The Athena Dataset
The Athena Dataset is a series of remixes, iterations, constructions, and deconstructions.
The Athena Dataset is a series of remixes, iterations, constructions, and deconstructions.
Working with our first 1000 photographs of the Damaged Leaf Dataset.
It’s messed up.
When the Vermont Complex Systems Center at the University of Vermont hosted The Conference on Artificial Life: What Can Alife offer AI? it included a call for artists. The Art in Artificial is an interview series with some of these artists, conducted by Jenn Karson and students from the UVM Art + AI Research group.
Artists:
Jenn Karson, Amay Kataria, David Kadish, Hendrik Richter, Kevin Mack, Sam Meech, Yoquin Sun
We were featured on ProteusTV‘s Twitch channel on April 22, 2022. In this 40-minute program, the artists share their work and engage in a conversation about artworks informed by artificial life and artificial intelligence. The short pre-recorded videos with individual artists are linked above (see artist name).
Photo of 3d-printed printer used to make these prints.
…Gradually or suddenly, one sees that humanity and nature, not separate, are in this world together.
John Cage, Silence
To know an animal or plant, or any terrestrial thing whatever, is to gather together the whole dense layer of signs with which it or they may have been covered; it is to rediscover also all the constellations of forms from which they derive their value as heraldic signs.
Michael Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences
Exhibitions:
In 2010, using Maurice Benayoun’s Art Collider, Karson and Photographer Matt Larson sent digital images and sounds from Vermont’s Lake Champlain Waterfront to a live streaming exhibition at La Bellevilloise Gallery in Paris, France. Artists from Montreal, Canada; Paris, France; San Francisco, California; New York, New York, and Linz, Austria participated in the live event.
A rhizome has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle, between thing, interbeing, intermezzo…The middle is by no means an average; on the contrary, it is where things pick up speed. Between things does not designate a localizable relation direction, a transversal movement that sweeps on and the other away, a stream without beginning or end that undermines its banks and picks up speed in the middle.
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari
A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia
…If we stick to our decision to start from the controversies about actors and agencies, then anything that does modify a state of affairs by making a difference is an actor–or, if it has not figuration yet, an actant. Thus, the questions to ask about any agent are simply the following: Does it make a difference in the course of some other agent’s action or not? Is there some trial that allows someone to detect this difference?
Bruno Latour, Reassembling the Social
Navigating the Bay was a site-specific sound and projection installation that explored the complex negotiations between natures and cultures in the San Francisco Bay. Five sound rhizomes and corresponding projections responded to sensor readings on location.
The Salon Pod sound experience turned the tables on audience and stage performer; Salon Pod made the listener the center of attention.
“I forgot to tell y’all that I checked out the Salon Pod over the weekend at The Langdon Street Cafe in Montpelier. Maybe you’ve seen the short items I’ve written about the Pod in Weekend in recent months. Maybe you haven’t. Anyway, the gist is that Burlington musician Jenn Karson (formerly of local riot-grrrl band Zola Turn) converted an old-school hair-salon chair into a listening station for her ambient music. She pumps her music through small speakers installed in the spaceman-styled hair dryer – one of the most brilliant musical-equipment ideas I’ve ever seen – and gives dark goggles to the listener to block out as much sensory interference as possible. I selected a musical number called “Le Coiffeur,” which was appropriate considering the setting (and I needed a haircut, anyway, and a virtual one seemed so much easier and cheaper). It was a pretty freaky experience, lemme tell ya, but very cool. The blend of impressionistic synth-driven music and snippets of cutting scissors and French-speaking barbers was a first for me, frankly. I’ll be writing about it more at length for an upcoming article in the Free Press, so keep your eyes and ears open.”
– Brent Hallenbeck, Burlington Free Press
2006
Salon Pod makes you a star.
From 1999 – 2002 Jenn was the lead vocalist, songwriter and band leader for Bad Ju Ju. The band performed in Burlington, Vermont at Club Metronome, Higher Ground, Red Square, South End Art Hop and Half Lounge. For most of the time the band was together they were working on this album.
Jenn Karson’s (solo) debut paints vivid images with its gorgeous sounding songs. Karson’s lyrics are aptly summed up by the song title “Dark and Quirky”. The opener “Isle Blue” has a lovely tune and tells a haunting tale. “Monster” has an amusing but scary image of unrequited love. Karson has plenty of great songs on offer. This is a very good record by a gifted artist.
Collected Sounds
…Back with a fresh, more laid-back sound than in her previous band, Karson seems at ease in her solo shoes….I can’t get over how commanding Karson’s vocals are, and she has stepped up to the plate with strong songs that match her performance.
Seven Days Newspaper
…a good record…local music nicely produced.
Burlington Free Press