CONTACT: Patrick Kennelly (310) 453-1755 admin at highwaysperformance dot org
Highways Performance Space <http://www.highwaysperformance.org/> Presents somatic SENSOR, featuring Performance, Digital and Networked Media, Drawing and Soft Sculpture that Opens Borders Between Realities and Bodies Friday and Saturday, January 21 + 22, 2011 at 8:30pm Highways Performance Space at the 18th Street Arts Center 1651 18th Street; Santa Monica, CA 90404 Join us in Second Life from 9-10pm in our studio space provided by SDSU’s Aztlan Island http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Aztlan/245/205/256 Curated by Micha Cárdenas, Elle Mehrmand and Dino Dinco <http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Aztlan/245/205/256>An electronic sensor is a circuit that embodies the liminal space between the real world, or the outside world, and the world of digital representation. A somatic SENSOR would be a biosensor or a bodily sensor. Skin is perhaps the perfect somatic SENSOR, as it defines a body but also is the liminal space between the body and its outside. Crossings of the border of the skin challenge simple divisions between self/other, subject/object. An eye is another sensor, comprised in a package containing both the focusing lens and the receptive retina to capture data, converting light into thought and memory. A somatic SENSOR can also be the combination of a body with technology, an extension of the body, augmentation, prosthesis, wearable electronic devices which extend the body's capacity to sense and express and transform the body into a sensor. An electronic sensor challenges notions of phenomenology, extending the human's ability to sense and perceive the world and acting as an agent of perception and relation. An internet search for somatic SENSOR turns up articles on developing skin for robots, medical flash cards and the statement “the somatic sensory system, or somatosensory system, is a diverse sensory system comprising the receptors and processing centres to produce the sensory modalities such as touch, temperature, proprioception (body position), and nociception (pain). While touch (also, more formally, tactition; adjectival form: "tactile" or "somatosensory") is considered one of the five traditional senses, the impression of touch is formed from several modalities. In medicine, the colloquial term touch is usually replaced with somatic senses to better reflect the variety of mechanisms involved.” somatic SENSOR as a name was a creative conjunction of concepts by the curators to express how the works in this show combine the body and technology to create new forms of relationality. Works in somatic SENSOR engage with a range of technologies, from electricity to the knitting needle, to the telephone, recorded and live generated sound, video, photography, animation, particle accelerators, motherboards, soft sensors and mixed reality. With the aid of these technologies, the artists create new queer forms of relationality between the performers, the audience and our prostheses. The works act as the space between imagined worlds, alternate realities and that part of the everyday which remains out of view. Emerging out of queer experience, the works in somatic SENSOR move along lines of flight exploring desire, technology, the erotic and the viral. Rejecting control society to find new forms of relationality, somatic SENSOR includes performances, digital and networked media, drawing and soft sculpture to open borders between realities and bodies. The performance nights include work by Amy Sara Carroll, Robert Crouch, Micha Cárdenas, Dino Dinco, Dawn Kasper, Frankie Martin, Elle Mehrmand, Zac Monday, Yann Novak, Phil Skaller, Samuel White and Dorian Wood. The gallery show, from January 14-22, 2011 includes works by Sadie Barnette, Zach Blas, Brianna Rigg and Suzanne Wright. More details and images at: http://transreal.org/2011/01/06/press-release-highways-performance-space-presents-somatic-sensor/ -- micha cárdenas Associate Director of Art and Technology Culture, Art and Technology Program, Sixth College, UCSD Co-Author, Trans Desire / Affective Cyborgs, Atropos Press, http://is.gd/daO00 Artist/Researcher, UCSD School of Medicine Artist/Theorist, bang.lab, http://bang.calit2.net blog: http://transreal.org gpg: http://is.gd/ebWx9
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