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Low Tech Electronics Faire

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 09:00:00 GMT

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Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the Low Tech Electronics Faire, a two-day event at Temple University in Philly. I led an HTML Journal Workshop, in which we crafted homepages on the web according to a simple spec created by m15o. As you can see in the screenshot above, my example website from the workshop also included cutting-edge graphic design motifs such as the Wingdings and Papyrus fonts.

I had a great time at the faire, though it was a bit of a whirlwind. I had some great conversations with a bunch of people, met some internet friends IRL, built a tiny handmade speaker, learned about programming primitive computer games in BASIC, and purchased a LoRa mesh radio node from the Iffy Books table. I also enjoyed the art exhibition and talk series, especially Lori Emerson's talk about her book, Other Networks. Andrei also came and taught a workshop on video synthesis. Unfortunately we had to miss some of the live performances, since we were quite tired by that point and had a long trip home ahead of us, but I heard they were great as well.

The Electronics Faire is a yearly event organized by Hannah Tardie, who also manages the Charles Library Makerspace at Temple. They did an amazing job putting everything together, with support from the other library staff and student volunteers. Thanks to everyone involved for an excellent array of programming and serendipitous convergence. I hope I can come back again next year!

I didn't take any photos at all during the event, which is probably a testament to how busy I was having a good time and not looking at my phone. There might be some photos shared from the volunteer photographers I saw (some of who were shooting on film!) If they send me any of that documentation, I'll add them to this post.

EDIT 2025-03-21: As promised, here are some photos from the event! The first one of my workshop was shot on film by Calvin Leon. The rest were shot digitally by various people.

New Studio Tour

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 09:00:00 GMT

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Since my recent move to New Haven, CT, I now have a private room for my studio and work space. It's been a while since I've had a dedicated space for this purpose, so I was very excited to set up my things again.

I've had a number of studio spaces over the years, and even the ones I had for an extended period were prone to me moving everything around periodically, so I've gone through a lot of trial and error to find the best way to arrange things for my purposes. Since I work with a lot of AV equipment, I've felt the temptation — the same one I've seen others in this medium get pulled into as well — to create some kind of Ultimate Signal Chain where all of my gear can remain plugged in and patchable. This seems to work well for shared studios and recording spaces, but in my own space, I like to create bespoke setups for whatever my current projects require. For example, sometimes I want to use a bunch of electronic equipment, while other times I just need table space for drawing or doing something messy with inks or other liquids.

So I have decided that it's better to just keep a few things out on my desk by default:

my desktop computer
a television screen that accepts analog or digital inputs
a multichannel audio interface
some speakers
a paper notepad
my modular synths (including both audio and video modules; these aren't as ubiquitous at the other items in this list, but I like having a tactile synth playground available on short notice, and they are really annoying to put away and take back out)

If I want to use other equipment for a specific project or performance, I can bring it out and plug it in just for a few days or however long I need it for. There is even enough space in my room to set up additional folding tables to extend my surface area if needed. If I'm preparing for a performance, it is actually helpful to quarantine everything I'm bringing with me to a separate table anyway; it makes it easy to pack, and helps make sure everything will fit on the table I'm bringing.

With these methods in mind, my studio is organized around three areas:

my desk (pictured and described above)
shelves for storing equipment and supplies
a nook with a beanbag chair for reading, and a meditation bench.

I do most of my reading on the couch and at the table in our living room, but I like having a private space to relax as well.

Below, you can find my attempt to draw my studio as an isometric video game level. There are a few things you can't see because they are on the cut-away walls: another window, a small closet, and several wall-mounted cable hangers for cables I need quick access to.

Here are a few other details about my desk setup:

I added a triangle of wood to soften the inner corner of my L-shaped desk, and make it nicer to sit at my computer which is positioned diagonally in the corner.
My desk has motors to adjust the height, but my modular synth case is best positioned vertically, so I built a wooden frame that attaches to the desk and provides a surface for it to lean against without touching the wall.
The two chairs I use at my desk are a stool and a special chair that allows me to sit cross legged at my desk. I have found that using chairs without backs has greatly improved my posture and back pain.
My split mechanical keyboard is also helpful for ergonomics, in addition to being fun and customizable. I made wrist rests for it by tying off a pair of socks filled with dried beans.
I made a little organizer out of cardboard for storing shorter modular patch cables by draping them over one of my speakers.

