ꉂ⋆🖥️✦𓍼
Pixel as a Seed
Presented for Climate week at SHiFTMidtown, NYC. Sept 29, 2024.
This past year I have stepped into a land stewardship role as I learn to care for an overgrown section of my family farmland. It has been incredibly profound and healing for me to reconnect with the soil & to self guide this learning process, as I gather knowledge from my family, explore heirloom techniques (such as scything!), look to microbial ecology, seed saving, cover crops & weeds as indicators of soil health. This work feels like a natural extension of my arts practice, just as art was a response to my hands on rural upbringing.
Within this digital landscape, I have built upon my visual lexicon with documentation from my farming diary. Notably, I have included montanta morado maize, sorghum sudangrass seed, red clover, chicory, goldenrod & a variety of grains and grasses I have I grown or collected over the past year.
This work was commissioned by Montauk Climate with many thanks to Early Spring.
Artwork customized to Shift Midtown's immersive projection system 11,000 x 1080 pixels or 180 linear feet at 16 feet high.
Installation photo by Naoki Fukuda.
I want to leave this Earth behind
Stefana Fratila & Diana Lynn VanderMeulen
Satosphère 3 MUTEK x SAT, Montreal. August 25, 2023.
"I want to leave this Earth behind“ is a multisensory project which centers on outer space exploration, speculative-fictive realities, and Crip futurity. Engaging audiences in an immersive exercise of imagining interplanetary and sci-fantastical atmospheres– conditions which are inherently unlivable, unbreathable, converting all human body-minds into disabled-bodied-ness.
This show combines three overarching works: "Sononaut VSTs" & "I want to leave this Earth behind" by Fratila and "A Boundless and Radiant Aura" XR by VanderMeulen.
A research-creation residency with SAT (Society for Arts and Technology) granted us the time and tools to transform our work into a 40 minute immersive A/V show, specifically formatted to the Satosphère’s multichannel sound system and 360-degree projectors.
Photos above by Ash KG (subtletherapy.com)
✿ Documentation from our residency below ✿
Stefana testing synths for live performance. Photo by Bruno Colpron.
First day testing audio and video within the SAT dome.
Approximately 7,200 Fisheye PNGs make up the 40 minute show - this is my first time using PNG sequence for a live show :)
Visual exploration of "Earth" for album 'I want to leave this Earth behind' by Stefana Fratila
Out April 21, 2023 on Halocline Trance and Not Not Fun. Titles by Haley V. Parker.
a Boundless and Radiant Aura
a Boundless and Radiant Aura is a multisensory 360° Expanded Reality project, which invites visitors to defy terrestrial logic as they navigate the sublunary layers of an exploratory landscape. Extended from an ongoing series of two-dimensional, mixed-media worlds, virtuality is a means to challenge the bounds of cinematic terrain and an opportunity to explore the metaphysical connection between landscape and the human spirit. Collage and glitch are key tools in the confrontation and renegotiation of our digital/cosmic corporeality. The installation features an audio soundscape by Stefana Fratila and an atmospheric redolence created with perfumer Courtney Rafuse.
Presented by Debaser at Pique, in SAW Gallery, Ottawa ON. March 11 - 18, 2023.
Virtual launch supported with an in-person exhibition at Toutoune Gallery, Toronto ON. April 14 - May 18, 2023.
I would like to acknowledge funding support from the Ontario Arts Council and thank the Government of Ontario for their support with this exhibition.
a Boundless and Radiant Aura interactive XR Magic Window application with reactive visual and sonic landscape. 2023
Ambient video loop with atmospheric sound by Stefana Fratila. 2023
Live navigation accompanying a musical performance by Stefana Fratila. 2023
Atmospheric Redolence in pearlescent vessel. Collaboration with Courtney Rafuse of Universal Flowering. 2023
CRT TV with textural installation, pillows & custom lighting. 2023
a Boundless and Radiant Aura - Live exploration from the interactive XR Magic Window application.
Sound by Stefana Fratila. Title by Karen Thurler. Technical support from Spek Work, Lennard Spokowski and Sarah Cannon.
¸,¤°´✿.｡.:*^
𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓂𝓂𝑒𝓇 𝑜𝒻 𝒶 𝓅𝑒𝓉𝒶𝓁, n̴o̴w̴ ̴a̴ ̴m̴o̴u̴n̴t̴a̴i̴n̴ ̴s̴t̴r̴e̴a̴m̴
A hybrid physical-digital exhibition curated by Sky Fine Foods, April 15- July 15, 2021.
Presented on web and within interactive social Virtual Reality gallery, ArtGate VR
With public screenings in Toronto (CA), Berlin (DE) & Buffalo (USA)
Virtual meet up with attendees of the exhibition opening. Proximal audio from the video artworks and via participants microphones.
Gallery can also be viewed solo in "private" mode.
Exhibition documentation from Sky Fine Foods interactive virtual gallery, within Art Gate VR.
Select works below:
Works from my solo exhibition are available as printed editions via Sky Fine Foods.
Featured above:
𝕕𝕒𝕪 𝕘𝕝𝕠𝕨
.¸,¤°´✿.｡.:* 𝐁𝔩𝔬ⓞ𝕄 ⓕ𝔬𝐑๓αtⒾ𝑜𝓃 *.:｡.✿`°¤,¸.• (I, II. III)
b҉i҉o҉l҉u҉m҉i҉n҉e҉s҉c҉e҉n҉t҉ ҉w҉a҉t҉e҉r҉s҉ & °¤n̾e̾o̾n̾ ̾a̾l̾g̾a̾e̾`°¤♬
Featured below:
𝒶𝓁𝓉𝑒𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝒷❀𝑔
5:59 Minute video - performed with company dancer Alana Elmer at Toronto Dance Theatre, 2022.
¸,¤°´✿.｡.:*^
CADAF digital contemporary art fair, 2020
𝒸𝑜𝓈𝓂𝒾𝒸 𝒷𝒾𝓇𝓉𝒽, 2020
ʅυɳαɾ ɠαɾԃҽɳιɳɠ, 2020
Available as limited edition prints via Sky Fine Foods Gallery
𝒻𝓁𝑜𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔♩•´¯, 2020
¸,¤°´✿.｡.:*^
SWAMPY GOGO ✿ AR Magic Window Experience
SWAMPY GOGO ✿ AR Magic Window Experience, 2019 ✿ Limited release on App Store + Google Play.
Made in collaboration with SpekWork. Sound by Ah! La Lettre!
✿✿✿ View Extended Trailer ✿✿✿Download for Desktop ✿✿✿
Above: Live captures from Swampy Go Go.
Launch of Swampy Go Go at The Brandscape, Toronto. 2019
Swampy Go Go beta testing at Nike "Department of Air" artist workshop series. 2019
Swampy Go Go sculptural installation within Beyond the Starry Mountain for SMASH. The Gardiner Museum, Toronto. 2019