About the Talk
This talk will focus on a project in Wellington New Zealand entitled Sentimental Plastics. As part of the IntensCity Urban Design Week artist residency in 2007, Morgan Barnard and Robert Appierdo used a shipping container in the busy Courtenay Place entertainment district in Wellington as studio space and live urban screen. During the month-long residency, Barnard and Appierdo conducted workshops where they interviewed Wellington residents and gathered plastic bags to serve as raw material for the culminating Live Cinema performance and installation. These workshops focused on looking at ways to creatively reuse and up-cycle plastic bags. Bags were transformed into reusable material using a widely known heating method. The material was then used to create practical items and projection screens for the installation. The shipping container was transformed at night into an urban screen, evolving from and responding to the surrounding urban and data environment. The project culminated in a Live Cinema performance, projecting interviews and data-mined content onto screens made from up-cycled plastic bags. This talk will review Sentimental Plastics and look at Live Cinema and Urban Screens as a space for community entertainment and engagement.
About the Speaker
Morgan Barnard is a new media designer, filmmaker, and lecturer living in Los Angeles, California. For the past 12 years digital media and new technologies have been a core element that has informed his practice as an innovative artist and designer. From the early days of interactive digital media production at the California College of the Arts to film & video industry experience in Los Angeles and New York, he has worked with media through digital technologies to tell stories, create experiences, and engage audiences. In 2005 he received a master’s degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program in New York University creating a thesis that explored interactive storytelling and immersive narrative experiences. After graduating from NYU ITP, Morgan stayed on as an adjunct faculty member teaching courses in new media production video and interactive media. In 2006 he was awarded a Production fellowship at Eyebeam Atelier where he worked with artists creating documentaries and designed interfaces for live video performance. His background in documentary, music video, motion graphics, and post-production informs his academic practice. He is currently working on interactive installations, locative narrative, live video mixing and the creation of custom hardware and software for live visual performance.
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