I hope you enjoyed this virtual tour of my studio! I love seeing other people's spaces as well, so if you share yours, let me know.

2024 Year in Review

Sun, 12 Jan 2025 09:00:00 GMT

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I wanted to post something like this around New Year's, but I missed the window where I could publish it without mention of my lateness. But I have a good excuse: I was fully in the middle of moving! As of January 1st, we are officially leasing a lovely apartment in New Haven, CT.

Even though 2025 is already well underway, I'm taking a moment to reflect on the past year. Here are some of the things I did in 2024:

Rebuilt my artist website (the one you're looking at now!) to use 11ty, a static site generator. It was a lot of work, but the effort I put in will make maintaining and updating this site about 1000% easier. (More about this in the colophon.)
Attended my fourth vipassana meditation retreat, and completed a 100-hour meditation teacher training program. I haven't taught any meditation classes yet, but the things I learned have helped me deepen my meditation practice.
Taught my first college course as an adjunct professor: Intro to Animation at Hamilton College. (I actually taught two sections, so my first two college classes!) This was a wonderful experience for me, and I hope to get more opportunities to teach again in the future.
Taught two online classes through Polyphase Portal: one about HTML & CSS, and one about video feedback. Each one met weekly for a month. I preferred teaching IRL, but it was cool to be able to include folks from outside my local area.
Lived in various free and inexpensive alternative spaces in the forests of Upstate New York, including a few months of house-sitting, a converted barn, and most recently, a 30-foot yurt. Although I've decided to move back to a more urban area, I really enjoyed getting to spend more time in nature, regularly being in the presence of waterfalls, cool rocks, and all sorts of animals.
Survived another year without a full-time job.
Saw a total solar eclipse for the second time in my life.
Attempted to go on a summer road trip that was aborted quite early on.
Built a shed on my parents' property. This was my largest solo woodworking project to date.
Played 4 shows, co-led 2 video art workshops, and did an art installation, a group show, an artist talk, and 2 presentations at open source meetings.
Started Zine Club!

Compared to 2023, when we spent 5 months driving across the U.S. in a van, I spent almost all of this year in one area (New York State). But it has felt like just as much of a strange, meandering journey as the last year did. And while I still haven't quite landed somewhere that feels like a long-term, sustainable lifestyle, I feel like I'm moving in the right direction, fumbling towards a balance between my sometimes-conflicting needs for freedom and structure, for unhurried time and financial stability, and so forth.

I don't know exactly what happens next, but I'm curious to find out. So onward into 2025, and whatever this weird timeline we all inhabit holds for us next.

Analog Week at Hamilton TV Club

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 09:00:00 GMT

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On Friday, December 13, Andrei and I visited our friend Anna Oxygen's TV Club class at Hamilton College (where I'm also teaching Intro to Animation this semester). TV Club is a class Anna created for the Digital Arts program that gives students the opportunity to explore video art, livestreaming, and performance. For their final episode of the fall 2024 semester, we provided an analog video art playground, and livestreamed its output as we walked the students through the setup and then let them experiment with it.

Here is an abridged cut of the episode; the full length stream is archived on the Hamilton TV Club Youtube Channel.

12:29 | Watch on: Youtube Peertube

First Few Mystery Objects Revealed

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 09:00:00 GMT

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Since I launched my Zine Club project this past spring, I've been mailing out an edition of Mystery Objects every 2 months. The goal is to surprise people with the contents of their packages, so I try not to post any images of the Objects until after they've reached their recipients. Now that the Club has been running for a while, I can share a bit about the first few Objects I've created.

My very first Mystery Object was actually three objects - a set of stickers, based on my drawings of three "Exquisite Machines."

