EMPAC announces the three recipients of this year’s EMPAC DANCE MOViES Commission. Chosen out of 69 proposals, the projects range widely in format, style, and intent: from a multichannel video installation to exploration of movement and music in flight. Each project reinforces the quality and inventiveness that has typified previous DANCE MOViES Commission recipients while continuing to push the definition of what dance on screen can be. All projects will be developed and produced at EMPAC, taking advantage of full production support while in residence.
Throughout the month of February, EMPAC will be illuminated with pulsing red lights as part of the American Heart Association's effort to remind people that heart disease is the number one lethal disease affecting women in America.
Rensselaer's President Shirley Ann Jackson is serving on the Executive Leadership Team for the association's annual ball in March. Rensselaer has a longstanding tradition of supporting the association and their annual Heart Walk in the spring.
The EMPAC DANCE MOViES Commission supports the creation of new works in the field of experimental dance for the screen. Through the commission, EMPAC supports and encourages the development of the genre of dance film and video in the Americas.
Beginning Tuesday, January 22, Evelyn’s Café will be expanding its hours to Monday through Friday from 11AM—2PM; it will feature a locally-sourced seasonal menu. Rensselaer’s student run and sustainability focused Terra Café will be serving lunch on Wednesdays.
Our Spring 2013 program of installations, talks, screenings, and events is live. Start planning your calendar now!
EMPAC is pleased to announce the appointment of Ash Bulayev as its new curator for dance and theater. From the early 1990s in New York City, Bulayev was active in the theater and dance community as an artist, administrator, activist, and producer. For the past 10 years he has worked as an independent curator and producer with a broad range of European institutions at the cross section of performing arts, new media, and research in collaborative processes.
As one of America’s foremost contemporary artists; a persistent experimenter at the intersection of performance, media, and technology; and an inventor of tools and instruments, Anderson and EMPAC’s exceptional research and production environment for adventurous new work are an ideal match. The residency provides Anderson with wide access to space, technology, and support for creative experimentation, but as important, brings the artist into ongoing dialogue with students and faculty at Rensselaer.
Part of the catalog text for the exhibition of And All the Questionmarks Started to Sing at Guangdong Museum of Art, China. March/April 2010.
To write a review on something as original as Verdensteatret might be experienced as similar to being put to review a Rorschach-test. Which at the same time might not be so far fetched as a metaphor. As the symmetrical ink spot, this work is also a blend of strict order and accidental coincident and what you get out of this performance will, to some degree, be a reflection of yourself.
For Immediate Release TROY, N.Y. — In one work, laser scans of a body are animated in 3D, inscribing the movement of an absent dancer; in another, a solitary figure is hurtled forward–seemingly in a single take of the camera–through an evolving and fanciful urban landscape; and in another, scantily clad hand puppets cope with the effects of global warming to the tune of a 1930s era ditty. EMPAC – the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - announces the four recipients of the 2008 EMPAC DANCE MOViES Commission.
This is the sort of noble sentiment that excites artists and philosophers, as expressed by Jonathan Fanton, president of the MacArthur Foundation, a generous funder of the arts: The arts deepen our understanding of the human spirit, extend our capacity to comprehend the lives of others, allow us to imagine a more just and humane world.
TROY — The folks at RPI know more than one or two things about numbers. Longtime faculty member and composer Neil Rolnick named his recent piano piece Digits, referring to the numerical language of computers and the 10 digits of a performer’s hands. A tour de force for soloist, electronics and video, Digits was a highlight of Rolnick’s 60th birthday concert Saturday night at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Academy Hall Auditorium. The event was presented by the university’s increasingly influential Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center.