XDA has played a major role in coordinating events both at CU-Boulder and the Denver/Boulder metro community. In 2002, TECHNE, in conjunction with the Department of Art and Art History, ATLAS, and the former School of Journalism and Mass Communication, sponsored the MAPPING TRANSITIONS exhibition as part of the Rethinking the Visual Symposium. The exhibition was curated by Professor Mark Amerika and Whitney Museum of American Art curator Christiane Paul. All of the projects in the MAPPING TRANSITIONS exhibition looked at information as an abstract 'quality' that can make a fluid transition between different states of materiality.
The exhibition featured newly commissioned work by artists Mary Flanagan, Lisa Jevbratt, and John Klima and all of the artists and curators were featured speakers at the conference. Group discussions among the digital art students have determined that the invasion of digital, networked and mobile media forms in the practice of every day life has significantly altered the contemporary art landscape and that the TECHNE practice-based research initiative is ideally positioned to influence cultural developments in the region and beyond. In addition to our popular web presence via this web site, students regularly program various performances and exhibitions throughout the Denver/Boulder region.
To this effect, the students, under the direction of faculty director Mark Amerika and faculty associates Mark McCoin and Frances Charteris, have also sponsored an ongoing series of student generated digital performances and exhibitions under the banner INVASION. These events are usually scheduled as an end of the semester showcase of student artwork produced using digital, theoretical, performative, and postproduction processes. The events take place in venues such as the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, the ATLAS Black Box, Counterpath Gallery, the Mercury Cafe in Denver, and alternative spaces throughout Colorado.
Most recently, Graduate students, working with TECHNE faculty director Mark Amerika, created the SIG_NULL exhibition, performance and collaborative artist catalogue in collaboration with Counterpath Gallery and Press. The exhibition featured new work from ten Graduate students affiliated with the TECHNE practice-based research initiative, all of whom experimented in forms such as dirty new media, found film, the #NewAesthetic, transmedia narrative, artist e-books, conceptual writing, and applied remixology. The limited edition print publication was created via a collaboratively authored and designed book sprint performed by all of the artists. For more information on SIG_NULL, see the event announcement here.
