The Movement Lab presents: the Artificial environments / environmental Intelligence Festival
The Ae/eI Festival features work-in-progress installations and performances in the Movement Lab every day during the week of February 21-28, all of which are free and open to the public. It is guided by the question, what happens when we close the loop on the constructed binary of nature and technology?
Artificial environments / environmental Intelligence Festival Day 4:
LUCA
Created by Tansy Xiao & Itzá García
Saturday, February 24th | 1:00 - 4:00pm
LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor: the hypothetical single-cell organism from which all life on Earth descended) is a non-linear virtual environment with a non-anthropocentric approach. In the natural world, diverse forms of intelligence operate independently of human dominance. Non-human organisms construct intricate information networks, respond to their umwelt, form complex symbiotic relationships, and communicate through methods that eluded understanding and validation by modern science for centuries. This perspective challenges the notion of human superiority, positioning humans as just one element within the ecosystem rather than at the apex of a hierarchical structure.
Exploring the interconnection and collective agency between human and non-human intelligence, this project utilizes Unreal Engine, Max MSP, and electronic circuits to dynamically shape the visual and sonic elements of a virtual world. Real-time biometric data from performers' movements and living microbiomes adds a capricious dimension to the experience. The current presentation in progress showcases the human body movement aspect of the project, serving as both an interactive installation and a live performance.
Visual/Artistic Director: Tansy Xiao, Sound/Music Composition: Itzá García
Trombone: Lucy Hollier, Dance: Lily Selthofner
Installation takes place from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM, with 20-minute performances beginning at 2:00pm and 3:00pm.
Capacity in the lab is capped at 40 audience members at a time. Attendees who have RSVP'd before the event will have priority, and admission will be determined on a first come first serve basis on arrival.
Tansy Xiao is an artist, curator and writer based in New York. Xiao creates theatrical installations with non-linear narratives that often extend beyond the fourth wall. Her work explores the immense power and inherent inadequacy of language through the assemblage of stochastic audio and recontextualized objects. She finds solace in the unknown, ludicrousness in the authorities, and absurdity in the geopolitical demarcations that separate and differentiate people.
Xiao’s work has been shown at Queens Museum, New Media Caucus, Piksel Festival, Sound Scene at Hirshhorn Museum, Torrance Art Museum, NARS Foundation, HASTAC Conference, UKAI Projects, The American Society for Theatre Research, University of Porto, Osaka University of Art, Taipei Digital Arts Festival, WIP Arts and Technology Festival, New Adventures in Sound Art, Pelham Art Center, among others. She has received grants and support from NYSCA Electronic Media & Film | Wave Farm, Brooklyn Arts Council, Foundation for Contemporary Arts and Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center.
Itzá García (b.1993, México) is a composer with a creative focus on the relationship between time and togetherness in musical settings that involve interactions with technology.
Her music has been performed by ensembles such as Ensemble Musikfabrik, JACK Quartet, the Center for Experimentation and Production of Contemporary Music (CEPROMUSIC) ensemble, Pink Noise Ensemble, 2e2m Ensemble, among others.
She has received prizes and distinctions such as the CONACYT Grant for Graduate Studies in Mexico 2018, the 2021 Early Provost’s Research Grant of the Graduate Center CUNY, the Atlantic Center for the Arts Residence program, the ICST Artist Residency from the Zurich University of the Arts, and the Art Science Connect Fellowship for co-organizing the “innovation-sound- technology” series.
Itzá is currently based in New York City, pursuing a Ph.D. degree in composition at The Graduate Center, CUNY.