Date/Time
Thursday
25 Apr 2013
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Location
470 Stephens Hall

Event Type
Colloquium

John Naccarato

John Naccarato is an inter-disciplinary artist currently based out of Montreal, Canada. His current work integrates Augmented Reality, or “AR” for short – a mobile-based technology that straddles the divide between digital and physical space. He first became involved with AR through an Intervention at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in NYC on October 29, 2010, organized by Mark Skwarek and Sander Veenhof. During a major exhibition opening at MoMA, Skwarek, Veenhof and 42 artists including Naccarato implemented a parallel AR exhibit where visitors to the MoMA engaged with their curated AR exhibit via smartphones and IPads. His most recent AR exhibit, entitled The Conversation (2013), will premiere at (Un)certain Boundaries on Friday April 26.

In his artistic practice, Naccarato explores the relationship between human memory and physical space. How significant are memories when it comes to coloring our experiences of the spaces we occupy and move through on a daily basis? How does the advent of digital, mobile and virtual (cloud)-based technologies alter and augment perceptions of spatio-temporal reality?

In this lecture he will examine these themes through his works, The Skinning of Memory (2009), and The Obscure Objects of Desire and the Rise of the Technological Chimera (2010). These two pieces examine how historical technologies, such as analog-based TV sets, emit a presence that is in a sense haunted, as they retain memory imprints of past interactions and uses. He is also curious as to how past and present technologies evolve and integrate with human presence to configure new realities – realities with the potential to transform our state of being into what he calls ‘technological chimeras.’