Fall 2019: Art 5670/8600: Mechanical Theaters and Toy Orchestras

Professor: Ali Momeni

 

The paradox of shadows:

"Shadow is all appearance, immateriality, without substance; but at the same time gives a way of avoiding the seduction of surface--often referred to as appearance as opposed to essence." 

-William Kentridge, Excerpt from a lecture delivered at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, on the occasion of the exhibition William Kentridge, 20 October 2001-20 January 2002

Goals:

 

This class aims to create a collaborative practice based research structure surrounding the history, techniques and critical discourse surrounding automata, mechanical theaters, toy orchestras and shadows.  Students and instructore will pursue a literature review whose findings will be shared through in-class presentations and on-line documentation.  This research will include past and present-day technologies and aesthetics, as well as the analog and digital means through which the theatrical experience incorporates information.   

As the course is intended for students with a primary interest in <em>making</em>, the research methodology will be practice-based and divided into two halves: for the fist half of the semester, students are expected to read, write, research, find, tag, organize, gather.  This phase focuses on building a practice in working with mixed media as opposed to creating a finished object/work.  In March we will hold mid-term reviewers, where students will lay-out all that they have gathered in their research and get feedback on the materials, directions, aesthetics, references and imagery they have gathered.  The 2nd half of the course is dedicated to the creation of a new work.
 

Since this graduate-level seminar meets only once per week, students are expected to dedicate studio/making-time to this course outside of the class-period.  In class studio days will be dedicated to demonstration of and monitored experimentation with the subject matter's instruments and techniques; in-class hours will also be used for group critiques.

 

For more information see the class blog and the course syllabus.

Spring 2010: COLA 3950/5950: Art for the People, Art on Wheels

Professor: Ali Momeni

Art for the People/Art on Wheels is a vehicle for familiarizing and engaging students with the Minneapolis Art on Wheels (MAW) project, as well as a way for students to produce and show works of public art.

Minneapolis Art on Wheels is an on-going public arts initiative. We leverage advanced mobile technology to bring socially engaged art and technology into diverse communities. We aim to use the scale and accessibility of our exhibitions to make the Twin Cities an international leader in socially engaged and technologically enhanced creative projects. We are able to produce moving images up to several hundred feet, outdoors, in public spaces. Our emphasis on mobile devices (i.e. cellular phones) and gestural interaction with media (e.g. laser tag, real-time video tracking and gesture recognition) allows a wide audience to interact with mobile media. The project engages students in creative use of technology and materializes this engagement in the form of community outreach and temporary public art.

 

For more information see the class blog and the course syllabus.

My Truce-collaborator Robin Meier put on Truce at SIGGRAPH Asia, in Yokoyama (Japan). See below for some excellent videos of townsmen and women interacting with our favorite musical insect...

Ali Momeni UMN Tenure and Promotion index: This page contains an expanding outline to my research, teaching and service contributions to the University of Minnesota as probationary tenure-track faculty member in the Department of Art and the Collaborative Arts Program. Links to detailed descriptions, still, video and audio documentation of projects are included throughout.

Our friend Regine has posted a review of my work Smoke and Hot Air on her much beloved blog, we-make-money-not-art. She has also written two posts (titled Part 1: Wreckage and countermeasures, and Part 2: Globalization and agency) about the FEEDFORWARD exhibit at Laboral as a whole.

Myself, Jenny Schmid and Heba Amin presented our works at the Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art in Cairo.

Jenny Schmid, Heba Amin and myself gave a lecture at the Department of Art at the American University of Cairo. Our lecture was followed by an impromptu/guerilla projection of some of Heba's work, around AUC's scenic campus.