Aashray Harishankar - CalArts Expo 2020

“Flight” is a 2019 concept album mirroring the timeline of human life, from birth until death and beyond. Each song, lyrically and sonically, represents a different time period, but all are reflections of life as a whole. Beginning with “Liftoff/Zephyr”, we rise into a period of birth and infancy, of wonder and innocence, carrying into the youthful bounce of “The Sweetest Thing” and onto the teenage angst of “Break the Chain”. “Never Had Much Faith” introduces the first feelings of love as a young adult, building to the hardened ambition of “Pilot”. In “Gemini” we hit mid-life, a period split between youth and old age. As we reach old age, “After Dark” and “Oceans” bring in feelings of isolation, nostalgia, and loss of purpose, but a love of life is reborn in “Another Dawn” and leads to enlightenment at the end of life as we pass to “The Other Side”, escaping the atmosphere and into the unknown.

Mechatronic Art and Music

Kai-Luen Liang Tomorrow There Will Be Wind ( Automatic Windchimes ) A performance of playing an Arduino controlled set of wind chimes. Vibration motors are activated through a motor driver creating divisions and polyrhythms based on various “states.” First iteration prototype with beer bottle activation. Trevor Bock 4-Note Bottle Blowing Instrument I have always […]

Kai Luen Liang

Flag ASMR “On Sept 11th, 2001 I watched the twin towers falling with my father. Glued to the TV. A silent demolition. An American reality TV show. In the weeks that followed, I started to see American flags everywhere. Especially from immigrants of all colors, flying the flag out of a sense of fear of […]

Ruoyi Shi

“I create 3 videos to show a world hidden inside the reflection of water. I use my tentacle that is made out of water to find a link between the world that surrounds me right now and the memories of adventure that only I know. No matter if it is humidity or moisture, I sense […]

Max Harper

Apollo, Apollo! In this swift hell, firefighters wore upwards of seventy-five pounds of gear, as they walked atop a landscape rendered to burning coal. Guided only by headlights, the firefighters would soak the path in front of them. Every step released a fine silt of red embers and ash that moved weightlessly through the air, […]

Mia Yao Meng

Hyperreal Gesstures This project is a reflection of the gestures we perform on a routine basis in order to interact (as the trigger and the data input) with networked devices such as smartphones and laptops. These gestures are abstracted/flattened in the design process and transformed into online behaviors. This habit-formation process only takes us a […]

Estela Anakaren Silva Botello

México Mágico Machista Part of documentation of a feminist protest in Monterrey, Mexico (nationwide initiative) on March 8th 2020— which sought to gain visibility to the alarming rates of femicides in Mexico due to gender violence rooted in machismo, an almost intrinsic, evil element of our culture. *screen printed sign on cardboard *scan of 35mm […]

Eric Lennartson

A laser pointer is pointed at a mirror attached to a balloon. Sounds from a synthesizer vibrate the balloon, causing the mirror to move. This moves the laser pointer, resulting in the visualization of how the sound causes the balloon to vibrate. The images produced from this process are called lissajous figures. The improvisation explores […]

Daniel Rappaport

Live Your Fantasy! Daniel L Rappaport is a CalArts alum (graphic design ’01) and is a graduate of the FIDM/Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (digital media ’08). His ascendants are Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, and others, and he hails from the disgustingly famous Beverly Hills, CA. He has over 25 years of digital media […]