The 2021 festival was generously supported by the City of Iowa City Public Art Matching Grant Program, GreenState Community Credit Union, and the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs.
2021 Participating Artists:
Media Installations >
Aaron Longoria - Creation > video & sound installation + virtual VR showcase > exterior of Media Arts Co-op (MAC) & online
Aaron (he/they) is a multimedia artist whose work interrogates how digital media and technology affects our memory and sense of self, our digital reflection. https://www.aaronlongoria.format.com
View Aaron’s VR pieces from your device: https://vimeo.com/showcase/5087664
Kelly Clare & Will Yager - Creakily video & sound installation > PS1 courtyard
“Creakily” is an aqueous collaboration between Will Yager and Kelly Clare. As a video created by Kelly is projected across the surface of large containers of water, the vessels--hooked up to transducers--vibrate with a score created by Will. The creation becomes a “material glitch.” Water erodes the sureness of pre-recorded video and audio. Repetition drifts away from a set form, turning instead towards elemental improvisation.
Kelly Clare is a multidisciplinary artist and poet based in Iowa City, Iowa. She is currently an MFA candidate in Sculpture at the University of Iowa, where she explores the muddy confluence of digital, linguistic, and physical space. Her work “Bread/Net” was selected Jurors Choice in the MFA Online Exhibition. Her written work can be found in Tagvverk, APARTMENT, Pulpmouth, Hobart (and other places). She was a resident at the Vermont Studio Center in 2019. https://kellyclare.net/
Will Yager is a bassist/improviser committed to collaborating with living composers in the creation of new solo and chamber repertoire for the double bass, and has worked directly with composers including Michael Gordon, David Lang, Miya Masaoka, Amy Williams, and Mary Jane Leach. He is a founding member of the duo LIGAMENT and improvising trio Wombat. Recent appearances include the Oh My Ears Festival, Big Ears Festival, Feed Me Weird Things, New Music on the Point, Cortona Sessions for New Music, and the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, where he was a Robert Black Double Bass Fellow. https://willyager.com/
Philip Rabalais - Window > video installation + radio sounds pieces > back of PS1/parking lot & KRUI.FM
Window is a short study of the act of doing dishes. A site specific film, Window explores the inner dimension and potential of this simple domestic chore.
Philip Rabalais is a filmmaker and electronic musician living in Fairfield, Iowa. He received an MFA in Film and Video Production from the University of Iowa in 2020. His films have screened at venues such as Slamdance, NoBudge, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Onion City, Gimli Film Festival, Montana Film Festival, and Cosmic Rays. Philip’s films are filled with big and small mysteries, and lots of strange sounds.
https://philiprabalais.com/
Jake Jones - Violence/Visibility > expanded media performance > upstairs Media Arts Co-op (MAC)
"This piece is an expanded poem that uses vocoder technology and language as a portrait of transgender identity, specifically the relationship between visibility and violence. The work is informed by research in both transgender and sound studies. Bruno Latour wrote that the body is '-an interface that becomes more describable as it learns to be affected by more and more elements.' As a transgender person, creating work that uses my body allows me to better understand it, however, for all transpeople this is complicated by the relationship between visibility and violence. This piece explores the question of the value of visibility when it is simultaneously liberatory and dangerous. I am interested in complicating the definition of the body with the inclusion of technology. I believe that the inclusion of our digital selves, the inclusion of technology, offers hope in understanding and expanding our bodies/interfaces.
'Anyone who’s been deemed ‘unnatural’ in the face of reigning biological norms, anyone who’s experienced injustices wrought in the name of natural order, will realise that the glorification of ‘nature’ has nothing to offer us.' - Helen Hester
My contribution to Open Air Media Festival will be an expanded media performance including sound, video, and a performance by the Unblessed Rest of Us."