The second Mystery Object was a foil postcard print. The abstract designs were created digitally, and the asemic "text" captions are a fictional writing system from a world-building project I started in the quarterly e-zine that I had just published the month before, titled Self-Same Life Forms of Aritana Occ.

I liked how the silver foil came out, the way that the metallic ink protrudes slightly from the card, and how the spreading of the ink gives the lines a more liquid, blobby quality. There is a subtle gradient in the background, which I think ended up being a bit too dark to notice.

Also, I was experimenting with creating a print that was also a postcard; the other side was stamped and addressed. But the cards ended up being a bit fragile, and scuffs from passing through the mail system were very visible on the matte cardstock. In the future, if I make small printed cards, I will enclose them inside of envelopes instead of sending them out into the world naked.

The third Mystery Object was a set of 16 printed cards called The Life Cycle of Aritanian Flowers. In the accompanying info card, I suggested that these were flashcards created for students learning about the stages of growth and reproduction of a fictional type of plant found in Aritana Occ. The idea thus far with the world-building project of Aritana Occ is that it is a dimension occuped by fractal (or "self-similar") life forms. All of the images on the cards are drawings based on frames of video feedback.

I printed these cards myself, and I also cut them down and punched the rounded corners. Since I was making over 20 sets in a variety of paper colors, I ended up having to print and cut several hundred cards, and the process took a bit longer than expected. In the future, I probably won't do this again by hand, but I was pleased with how they came out. I thought that perhaps the cards could also be used for divination, and some of the recipients seemed to share that idea and took photos of them arranged in tarot-like spreads.

Addendum: visit this page to see all of the cards and find information on how to print your own deck.

The most recent Mystery Object that I sent out was manufactured using the process for creating printed circuit boards (PCBs). However, the designs on the board are entirely abstract and serve no electronic function whatsoever. As an electronic artist and tinkerer, I've come across some projects that take advantage of the medium of circuit boards as an art form, and I wanted to experiment with making something like that myself.

I was vaguely aware of the process of designing a circuit board, creating gerber files, and getting them made through an online service, but I had never done it before. I downloaded Kicad and learned a bit about the different layers that comprise a PCB: the fiberglass board, the conductive copper layer, the colored solder mask, immersion gold, and white silkscreen, as well as the board outline, which can be any shape. I designed the layers so that they would create a cohesive pattern, with copper, gold, and white silkscreen on one side, and the other side white silkscreen only.

The dark blue solder mask I chose ended up being very opaque, so the additional layer of copper underneath the solder mask wasn't really visible, but you can kind of see it in the form of a slightly embossed edge around the "Discordian Knot" design. The resulting object was very satisfying to hold, and also quite durable, as I've been using it as a keychain for a few weeks now. I learned a lot from this project, and I hope to create more PCBs-as-art-objects in the future.

Here is a video I made of a few of these Objects so you can see them existing in time and space:

0:56 | Watch on: Youtube Peertube

So, that brings us up to date on the latest Mystery Objects, at least until I send out the next batch in December. Creating these Objects and snail-mailing them out to people around the world has brought me a lot of pleasure. If you're interested in receiving strange Objects like these in your mailbox periodically, check out the link below and consider becoming a Zine Club Member. The more people join, the more time I can spend creating weird art.

🌐 palomakop.tv/zine-club

August Shows in the Hudson Valley

Sun, 01 Sep 2024 09:00:00 GMT

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In August, I performed live visuals for two shows in the Hudson Valley. The first one was on August 21 at The Avalon Lounge in Catskill, NY, where my video projections augmented the music of two electroacoustic duos: Lunar Slopes (Snark & Jeff Rieger), who are local to the Hudson Valley, and Matthew Ryals and Stephan Haluska, who were on tour together and who hail from NYC and Cleveland, respectively. It was great to return to this lovely and welcoming venue, and to get the opportunity to collaborate with friends, old and new. Here are few scraps of video footage from this show:

1:09 | Watch on: Youtube Peertube

The second show, which I helped organize, was held at a private space in Kingston, NY. I performed visuals for sets by Snark (who also helped organize the show), The Spookfish, and headfullofhammers. Bungey Colle, another co-organizer, was sadly unable to make it to perform.

