Artist Statement 

June 12, MACBA – Convent dels Àngels. Session: Mediated spaces

Keywords: Urban Media, Archive, Interactive Media, History, Projection

A discussion of work, to date, using archival material to craft site-specific, interactive media experiences for urban space.

Cities are living information systems, undergoing continued evolution and reconfiguration. Most frequently, media in this landscape is aimed at commerce/marketing. However, contemporary technology is increasingly being used to create affective, embodied, and/or meditative experiences that are not primarily commercial in nature. The novelty of this project is in working with local culture bearers and community stakeholders to inject site-specific cultural and historical narratives in the urban landscape. Currently focused on the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, LA, this project uses contemporary technology to draw attention to and to celebrate the many contributions of the historic residents of the oldest black neighborhood in the United States.

Moreover, by working directly with community stakeholders in the curation and development of these media outcomes, this project intends to outline a model for centering the voices and narratives of underrepresented groups in any urban environment. Finally, these works are part of a larger research project towards the creation of a strong, location-based augmented reality mobile application that also allows individuals to experientially discover the history of a place.

In this work-in-progress artist talk, I will discuss the successes and challenges of the installations created to date – covering both the technical and the social components of the project. I will also discuss intended plans for both the media installations and the augmented reality component – discussing my work with the Google’s MediaPipe as well as Google’s global localization system.

• Minka Stoyanova is an artist, technologist, and theorist. She completed her Masters of Fine Art (MFA) at the Glasgow School of Art (UK), her PhD (Creative Media) at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, and is an alumna of the Fulbright Research Scholar program in Bulgaria. Her artistic and academic research is focused on cyborg-based approaches to contemporary art and culture, and results in works that investigate the real and speculative effects of technology in society. She has presented artwork and published papers in a variety of national and international venues including Xi’an Museum of Contemporary Art (China), Clockenflap Music Festival (Hong Kong), the International Symposium of Electronic Art (Hong Kong), Transmediale (Berlin), Videoholica (Bulgaria), and FutureEverything (Manchester). As a 2020 Computing Innovation Fellow, Minka’s current, postdoctoral, research explores the possibilities of Augmented Reality in outdoor urban spaces.
• Reece Auguiste is Associate Professor of Critical Media Practices at the University of Colorado, Boulder (USA) and is a documentary scholar/artist with a research focus on national and transnational screen cultures, and documentary media arts practices. Auguiste was a founding member of the London based critically acclaimed Black Audio Film Collective. He wrote and directed the films Twilight City, Mysteries of July, Duty of the Hour and Stillness Spirit. He has published in AfterImage: Journal of Film and Media, Journal of Media Practice and Education, The British Avant-Garde Film 1926-1995, Questions of Third Cinema, and The Ghosts of Songs: The Film Art of the Black Audio Film Collective. He is the recipient of the Grand Prize at Melbourne International Film Festival, Josef Von Sternberg Award at the Mannheim International Film Festival, and International Documentary Association Award. He has exhibited at Tate Modern, Serpentine Gallery, and National Gallery of Art.