Event Press Release

SFMOMA Hosts the Fifth Annual Activating The Medium Festival 2002 February 15–16, 2002

Release date: January 16, 2002

What The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) joins 23five Incorporated to present the Fifth Annual Activating the Medium Festival 2002. This year's festival brings together a group of internationally recognized artists to celebrate and explore the process of sound art. Live performances in the Phyllis Wattis Theater by artists focusing on sound in relation to new media and simulation will accompany the installation, Speaking/Sensing Space, on view in SFMOMA's Schwab Room. The festival will travel to four other locations in California after launching at SFMOMA.
Who Co-organized by SFMOMA's Department of Media Arts and 23five Incorporated in San Francisco.

Participating Artists:

Scott Arford, one of the leading figures in new media arts in the San Francisco Bay Area, works with electronic, sound and video to create fully engaging multimedia installations and performances.

Paul DeMarinis has worked as a multimedia artist since 1971, creating numerous sound and computer installations, performance works and interactive electronic inventions.

George Legrady's recent installations use motion detector sensors and machine vision to integrate audience presence as an active component in the narrative development of his work. For Activating the Medium 2002, Legrady collaborated with Steven Pope and Andreas Schlegal, Gilroy Menezes and Garry Kling of the Media Arts & Technology Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara to create Sensing/Speaking Space, an interactive digital media installation using real-time audience interaction to generate visuals and sound.

Sensorband is a trio of musicians using interactive technology to create sound art. Edwin van der Heide, a composer, performer and instrument builder based in Utrecht, The Netherlands, plays the MIDIconductor, which consists of machines worn on the hands that send and receive ultrasound signals. Zbigniew Karkowski, a Polish-Swedish composer/musician currently living and working in Tokyo, activates his instrument by moving his arms through invisible infrared beams mounted on a scaffolding structure. Atau Tanaka, a Japanese-American composer and performer, plays the BioMuse, a system that tracks electric neural signals and translates them into digital data.
Where San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
151 Third Street (between Mission and Howard)
Phyllis Wattis Theater
The Schwab Room
When Friday, February 15, 2002 • Performances begin at 8 p.m., doors open at 7 p.m.
Evening performances by Sensorband, Paul DeMarinis and Scott Arford
Keynote lecture by George Legrady
Speaking/Sensing Space, an interactive installation by George Legrady; Stephen Pope; and Andreas Schlegel, Gilroy Menezes and Garry Kling, Media Arts & Technology program (MAT) at the University of California, Santa Barbara

Saturday, February 16, 2002 • 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Speaking/Sensing Space open to the public during gallery hours
Performances by Zbigniew Karkowski and Scott Arford beginning at 2 p.m.
Schwab Room: Speaking/Sensing Space interactive installation by Legrady/Pope/MAT
More Advance tickets to the opening performance on February 15 are available for $12 general admission or $10 for SFMOMA members, students with current ID and seniors. Tickets can be purchased through www.ticketweb.com or by calling 510/601-TWEB. For more information visit www.sfmoma.org.

Media Contacts

  • Libby Garrison , 415/357-4177,
  • Polly Winograd , 415/357-4173,

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San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
151 Third Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

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