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My collaborator Robin Meier and I are at it again, this time with leafcutter ants. Robin's been experimenting with the ants in a lab outside paris, while I explore how to build our colony of small friends a welcoming foraging scenario. Below, a prezi of some notes we're taking.
This work will be presented at Palais de Tokyo in July of 2011.
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Ray Kampmeier (undergraduate EECS student at UMN) and I are working on a robust and complete solution for working with Digi's Xbee modules and Max.
Working with 2.5 Series radios, the present pre-alpha version allows for sending remote messages to a remote-wireless xbee (configured as AT Router/Endpoint) and local-USB-connected xbee (configured as API coordinator).
My XBee Playground Blog shows a record of our progress, while this post includes links to the necessary Max patches and XBee profiles.
More coming soon…..
Posted & filed under Grants.
Sample works:
1) Women’s Desert Liberation Front
Three short animations or urban/desert projections with Jenny Schmid
2010
Posted & filed under Teaching.
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
Posted & filed under Press.
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.
Posted & filed under Teaching.
I was invited by Dave Schroeder (of Pilot Vibe) to give a lecture at the his annual Flashbelt conference. My presentation was primarily on MAW‘s use of a mix of digital and physical technologies to create real-time animation for public projections (i.e. “livedraw”).
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This project is a collaboration between Ali Momeni and JP Hunglemann. Ali Momeni’s aLib consists of a set of Max patches for live interaction with audio/video media. Our aim is to develops and extension to aLib that gives a wider community of electronic musicians–represented by JP Hunglemann’s and his extensive work with Ableton Live. Max for Live presents the perfect opportunity.
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Make Television and Twin Cities Public Television did an additional short segment on my collaboration with Robin Mandel, Smoke and Hot Air.
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Make Zine‘s TV component, Make: Television, decided to do a profile and me and MAW. After hours and hours of talking, filming, outing and editing, a preview has been released.
The show airs on Feb. 14 2009 on public television, all across America. Here’s the video….
Posted & filed under Teaching.
Sample Works by Ali Momeni
Sample Course Syllabi and Student work by Ali Momeni
I am committed to using technology in my teaching. With the help of the pedagogic tools available at the University of Minnesota, I have conducted all of my courses thus-far in a mostly paper-free manner. All course syllabi, reading assignments, references and student works are on-line. Below you will find directed links to my course materials; please use the digital copy of this document with a computer connected to the internet.
2008-2009
2007-2008
Posted & filed under Teaching.
As a founding faculty member of the Collaborative Arts program, my colleagues and I have devised the major/minor requirements, established the core curriculum, created the fundamental COLA 1001 course, as well as a number of to-be-permanent course, currently offered as workshops (among the Art for the People/Art on Wheels, the precursor to MAW.
Posted & filed under Teaching.
Spring 2008, Fall 2008
Together with the two other core faculty of COLA, Michael Sommers and Guerino Mazzola, and our director Michael Cherlin, we finalized and submitted the following:
1) Requirements for a COLA major in the CLA
2) Description of the COLA Fundamentals course (i.e. COLA 1001, The Art of Collaboration). The course is approved, and will be co-taught by all COLA core faculty.
Posted & filed under Teaching.
Fall 2008: After a convincing argument to the department, delivered by myself and Jenski at the faculty retreat in Feb. 2007, I was appointed chair of the Public Image/Web Presence committee.
The College of liberal arts has approved (and funded) a major update of the West Bank Arts Quarter (including Arts, Music, Theater and Dance, and Collaborative Arts). The college has hired the services of bswing to evaluate the usage and needs of the arts departments websites.
Update (11/20/08)
I met with bswing on a number of occasions for interviews and discussions. They seem to be asking the right questions, though their focus seems to be the West Bank Arts Quarter, as opposed to the departments that make up the WBAQ.
Update (12/04/08)
According to the presentation on bswing on Dec. 4, 2008, the WBAQ remains only a geographical indication, while the needs of the websites for independent departments remain many, diverse and sometimes overlapping. The next stage will be a graphical presentation of a web-site by bswing to the WBAQ-wide committee to which I am the Art Department representative.
Posted & filed under Press.
The wonderful new Minneapolis arts organization Norther Lights is beginning to take off.
An article appeared there today about the installation Smoke and Hot Air, Robin Mandel and myself.
Posted & filed under Teaching.
Fall 2008: I served on the Curriculum Committee in the department of art. Our main considerations were:
1) re-evaluation of major project for the BFA track; after consideration of all feedback from students and instructors, we decided to recommend to the department to break the class into a number of options: 1st, an “Art and Life” course, much in the style of the present “Art in the Twin Cities” course; as many of the BFAs do not go on to pursue careers in the arts, a fitting cap-stone course would be to assure that the know their local art world well and have experienced it aesthetically and critically. Another option would be an advanced studio; most BFAs do not get a lot of studio experience in our department (more than P are transfer students). An additional upper level studio would allow them valuable time to develop their voice
2) re-consideration of the Public Spaces position for grads: the last three graduate students have quit this position due to its unrealistic demands. A potential solution can be to make the BFA show juried, and therefore smaller.
