I gave a lecture on "The Body of Iranian Contemporary Art" as a part of the "Shared Cultural Spaces" conference held at the University of Minnesota in February 2011, using the the prezi.com Prezi presentation below.  

I am indebted to the community of artists, some of whose work are included in this lecture, for providing me with the material and inspiration to pursue this research.

alimomeni.net: this site

MAW: 

      Magic and Wizardry,

            More Art Wherever,

                 Media at Will,

                       Maybe after work,

                            Minneapolis Art on Wheels

Fall 2019: Art 5490: Make Anything Talk to Anything

Professor: Ali Momeni

This course is intended for visual artists, musicians, designers, computer scientists, engineers and architects (among others) interested in exploring real-time interactive software applications. Such applications allow translations/interactions among various media; examples include sound to video (e.g. music visualizers), gesture to sound (e.g. the theramin, Wii controllers as musical instruments), gesture to video (e.g. motion tracking for interactive visualizations, interactive architecture), interactive sculptures (e.g. sensor controlled mechanics, robotics, lights, LEDs). The Max/MSP/Jitter new media programming environment will be the primary instrument of the course. Max/MSP/Jitter is a graphical programming environment that provides user interface, timing, communication with electronics, communications with the web, MIDI support, real-time audio and video synthesis and processing.

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

Fall 2010: ART 8410: Studio Critique

Professor: Ali Momeni

The topic for the semester is "Practice, Research and Teaching". We explore the subtleties of how creative research intersects with making and teaching through studio based critiques, iterative refinements of personal research and teaching narratives, analysis of local arts organizations/institutions/collectives, stabs at grant-writing strategies, and round table discussions with invited guests.

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

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.

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.

This year marked a transitional stage for the Experimental and Media Arts department. Together with my colleagues Lynn Lukkas and Diane Willow, we accomplished the following:

-Official name change from Time and Interactivity to Experimental and Media Arts
-Creation of the EMA area blog with a centralized calendar and online resources for our graduate and undergraduate students
-Conceptualization and initial deployment of a comprehensive space reconfiguration: new sound studio (Regis W131), new advanced video lab (W121, the old space was given to the Regis tech staff to meet their needs), new mixed analog-digital studio shared with painting and drawing (W248)
-Preparation and submission of three major CLA-OIT Tech Fees grants (requesting a total of $150,000) for necessary upgrades of hardware and software in Regis

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