Jake Jones (they/them, she/her) is an experimental artist from Oklahoma who just completed their M.A. and M.F.A. at the University of Iowa’s Intermedia program. Their MFA show, Taxonomy, featured video and performance artwork that explores relationships between the body and object through the conceptual lens of the instrument. Jones is invested in art as a community-building device, and their most recent interdisciplinary research is in highlighting relationships between transgender visibility and sound studies. Most recently, Jones was a semi-finalist for a Fulbright award in Performance Art and will be presenting an audio essay at the Museum of Portable Sound’s inaugural conference on a radio art show they co-curated titled PSA: People Speaking Art in October 2021. They currently host a radio show on KRUI 89.7 FM titled, The Test of Lime w/ Jake Jacobs and are playing in local bands, including the experimental quartet The Unblessed Rest of Us with Justin Comer, Gabi Vanek, and Will Yager. https://jacobharrisonjones.com/
Stephanie Dowda DeMer - Bug Out > video installation > Bike Library
"In this 5-7 minute video installation, I examine themes of environmental disaster prepping, especially through the use of the commercialized “bug out bag” or “go bag”. Using FEMA preparation tools and the unboxing of a ready to purchase go bag, Bug Out uses the internet vernacular of consumption to examine the time range we have (Climate Clock) to make change and the time we have to prepare for more immediate unknowns. Installed using a screen of sandbag materials, this site specific works illuminate the overlapping of environmental disasters in our world."
Stephanie Dowda DeMer is an American photographer and experimental media artist. Her work excavates invisibility and creates space for reflection through phenomena, communion, and kinship. She is the Iowa Idea Fellow in photography at The University of Iowa. She has taught photography at ASU and VCU. DeMer holds an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is a Hambidge Fellow, Idea Capital grantee, and her work has been published in Dialogue, Bad at Sports, MuseA, ArtsATL, BurnAway, among others. She has shown at White Space Gallery-Atlanta, Grizzly Grizzly-Philadelphia, MART-Dublin and others. Forthcoming in summer 2021 is the publication of a textbook, Material Encounters, an Open Education Resource which won the OpenHawks Grant from The University of Iowa. https://www.stephaniedemer.com/
Performances >
Hannah Bonner - Touched and Touched By > interactive performance > PS1 Porch + projection above Senior Center
“In “Touched and Touched By,” I invite audience members to touch me through written instructions projected onto my body as I sit, unmoving, non-reactionary, and silent, for the duration of one hour. This embodied performance piece grapples with issues of consent and the affective currents of bodies moving through, and stilling within, sound, space, and time. Through this interactive experience, I aim to explore the spectrum of touch, its potentiality as a form of care, tenderness, or connection, as well as the ever-present possibility for touch as a more physically triggering force.”
Hannah’s poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Asheville Poetry Review, Pigeon Pages, Rattle, Schlag, So to Speak, The LaHave Review, The North Carolina Literary Review, The Pinch Journal, The Vassar Review, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and Two Peach. Her essays and fiction have been featured in Bright Wall/Dark Room, Bustle, Solar Journal, The Little Patuxent Review, and VIDA. She is the poetry editor for Brink (https://www.brinkliterary.com/).
M Ryan Noble > ghostracinghosts > interactive livestream performance Saturday 6/26 @ 10:15 - 10:32pm only
ghostracinghosts is a combined video/live performance art project that distorts the viewer’s sense of digital space, time, and intimacy. A large-scale, 17-minute video projection reveals the artist reading from their journal in an empty room. Participants register for one-minute slots to simultaneously call the artist’s phone. This mid-video phone call (Facetime or Duo, are recommended) is a rupture that provides a brief window—a uniquely personal encounter—into a live performance. The artist appears to be in two places at once, encouraging the viewer to consider their own presence and attention.
M Ryan Noble is an interdisciplinary artist and art therapist. He is part of a growing cadre of artists committed to serving people. Ryan’s projects fit within a performance art rubric and he often contorts the most ordinary of media (i.e. watercolors, found photographs, markers, personal electronics, and thrift store goods) to expose distortions in the way people think about history, mental health, and community.
