FLUID NEW MEDIA LABORATORY

Fluid New Media Lab is a New York City-based archive of audiovisual pieces by emerging artists that collaborate to produce events, exhibitions, and workshops to advance and showcase their media works. These works may include interactive installations, short film, video, animation, and other visual experiments. Fluid is a part of the Local Project gallery, located in Long Island City, Queens.

aluCine Toronto Latin Media Arts Festival, Fluid New Media Lab presents Subversive Manipulations of Technology and the Pocket Video Workshop. The Subversive Manipulations of Technology, curated by Gabriel Roldós, presents a selection of pieces that serve to challenge existent, commercial products with prototypes and audiovisual productions developed by emerging artists who are using technology such as sensors, microprocessors, and open source programming. These examples of subversively manipulating technology represent a search for civic virtuosity, as it contributes to personal habits and attitudes that are conducive to social harmony. In a cutting-edge, cyberpunk setting created in the aluCine festival, we will challenge individuals to explore and discover their own virtuosity through digital and interactive art.

Curated by Gabriel Roldós.

For more information on Fluid New Media Lab’s workshop, installations, and performances at aluCine please see http://fluid.localproject.org

ARTIST BIOS

Gabriel Roldos, (Quito, Ecuador)
Gabriel is the curator of the “Subversive Manipulation of Technologies” collection prepared for the aluCine New Media Festival. These include installations by: Soto, Velázquez, and Casas, performances by Bravo, Dávila Casas and Silva, and a workshop by Velázquez, Carboneras and Durán. He is directing Fluid New Media Lab since 2007, where he coordinates collaborations, exhibitions, events and promotions. Gabriel has a BA in Animation and Multimedia Arts at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, and a MA in Arts Management from Pratt. He works at the Queens Museum of Art and at Local Project art space. These experiences have helped him understand artistic production and community engagement in a museum and non-museum context.

Juan David Casas (Cali, Colombia)
Juan David is the author of the”3D Facade Mapping”, the digital media for the “Experimental Instrument” and a guest musician on the “Elextra” performance. Juan David is also known as Cosmic JD, and is a producer, visual artist, and DJ. His music explores genres such as deep house, techno- and dub-influenced compositions. He runs Terapia Studio, his own electronic music record label. JD Casas complements his musical compositions with self produced visuals. www.jdcasas.com

Balam Soto (Mixco, Guatemala)
Balam is the author of the “Tag Tool”, the “Experimental Instrument” and the “Body Sound Instrument”. He is a new media artist that merges digital technologies with traditional mixed media to create exploratory works that expand the perception of technology and art. He provides a seamless interaction between humans and technology by combining existing and custom, digital technologies with artistic concepts and aesthetics to create interactive installations that react to the presence or behaviors of individuals. Balam has exhibited his artwork in venues like the Queens Museum of Art, Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science & Art in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the Centre. Cultural in Brussels, Belgium, the National Library of Cameroon in West Africa and Museum Miraflores in Guatemala City. Balam was honored with a Diploma of Recognition as a “Maestro,” a Master of Visual Arts, by the National Congress of Guatemala for “being a valuable and outstanding artist with international success.”

Dayan Silva (Bogotá, Colombia)
Dayan is a guest dancer and prop designer for the “Body Sound Instrument” performance. She is a student of Video Arts and Technology at B.M.C.C in New York City, and part of the Art Students League of New York. Dayan has become known as part of Brooklyn’s art scene since 2001, where she is a member of the U.C.N.Y.C (Under Cultured New York Collective). She has participated in diverse performing art projects at Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia as a V.J/D.J, dancer, puppeteer, singer, multimedia artist. Her solo projects incorporate colleagues and puppet and dance performances. She is also a teaching artist for institutions such as New York Public Library, Queens Museum of Art, Museo del Barrio, among other theaters and cultural venues.

Manuel Bravo (Ambato, Ecuador)
Manuel is a guest musician for the “Body Sound Instrument” performance and musician for the “Elextra” performance. He moved to New York 15 years ago. He is part of UCNYC artist collective, in a city where all the mass production centers are being transform to cultural centers. He is the bassist for Criollito Saun Crew, Elextra, and Radio Armada. Recycled Brain is his solo digital roots&bass project by which heart and head become One.

Christian Dávila (Cali, Colombia)
Christian is a musician for the “Elextra” performance. He was exposed from early days to the waves of love: Music. At the age of four he started at the Conservatory “Antonio Maria Valencia” until the age of 15. At the age of 18, on the year 2000, he moved to NYC where he started to get involved with the underground scene, mostly with the immigrant community. For the last ten years Christian made part of great groups like Just a Pupil, as a bass player, Green Supreme as Vocalist, keyboards and guitar and Elextra. In 2007 he launched his new solo project, LuLoLove.

Fernando Velásquez, (Montevideo, Uruguay)
Fernando is a teaching artist for the “Pocket Video Workshop” and author of the “SP_Mobile” installation. He has doctorate in communication and semiotics at Pontificia Universidade Católica de San Pablo, master in Fashion Culture and Art in the faculty of fashion at Senac Sao Paolo, with a concentration in Video and Digital technologies in Mecad Center of Barcelona. Participant of various collective and individual shows including, the 3rd Pocket Film Festival a Centre Pompidou in Paris, Bienal del Mercosul in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Curator and artistic director of the new media festival Motomix2007, de Papermind Brasil (2009) and offf Day San Pablo (2010). He has received various distinctions including the prize “Vida Aritificial 11.0” and “2008 Culturas” in Madrid-Spain and the Sergio Motta Award for Arts and Technology in Brazil.

Nacho Durán, (Asturias, Spain)
Nacho is a teaching artist for the “Pocket Video Workshop”. He has produced many new media pieces with a common threat that experiments with micro-cinema, interactivity and mobility. He is the creator of the first video-blog of South America (www.feitoamouse.com.br/videoblog), in 2003, an experimental online diary with short video loops. He does workshops and conferences of Pocket Video, Locative Art, Webradio, VJing and audiovisual production for internet and cel. Since 2006, the workshops os feito.a.mouse, where produced in Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Spain in festivals, cultural centers and digital inclusion.

Julià Carboneras Girgas (Barcelona, Spain)
Julià is a teaching artist for the “Pocket Video Workshop”. He is a musician and information technology engineer. He has experience in theater and dance performances creating soundtracks and interactive new media installations. Him and his colleague Fernando Velázquez are winners of the Locative Arts Award at the festival ArteMov in Brasil from Fundacion Teléfonica. Currently he is the Technical Director of MediaEstruch (Sabadell- Barcelona), a center where new media technologies meet live performing arts.