Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM) at Yale
Machine and Medium Symposium: Matter and Spirit




PROGRAM



The symposium is free and open to the public. All events will take place at CCAM (149 York Street, New Haven, CT 06511). No advance registration is required. Seating will be first-come, first-served, and room capacity limits will apply.


Thursday, November 2

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Arts Library Pop-Up
Registration
CCAM Research Gallery


Come register for the symposium and meet fellow attendees. Interdisciplinary performer/artist and librarian Erin Carney will be present for a special edition of the Arts Library Pop-Up at CCAM. They will offer a curated selection of books related to the symposium—available for check-out by Yale community members!

with Erin Carney (Arts Librarian Drama/Theater/Performance Studies at the Robert B. Haas Arts Library at Yale)



Thursday, November 2
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Robert Mallary: Materializing Creativity
Panel  Discussion
CCAM Leeds Studio


This discussion will explore the work of the sculptor and multidiciplinarian Robert Mallary (1917–1997), one of the first American artists to use computing and code in his practice. Guests working with Mallary Archive and Media, a project developed to share and bring new life to his ideas, will illuminate how Mallary's use of the machine made creative inspiration tangible. They will also speak about the process and philosophy behind the Matter and Spirit Quad, a new sculpture based on the lost, computer-generated work Quad IV (1969).

With Michael Lanzano (artist and fabricator), Ryan McGahan (designer and filmmaker), Mason Whitehorn Powell (Creative Director, Mallary Archive), and Schmrypto (Director, Mallary Archive), moderated by American Artist (Lecturer, Yale School of Art)


12:30 PM – 1:30 PM
Break


Thursday, November 2
1:30 PM – 3:00 PM
Call for Papers 
Presentations
CCAM Leeds Studio

Call for Papers presenters from near and far will share their work or work-in-progress around the ideas and questions that have inspired the symposium, from new interpretations of Turing’s legacy to the automaton today. The event will feature an Artist Lightning Talk by Berlin-based artist Gabriel Winer, who will present his experimental approaches to cinema as a live medium.

with Gabriel Winer (CCAM Machine as Medium Fellow) and Call for Papers Presenters: Annabel Castro, Ivana Dama, Edward De Brouwer + Giulia Lazzara, Seth Embry, Meredith Finkelstein, Will Hallett, Smita Krishnaswamy, Cole Lewis, Bjorn Long, Brian Miller, Catherine Rehwinkel, John Santomieri, Shelby Shaw, and Olori Lolade Siyonbola


Thursday, November 2
3:15 – 4:45 PM 
Meet the Robots! & Lost Youth by Robert Mallary
Tour
CCAM Research Gallery


Gather in the CCAM Research Gallery (first floor of 149 York Street)  for this off-site robot/art adventure. We’ll first head to the Robotics Lab at the Yale School of Architecture to hear from faculty member and robotic fabrication specialist Hakim Hasan. Then, we’ll visit the Yale University Art Gallery, where fellow Joseph Henry will show us Robert Mallary’s 1938 lithograph Juventud Perdida (Lost Youth). *Limited to 15 people

with Hakim Hasan (Lecturer, Yale School of Architecture) and Joseph Henry (Florence B. Selden Fellow, Yale University Art Gallery)


Thursday, November 2
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
I AM ALAN TURING
Performance
CCAM Leeds Studio


Experience a work-in-progress presentation of I AM ALAN TURING, a new, experimental opera collaboratively devised by artists and artificial intelligence, inspired by the legacy of the gay pioneering computer scientist. Exploring the work Turing was doing at the end of his life, the opera's musical composition is deeply influenced by his theoretical biological research on morphogenesis and phyllotaxis. It features a Turing Fibonacci sunflower harmonic progression—a musical revelation that surprisingly unveils an invariant prime chord.

with Matthew Suttor (CCAM Program Manager and Senior Lecturer, Yale College) and Creative Team: Liam Bellman-Sharpe, Sola Fadiran, Hugh Farrell, Fred Kennedy, Tyler Kieffer, Jean-François Monette, Madeline Pages, Emily Reilly, Dakota Stipp, Wladimiro A. Woyno R.,  Kino Alvarez, Max Monnig, Aura Michelle, and Tyler Schroder; Conductor: Matthew Harrison; and Chorus: Sharon Ahn, Annabel Beatty, Ben Beckman, Shane Francis Gillespie, Mae McDonnell, Eduardo Pagliaro-Haque, and Gene Stenger


