Morlan Gallery

LEXINGTON, Ky.—To open the 2011-12 academic year, Transylvania University’s Morlan Gallery is hosting two interactive works and one generative work for “Unveiling the Painted Curtain: 21st C Interactive Art,” which runs through Oct. 28. The exhibition title refers to new media artist and theorist Maurice Benayoun’s idea that the very first interactive art was initiated in the 5th century BC when Italian painters Parrhasius and Zeuxis had a competition to determine who was the better artist. It is said Parrhasius won when Zeusix tried to physically unveil his painting, only to discover the curtain was actually paint. Thus, Zeuxis’ gesture becomes part of the painting. The exhibition features “Toys’ Opera” by Yoni Niv, Elad Shniderman and Adam Kendall; “Higher Calling” by Tim Polashek; and “Forgetfulness” by Ivica Ico Bukvic. “Toys’ Opera” is a multimedia installation or performance project for multi-channel video, multi-channel sound-art and physical-computing. It’s centered around a small universe of HO-scale trains, models, contact microphones and miniature cameras on a 5’ x 4’ stage. Most of the trains are serially-controlled via Arduino microcontrollers. “Toys’ Opera” creates an abstract narrative built by machine-like formal processes executed upon the recognizable trains and models. It explores the boundaries between suggested and real worlds and wants to create a corrupted sense of reality. “Higher Calling,” created by Timothy Polashek, assistant professor of music at Transylvania, is an interactive installation manipulating sound and images of an infomercial from the 1950s for telephones. Simple

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University is hosting the Studio 300 Digital Art and Music Festival, Kentucky’s first such festival, on Sept. 16 and 17. The festival, which gets its name from Transylvania’s 300 North Broadway address, explores creative manifestations of technology through concerts and exhibitions of digital art and music. Over two days, Studio 300 will feature over 30 different stage performances and offer 33 art installations, interactive pieces and video/sound works by artists and musicians from around the world. All events are free and open to the public. Timothy Polashek, Transylvania music professor and Studio 300 director, writes in a variety of media and styles, including vocal, instrumental, electro-acoustic music, text/sound compositions and interactive performance systems. His music has been performed throughout the United States and abroad. “As a composer of computer music, I’m always looking for innovative ways to use and develop technologies for artistic purposes,” Polashek said.  “I have had the privilege of participating in many national and international festivals of digital and interactive arts, and they’re simply a lot of fun, and the public is really curious about these things, especially interactive works and multimedia works. “Lexington is a great city with a vibrant arts scene, but there are not yet many groups working with technology. Transylvania has a long history of fostering innovations over the centuries, so it’s natural that we invite these pioneering musicians, artists and technologists to campus.” Polashek hopes to expand the festival into

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—It’s not just grandmas wielding knitting needles these days. “Dropping Stitches: Knitting Trends in Contemporary Art” examines the recent knitting resurgence in popular culture and the contemporary art world. The exhibition also examines the impetus behind the knitting trend by addressing the topics of materiality, activism through crafting, knitting as guerilla art and knitting as protest model. The exhibit opens January 19 with an opening reception from 5-7 p.m., and runs through March 4. The Lexington Gallery Hop reception is Friday, February 18, from 5-8 p.m. The exhibit features the work of Stacey Chinn, Carol Hummel, Barbara Hunt, Ellen Mollé, Mark Newport, Lacey Jane Roberts and the Transylvania knitters collective “In the Loop.” Roberts’ studio practice primarily consists of large-scale site-specific knitted installations created with children’s toy knitting cranks. Her work has been shown recently in the Bedford Gallery, the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Folk Art, the Headlands Center for the Arts, Southern Exposure and Naomi Arin Contemporary Art. Roberts also maintains a critical writing practice that bridges craft and queer theory. Her writing can be found in the forthcoming anthology “Extra/Ordinary: Craft Culture in Contemporary Art” published by Duke University Press. Roberts has been recognized with more 10 major prizes, awards and fellowships in the last five years. Newport is an artist and educator living in Michigan and his work has been exhibited throughout the United States, Canada and Europe,

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