NOVEMBER 12, 2024
BLACK PUBLIC MEDIA
WEEKLY DISPATCH
By Leslie Fields-Cruz
BPMplus Hosts Art & Tech Showcases at D.C. Festival
This weekend, our BPMplus program will host two Art & Tech Showcases at the third iteration of Torrents: New Links to Black Futures, in Washington, D.C. The four-day festival, which runs Nov. 14-17, is an interdisciplinary series celebrating creative future-building through visual arts, technology, music, film, and performance. The two BPMplus Art & Tech Showcases are set for Sat., Nov. 16.
Showcase I will commence at noon and Showcase II will start at 2 p.m. ET. BPM Emerging Media Director Lisa Osborne will moderate both sessions. All are welcome to these free events, but registration is recommended. A one-hour mixer featuring a cash bar will follow the second showcase. The BPMplus Art & Tech Showcases are sponsored by Shutterstock and Rolling Out.
Featured BPMplus Showcase Artists
The participating filmmakers and artists will discuss the art of making artificial intelligence, augmented reality, projection, and video projects at Black Public Media’s annual showcase of creative technology productions. Artists will share details about their creative process, including the intentions behind their piece, a little about their workflow, plus share concept art and clips of finished pieces. Participating artists include:
Andrea Walls | Philadelphia
Variance: Ritual for a Home (2024)
Showcases I & II
Variance debuted at The Colored Girls Museum as part of Philly Fringe in September 2024. It was the first of two new series that Andrea Walls plans to create: Rituals, which are site-specific engagements that include projection mapping and live performance, and Rising Signs, which feature augmented reality art.
Baff Akoto & L-A Appiah | London
Collateral Echoes (2025)
Showcases I & II
Collateral Echoes is an immersive art installation that celebrates the lives of Black and immigrant Britons who have died at the hands of the police since record keeping began in 1969.
Ethel-Ruth Tawe | Arusha, Tanzania
Image Frequency Modulation (2025)
Showcase I
A nonlinear work investigating the sonic, visual, and haptic frequencies of images, ancestral memory, oral transmission, and metaphors of radio technologies as sites of possibility for the African diaspora.
Georgiana Wright | Huntsville, Ala.
Synthetic Ferality (2024)
Showcase II
Ioa, a feral AI who believes she is god, is fed up with human beings. This is the first of three artificial intelligence chatbots that Wright, an AI developer, plans to build.
LaJuné McMillian | New York
The Portal’s Keeper—Origins (2024)
Showcases I & II
Currently on view at the Frist Museum in Nashville, Tenn., The Portal’s Keeper—Origins features prayers of healing and gratitude between two avatars that were created using motion-capture and 3D software. The avatars share philosophies and prayers seeking to help “Black children trying to find their way home.”
MaryAnn Talavera | New York
The ORIXA Project: Planet Aris (2024)
Showcase I
On Planet Aris, a 200-year-old goddess contemplates motherhood, spirituality, and the cycle of life. The deity commands the seas and embodies the power of creation and renewal.
BPMplus supports independent creators who are developing immersive projects centered on Black narratives. The program’s commitment to opening doors is essential in fostering greater representation within emerging technology fields, making sure that Black stories are told authentically and reach broader audiences.
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BPM is supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with further funding from the MacArthur Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts. BPM is the only nonprofit that offers training, funding and distribution for projects solely about the Black experience. We welcome foundations, corporations and individuals to help with our work. For more information about underwriting and contributions, contact Delynda Lindsey (delynda@blackpublicmedia.org).