IDEAS Performance | HYDRA
Virtual IDEAS performance
Friday, May 7, 2021
Qualcomm Institute, UC San Diego
Host: Shahrokh Yadegari
Agenda
Introductions
Performance
Q&A to follow, in Zoom
HYDRA is a meditation on the dissolution of the membranes of body, selfhood, and environment. In this immersive multimedia installation, sound, projections, and lights fuse to form replications of individuals inside of it using depth-mapping and spatial audio technology. Once formed, these shadows untether themselves from their creators and undergo processes of transformation and actualization as they transmute through a series of organic and inorganic reifications. The audience will bear witness to the course of these life cycles, during which they may experience the birth and death of societies of digital organisms or the creation and erosion of ecological and synthetic formations. For the streamed IDEAS event on May 7th, this installation will be the stage of a performance piece in which the artist will inject their own body into this caustic digital reality.
Artist Bio
John Burnett (b. 1993) is a multimedia artist based in San Diego, California. Drawing from a background in music composition, sound design, and technology, they create technologically-augmented and reactive multimedia installation works, sound and projection design for dance and theater productions, as well as concert works and film scores. John is also a member of the Sonic Arts research team, based in the Qualcomm Institute at UC San Diego, where they research audio spatialization and audiovisual technology. John is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and is currently a PhD Candidate at UC San Diego.