Athens, Ga. – For the third year in a row, the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia will take part in the Slingshot festival of music, technology and electronic art, which runs March 31-April 2, primarily in downtown Athens. The museum will host the free kickoff party for Slingshot on March 31 at 6 p.m., during which it will reveal “Refining Realities,” a work of electronic installation art created by VolvoxLabs.
“Refining Realities” will be installed on the museum’s Patsy Dudley Pate Balcony through June 19. Digital visualizations and light projections activated by real-time data create an immersive architectural landscape on a trio of 3-D panels mounted to the wall.
Lynn Boland, the museum’s Pierre Daura Curator of European Art who has worked with Slingshot annually, said, “VVOX’s past projects have been astounding examples of cutting-edge digital art at the intersection of commerce. It is particularly exciting to bring them into a museum context, where the work can explore ideas more independently.”
VVOX, based in Brooklyn, uses cutting-edge technology to create digital and physical experiences. The firm has worked with the band Neon Indian to enhance its live performance at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York by using Microsoft’s Kinect motion-sensing devices to map the band members’ movements live and translate them into simultaneously projected visuals. It has also collaborated with Ferran Adria’s famed elBulli, in Barcelona, to capture time-lapse video of the restaurant’s laboratory that is automatically posted online and with LinkedIn to create an interactive data visualization kiosk. VVOX’s work has been covered in Wired, Fast Company, Creators Project and Vice and been featured on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
VVOX creative director Kamil Nawratil will speak at the museum March 31 at 5 p.m. before the kickoff party. Born and raised in Poland, he studied as a graphic designer in Washington, D.C., before co-founding VVOX. Nawratil will discuss both “Refining Realities” and previous projects.
Boland will lead a free tour of “Refining Realities” April 20 at 2 p.m. This exhibition and its associated programming are supported by the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art.
Museum Information
Partial support for the exhibition and programs at the Georgia Museum of Art is provided by the Georgia Council for the Arts through appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. The council is a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Individuals, foundations and corporations provide additional museum support through their gifts to the University of Georgia Foundation. The Georgia Museum of Art is located in the Performing and Visual Arts Complex on UGA’s East Campus. The address is 90 Carlton St., Athens, Ga., 30602-1502. For more information, including hours, see georgiamuseum.org or call 706-542-4662.