Below are some visual artifacts from the shows.

Audiovisual Jams in the Barn Yard

Tue, 18 Jun 2024 09:00:00 GMT

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On Tuesday, June 18, I gathered with a few friends in an outdoor space behind a small gray barn which I helped renovate over the spring. As part of a party taking place that night, we set up a projector screen and a PA and brought out some music and video gear for a jam session that lasted well into the night. I pulled the excerpt below from our session, which features Snark on saxophone and electronics, ShmOoOo on synths and samplers, and Ben Kujawski on guitar, as well as myself on visuals. It was a memorable evening, and I look forward to my next opportunity to perform video synthesis outdoors.

3:39 | Watch on: Youtube Peertube

Live A/V Show in Rochester

Sat, 04 May 2024 09:00:00 GMT

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On Saturday, May 4, Andrei and I returned to The Psychic Garden in Rochester, NY to perform live video and sound as REALITY ORP! Our friend Anna Oxygen (Ithaca) also performed a bumping synthwave set. Unfortunately Dr. Hamburger was unable to perform, but fellow Rochester locals Shonen Book were able to hop on at the last moment with a fever dream of feedback-laden visuals mixed with Donkey Kong. It was a memorable night. Many thanks to Taimur for holding down the Psychic Garden fort as well!

Here is a recording of our performance:

21:35 | Watch on: Youtube Peertube

Introducing Zine Club!

Sat, 09 Mar 2024 09:00:00 GMT

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Zine Club is the culmination of some ideas I've had brewing for a while. I wanted to start making more physical objects and mailing them to people, and I also wanted to start something like a Patreon but without actually using that platform. After fleshing out the details and creating a new page on my site, it's now ready for launch! If you're interested in receiving mysterious virtual or physical objects at regular intervals throughout the year, and supporting my ability to spend more time making weird art, check it out at the link below...

🌐 More info/subscribe: palomakop.tv/zine-club

Workshop in Rochester

Sun, 03 Mar 2024 09:00:00 GMT

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On Sunday, March 3, my art collective, Phase Shift, led an Intro to Live Visuals workshop at The Psychic Garden in Rochester, NY. Rochester has a strong DIY community, and many local folks found their way to the event, as well as a few from Buffalo and Alfred. We had a full house, but luckily we also had a few extra helping hands from Evan and Max.

The Psychic Garden is located inside a row of unmarked warehouse spaces near the Genessee River. There were a number of video installations in the space, so it was an inspiring environment for people to learn about video art, since they could see some cool applications of the medium at the same time. After the event, we visited the space of Rathaus Press, a risograph print studio run by Evan in an adjacent building.

We are already planning our next visit to Rochester and looking forward to getting involved with more of the cool things that are happening there. Thanks to Cameron, Evan, and The Psychic Garden for having us.

Silvering Toward Invisible

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 09:00:00 GMT

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Thursday, February 29, was the opening of Silvering Toward Invisible, a group exhibition at Speedwell Contemporary in Portland, ME, presented by Lights Out. The show features my audiovisual work along with photography (often of glowing spiderwebs in the dark) by Peah Guilmoth, minimal textured landscapes in charcoal by Emily Nelligan, and poetry by Kristen Case.

Silvering Toward Invisible is driven by poetry, both visual and written. During this season the light is changing, and the warmth of the sun is slowly returning. We begin to hunger for spring, though it is months away. We look for evidence of its signs, but a thick white blanket of snow still covers the ground. We can see the contours of the landscape through the trees. At this time the world is at its most stark and elegant and takes on the impressions of our imaginations. This show will harness the returning light, the receding darkness, and the bare, suggestive quality of the landscape waiting to undergo monumental change. Viewers will encounter moments of brightness, velvety darkness, and a deep poetic primality waiting to erupt from beneath the surface.

🌐 More info: lightsoutgallery.org/silvering

Mall Magic

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 09:00:00 GMT

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On Saturday, February 24, Andrei and I (Phase Shift Collective) created an interactive video installation at a pop-up event hosted by Anna Oxygen in a disused retail space at a dying mall in Ithaca, NY.

