The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s School of Art, Art History & Design is hosting the 2018 Mid-America College Art Association Conference Oct. 3-6.
The conference theme is “Techne Expanding: Tensions, Terrains and Tools,” and will explore wide-ranging interpretations of technology and its use and impact on the teaching, making and performing of art, as well as the broader human experience.
Keynote speakers for the event are Behnaz Farahi and Andy Cavatorta.
Farahi is a creative designer and technologist working at the intersection of fashion, architecture and interaction design. Trained as an architect, she explores the potential of interactive environments and their relationship to the human body.
She has worked with leading firms such as Autodesk, Fuksas Studio, and 3DSystems / will-i-am. She has also collaborated with Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis on two NASA funded research projects developing a robotic fabrication technology to 3D print structures on the Moon and Mars. She has been an Artist in Residence at Autodesk Pier 9.
Farahi is on the advisory council for the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts.
Cavatorta is a sculptor working with sound and robotics. His work integrates emerging technologies with traditional crafts to discover new ways to create meaning with sound. As a culture, we are exploring questions about meaning and emotion mediated by technology. But many of the questions date back to the origins of the pipe organ and automaton. At what point does that numinous ghost of feeling, beneath the level of words, enter the machine?
While Cavatorta’s work is powered by software and robotic technologies, its focus is on experience and emotional narrative.
Since the 1930s, the Mid-America College Art Association has provided a forum for the artists/teachers of America to discuss and debate the issues of our profession, and to share ideas and information of mutual benefit.
For more information about the conference, including registration information, visit http://www.macaart.org/.