David Hurlin - improvised percussion performance > livestreamed > Friday 6/26 @ 10:00pm - 10:30pm
David Hurlin received his BFA in photography and tabla of the Hindustani classical music tradition from Maharishi International University (MIU) including seven months abroad in India studying with tabla master Anup Ghosh. His photography took him around the United States photographing his favorite poets (James Tate, Charles Wright, Cole Swenson to name a few) which informed his own reading and continued writing. His first book of poems Zero Gravity Funk Libido was released in 2019 by Blue Light Press in San Francisco.
Currently, Hurlin is a professional drummer and percussionist. Drummer for Elizabeth Moen, Bo Ramsey and most recently with Mike Dillon Band and Nolatet. He has toured all over the country and is in high demand, both as a performer and session drummer. In addition to touring and recording, David is working on compositions and collaborations which lean more toward sound art, sculpture, installation and performance art. He is currently pursuing his MA in studio art at MIU and will be getting his MFA at University of Iowa in sculpture/intermedia in the fall of 2021. https://www.youtube.com/onehandclaps
Walking & Listening Experiences >
Milkweed Walk - Cicelia Ross-Gotta > two 20 minute walks per evening starting/ending at PS1. “Milkweed seeds have a loftiness unlike any other, and can drift suspended with a grace that seems to slow time. Milkweed pods also dehisce. Dehiscence, in botany, describes when a part of a plant splits open at maturity along a built in line of weakness. For this performance/event, I wish to share a brief reading about dehiscence and vulnerability. I will conclude the reading by passing out milkweed pods that I have sewn closed along their dehiscence. As a group, we will tear open the pods and release the seeds. Then, I will ask the audience to follow me in a group walk as we drift along with the milkweed seeds wherever they may invite us to go.”
Formerly based in Seattle, Ross-Gotta earned her BFA in Sculpture from Colorado State University 2015, and her MFA in 3D4M (sculpture) from the University of Washington in 2017. Her work has been exhibited throughout Seattle and nationally including The Henry Gallery, Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park, Gallery 4Culture, and The Holland Project Space. Her work has been featured in Surface Design Journal’s International Exhibition in Print, and has been awarded grants from Artist Trust, 4Culture and the Surface Design Association. Her exhibition, Interfacing with Missed Connections at Artworks Center for Contemporary Art in Loveland, CO will open this June. http://www.ciceliarossgotta.com/
The Parking Space - Ramin Roshandel, Steven Antoine Willis & Stephanie Miracle > site-specific, interactive listening experience Chauncey Swan Parking Ramp, 415 E. Washington > https://www.stephaniemiracledances.com/the-parking-space.html
Three Iowa City-based artists: choreographer Stephanie Miracle, composer Ramin Roshandel, and writer/poet Steven Willis, have joined forces to create a curious, multi-disciplinary audio journey full of questions, reflections, and illuminations of the ordinary.
“The Parking Space” is a FREE site-specific, interactive listening experience focused on perspective, rest, and intention designed for the 4th floor of an unassuming parking ramp overlooking downtown Iowa City. Chaptered tracks correspond to numbered parking space. One can listen to the entire experience in sequence (25min in duration) or opt for the choose-your-own-adventure by listening to one chapter at a time over days or weeks. Listeners are invited to enjoy a safe, outdoor, public art experience. No car is necessary. Participants may arrive by foot, bicycle or car (parking $.75/hr). All that is needed are headphones and a personal device. All ages friendly and accessible*; listen alone or with your pod people. Masks and social distancing are recommended if present with people outside of your bubble.
Download “The Parking Space” listening experience ahead of time or interact directly through the project website while in the space.
