features a selection of his most recent compositions from 2003 to the present.

Rolnick said the program showcases solo and duo works (plus computer) he has written in the past decade, a departure from the works for large ensembles that have made up the bulk of his recent work.

“In the last few years, most of my efforts have been on larger works: two violin concerti, and extended monodrama with a large ensemble and three singers, and a full evening dramatic project which I hope to premiere by 2015,” Rolnick said. “In the midst of those projects, I find that working with musicians who have played my solo and duet works continues to provide me with a vehicle for bringing my music to different audiences.

Click to read the rest at Berkshire on Stage.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Be Here Now: Previews, Music, Real Good For Free | Comments Off

EMPAC’s Shadow Play returns with Jodorowsky’s 1973 film “Holy Mountain” [Berkshire on Stage]

Wednesday, February 20th, 2013

Troy, NY — The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute announces the return of the Shadow Play screening series with Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1973 cult film, Holy Mountain. The screening will take place in EMPAC’s theater on Thursday, February 21 at 7:30 PM.

Jodorowsky’s Holy Mountain sparked a riot at its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973 and has been the source of controversy ever since. The film creates an uncompromising vision of the rituals and power of religion and Western desires for Eastern spirituality through beautiful, fantastic, and visceral images. Inspired by St. John of the Cross’ Ascent of Mount Carmel and René Daumal’s Mount Analogue, it depicts a group of individuals on a quest for enlightenment and immortality through a journey to a holy mountain that is said to unite heaven and earth.

Click to read the rest at Berkshire on Stage.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Be Here Now: Previews, Film/TV/DVD | Comments Off

Laurie Anderson free talk is Feb. 14 at EMPAC on custom instruments for performance + recording [Berkshire on Stage]

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013
Laurie Anderson

Laurie Anderson

By Larry Murray

Troy, NY — The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute announces a free talk by EMPAC distinguished artist-in-residence Laurie Anderson on Designing + Customizing Instruments for Performance and Recording. The event will take place in EMPAC’s Theater on Thursday, February 14 at 7 PM; and will be streamed to the Concert Hall for the overflow crowd expected. (The theatre is officially full, but the entire program will be shown in the Concert Hall where Anderson will make an appearance after her talk.)

Laurie Anderson will talk about her ever-evolving development of new instruments and interfaces for her productions and performances, and her “new rig,” which finally allows her to travel with a suitcase of her custom configuration of instruments. Anderson will be joined by her software and hardware collaborators Konrad Kaczmarek, Liubo Borissov and Shane Koss. She will also discuss her new work with the Kronos Quartet, which premieres in March as part of the inaugural performances of the Bing Concert Hall at Stanford.

Click to read the rest at Berkshire on Stage.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Be Here Now: Previews | Comments Off

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »
Caffe LenaJim GaudetHolly & EvanCartoonist John CaldwellShadowlandAdvertise on Nippertown!Artist Charles HaymesBerkshire On StageKeep Albany BoringLeave Regular Radio BehindArt Night SchenectadyJazz AprilArtist GG Roberts