At the event, Anna performed an experimental run-through of The Shapes We Leave Behind, a strange livestream performance in which she greenscreens herself, wearing various sculptural costumes created by collaborator Fawn Krieger, into a surreal video-game-esque landscape filled with glitchy 3D scanned statues of herself, while also singing and performing electronic music.

The night ended with a dance party to 80s disco music, with people dancing inside the video feedback loop of our installation.

Anna was able to briefly take over this former storefront space in a mostly empty shopping mall, inserting herself and her artwork into an appropriately liminal venue during a sabbatical from her professorship. Thanks to Anna for inviting us to be a part of this unusual show.

Collaborative A/V Performance w/ Matthew Ryals

Fri, 16 Feb 2024 09:00:00 GMT

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On Friday February 16, I performed a collaborative audiovisual set with Matthew Ryals at The Avalon Lounge in Catskill, NY. Matthew and I have collaborated before, so when I found out that he would be performing in the area, I eagerly joined the bill. Combining modular video synthesis and camera feedback, I was able to incorporate control voltage signal's from Matthew's audio synths, introducing synesthetic interaction between the sound and video.

Other performers included The Early from Philadelphia, and Friends Meeting, ambient duo project of Ben Seretan and M. Geddes Gengras. It was a lovely evening of dreamy experimental sound. At the end, The Early and Friends Meeting joined together for a rather epic jam. The show was also broadcast live on Wave Farm's WGXC.

Artist Talk at Luck Dragon

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 09:00:00 GMT

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On January 26, I presented and discussed some excerpts of my audiovisual artworks at an event called Sound at Luck Dragon, in Delhi, NY.

Sound is a monthly event at Luck Dragon, in which two artists or musicians present and talk about their work, followed by a period of group discussion. In this way, artists and sonic practitioners are brought into conversation with both each other, and the local community. The other presenter for this edition was Sam Tellman, who talked about his research and design journey toward creating https://www.sottoinstruments.com/ that's more lightweight and user-serviceable.

Luck Dragon is an art supply shop that also hosts community events. It was cool to visit this space because the people who run it also have an open-source audio hardware company, a pottery studio, various artist spaces, and a private occult library in the same building. Delhi is about an hour west of where I'm currently based, so I'm hoping to spend more time there in the coming months. Thanks to Brian for inviting me.

🌐 Visit Luck Dragon's website: luckdragon.space

2023 Year in Review

Sun, 31 Dec 2023 09:00:00 GMT

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I've never done this sort of post before, but so much has happened this year that I feel a need to take one last look over my shoulder before 2023 is over. This year, I made twice the average number of posts in the "news" section of my website, because this year has been full of activities. Here are some of them:

Made myself a new artist website (this very place you're visiting now!) with hand-coded HTML and CSS; it took a long time but it was very fun and I learned a lot
Helped start Polyphase Portal, a cooperatively-run online educational space with our own self-hosted infrastructure (running open-source software for our website, video classrooms, chat, and wiki)
Attended my third vipassana meditation retreat, and finished a seven month, 200-hour yoga teacher training, which not only prepared me to teach others but also helped me evolve my own yoga practice
Left my corporate software development job of the last 5 years, and managed to scrape by for 8 months thus far without a "day job"
Side note: despite being part of a mass media conglomerate, my team there was small and scrappy, and we did some cool stuff together. Hats off to the great folks I worked with.
Left Brooklyn, where I've lived off and on for much of my adult life, and wrapped up Phase Space, which was run out of the basement of our apartment there
Bought a 1988 Chevy van with Andrei and spent 5 months traveling across the US together
Did 3 audiovisual performances and 2 artist residencies
Co-led 12 in-person video art workshops and demonstrations across the country
Camped in many national parks and other public lands, experienced many different biomes and landscapes; learned to identify a bunch of new plants
Returned to Catskill Mountains of upstate NY, where I grew up and then left 12 years ago, with a new appreciation for its vibrant forests
Started — and am still starting — a small business: Moon Ark Studio (with 4 clients so far and counting)

This year has been alternately fun, exciting, hectic, exhausting, and immensely fulfilling in a way I have not quite experienced before. And the way things are going, it seems there will be many more adventures in store in the coming year. Thanks for following along, and I wish you a happy old year, in the last moments before a new one begins.