Artists: Ramin Roshandel is a PhD candidate in the Composition program at the University of Iowa, whose music is based around incorporating ‘experience’ as a fundamental concept although through a non-experimental approach in performance. Considering phenomena such as instability, cultural identity, and communicational language on one hand, and being inspired by Iranian music microtones as a setār (an Iranian instrument) player on the other, leads him to consider indeterminate, improvisatory, and abstract structures in his music; in contrast, or alongside post- or non-tonal structures. https://soundcloud.com/ramin-roshandel
Storyteller Steven Antoine Willis uses his poetic and theatrical background to embark on the daunting task of creatively articulating African American culture. Heavily influenced by urban life and religion, Steven mixes elements of hip hop, poetics, and theatrical performance with formal teaching of anthropology and political theory to help express his eclectic personal narrative. Willis is a contributing writer to the Breakbeat Poets Anthology, NYU’s National Council for Teachers of English Journal, is a 3-time individual world poetry slam finalist and former resident Poet of the Nuyorican Poet’s Café. Willis received his MFA in acting from the University of Iowa in 2021 and will be attending the Iowa Writers Workshop in the Fall. https://www.stevenwillispoetry.com/
Stephanie Miracle is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Dance at University of Iowa. Stephanie's choreography has been described as, “iconic and nuanced…with an irreverence that makes you smile unconsciously,” (Rick Westerkamp review of GROOVE, 2014). Her projects have been presented across Germany, in Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Hungary, Mexico, Russia, New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC. Her work is not limited to the stage but runs out into traffic and on the screen. She was a Fulbright Fellow to Germany from 2014-15 and holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Maryland. She is also the director of ensemble Fakers Club, a live-cinema public performance experiment based in Central Europe. https://www.stephaniemiracledances.com/
Mobile Projection Program > 40 minute screening or short video works
Friday 6/25 9:00pm > livestream https://vimeo.com/567277413
Saturday 6/26 8:45pm @ Mercer Park 2701 Bradford Dr
Sunday 6/27 8:45pm @ Stuff Etc. 851 Hwy 6 E
Hao Zhou, Frozen Out. An immigrant artist in a foreign land retreats to frozen prairies, forests, and swamps, trying to find a meaningful story and escape from the anxieties of dislocation. Delivered as a film-letter to the protagonist’s little sister in rural China, the film considers his queer self-exile as well as identities that were too difficult to express back home.
Hao Zhou (b.1992, China) is a screenwriter, director, and actor. Focusing on queerness, gender, sexuality, and migration, Zhou's films center marginalized people resisting structural oppression. In 2014, Zhou wrote, directed, and produced his first feature, "The Night," about queer, teenaged sex workers in urban China. The film premiered at the Berlinale and won top prizes at Geneva Independent, Nara, China Independent, Dong FF, and others. Zhou refined his screenwriting at Cannes Film Festival's Résidence, and from 2015–2017 worked in development and sales at Coproduction Office (Paris). In 2017, Zhou coproduced a stage adaptation of "The Night," a critical success at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre. From 2017–2019, Hao wrote for the film development department at Douban.com. Hao's filmmaking skillset has been further nurtured at Xining FIRST Training Camp (2017), Talents Tokyo (2018), and Berlinale Talents (2021). Hao's second feature, "Bridled," focuses on a genderqueer Latinx immigrant in China and was supported by TOKYO FILMeX's Next Masters Support Program, for late 2021 release. Hao is also an Art With Impact awardee, producing a commissioned short-film on queer mental health in rural America (to be completed in spring 2021). https://www.haozhoustudio.com/
Paul Shumaker, Flood Plain. A short experimental documentary film that explores family, trauma, and aftermath.
Paul is freelance writer based in Iowa City, IA with an MFA from University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. https://www.shumakerpaul.com/
Tristen Ives, double whammy! A diaristic short exploring mental illness and belonging.
Tristen (they/them) is filmmaker, writer, and performer who focuses on diaristic, experimental, and performative modes for political protest. They are the recipient of Public Space One's Free Studio Residency (2019-2020), and their work has screened at ICDOCS, Montreal Underground Film Festival, Craft Culture Critique Conference, Les Femmes Underground Film Festival, and FilmScene Cinema.
Luther Bangert, sous les paves. Juggling/dance film made in October 2020 at the Coralville spillway. The choreography was designed from the environment, the encroaching wave of concrete looming over, the apocalyptic orange light of the afternoon from the fires on the coast, and the expanse of sky over it all. The feeling of being trapped and approaching this expanse simultaneously.
