Telfair Museums

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Telfair Museums’ PULSE: Art and Technology Festival returns with 5 days of exciting programming by national, international and regional artists. This year’s art projects include an exhibition of interactive robotic sculpture and video works by artist Hye Yeon Nam, videogame installations curated by New York independent arcade Babycastles, and works by Georgia new media Artist Derek Larson. Performances include a rare U.S. appearance by Onyx Ashanti, the American-born, Berlin-based musician has appeared at TED talks and venues internationally demonstrating his Beatjazz system. PULSE also includes a new performance, Indi-Visible, by the Medeology Collective, and two stagings of Douglas Wilson’s group game Johann Sebastian Joust. The festival also includes Blank Page Poetry, a new combination of spoken word and projection in collaboration with Indigo Sky Community Gallery.

Presented FREE of charge thanks to project funding from the City of Savannah Department of Cultural Affairs.

Does not include admission to the special exhibition Offering of the Angels.

Download the PULSE 2013 Schedule » 

Free Admission to the Jepson Center / 1.30.13-2.3.13

Does not include admission to the special exhibition Offering of the Angels.

Unfamiliar Behavior: Works by Hye Yeon Nam
1.31.13-4.28.13

Telfair presents the first solo museum exhibition by Hye Yeon Nam, a digital media artist working in performance video, experimental interaction design, and robotic installations. Her work makes the familiar strange, interpreting everyday behaviors in performative ways. The exhibition includes Please Smile, an interactive robotic sculpture in which five skeleton arms point to the viewer and wave when the viewer smiles, thanks to face tracking software. Miniature figures bow to the viewer in the sculpture Hooray, and the experimental Kiss Controller allows a kissing couple to control a videogame. The exhibition also includes performance videos which speak to the Korean-born artist’s initial feelings of displacement in the U.S. Hye Yeon Nam is a Ph.D. candidate at the Georgia Institute of Technology and holds an M.F.A. in digital media from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her art has been exhibited at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. (2011-2012), screened in New York’s Times Square (2009), and has appeared in electronic art festivals and conferences worldwide including FILE (Brazil, 2011, 2012), SIGGRAPH (Los Angeles, 2008, 2010), ISEA (Istanbul, 2011), and others in China, Ireland, the UK, Germany, Australia, Denmark, and Switzerland. Her work has appeared in media including the Discovery Channel (Canada), Leonardo Journal, Wired, Makezine, Business Insider and Engadget.

Games as Social Space: Curated by Babycastles
1.30.13-2.3.13

Come play in the museum! Games return to Telfair Museums in a installation and program curated by New York-based independent game arcade Babycastles. For five days only, the exhibition features a special installation of 3D PacMan, a playable room-sized projection based on the original game. Created for the 2012 Babycastles Summit at the Museum of Art and Design in New York, this new take on the classic game was envisioned by legendary game developer Keita Takahashi (Katamari Damacy, We Love Katamari, and Noby Noby Boy) and developed by Dr. Clement Shimizu of the immersive design and engineering firm, the Elumenati. Telfair will also present a gallery playable version of the exploration game Proteus, the projection game Digits by Penn State interaction design professor Andrew Hieronymi, and unconventional sports games from the recently Kickstarter-funded collection, Sportsfriends. These artistic multiplayer games include BariBariBall, Hokra and developer Douglas Wilson’s award winning no graphics game Johann Sebastian Joust, JS Joust, a musical game for 2-7 players using motion controllers and the music of Bach.

Leveling the Genres and other works by Derek G. Larson
1.23.13-2.5.13

Telfair highlights a selection of mixed media and motorized works, video and animated GIFs by new media artist Derek G. Larson. Included are works from Leveling the Genres, a series of video projections and screen prints first exhibited at the Vox Populi Gallery in Philadelphia in 2012. Larson’s statement on this series reads:

“Enter an office, a mind and a story all at once. Eat a Garfield sandwich with Hegel chips and a glass of Deleuze. Have a hybrid affair, on me. Get the sensation of being connected to everything, feel the art of being everywhere. I’d like to know how it feels to level the genre distinction but for now I can only imagine. Leveling the Genres connects and comments on disparate interests in literature, popular culture and technology…”

Derek Larson’s work has been featured in the Seattle Times, NY Arts Magazine, The Times-Picayune and Rhizome @ The New Museum in New York. He is the director of 4D Studies and assistant professor at Georgia Southern University.

*All workshops are free, with limited space, advance registration is required. Call 912.790.8823.

Full STEAM Ahead: 3D Printing in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math Education” for Educators* Friday / 1.25.13 / 2-4pm /
Armstrong Atlantic State University

This first-ever 3D printing workshop for Savannah educators will look at the cross curriculum education potential of 3D printing using Makerbots. Presented by the faculty from the departments of Computer Science and Art Music and Theater at Armstrong Atlantic State University, this workshop is limited to 20 participants.

Game Design for Teens*
Saturday / 1.26.13 / 10 am-3pm

(Ages 13 and up) How does game design differ from other creative pursuits? Ever want to try and make your own game? If any of these questions interest you, then this is the workshop for you! Join local game designers and create a prototype of your own game using GameMaker.

