Video documentary by Elyson Park, RISD '21
Playlist by Mariel Rošić and
Daniel Tompkins
The Project
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Over 500 visitors experienced STEAMRAVE, an immersive, interactive video art exhibition, in just 9 hours! The numbers grew each of the 3 evenings from word-of-mouth recommendations, starting with around 75 visitors the first evening, until many were willing to wait in long lines to enter the space that held only 40. Visitors experienced the video art, personal narratives, and visual experiments designed by thirteen students artists from Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Visitors became part of the art as they interacted with sensors throughout the space.
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I was inspired to make an immersive, overstimulating, contemporary art event after studying Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable in Professor Lindsay Caplan's course, Art and Technology. The Co-Director, Mariel, was also in that class. I invited the STEAM team to join me in brainstorming ways to bring Warhol's ideas of immersion, overstimulation, and crowd involvement to the Brown-RISD community of both artists and non-artists, while providing a platform for video and other artists.
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In my role as director, I focused on solving the inevitable challenges that arose and ensuring that the artistic visions of each and every STEAM team member were incorporated. This required stimulating the team's creativity and artistic while guiding all that energy into a unified product. To strike that balance, I facilitated inclusive meetings with all parts of the team, in groups and individually. I was the main liaison with our venues, and I managed the budget, space needs, and deadlines, and provided a buffer between the STEAM team members and management challenges. Beyond these logistical requirements, the entire process, from curation, design, tech, installation, to running the event, was collectivized as much as possible.
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We started STEAMRAVE in October 2019 and brought it all the way to fruition in just five months. I could not be prouder of the incredible STEAMRAVE team.
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The TEAM
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Zev Izenberg - Director
Mariel Rosic - Co-Director
Daniel Tompkins - AV Lead
Avantika Velho - Design
Elyson Park - Graphic Design
Dave Song - Design
Melissa Wang - AV
Mara Jovanovic - Installation
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The Artists
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Alexander Dupuis
Ambika Miglani
Arayla Bakhetbek
Cece Jane
Colin Kent-Daggett
Jacob Zimmerman
Justin Ortiz
Kaanchi Chopra
Katia Rozenberg
Machu Muci
Muskaan Garg
Natalya Ho
Nina Yuchi
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Special thanks to William Buerger, Maaike Laanstra-Corn, Finch Collins, and all of Production Workshop, Nick Dentamaro who photographed the project, Bill Faber, and Lindsay Caplan for inspiring all of us to shoot for the moon.
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STEAMRAVE was a collaborative work developed by a 7-member STEAM team over the five months before opening night and supported by the student-run production space Production Workshop, the Brown Arts Initiative, the Brown Department of Visual Art.
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The talented artists and technologists comprising the STEAM Team each brought a unique and impressive skill set, and everyone guided the project in their own way.
The AV team created a MaxMSP platform to do video sensor interactions with stimulating visual effects, and "VJ" the event by continuously changing which screens showed which videos. The Design Team designed and built the set, then filled it with Cyberjunk sculpture installations.
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PRESS​
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