Luther Bangert is an Iowa City based juggler and dancer. He has performed in circuses and cabarets and on streets and stages in twenty countries. His work brushes the borders of dance with technical juggling and philosophical storytelling. http://www.lutherbangert.com
Donna Bummer and Tommy Santee Klaws, Neighborhood Crimes (Roland). Donna Bummer and Tommy Santee Klaws produce music and short videos. They're based in Iowa City. The video stars Luther Bangert, the legendary Iowa juggler/performer extraordinaire. https://tommysanteeklaws.com
Hao Zhou, Omar Zubair, Stephanie Miracle, Sabrina Duke and Margaret Steimel - Young Meadows. Young Meadows might be the story of longing for springtime in the midst of a deep winter. It might be the story of fantastical escape through secret portals after feeling closed in for way too long. It might be the story of overlapping imaginary worlds shared in tandem between two friends. It might be the story of our bodies moving through digital time and space and still emerging on the other side as more human. It might be all of those. What do you see?
Cinematography and Editing: Hao Zhou is an independent filmmaker and photographer from Chongqing, China. Tending toward experimental narrative fiction, he has made two feature films (The Night, 2014; Jìnbì, 2021) and written for Douban.com. With support from the Iowa Arts Fellowship, Hao started the University of Iowa's MFA in Film and Video Production in 2019.
Sound design and Composition: After writing his first book Disorientation Therapy in 2007, Omar Zubair found that the closer to the core of being he looked, the more blurry it became; so, he began to listen to it, instead. And ever since, listening has become his primary compositional technique: whether creating a theatrical score for The Wooster Group or building a permanent sound installation for a national historic landmark, whether sound designing for a blind choreographer so that she can continually orient toward the audience or improvising with a dance class at Julliard to coax authentic movement out of each student, whether making music to help people grieve at a funeral or celebrate at a wedding. He lets the ear hear twice before acting once.
Choreography and Editing: Stephanie Miracle is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Dance at University of Iowa. Stephanie's choreography has been described as, “iconic and nuanced…with an irreverence that makes you smile unconsciously,” (Rick Westerkamp review of GROOVE, 2014). Her projects have been presented in Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Mexico, Russia, New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC. Her work is not limited to the stage but runs out into traffic and on the screen. She was a Fulbright Fellow to Germany from 2014-15 and has an MFA in Dance from the University of Maryland. https://www.stephaniemiracledances.com/
Dance and Vocal Performance: Sabrina Duke and Margaret Steimel (bios currently unavailable). Young Meadows was commissioned by the University of Iowa Dance Company for their 2021 Season.
Virtual Artist Talks & Micro Workshops >
Saturday June 19
10a: Cicelia Ross-Gotta
1p: Jake Jones
5:30p The Parking Space: Ramin Roshandel, Steven Antoine Willis & Stephanie Miracle
7p: Aaron Longoria
Saturday June 26
11:30a: Kelly Clare & Will Yager
3p: Hao Zhou
Listen to the festival live on KRUI.fm >
KRUI Iowa City is proud to be working with Public Space One and the Media Arts Co-Op to amplify local art and music through community-based radio. The director board, made up of UIowa students, is thrilled to have experimental radio programming that contribute to KRUI as Iowa City’s Sound Alternative. Tune into 89.7 FM or online at KRUI.fm to listen to the sounds of the Open-Air Festival!
In consideration of COVID-19: we ask that you follow the current Iowa City safety guidelines, maintain a mindful distance from others as well as our artists. The sonic component for each installation will be broadcast over KRUI radio station throughout the program, creating safe viewing opportunities from your vehicle—this will also be a bike friendly event!
Bicycle Tour hosted by the Bike Library >
Sunday, June 27
starts at 8:45p at Stuff Etc. (851 Hwy 6 E (side wall in parking lot)
ends at PS1 north (229 N. Gilbert)