ELMET BRAE Compilation Release

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 09:00:00 GMT

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November 20th was the release of Elmet Brae, a community compilation of soundscapes/ambient/noise/drone from Merveilles Town members and friends. It includes an ambient piece I recorded while traveling in the national forests of the northwestern US, titled Artemisia Grove.

The online community of Merveilles Town has been a calm, creative haven for me on the internet, and a place of mutual inspiration and encouragement, since I joined the mastodon server in 2022. It has been lovely to listen to everyone's musical contributions to this compilation and appreciate the town's unique personality and atmosphere.

Shout outs to Orllewin for organizing the project, Bad Diode for mastering, Rostiger for the visual artwork, and to all the sonic artists and musicians who contributed.

🌐 Find out more: orllewin.github.io/elmet_brae/EB01

💿 Download FLAC: orllewin.itch.io/elmet-brae-eb01-the-land

🔈 Listen on Bandcamp: beldamrecords.bandcamp.com/album/elmet-brae-the-land

SYNTHETIC FOREST at Coaxial

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 09:00:00 GMT

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During the last week of October, Andrei and I did an artist residency at Coaxial Arts in Los Angeles as Phase Shift Collective. During our our time there, we created an installation/environment which also served as our stage and setup for a live performance, titled Synthetic Forest.

The concept was inspired by the time we spent camping in national forests during our five-month road trip across the US. Throughout our travels, we made video and sound recordings in nature, which we sampled and remixed in the performance. We wanted to create an environment which combined materials from the natural landscape with the synthetic elements of our electronic sound and video processing techniques. In our installation, we used real and synthetic plants and moss, chalk on the floor, overhead projectors, CRT screens, and a fog machine.

Andrei performed live video using a combination of liquid light show techniques, camera feedback, footage from our walks in the forest, and gravity_waaaves, a video processor/frame buffer device they created.

I performed quadraphonic sound with field recording samples, a foley box containing dried leaves, bells, a kalimba and an AM radio, synths, and granular and spatial processing. It was my first time performing music in quad, so it was exciting to create an immersive sonic landscape with Coaxial's multichannel speaker setup.

I've known about Coaxial for a long time, and it was really cool to finally get to be there in person. Many thanks to KA, Chloe, Eva, and Brock for their help and hospitality. We look forward to visiting again in the future!

Here is a recording of our performance:

24:49 | Watch on: Youtube Peertube

Artist Talk at CalArts

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 09:00:00 GMT

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On October 23, we did a Phase Shift artist talk/workshop at California Institute for the Arts in Santa Clarita, CA. We visited a class called Creative Technology Forum with professor Josephine Shetty. Andrei and I took turns showing some of our individual artwork and collaborations, and then the students tried out some of our video feedback setups in an interactive demo at the end.

I was excited to see that the students in this class were very engaged with their own unique projects and art practices. They asked insightful questions which showed that what we were doing was relevant to their own work. I was impressed with the level of initiative and self-direction of the students, and the level of creative cross-pollination that seemed to be taking place within the class.

Many thanks to Josephine for having us in her class and to Michael Bailey, audiovisual artist and CalArts student, for inviting us!

Workshop/Talk at Indexical

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 09:00:00 GMT

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On October 19, we led a Phase Shift workshop and artist talk at Indexical in Santa Cruz, with special guests Allen Riley and Denise Gallant. It was wonderful to see Allen, who is a good friend and former Brooklyn neighbor, now working on his PhD at UC Santa Cruz. It was also my first time meeting Denise, who has been working with video synthesis since the 1970s!

Michael Masaru Flora, my former classmate at Alfred and fellow audiovisual artist, helped us set up the event. He's now the Executive Director at Indexical! I'd heard lots of good things about this venue, so it was cool to finally get to be there in person.

