Don Nguyen

DEEP INSIDE “CalArts. A game-changer in the education of professional artists. CalArts. Grounded in openness, experimentation, critical engagement, and creative freedom. CalArts. Transform ourselves, each other, and the world. Let’s go, stranger I’ll show you CalArts. From outside to inside. To all our concerns, frustration, and alienation. To all what will always stay in counselor’s […]

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, […]

Alternative Facts (Hechos Alternativos) A reflection on the phrase “Alternative Facts” used during a press conference in January 22, 2017

Light: action and reaction “Light: action and reaction” highlights the awe and wonder of the simple transition of light throughout the day. Time lapse video captures the movement of the sun and its reflection/refraction across dichroic tiles. The changing pattern of color and light encourages the viewer to slow down and appreciate shadow art that […]

COVID Pan Drum: A Robot Tongue-Drum Rendering of the SARS-2 COVID Virus Genome I’m building a custom robot to play a little lap-sized tongue (steel) drum. A program will read through the roughly 30k base pairs in the COVID 19 (SARS-2 COVID Wuhan Seafood Market) DNA sequence. Particular (known) functioning segments will be sonified when […]

The Net and the Self “The Net and the Self is an interactive music and dance installation mirroring our networked society. The audience enter in a room illuminated by UV blacklights where dancers and musicians interact through an amplified harp that has its strings connected with fluorescent fishing lines attached to the walls. The installation […]

A collection of melodies. Embedded like a small light in the corner. This piece engages themes and processes of transparency/translucence, copying/covering, and distance/absence: the traces of a thing not there. Melody fragments expand and contract. Here, melody crystallizes into harmony and harmony unfolds as melody. Like a constellation of stars; or in the direction of […]

Ernestine and Delilah Ernestine and Delilah navigate their love in an apocalyptic world. Collaborators: Claire Brnjac https://vanessakwan.art/