Calit2 and CRCA to Host SIGGRAPH Art Performances and Installations at UC San Diego

San Diego, CA, July 18, 2007-- The University of California, San Diego will host three days of digital art performances and installations by international artists and technologists who illuminate the role digital media play in shaping, extending, and reflecting our view of the world. The cutting-edge program will take place August 4-6 at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) and the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA) at UC San Diego.

New technology developed at Calit2 allows the viewer to "walk" through the surface of Leonardo da Vinci's "Adoration of the Magi" to reveal Leonardo's original underdrawing (at right) that was hidden for more than 500 years.

The innovative, new-media performances and site-specific installations are part of the SIGGRAPH Art Gallery : Global Eyes, a component of SIGGRAPH 2007, to be held this year at the San Diego Convention Center August 5-9. Registration for the conference and exhibition is open to the general public and will attract approximately 25,000 computer graphics and interactive technology professionals from around the world to San Diego .

“Calit2 has invested heavily in facilities to enable artists and engineers to explore the world of new media,” said Ramesh Rao, director of the UCSD division of Calit2. “We are delighted to be working with SIGGRAPH to showcase multimedia performances and installations, and we hope that new engagements will emerge among researchers at UCSD, the artists and scientists selected from a very competitive field to show their work here, and visiting academics and corporate representatives who may be seeing UCSD for the first time.”

"This is a wonderful opportunity to bring some of the world’s leading performance artists to these state-of-the-art venues for a comprehensive program that will lift the eyebrows of even the most discriminating performance art critics," stated Vibeke Sorensen, SIGGRAPH 2007 Art Gallery Chair from the University at Buffalo. "Global Eyes is an exciting forum for showcasing alternative ways to think about nature and art, and how the two interact."

Sheldon Brown's Scalable City will be shown at the San Diego Convention Center during SIGGRAPH 2007.

The Art Gallery showings will be split between UCSD and the Convention Center. CRCA director Sheldon Brown, for instance, will be showing his interactive multimedia piece, Scalable City, at the Convention Center, where he is also organizing an art panel on "Local Concerns, Global Art." Joining him on the panel will be three artists affiliated with both CRCA and Calit2 at UCSD: visual arts professor Ricardo Dominguez; Experimental Game Lab manager Alex Dragulescu; and musician Shahrokh Yadegari, a professor of theater and dance who is also organizing the SIGGRAPH @ UC San Diego events. [The art panel will take place from 9-10:45am on Monday, August 6, in Room 30A at the Convention Center.]

"There are very few facilities in the entire country that could do justice to the imaginative and daring works that will be staged during this three-day period," said Yadegari, who is also the SIGGRAPH Art Gallery Performances Subcommittee Chair. "Calit2 and CRCA have contributed facilities, funding and personnel to spotlight these performances and installation, and we expect that many attendees at SIGGRAPH-and members of the public-will make the trip to UCSD to see these works staged in a venue designed to showcase new media arts."

A second art panel at the Convention Center will be moderated by Bill Tomlinson, a Calit2 participate from UC Irvine. The August 9 panel on "Global Environment and Digital Media" will include Yadegari, UCSD visual arts professor Natalie Jeremijenko, UCSD graduate student William Brent, SIGGRAPH 2007 Art Gallery Chair Vibeke Sorensen from the University at Buffalo and other experts. They will explore the use of graphical and interactive technology for art relating to global environmental issues.

CRCA's Noah Wardrip-Fruin will show his piece Screen for visitors to SIGGRAPH @ UC San Diego.

Some seats at all performances at UC San Diego will also be reserved for UCSD faculty, students and staff free of charge, but advance registration is required. UCSD students and employees only are asked to register to attend specific performances by going to the SIGGRAPH @ UC San Diego website at http://siggraph.calit2.net and clicking on the Register tab. A full list of showtimes and event descriptions can be found at the website. For all other Art Gallery and general SIGGRAPH information, visit www.siggraph.org/s2007/. For further information, email siggraph_2007@calit2.net.

Related Links
SIGGRAPH 2007
SIGGRAPH @ UC San Diego
CRCA

Media Contacts

Media Contacts: Doug Ramsey, 858-822-5825, dramsey@ucsd.edu and Brian Ban, 773-454-7423, media@siggraph.org.