We had a great turnout. Most of the folks who came were somehow associated with UC Santa Cruz. We had a record number of video game developers. The event was a combination of an artist talk and a workshop, beginning with each of us sharing about our art practice and demonstrating some techniques, and ending with an interactive opportunity to explore our tools.

Much gratitude to Allen, Denise, and Michael. We look forward to visiting Santa Cruz again!

Workshop in San Francisco

Sat, 14 Oct 2023 09:00:00 GMT

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On October 14, we led a Phase Shift video art workshop at Cat Factory, a diy space in San Francisco. Evan Sirchuk helped us organize it, and also invited us to visit the Internet Archive where he works. We had more help and gear lending from Nathan Trachimowicz, Chris Farstad, and Fetz A/V. Many televisions were activated with mesmerizing patterns, and fun and educational times were had by all.

Video Artist Meetup at Syzygy

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 09:00:00 GMT

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On October 12, we hosted a Phase Shift Video Artist Meetup at Syzygy in San Francisco, in collaboration with AV Club, a local art collective for technology-based performers. We set up an interactive demo of some of our gear, including Andrei's gravity_waaaves, waaave_pool and artificial_life. Our friend Sean Russell Hallowell also brought his self-built modular video synthesizer (and we had some fun sending signals back and forth between our systems).

Syzygy is a really nice community-run space, and the AV Club there is an awesome hub of algorave folks in the area. I had a great time meeting a bunch of new people, including Sarah GHP, a fellow video artist who I'd only known from online.

Workshop in Eugene

Sat, 07 Oct 2023 09:00:00 GMT

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On October 7, we led a Phase Shift video art workshop at a private studio & wood shop in Eugene, Oregon. Attendees were a mixed group with some experienced video artists and some beginners, so it was cool to see the more experienced folks sharing their knowledge and personal techniques. Many thanks to Josiah Martens for hosting the event and to Adam Sladek for providing video equiment and some cool kaleidoscopic mirrors!

Class Visit at University of Oregon

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 09:00:00 GMT

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On October 5, we did a visiting artist workshop at University of Oregon in Eugene, for the class Digital Imaging taught by our friend Kevin Kripper. We discussed iterative processes, feedback loops & recursion, and reaction-diffusion/Turing patterns in digital & analog processes and in nature. The students learned how to generate their own Turing patterns from photos, like in the examples below.

Workshop in Portland

Sun, 17 Sep 2023 09:00:00 GMT

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On September 17, we led our Phase Shift Intro to Live Visuals workshop in Portland, Oregon, hosted by Synth Library Portland and CETI. Our attendees were an excellent group of videonauts, and we had a great time learning and experimenting. Many thanks to Jon Daries, Thomas Fang, Adam Sladek, and everyone else at CETI and Synth Library Portland who helped put this together!

Video Mixer in Portland

Sat, 16 Sep 2023 09:00:00 GMT

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On September 16, we were special guests at Video Mixer, a meetup and interactive demonstration of video art tools, hosted by CETI Institute and Synth Library Portland. It was great to hang out and chat with some local artists and tinkerers, and to set up a playground for folks to explore some of the tools and techniques we've developed!

Workshop in Seattle

Sat, 09 Sep 2023 09:00:00 GMT

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On September 9, we led our Phase Shift Intro to Live Visuals workshop at Patchwerks, a synth boutique in Seattle. This was our biggest group so far on this tour, with almost 30 people attending. Luckily, we had assistance from local artists & people from the video community, and everyone had an excellent time collaborating and exploring analog video feedback with cameras and mixers, optical effects, and liquids.

Many thanks to Connie Fu, SleepPattern, and Tesseractive for helping facilitate and lending equipment!

Inspiration from the Forest Floor

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 09:00:00 GMT

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While camping in the national forests in Wyoming and Montana, I spent some time looking closely at the many forms of moss, lichen, fungi, and flora inhabiting the forest floor. Since much of my artwork draws inspiration from the intersection between the organic and the algorithmic, I decided to take a macro lens and try to document some of this wealth of fascinating tiny landscapes and patterns, for later reference and admiration. Here are some of my favorites.