3) re-consideration of the 2-year language requirement for BFAs. This question is to be investigated further
Posted & filed under Teaching.
Fall 2008: COLA 1521/3521/4521: The Art of Collaboration
Professors or record: Ali Momeni,
Participating professors: Guerino Mazzola, Michael Sommers
A collaborative creative environment where over the course of a semester, students from different disciplines create a installation or performance that expresses their independent and collective talents and interests.
Find more information on the class blog.
Posted & filed under Teaching.
Fall 2008: COLA 1001: The Art of Collaboration
Professors: Guerino Mazzola, Ali Momeni, Michael Sommers
This introductory course presents the characteristics and the challenges of collaboration through three representative approaches from the visual arts, music, and theater. The course unfolds around concrete problematic situations arising from the project of a collaborative and multimedia-enhanced project.
The class includes lectures by guest artists as well as exploration of the cultural landscape of the Twin Cities.
See the syllabus and class description or find more information on the class blog.
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Check out this article in the Minnesota Daily, showcasing MAW’s activities as a student activities group. Here is the original link from MN Daily’s site.
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An article by Chris Clayton on MAW in the Seattle Business Monthly…
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This article in the New York Times by Julie Bloom covers The UnConvention and MAW’s participation in the event.
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Check out this article on MAW which appeared in METRO magazine this week. Here is the original link on METRO’s site.
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Spring 2008:
I was recommended by UMN Vice President Steven Rosenstone to Weismann Art Museum Director Lyndel King to serve on the advisory committee for the museums expansion project.
The project involves the construction of several new gallery spaces, as well as a “Target Collaborative Studio”, on the front side of the museum.
The project should be completed by 2010.
Posted & filed under Press.
“University of Minnesota professor Ali Momeni and his students are on their way to San Jose’s Zero1 Festival later this week with their mobile projection units. The mobile projection units are GRL-inspired work bikes equipped with a computer, projector, generator and all other necessary gear for outdoor projection mayhem, which will be used during The UnConvention…”
Read the full article by JUSTIN HEIDEMAN at this link.
Posted & filed under Teaching.
Spring 2008:
I was invited by Vice President for Scholarly and Cultural Affairs, Steven Rosenstone, to be a part of the 6-member technology advisory committee for the ambitious re-design of Northrop Hall, one of the oldest buildings on the UMN Twin Cities Campus.
We collectively came up with a list of wants, needs and ideas; they include: the maximization of public spaces, the allocation of the best spaces in the building to those public spaces, the need for a highly wired building, the possibility to use the outside of the building (e.g. projections) as well as the inside, the possibilities of visualizing the activity inside the space on the outside architecture.
Fall 2008:
Benjamin M. Johnson has been appointed to the position of Concerts and Lectures at the University of Minnesota, here‘s the announcement.
Posted & filed under Teaching.
Video documentaiton of a panel discussion on Feb. 13, 2:30-4:30pm, in Regis Art Center’s In-flux space.
The participants were the following:
-Mary Altman, Minneapolis Art Commission Public Arts Coordinator (confirmed)
-Mike Hoyt, Director of Kulture Klub (confirmed)
-Nora Paul, Director of the Institute for New Media Studiesat the U of M (confirmed)
-Jim Nystrom, UMN Police officer responsible for West Bank and Athletic Facilities (confirmed)
-Tracy Smith, UMN General Council Attorney in charge of student activities (confirmed)
-Steve Johnson, UMPD Deputy Chief
I acted as a moderator for the first segment of the panel discussion (about one hour); we then open the discussion to questions and answers for another hour.
Posted & filed under Teaching.
I was invited to give a lecture on my work as a part of the UMN Electrical and Computer Engineering Department‘s colloquia series.
Below, a video recording of the lecture….
Posted & filed under Teaching.
I’m teaching a course along with Professor Doug Geers from the School of Music, on the topic of treating time. The course is titled Interdisciplinary Media Collaborations: Treating Time and here is the course description.
Posted & filed under Teaching.
I received a grant from University of Minnesota’s CLA-OIT to support a course I devised inspired by Graffiti Research Lab. The course is titled Art for the people/Art on Wheels here’s the course description.
I am immeasurably excited about the possibilities of the course…
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At last, thanks to my main man Mark Knierim, a map of this incredible facility call Regis Art Center.
Mark also told me about the Four Gates of Speech among his many wise words…
Here is the full size image.
Posted & filed under Teaching.
My first course at the University of Minnesota’s Art Department focusing on generative video with Max/MSP and Jitter.
Check out the course’s blog.
Posted & filed under Teaching.
It is finally official:
I have started a faculty position at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. The position is a tenure-track assistant professorship, appointed in the Department of Art and the Interdisciplinary Program for Collaborative Arts (IPCA).
I am looking very forward to the new life, the new environment, new possibilities and my new immediate colleagues: Guerino Mazzola (Music), Michael Sommers (Theater), Diane Willow (Art, Time and Interactivity), and Lynn Lukkas (Art, Time and Interactivity) and Michael Cherlin (Music, Director of IPCA).
This fall, I will teach two courses; the first on Experimental Video, and the second on Time.
And the best part: my email address in a university with 60,000 people: ali at umn dot edu
Let the good times begin….
