Anna Valentina Murch talk at Tesla

Artist Anna Valentina Murch:

Recent Large-Scale Public Artwork
in association with

Computer Arts Society (CAS)

University College London
Garwood Lecture Theatre, South Wing
(Details how to get there at the bottom of post)

Abstract
Anna Valentina Murch is an artist who works primarily with the medium
of light and whose work focuses on creating places that lead the
viewer on a sensory and psychological journey that measures time and
provokes memory. Since 1980, her work has been involved with
designing and building large public art projects, sometimes working
collaboratively with architects, engineers and other artists. These
large-scale public works incorporate ambient elements such as light,
water and sound, to create experiential places. This has allowed her
to take her personal creative investigations to another level by
widening the focus to explore the definition of place and venues for
community interaction.

Biography
Anna Valentina Murch received her MA in Environmental Media, Sculpture
from the Royal College of Art and a Graduate Diploma from the
Architectural Association in London, England. Through the Computer
Arts Society she exhibited an installation at the Edinburgh Festival
in 1973. In the late 1970's she moved to San Francisco and developed
many works in galleries and museums. Her recent permanent Public Art
installations include: St. Louis Metro System, and the Muni Metro
Extension, San Francisco California, Queens Civic Court House, New
York, Arroyo Suite, Century City, Los Angles, Waterscape, Civic Center
plaza in San Jose, California, Water Scores, for the Performing Arts
Center plaza in Miami, Florida. She is currently a Professor of Art at
Mills College, Oakland, California.

avmurch@earthlink.net
http://annavalentinamurch.com/

Getting to UCL:
The nearest Tube stations are Euston Square and Warren Street. For
full details, see
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/about-ucl/location/public-transport
How to find the Garwood Lecture Theatre:
Once you enter the main gate of UCL in Gower Street, you will face the
Portico in the UCL quadrangle courtyard. Please take the right hand
side diagonal and walk to the right corner of the building. You will
see the brass tablet indicating South Wing. Enter the second entrance
door at the South Wing, and you will find the Garwood Lecture Theatre
on the first floor. There will be signs from the entrance that will
help you to find the exact location easily.

You may also consult the UCL maps at:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/about-ucl/location/maps
Entrance is free, all welcome.

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Some pictures from previous Tesla talks

Images from Tesla Talks:
Owen Holland
Towards a technology of consciousness
12 September 2007
Alex Zivanovic
Early Cybernetic Sculptures: Interaction and Elegant Motion
22 October 2007 Read More......

Julie Freeman Tesla Talk

Julie Freeman:
Inspiration Collaboration Confusion Diversion
- an artist working with science

Abstract

Inspiration Collaboration Confusion Diversion - an artist working with science.

Julie will show documentation of her work to discuss how science influences her art and the process of creating it, and how an artist can divert scientific rigours. She'll show different levels of collaboration, inspiration and often confusion that come from that same scientific world which ranges from American fish surgeon, an experimental psychologist to a Professor of nanotechnology.

Artist Statement

I've always been interested in how technology is seductive, how it can present truth and lies with equal gravitas. It can also help us to learn about the world in new ways, exposing hidden systems and beauties. My work uses digital technology to help people engage with and appreciate natural phenomena. In this sense the technology is a vehicle rather than an end in itself. I am interested in how biological systems can be represented as sound, animation or three-dimensional objects. My working practice dictates that outcomes are never predictable, so when I start projects I feel I am constructing open structures and frameworks which allow for the free flow of ideas and content into the work.'

Biography

Julie Freeman' work spans visual, audio and digital artforms and explores the relationship between science, nature and how humans interact with it. For the past twelve years her work has focused on using electronic technologies to 'translate nature' – whether it is through the sound of torrential rain dripping on a giant rhubarb leaf; a pair of mobile concrete speakers who lurk in galleries haranguing passersby with fractured sonic samples or by providing an interactive platform from which to view the flap, twitch and prick of dogs' ears.

In 2005 she launched her pioneering digital artwork The Lake, which used hydrophones, custom software and advanced technology to track electronically tagged fish and translate their movement into an audio-visual experience. The work was developed over three years and supported by Tingrith Coarse Fishery and a two year fellowship from NESTA (The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts).

She is currently artist-in-residence at the Microsystems and Nanotechnology Centre at Cranfield University where she is creating works that aim to increase public understanding of self-assembly and organising processes at the nanoscale and their potential social impacts and consequences.

Julie is a graduate of the MA in Digital Arts at the Centre for Electronic Arts, Middlesex University, London, and Chair of FreqOUT! an innovative London based community arts programme, enabling young people to work with wireless technologies.

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