Epic Ephemera: Signals

Please note this program has been moved from Saturday, April 24th to Friday, April 23rd due to rain.

Mobile Projection Unit presents an outdoor digital installation series at the Portland Art Museum, reimagining space at an epic scale and unraveling hidden mythologies. The Epic Ephemera series ranges from a group screening of experimental media work rooted in ritual, sculpting canvases atop architecture to reveal the poetics of the natural world, to bringing leading pioneers of audio/video/coding to Portland through a digital portal. Epic Ephemera reinvents public space and shared experience, transcending the limitations of our screens.

SIGNALS is a collaborative project by artists Nicolas Sassoon (Vancouver, BC) and Rick Silva (Eugene, OR)  that focuses on immersive audio-visual renderings of altered seascapes. Sassoon and Silva share an  ongoing theme in their individual practices; the depiction of wilderness and natural forms through  computer imaging. Created by merging their respective fields of visual research, SIGNALS features oceanic  panoramas inhabited by unnatural substances and enigmatic structures. The project draws from sources  such as oceanographic surveys, climate studies and science-fiction to create 3D generated video works  and installations that reflect on contamination, mutation and future ecologies. This exhibition digitally maps the work onto the Museum’s courtyard and features a live soundtrack by Pulse Emitter.

Rick Silva’s videos and installations envision near-future ecologies altered by technology and climate change. Silva was born in Brazil and lives in Eugene Oregon where he is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Oregon. He has exhibited his work in over 20 solo and two-person exhibitions and over 100 group exhibitions, including Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and The Centre Pompidou.
http://ricksilva.net/
https://www.instagram.com/ricksilva.jpg/
https://twitter.com/ricksilva

Nicolas Sassoon’s work has long been concerned with the tensions between the pixel and the  screen, reflecting on their entanglement and materiality by integrating pixelated figures, moiré  patterns and early computer graphics into experiential displays. This focus on early computer  graphics is driven by the sculptural, material and pictorial qualities of this imagery, as well as its  limitations and its poetics. Sassoon’s work often explores the projective dimensions of screen based space, and the many relationships between computer technology and the natural world.  His research leads him to engage in cross-disciplinary projects in the fields of architecture,  electronic music, textiles, and art. Nicolas Sassoon lives and works in Vancouver BC Canada, on  the unceded lands of the Sḵwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and S ̱ əlílw̓ ətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. His work has been exhibited across the United States, Canada and Europe.
http://www.nicolassassoon.com/
https://s-i-g-n-a-l-s.com
http://www.w-a-l-l-p-a-p-e-r-s.net/
https://twitter.com/Nicolas_Sassoon
https://www.instagram.com/nicolassassoon

Portland-based composer Daryl Groetsch’s output under the name Pulse Emitter forms a catalog of nearly one hundred physical releases since the early ‘00s. The full scope of his wide-ranging experiments in synthesis and electronic arrangement encompasses everything from expansive new age drift exercises, to purely textural noise sculpting, to post-Berlin School cybernetic prog compositions.

Pulse Emitter approaches electronic composition from the perspective of a master craftsman, harnessing a fine-tuned sense of narrative development and a penchant for juxtaposing contrasting synth voices from far-flung corners of his arsenal of softsynths, app-based programs, and hardware instruments. While he conjures time-lapse vistas of galaxies and nebulas in our mind’s eye, the sophistication of his arrangements and the universal beauty of his harmonies pushes the lens inward on the self, resulting in a journey that is as personal and internal as it is celestial.
https://pulseemitter.com
https://pulseemitter.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/PulseEmitter
https://www.instagram.com/pulse_emitter/
https://www.facebook.com/pulse.emitter
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxem2CLMZkuSvHaNlmpIu6A

The Epic Ephemera series is supported by the Museum and Film Center’s Re:Imagine Artist Fund, an initiative expanding our commitment to supporting artists in a reimagined cultural sphere. Learn more.

Mobile Projection Unit is funded in part by the Precipice Fund, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Calligram Foundation, and the Regional Arts and Culture Council, Northwest Film Center, and Portland Art Museum. The Epic Ephemera exhibition is coordinated for the Portland Art Museum by Jaleesa Johnston, Program Lead and Sara Krajewski, Eichholz Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.