Artists Statement 

Installation

“Columbiritmos” (“Columbi”: Columbia “ritmos”: Algorithms) is an interactive, digital, kinetic, geo-location performance project that uses algorithmic functions calculated in a custom GPS tracking phone application to direct the field-user to navigate the city of Manizales, which is presently the main center for the production of Columbian coffee. Influenced by the Situationists who, before the time of computer code, experimented with numerous rules for navigating Paris with the intention of breaking from routine to re-experience Paris from new perspectives, “Columbiritmos” will use a custom phone app that, when the phone is shaken, uses an algorithm to direct field-users to move in specific directions for specific distances, sample local coffee that is GPS tracked for region of the city, listen to and transmit GPS located stories acquired from the locals, which are all transmitted back to the gallery space to activate of multiple automated kinetic coffee dispensers that deliver coffee with varying degrees of intensity from areas within that region to gallery visitors. Depending on the passenger experience as they navigate, the phone application directs the field-user to respond to a “field- intensity” meter, which in effect makes stronger or weaker cups of coffee for gallery visitors.

• Max Kazemzadeh, Program Director/Associate Professor, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA. In addition to serving as an Associate Professor and Program Director of Art & Media Design in the Art, Communication & Theater Department at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, for the last ten years my work has investigated the influence constructed, semi-conscious interfaces have on human perception and interaction. Directly connected to elements within machine perception and sense-based recognition, his work feeds naturally into the focal point of his recent research, investigating the significance and value of errors within the process perception and identification (via the senses) as essential contributions to creativity, inspiration, innovative thought, and learning. Let’s talk about significance, coincidence, and creativity. maxkazemzadeh.com
• Reza Safavi, Associate Professor, Washington State University, USA.  Reza Michael Safavi (CA) is an artist currently living and working in the United States. His current research examines how the presence of technology in daily life shapes human experience: our perceptions, social behavior, economics, entertainment and the way we meet our basic needs. He uses video, sound, sculpture, analog and digital devices and elements of the natural world to create interactive experiences that highlight the interfaces, both macro and micro, among people, technology and the environment. He has been a member of a number of artists groups, and in addition to his solo work, he regularly participates on collaborative projects . He received an MFA in Art and Technology from the University of Oregon and a BFA from the University of Victoria. hi-reza.com