Huggable Nature with Hye Yeon Nam*
Saturday / 2.2.13 / 10 am-1pm

(Ages 13 and up) Help interactive artist Hye Yeon Nam create a memorable hug for trees in our area. Using simple sensors and crafting prowess, Nam’s community DIY project allows participants to create electronic embedded fabric pieces that allow people to leave voice messages for the trees. When others hug the tree, they trigger these prerecorded messages.

Game Cabinet Workshop and Pop Up Arcade with Babycastles*
Saturday / 2.2.13 / 10 am-1pm

(Ages 13 and up) Babycastles has established a program of independent arcade events internationally with an emphasis on collective enjoyment. Come and be a part of creating unusual “cabinets,” from cardboard to stuffed animals, which will house independent games. A Pop up arcade will be open Saturday afternoon and evening in the the Jepson Center, and will include games by local students and game designers.

Lecture and Demonstration by Hye Yeon Nam

Wednesday / 1.30.13 / 6pm

Pulse opens with a lecture by Internationally-recognized robotic engineer and installation artist, Hye Yeon Nam is a Ph.D. candidate at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She will discuss her work in video, interaction/game design and robotic sculpture and coordinate a demonstration or her work Kiss Controller. 

Artists Panel for Students with Keita Takahashi and Andrew Hieronymi Thursday / 1.31.13 / 11am

High school and college students are invited to listen to brief presentations and take part in discussion with game artists Keita Takahashi and Andrew Hieronymi.

Games as Social Space: A conversation with Keita Takahashi, Douglas Wilson and Clement Shimizu, Moderated by Babycastles. 

Thursday / 1.31.13 / 6pm

Video games are important sites of contemporary social interaction that have increasingly found their way into both physical art installation and museum collections. Telfair presents a stellar lineup of game art creatives to address these ideas. Speakers include legendary, award winning game designer Keita Takahashi, along with Dr. Clement Shimizu, who realized Takahashi’s concept for the 3D PacMan environment. Also appearing are Douglas Wilson, head of Die Gute Fabrik and the mastermind behind the no graphics game Johann Sebastian Joust, and Syed Salahuddin and Kunal Gupta of the New York independent arcade/curatorial project Babycastles.

Live Game Play:
Johann Sebastian Joust
Thursday / 1.31.13 / 7pm

Join JS Joust developer Douglas Wilson for a live staging of the game.

Artists Panel for Students
with Onyx Ashanti and
Derek G. Larson
Friday / 2.1.13 / 11am

High School and College students are invited to listen to and participate in Q and A with musician/inventor Onyx  Ashanti and new media artist Derek G. Larson

Family Day: 3D Printing, Music Technology and 3 pm demonstration/performance by Onyx Ashanti
Saturday / 2.2.13 / 2-5pm

Bring the family for an all-ages celebration of creative technology with guest artists’ demonstrations, hands on projects in the Jepson Center studios and a 3pm  performance and demonstration of Onyx Ashanti’s Beatjazz system.

Game Night featuring Johann Sebastian Joust
Saturday / 2.2.13 / 5-7 pm

Johann Sebastian Joust  is often cited as one of the most interesting games ever created for the PlayStation Move controller. The award winning game by developer Douglas Wilson is designed for 2 to 7 players. Instead of using a screen, players interact with one another in an attempt to jostle the other players’ movement controller. This is JS Joust’s first time in Savannah!

Beatjazz by Onyx Ashanti
Friday / 2.1.13 / 6pm

Beatjazz is what you get when you cross a sci-fi obsessed electronic jazz artist with a futurologist instrument inventor. In this case, it is the American Born, Berlin-based artist, Onyx Ashanti. Onyx sounds like the offspring of Roger Troutman, Timbaland, and John Coltrane. Onyx’s began by playing the southern California rave scene in the late 1990’s. He spent the first half of the 2000’s playing and recording with the likes of Soul II Soul, Basement Jaxx and Marshall Jefferson. In the last 3 years Onyx has taken on the challenge of creating a new form of music and new devices for performance, Beatjazz, created  with 3D printing technology. It includes a wireless sensor network that converts finger, hand, and breath movements, into musical control data, which allows him to play synthesizers with dance-like movements and saxophone-like fingerings. Performances include a video component which illustrates which part of the system he is playing at any given time.

“Indi-Visible” by the Medeology Collective  Friday / 2.1.13 / 6-8pm

Georgia’s VJ provocateurs, the Medeology Collective, are back for an interactive installation and performance in the Jepson Center Atrium. Using large-scale projections across the front windows, the Collective will montage images of crowds contrasted by a smaller screen featuring unique individuals. This relationship will create interesting, funny and unexpected results, exploring themes of politics, history, social relationships and media representations of crowds and individuals. Live video will mix images from many cultural sources from The Keystone Cops to witch-hunt mobs scenes. The Collective will use X-Box Kinect gaming sensors to pick up and project the crowds of the audience and feed them into the scenes of the installation.

Blank Page Poetry, Presented by Indigo Sky Community Gallery
Sunday / 2.3.13 / 6pm

Blank Page Poetry is a unique spoken word performance combining electronic music and digital projections The performance addresses the interface between rapidly developing technological advances and the human condition through words, shadows and sound.