tel·lu·ric: being or relating to a usually natural electric current flowing near the earth’s surface
UCLA Art Sci Center was invited by Ars Electronica to be the Los Angeles Garden and is presenting a series of events under the title of Telluric Vibrations. Using the model of a plant growing both upward into the atmosphere and downward into the soil, simultaneously cultivating the Earth and the Ether – conceptually and physically, grounding technology. Beaming live from the UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden in the middle of the city and the molecular imaging labs underground at the UCLA California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI). Just as the botanical garden has plants and trees transplanted from all over the world, so too Los Angeles is one of the most diverse cities in the world with more than half of the population considered “foreigners”. Thus, the Los Angeles hub also connects with artists from the Art Sci collective in Europe, Brazil, Japan and Singapore and our partners – Leonardo ISAST in San Francisco and across the coast to Harvestworks NY at the Governor’s Island, NY.
Site specific installations and performances from the UCLA Art Sci collective’s Clinton Van Arnam, John Brumley, Kaitlin Bryson, Ivana Dama, Matea Friend, Maru García, Christoph Kilian, and Iman Person will be showcased at the UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden – designed for social distance as well as to be presented online through live video and AR. Sound art, bio art and immersive installations will be created to interact within the garden and its multiple species and sensory experiences. The garden will not function as a backdrop, but rather as an integrated, collaborative element, as the UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden aims to engage people with the broad ways that plants are woven intricately into our lives and bring diverse communities together. Dr. Victoria Sork, the Dean of Life Sciences at UCLA and the director of the UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden, who graciously offered the garden as a site, will be giving the opening keynote talk “Tree Conservation, Genomics, and Change” on September 9th at 7:00am PST. She is also participating in the panel “Re-envisioning Urban Landscapes” with Hadley Arnold, Iain Kerr, and Ariel Levi Simons on September 11th at 5:00pm PST.
The symposium, keynote lectures, and panels featuring scholars, artists and scientists will extend the network further, fostering diverse education and community. This LA Garden as a whole is about expansive network ecologies and creating nodes for interaction that bridge the gaps between species, technology, and cultures. We are imagining novel ways of living and joining together on this new, planetary journey. Telluric Vibrations will feature a variety of workshops and live performances that will engage the audience and encourage them to connect with their surroundings – from wherever they are watching. The workshops cover topics such as remote sensing of Mars, listening to electromagnetic radiation, imaging techniques, music and quantum mechanics, and sidewalk herbariums.
The panel discussions in Telluric Vibrations are centered around the Earth and its cultivation with the Ether, spanning topics including the intersection of space and art, climate change, virusphere, and urban landscapes. Artists and scholars from around the globe will come together for conversations about the intersection of their work with each other and the world around them.
The festival will delve into the creative spaces of artists and researchers with live tours of artists’ studios and research laboratories. The audience will have the chance to step into their processes and learn more about their work.