8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Reception
CCAM Leeds Studio

Friday, November 3

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Arts Library Pop-Up
Registration
CCAM Research Gallery


Come register for the symposium and meet fellow attendees. Interdisciplinary performer/artist and librarian Erin Carney will be present for a special edition of the Arts Library Pop-Up at CCAM. They will offer a curated selection of books related to the symposium—available for check-out by Yale community members!

with Erin Carney (Arts Librarian Drama/Theater/Performance Studies at the Robert B. Haas Arts Library at Yale)



Friday, November 3
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM 
Symposium Exhibition Tour and Coffee with the Artists
Tour 
CCAM Research Gallery
 

Join us for coffee and a curatorial tour of the symposium exhibition. Together, we’ll take an in-depth look at the new Matter and Spirit Quad sculpture, manifested from Robert Mallary, as well as films, an audiovisual installation piece, and more. Featured artists will join us to speak about their work  in dialogue with the themes of the symposium. The event will feature an Artist Lightning Talk by composer, musician, and instrument designer Konrad Kaczmarek.

with Lauren Dubowski (CCAM Assistant Director), Konrad Kaczmarek (Associate Professor Adjunct in Music, Yale University), and Exhibition Artists:  Fulanita (Paloma Izquierdo + Kyle Richardson), Rashaad Newsome, Mike Picos, Sam Skynner, Amelia Winger-Bearskin, Kaifeng Wu, and others

12:30 PM – 1:30 PM 
Break


Friday, November 3
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
Tales Told by Human-Operated Machines
Talk
CCAM Leeds Studio


How does the impact of technological change impact the world we live in as it evolves around us? A pioneer of interactive cinema, New York-based artist Toni Dove uses embodied interface and customized AI to create genre-mashing narratives that ask how this change alters how we invent ourselves. In this talk, she will present projects from her disruptive practice, evolved over years, as she’s produced machines that fuse film, game, experimental theater, robotics, and more to create immersive experiences.

with Toni Dove


Friday, November 3
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM
Alan Turing and the Patterns of Life
Panel
CCAM Leeds Studio

There are no publicly accessible recordings of Alan Turing’s voice. Yet, he continues to speak to us today, in surprisingly diverse contexts. This discussion brings together an artist, two interdisciplinary computer scientists, and an evolutionary biologist to discuss Turing’s ongoing relevance. In dialogue with the symposium showing of I AM ALAN TURING, it will emphasize his anticipation of new technologies, as well as his late work on morphogenesis.

with Matthew Suttor (CCAM Program Manager and Senior Lecturer, Yale College), Theodore Kim (Associate Professor of Computer Science, Yale University), Smita Krishnaswamy (Associate Professor in Genetics and Computer Science, Yale University), and Richard Prum (William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University)

Friday, November 3
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
I AM ALAN TURING
Performance
CCAM Leeds Studio


Experience a work-in-progress presentation of I AM ALAN TURING, a new, experimental opera collaboratively devised by artists and artificial intelligence, inspired by the legacy of the gay pioneering computer scientist. Exploring the work Turing was doing at the end of his life, the opera's musical composition is deeply influenced by his theoretical biological research on morphogenesis and phyllotaxis. It features a Turing Fibonacci sunflower harmonic progression—a musical revelation that surprisingly unveils an invariant prime chord.

with Matthew Suttor (CCAM Program Manager and Senior Lecturer, Yale College) and Creative Team: Liam Bellman-Sharpe, Sola Fadiran, Hugh Farrell, Fred Kennedy, Tyler Kieffer, Jean-François Monette, Madeline Pages, Emily Reilly, Dakota Stipp, Wladimiro A. Woyno R.,  Kino Alvarez, Max Monnig, Aura Michelle, and Tyler Schroder; Conductor: Matthew Harrison; and Chorus: Sharon Ahn, Annabel Beatty, Ben Beckman, Shane Francis Gillespie, Mae McDonnell, Eduardo Pagliaro-Haque, and Gene Stenger


8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Reception
CCAM Leeds Studio