Not Yet for Release

Ringling Students and Faculty In Cosmic Mix at South Florida Museum


Exhibit of Installation, Performance and Media Works to Use Emerging Technology


Photos of some works are available at: http://webspace.ringling.edu/~dsteilin/Cosmix%20Installation%20Art.html


Embracing traditional techniques as well as a number of new technologies, students and faculty from the Ringling College of Art and Design will combine to show a range of site specific installations and collaborations during the Cosmix, at the South Florida Museum and Bishop Planetarium,  from Monday,  March 31 through Friday, April 11, 2008.  The Cosmix Installation and Performance Event will emphasize the creation of work that responds to the concept of the cardinal directions—like East, South, West, and North, Up, Down and Inward—that  define human experience of place and relationship.  In addition to the physical installations, which will be deployed throughout the museum intermixed with the permanent exhibits,  some faculty and students will also produce performance and media pieces for the planetarium in a continuously running program celebrating the four directions.

As an experiment between new technology and emerging art, the Cosmix project is being underwritten by Guide by Cell, an entrepreneurial technology company that is creating guides to museum exhibits via cell phone access. Visitors to the Cosmix show will be able to dial a cell phone number and punch-in the number of a particular work in the show and receive a pre-recorded statement by the artist about the work and its context. The use of this new technology for this joint project between the Ringling College of Art and the South Florida Museum/Bishop Planetarium will mark the first time it has been applied to contemporary performance and installation art
.
While centered in the college’s programs in Fine Arts and Studio Core, student and faculty contributions to the project come from a variety of majors and programs of the school.  The project itself was designed as part of a continuing collaboration between the college’s studio programs and the program in Liberal Arts.

Ringling students from the Fine Arts Department classes in Fabric Arts and Installation Art showing pieces in the Cosmix installation event include,

Melissa Apter –“Roots"
Heather Berquist –"The Deconstruction of Jupiter"
Katherine Callahan —“Untitled”
Kayla Carlson –“Refracted Perceptions of Nature through the Florida Spectrum"
Reva Castillenti –“Rabbit Steals Fire"
Ariana Franco –“I prefer my windows open"
Sara Harrison –“Humorous"
Sable Macon –“Chants and Channeling"
Jessica Moore –“"City of Cards"
Lauren Nelson –“Deconstruction Inward Direction"
Manda Steckington –“A Manatee's Point of View"
Aislinn Stone –“Abesse"
Kathleen Tucker—“ One part Constellation one part Chandelier two parts friendship bracelet"
Sarah Valdez and Josh Weinstein –“Eres El Conquistador"
Alex Wallis –“The Perils of Time Travel: Westward Ho!"
Mikaela Williams –“The Inward Underground City of the Adventurous Soul Express"
Whitley Floyd –“Go Fish”
Karen Barrow—“Modern Day Medicine Bags"
Mike Isham—“The Great Gathering"
Kasey Lou Lindley—“Untitled"
Francis Marquez—“Untitled"
Jaime Boehner—“Jaime Boehner and the disappearing, reappearing information: a simple solution to a complex question"
 Steven Russell

Students from Phil Chiocchio’s class in the Graphic Design and Interactive Communications Departments Digital Video course who will be showing video work include
Emma Buckelew,
Emily Cedar,
Ryan Hammond,
Travis Heggen,
Erin Johnson,
Sara Mantle,
Jeffery Morales,
Veronica Mosso,
William Ordonez,
Joseph Vu,
Alison Watkins .

Among the Ringling College Faculty showing or creating pieces for the event are,

Peter Rampson                
Tim Rumage / Peter Rampson / Jeff Rodgers—“Compass”
Shawn Pettersen—“Canis Dirus; Escaped Albino Dire Wolf; way out west, way far 
                out, far too late; abandoned in the Late Pleistocene"
Robert Farber—“Populated  Place, Conneaut Lake Park, Crawford County, PA”
John Mack –“ Untitled  Cedar and Bronze”
Mario Naves—“Postcards from Florida No.s 8, 74, & 75”
Patrick Lindhardt  
Mark Anderson  
Dee Hood—“H 2 O" 
Dee Hood / Sheryl Haler—“Sub Aqua"  
Sheryl Haler—“Gaia Paradigm",  "Significant Supernumeraries", "Tower Guards" 
Lisa French—“Orientation”
Alison Watkins—“Neighborhood Birds of Sarasota”
Wendy Wischer—"Static II"

Faculty and Students producing performance and media work for the planetarium show on April 5 include,

Melissa Apter
Kayla Carlson
James Del’Etoile
Ariana Franco
Zack Hero
Arthur Matveicenkov
Jessica Moore
Axel Villa
Mikaela Williams
Sally Petibon
Lance Ford Jones
Claudia Cumbie-Jones

David Steiling

The South Florida Museum, which houses a museum of natural and cultural history, the Bishop Planetarium and the Parker Manatee Aquarium, presents a comprehensive view of our scientific and cultural knowledge of Florida, the world and our universe.

About Ringling College of Art and Design
For more than 76 years, Ringling College of Art and Design has cultivated the creative spirit in art and design students from around the globe … changing the way the world thinks about art and design. Founded in 1931 by noted art collector, real estate magnate, and circus impresario John Ringling, the private, not-for-profit fully accredited college offers the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree [BFA] in 13 disciplines: Advertising Design, Broadcast Design/Motion Graphics (fall 2009), Computer Animation, Digital Film, Game Art & Design, Fine Arts, Graphic & Interactive Communication, Illustration, Interior Design, Painting, Printmaking, Photography & Digital Imaging, and Sculpture. A Bachelor of Arts [BA] is offered in the Business of Art & Design. The picturesque 41-acre campus today includes more than 100 buildings, and enrolls 1,s00 students from 43 states and 31 countries – more than half of whom reside on the pedestrian-friendly residential campus. Its 140 faculty members are all professional artists, designers, and scholars who actively pursue their own work outside the classroom.

Contacts
South Florida Museum:         
Jeff Rodgers,
Director of Education/Director, Bishop Planetarium
941-746-4131 ext. 22 or jrodgers@southfloridamuseum.org

Suzanne White, Curator of Exhibits
941-746-4131 ext 37 or swhite@southfloridamuseum.
or
Ringling College:  
Christine Meeker Lange,
Special Assistant to the President for Media & Community Relations
office: 941.359.7594, mobile: 941.302.2769 or clange@ringling.edu
David Steiling, , Ph.D.
Professor of Literature and Liberal Arts
(941) 358-8384 or dsteilin@ringling.edu