I’ll be speaking as a part of the panel at this year’s conference for the American Society of Landscape Architects, in Phoenix, AZ. The panel is titled:
Illuminated Landscapes: Using Light Projections to Transform the Built Environment
The panel, organizerd by Jeff Schnabel of Portland State University, focuses on the repertoire and potential for projected light as a medium for urban intervention and landscape design.
I will present plis/replis at this years ACADIA conference.
Our collaborator Hyoung-gul Kook will join me in San Francisco for the conference.
The detailed conference program is here.
Sponsored by:
I joined the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Art in the Spring of 2012.
I'll be documenting all of my teaching at http://teach.alimomeni.net.
I taught a workshop Anderson Ranch the summer of 2011. Here's the low-down (revised description):
Workshop Title: Miniature Worlds: Movement, Light, Gesture And Electronics
When: Jul 09, 2012 – Jul 13, 2012
Where: Anderson Ranch @ Snowmass, Colorado
Media and Techniques:
Electronics, Arduino-based micro-controllers, electromechanics (motors, solenoids and servos), dynamic lighting, software and programming (Arduino IDE, Cycling '74 real-time programming and Max/MSP/Jitter).
Concept:
This workshop takes an interdisciplinary approach to working with live electronics, kinetics, light and imagery. Students explore the basics of electronics work with micro-controllers and strategies for using light and movement to animate a miniature space. The metaphor of a miniature world invites students to integrate their own creative practices (in two- or three-dimensional media) into mixed-media interactive installations.
Course Web-Page: here
Work samples: check out all the final project videos from last year's course blog!
This workshop shares much of its concept/content with a course that I teach at CMU called "Animated Theater". Look at the blog from this course to get a better sense of the approach.
Here are a few of my favorite final projects from last year….
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.
Between July 27-31, 2009 I taught the 18th annual CNMAT Max/MSP/Jitter night school course (for my 9th time!). All course documentation is kept on CNMAT’s one-of-a-kind new music web portal: there you will find the course outline, video screen shots of some of the lectures, as well as patches and links.
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.
I was invited by Colin and Troy of Twin Cities Solutions to give a presentation at their Give & Take event held at Intermedia Arts on Oct 28, 2009. The presentation was on my work with MAW.
While in Spain for showing Smoke and Hot Air at FEEDFORWARD, I gave a lecture on Minneapolis Art on Wheels as a part of the symposium, on a panel with Eric Kluitenberg, Daniel G. Andújar, Fernando García-Dory, Carlos Motta.
According to the press release:
SYMPOSIUM FEEDFORWARD
The Symposium Feedforward. The Angel of the History, will take part on October the 23 and 24. A panel of experts and artists in new media art will debate about some of the central topics of the exhibition.
PARTICIPANTS: Christiane Paul, Steve Dietz, Sarah Cook, Margot Lovejoy, Tamiko Thiel, Chris Baker, Jose Carlos Mariategui, Stephanie Rothenberg, Angus Cameron, Tiziana Terranova, Piotr Szyhalski, Naeem Mohaiemen, Barbara Fluxá, Esther Leslie, Hasan Elahi, Konrad Becker y Marco Peljhan, Nonny de la Peña y Peggy Weil, Knowbotic Research, Tom Levin, Jaron Rowan y Clara Piazuelo, Tere Badía, Emmanuel Rodríguez, Graham Harwood, Eric Kluitenberg, Daniel G. Andújar, Fernando García-Dory, Carlos Motta, Ali Momeni.
During August 3-7, 2009, Robin Mandel and I taught a week-long intensive workshop on physical computing at Anderson Ranch. The workshop was titled Physical to Digital (see Anderson’s flier).
I created a course blog that includes arduino code, references for working with kinetics as well as videos of the students final projects.
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”).
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.
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.
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.
Lecture at the Mutating Media symposium in October of 2008, held at favorite Gent spot (after Ingrid and Bram’s pad of course): Vooruit. This symposium of a part of Almost Cinema 2008.
