State Of The Art

Ali Santana is a director and multi-disciplinary artist working with video, sound, collage, installation, and performance. Santana, a native Brooklynite is influenced by community, natural patterns, music and, ancient cultures. His work often explores topics related to Black American identity, observations of nature, and sensory perception. Ali's audio-visual works combine video art, performance and experimental cinema with booming beats, sound design and original recordings which are chopped, looped, and arranged in real-time to create an abstract method of storytelling that he dubs Boom Bap Cinema.Ali is an award winning educator having received the 2019 award for 'Innovation in Teaching Artistry' from the Association of Teaching Artists for his work with The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Teens Program. He enjoys sharing his artistic practice with students of all ages, teaching video art, collage, and beatmaking. He prioritizes accessibility, creative problem-solving and resourcefulness, emphasizing that anyone can use art as a tool for change.Visit his website: http://www.alisantana.com/Follow him @boombaye

Brett Volker and Steve Milton are the founders of Listen, a cultural innovation agency rooted in sound and music, but seasoned at the strategic use of cultural programs to make an impact. They work with brands and innovative artists to craft boundary-pushing creative projects. Learn more about them at www.wearelisten.comFollow them @wearelisten

Ziv Schneider is an artist and designer working with new and emerging technologies, often in the context of non-fiction storytelling. She is an alumna, former research fellow, and sometimes lecturer at NYU ITP.Ziv is currently a Creative Technologist at The Brown Institute for Media Innovation.Her recent project Sylvia is a storytelling experiment that disrupted the virtual influencer landscape for a short period of time. Unlike her “peers” who are designed to appear young forever, Sylvia was designed to age rapidly. She posted to Instagram from July to November 2020, and during these five months, her image aged five decades, from 30 to 80 years old.Check out @myfriendsylviaLearn more about Ziv's work https://zivschneider.com/Follow her on IG @zivschneider

Vivian Greven’s painting is based on an adept play with various notions of bodies, being and representation, with concepts of classical antiquity merging with pop art and digital image worlds. Vivian Greven’s painting is characteristic of our present times, which are shaped by the internet and social media and thus dissolve the hierarchies between original, reproduction and simulation. The art historical and contemporary historical nestling corresponds with Greven’s painterly treatment of surfaces. Parts of her painting rise as actual reliefs that encounter sprayed or painted fictions of bodies and space. The aesthetic of her pictures vacillates between the vocabulary of physical painting and the ethereal illusion of LCD windows.Learn more about her work http://www.viviangreven.de/

Yuge studied drawing under Chinese contemporary painter Kaixi Cui 崔开玺 and eventually moved into Video Art after earning her Master of Fine Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Yuge’s work addresses connections, isolation and longing across urban and natural environments. She creates immersive experiences through digital collaging and sculptural reliefs. Yuge also directs and curates the 3300-square foot 150 Media Stream, a unique public digital art installation in Chicago. In addition to her MFA, she holds a masters degree in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University.Yuge has exhibited her work nationally and internationally including the Grand Rapids Art Museum; Elmhurst Art Museum; Spartanburg Art Museum; Ars Electronica Center at Linz, Austria; Chicago Cultural Center; SIGGRAPH Asia in Kobe, Japan; Microscope Gallery in NY among many others. Yuge’s work has been featured in various publications such as the New York Magazine, HYPEBEAST, and The Atlantic Monthly. Yuge received the Santo Foundation Individual Artist Award in 2017 and Honorary Mention in the 2020 Prix Ars Electronica. She is currently an artist at NEW INC, the world's first museum-led incubator for art, technology and design founded by New Museum. Follow her work @yugezhouLearn more about her work http://yugezhou.com/

Greg is the co-founder and CEO of Backyard Brains, an Ann Arbor-based company started as a neuroscience graduate student at the University of Michigan. Greg is a published neuroscientist and engineer and develops tools, curriculum and experiments that allow the general public participate in neural discovery.  He is an award-winning investigator at the National Institute of Health, a Senior Fellow at TED and the recipient of the White House Champion of Change award from Barack Obama for his commitment to citizen science.Learn more about Backyard Brains here: https://backyardbrains.com/about/Follow @backyardbrains

