Experimentalist engineer Golan Levin visits RIT

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Golan Levin

Experimentalist engineer and artist Golan Levin uses human-computer interaction to develop unique, interactive artistic works. In Floccular Portraits, above, Levin used computer software to coalesce piles of casual scribbles into a wispy, organic and sometimes unsettling portrait.

Golan Levin, artist, performer, composer and engineer, is a leader in the use of human-computer interaction to infuse art and design with new forms of reactive expression. Levin will highlight humans’ creative relationship with machines, using work from his online, installation and performance media, during a presentation on March 8 at Rochester Institute of Technology. It is part of the Caroline Werner Gannett Project’s “Visionaries in Motion IV” speaker series.

The free, public event, “Interactive Art and Speculative Human-Computer Interaction,” will be held at 8 p.m. in Webb Auditorium in Booth Hall. It will be preceded by a musical performance by Men Behaving Badly beginning at 7:15 p.m.

In conjunction with the talk, Levin will host two workshops focused on art and performance on March 9. An introductory session will be held at 10 a.m., and an advanced critique at 2 p.m. in Liberal Arts Hall, room 3244. Both require preregistration and interested individuals can call 585-475-2057 for more information.

Levin currently serves as associate professor of time-based art and director of the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University. He has earned international acclaim for his use of computer technology, digital imaging, and cybernetic systems to create elaborate, interactive art and performance projects that explore humans’ relationship to technology.

His performance pieces include Dumpster, commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art and The Tate Modern, and Scribble, which received an award of distinction at the International Competition for Cyber Arts in 2000. Levin’s work has also been featured in the Whitney Biennial, at the Neuberger Museum and is in the collections of a host of institutions in Europe, Asian and America, including Austria’s Ars Electronica Center, the NTT InterCommunication Center in Tokyo and The Taiwan Museum of Contemporary Art.

The Gannett Project’s Visionaries in Motion series explores new connections across technologies, social sciences and humanities, increasing opportunities for interdisciplinary understanding and collaboration both on campus and in the Greater Rochester community. In 2009, the series was selected as City newspaper’s Critics’ Pick for “Best Lecture Series in Rochester.” All Gannett events are free and open to the public.