projects 2006-12
Galileo in America 2012
A full production of this orginal performance work (for which staged readings were held back in 2004). Produced at the Contemporary Arts Center in the Experimental Media Performance Lab (xMPL), UC Irvine.
Evidence of Evidence 2011
A research installation I did at the Institute of Cultural Inquiry with writer Ruth Coppens, as part of the 100/10 series of exhibitions. Two blog posts about the show can be found here and here, and there is more general information here and here. A limited edition of the show catalog is available from the ICI here.
Hangmen Also Die 2010
A performance-installation project with director Robert Allen commissioned that was first shown at the Laguna Art Museum in the OSCENE 2010 exhibition.
WISP (World-Integrated Social Proxy)
An intervention project in which I trained a real-world avatar of myself to test the limits of personal substitution in the professional sphere. First major deployment at College Art Association Conference, February 2010.
World of World 2009
A work I created for the Laguna Museum exhibition "WOW: Emergent Media Phenomenon" (July-Oct. 2009). It is a four-panel digital print totaling 2 feet by 12 feet. The idea was to explore the complicated relationship that develops between players and their avatars, but from the avatar's point of view. The piece includes an overlay of running text in the form of an internal monologue/dialogue of the avatar/player. Here are some
pix and more info and a
video of my artist's talk at the museum.
Chronovacuum 2009
A short single-channel video constructed from collected webcam imagery. It was included in the 2009 exhibition "Out of School".
Pix, video, more info...
Rapture installations 2009
These were two different installations created from my 2008
Playing the Rapture project for the exhibitions "Mediated" and "Scalable Relations".
Pix and more info...
Playing the Rapture 2008
An original performance work that examines American evangelical belief in the Rapture. It is structured around two gamers creating and beta-testing a new computer game about the Rapture, a project that leads them into conflict, confusion, and near despair. It premiered at the Baltimore Theatre Project in March 2008.
Pix, video, more info...
Noxiterra 2008
A multistage experiment in world construction and responsive narrative based on a miniature biome. Stage 1 took place in 2008, and stage 2 is still in progress.
Pix and more info...
How Much Taboo Does Art Need? 2008
In May, I and my students participated as contributors to the
Wieviel Tabu braucht die Kunst?" project organized by Ursula Endlicher, Ela Kagel, and Anke Zimmermann in Zurich, Switzerland. We had a live video/voice connection to the event as the "Universal Translation Service" whose motto was: "Our goal is perfection. We translate all languages with 100 percent accuracy, guaranteed." However, the real mission of the "Universal Translation Service," which featured a running commentary on the performance in Korean, Thai, German, French, and English, was to explore those pleasures of translation that exist once the notion of accuracy has been jettisoned.
Searching for Sebald
An international anthology of original writings about the late German novelist W.G. Sebald and artworks inspired by his unsettling method of mixing text and images. I am an Associate Editor of this volume, as well as a contributor and its lead designer. Among many similar reviews, the
Journal of European Studies had this to say: "The layout is generous and clear, the paper and illustrations are excellent, the structure is disciplined and subtle."
Pix and more info...
Sebaldian projects 2007
These were a group of small editions and other works I created in connection with the publication of Searching for Sebald.
Pix and more info...
Manual of Lost Ideas website 2007
An interactive version of a manuscript that originally appeared in the book
Benjamin's Blind Spot (2001). The interactive version was published in the online journal
Other Voices, issue 3.1 (May 2007). As the introduction notes, "This site offers an overview of what is presently known about the Manual, together with a sample of pages from the manuscript, including a number that have never been made public before.... [in the hope] that this will help facilitate further research on the Manual.
Demotic 2006
A performance work about American Memory, a single character whose many voices are woven together into a complex texture of language, sound, and music. It is an improvisation in which actors, avatars, and musicians create a kind of covert national anthem. Created in collaboration with director Robert Allen, sound artists Cuca Esteves and Jeff Ridenour, actor Tracey A. Leigh, and the Plaintext Players, it premiered at the Beall Center for Art & Technology in July 2004. A new version premiere had its East Coast premiere at the Baltimore Theatre Project in November 2006.
Pix, video, more info...
alafarge@uci.edu