In this episode, Peruvian artist Efraín Rozas talks with us about his career, projects, how he uses software programming to produce sound installations and his experience dancing with robots.-About Efraín Rozas-Peruvian performer/composer and robotics/software developer. His work was described as “A heady confluence of technology, culture and cognition” by The New Yorker, and “A deep psychonautic dive” by Wire Magazine. He will be resident at The Kitchen on 2021. He is recipient of the NY State Council on the Arts/ Wavefarm Media Arts Assistance Fund, Jerome Foundation/Harvestworks New Works Commission, and Knockdown Center (NYC) residency for time based art.He has performed at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Brooklyn Museum, Queens Museum, Levitation Festival, Museum of Contemporary art of Lima and Central Park Summerstage Fania Records 50th anniversary. His album Roza Cruz was named one of the best Latin American albums of the decade by Zona Sucia and Estereofonía. Featured at CNN, BBC, Washington Post, Daily News, and NPR.He holds a PhD (NYU) on new integrations of body, mind and technology through ritual and rhythm. He published the book “Fusión: a soundtrack for Peru”, and released albums via Names You Can Trust (NYC), Futura Resistenza (Amsterdam) and Buh Records (Lima).He produces the radio show “La Vuelta al día en 80 mundos” nominated to best “World Sounds” by Mixcloud.com. He was a professor at NYU music department and directs Tangible: Sound Research Lab (Lima). Based in Lima and NYC. Learn more about Efraín at http://efrainrozas.com/Follow Efraín @efrainrozasListen to his project ¨I enjoy the world¨

In this episode, multidisciplinary artist, Saks Afridi discusses his collaborative projects with artisans and technologists across the globe to create sociopolitical and thought provoking works of art. These collaborations range from the creation of intricately designed traditionally woven rugs featuring UFOs to explorations with archaeological leanings, and something Saks calls "Sci-fi Sufism".-About Saks Afridi-Saks Afridi is a multi-disciplinary artist living in New York City. Saks’s art practice is two-fold: Collaborative and Personal. His personal work investigates the predicaments and perplexities of the life of an ‘Insider Outsider’. This is the practice of achieving a sense of belonging while being out of place, finding happiness in a state of temporary permanence, and re-contextualizing existing historical and cultural narratives with the contemporary.His latest project ‘SpaceMosque’, exists in a new genre he terms as ‘Sci-fi Sufism’. Here he explores the idea of ‘Spiritual Machines’ that fuse mysticism and technology, bringing humanity closer to understanding itself. He draws inspiration from Afrofuturism, South Asian folklore, Sufi Poetry, Islamic mythology, architecture and calligraphy. Saks likes to let the concept lead the medium he works in, often working with architects, artisans, modelers and fabricators to bring the work to life. He comes to art with a background in advertising, as a Creative Director on brands such as Mercedes-Benz, MTV and White Castle. He studied advertising at the Academy of Art and later sculpture at the Art Students League of New York. He speaks English, Urdu, Pashto and conversational Arabic.He is the proud recipient of 2 Gold Cannes Lion Awards, 3 D&AD Pencils, 2 OneShow pencils and a United Nations Award for Peace & Understanding. His work has also been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, CNN and The Colbert Report.Learn more about Saks at http://www.saksafridi.com/Follow Saks @saks__

In this episode, we speak with video artist Kameron Neal who uses his body and personal narratives to explore intimacy and to challenge socio-political ideologies. -About Kameron Neal-Kameron Neal is a queer Black video artist, designer, and performance-maker based in NYC. Forbes described Kameron’s solo exhibition at Detroit Art Week 2019 as “an absurd escape that simultaneously provokes and entertains.” Kameron is currently in residence at CultureHub, The Public Theater’s Devised Theater Working Group, and the Bemis Center. As a Resident Artist at Ars Nova, he co-created MukhAgni, an irreverent multimedia performance memoir, with Shayok Misha Chowdhury; the piece was curated in Under the Radar 2020. His stop-motion self-portrait Liquid Love was awarded Best of Show at Digital Graffiti Festival 2017 where he returned in 2018 as an artist in residence. Kameron’s video art has been featured in music videos for Billy Porter and Rufus Wainwright. His work has also been seen in National Geographic, HYPEBEAST, Studio Magazine, and at BAM, New York Theatre Workshop, SohoRep, La Mama, Bushwick Starr, New Orleans Film Festival, Blue Balls Festival, the Type Director’s Club, Vox Populi, and Williams College Museum of Art.Learn more at kameronneal.comFollow Kameron @kamer_n

In this episode, SOTA host Gabriel Barcia-Colombo speaks with David Goodman, former VP of  Digital Development & Marketing at Sothebys about the role of media in the arts, his work at Sotheby's, his trajectory into the art world, and how art infiltrates many corners of everyday life.-About David Goodman-Experienced C-Suite executive who has spent 30+ years running divisions of global multi-media organizations, spearheading/overseeing growth, revenue, marketing, content creation, production, product/technology innovation/services, distribution and oversight of some of the worlds most recognizable brands and properties. Most recently he served as Executive Vice President, Marketing and Digital Development at Sotheby's where he and his team (advertising, technology, content creation, audience development, exhibition design/creative services, sponsorship, membership) were responsible for numerous initiatives which resulted in record growth in audience (physical/digital), revenue, e-commerce sales, on-line audience, content creation (web, mobile, social, video, print, AR/VR) while incorporating best-in-class technology into client-facing products and processes.