Working with Motors:
1. Our Simple Voltage Amplification Circuit
2. Graphical Resistance Calculator
3. Transistor and Diode basics
4. Our TIP122 voltage amplifier
More interfaces:
Excellent stepper motor:
Stepper Motor
Source for premade driver boards:
Futurlec Electronics (Thailand)
Basic Electronics Resources
Tom Igoe – Understanding Electricity
Electronics Calculator (Resistance, Voltage, Amps, etc.)
General Resources
Tom Igoe’s Physical Computing Site
STEIM (Netherlands Interactivity Center)
Hardware Hacking
Instructables (DIY everything)
Sensors
CNMAT’s Gestural Controller Page
ITP (Tom Igoe) Sensor Reports – plus implementation code for PIC microcontrollers
Protolab Sensor Tutorial – uses arduino microcontrollers for examples
Light Sensing Resistor Circuit
Actuators
Interfaces
Tom Igoe – Microcontroller Overview
Arduino
Learning Electronics with the Arduino
Software
iShowU (documentation software)
Electronics Retailers and Surplus
All Electronics (surplus electronics)
Digikey (retail general electronics)
Electronics Goldmine (surplus electronics)
Futurlec (dc power boards, etc.)
Jameco (retail general electronics)
Mouser (retail general electronics)
Radio Shack (retail general electronics)
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
Fall 2008: ART 8400: Theoretical Constructions in Contemporary Art
First Year Graduate Seminar
Professors: Ali Momeni, Jenny Schmid
This course focuses on theories of contemporary art and how they have created a foundation for current art practices. In addition to reflecting on theory, this class seeks to collectively explore new paradigms in the ways that artists are working today- through the creation of collectives, the globalized community and artist-as-curator model. Can post-modernism shift to not just operate as a resistance against an historical Western paradigm, but rather formulate new approaches that are based in a globalized, less provincial and more dynamic way of thinking?
Here are links to the syllabus/course description, the class blog, and the assigned readings.
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.
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.
Between July 21-25 of 2008, I taught the 13th annual MaxMSP Night School, hosted by CNMAT. This was the 9th year I taught at the night school, crazy!
I have posted all course material on CNMAT’s 2008 Max/MSP Night School page.
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.
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.
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.
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….
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.
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…
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.
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….
Course evaluation form results from 2005, 2006 and 2007, with 38 out of 62 students responding to the survey.
A PDF version of CNMAT’s MaxMSP Night School Student Evaluation is here.
Between July 23-27 of 2007, I taught the 12th annual MaxMSP Night School, hosted by CNMAT.
A few related links:
–Course Syllabus and Patches
–Course Evaluation Form (please fill it out if you took the course!)
–Evaluation Results
In the 2005 academic year, I taught interactivity design and real-time programming at ENSAD‘s ARi program.
My Max/MSP/Jitter patches for the initial intensive workshop are here by day:
–Monday
–Tuesday
–Wednesday
–Thursday
My students’ projects are documented here.
Between July 24-28 of 2006, I taught the 10th annual MaxMSP Night School, hosted by CNMAT.
A few related links:
–Course Syllabus and Patches
–Course Evaluation Form (please fill it out if you took the course!)
–Evaluation Results
In the 2004 academic year, I taught interactivity design and real-time programming at ENSAD‘s ARi program.
My Max/MSP/Jitter patches for the initial intensive workshop are here by day:
–Monday
–Tuesday
–Wednesday
–Thursday
–Friday
–One more day
My students’ projects are documented here.
Between July 11-15 of 2005, I thought the 10th annual MaxMSP Night School, hosted by CNMAT.
A few related links:
–Course Syllabus and Patches
–Course Evaluation Form (please fill it out if you took the course!)
–Evaluation Results
In the 2003 academic year, I taught interactivity design and real-time programming at ENSAD‘s ARi program.
My students’ projects are documented here.