Workshop in Minneapolis

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 09:00:00 GMT

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On July 20, we led a Phase Shift video art workshop at a public library in Minneapolis. With the help of our local artist friends, we were able to set up six stations for exploration of video feedback with cameras, processors, and mixers. Since Minneapolis has a thriving a/v art scene, there was a lot of interest, and many people came to participate. I also had an amazing time jamming with a bunch of people the following weekend.

Many thanks to our friends Shawna Lee, Erik Tinberg, Chris LeBlanc, Charles Hainsworth, and others who helped out with things!

Workshop in Iowa City

Sat, 01 Jul 2023 09:00:00 GMT

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On July 1st, we led another Phase Shift video art workshop in Iowa City at Public Space One. I've never been to Iowa City before, so it was quite fun to meet so many folks there from the experimental art / noise music scene. We greatly appreciated PHOSPHENES for booking the space and hosting us, and everyone who brought over gear for the workshop. I look forward to visiting again some time!

Phase Shift Residency at FEED

Sun, 18 Jun 2023 09:00:00 GMT

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In late June, I did a 1-week artist residency with Andrei Jay and Kevin Kripper as Phase Shift Collective at FEED, a new media art center in Erie, Pennsylvania. We did a live performance and art installation, and led a video art workshop. It was an interesting space and location, and we look forward to visiting again some day to see how this new space will evolve.

Traveling + Life Updates

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 09:00:00 GMT

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For the past few years, I've been living in Brooklyn, working a full-time tech job, and helping run a video art studio and collective called Phase Space out of my basement. Now, I've left the city and started a six-month road trip across the USA and back with my partner & collaborator, Andrei. Since we have left Brooklyn for the foreseeable future, Phase Space has come to a close after four excellent years of offering workshops, events, and community. However, some of my friends and I are working on some new projects which will continue the spirit of Phase in two ways...

First of these is Phase Shift Collective, which consists of Andrei and myself teaching workshops, attending artist residencies, and visiting art spaces across the country as we travel. You can find out more on our new website for this (also lovingly hand-coded with plain html/css):

🌐 phaseshift.zone

Secondly, me, Andrei, and our friends Tim Caldwell and Sean Hallowell have started Polyphase Portal, a DIY, collectively-run online school that hosts workshops, classes, and talks. We already have some classes on the schedule, and I hope to lead an online workshop in the next few months on making simple, hand-coded websites in HTML and CSS that bring back some of the magic of the early internet. Polyphase is online at:

🌐 polyphaseportal.xyz

We've only just started our road trip, and we are deliberately moving quite slowly, but we'll be on the west coast by September, and then driving back and spending most of the winter in upstate New York. Our first major stop will be at a 1-week residency later this month at FEED, a new art center in Erie, Pennsylvania, founded by Benton C Bainbridge.

I am hoping that these life changes will will lead to more time and energy spent on creative and independent projects, and I'm looking forward to spending more time in nature and meeting like-minded people in different parts of the country. I find my lifestyle is becoming more and more offline and low-tech, but I also want to stay connected and share what I'm up to, so stay tuned for more updates over the next few months!

OUT OF PHASE at Phase Space

Sat, 06 May 2023 09:00:00 GMT

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On Saturday, May 6, we hosted our last show at Phase Space before moving out (more on that soon). I performed live ambient music for a collaborative a/v set with Andrei Jay as REALITY ORP. Our friend 식료품groceries did a set as well! As always, there were a variety of installations on view throughout the event, and we also had tarot readings.

We will miss organizing events here in Brooklyn, but our friends are taking over the space and continuing to do cool stuff there, while Andrei and I are hitting the road for a cross country tour. So this was also a bit of a going away party, and a final hurrah for Phase Space as we know it.

📺 Watch a recording of our performance as REALITY ORP: Youtube | Peertube

MERCURALIA at Phase Space

Sat, 27 Aug 2022 09:00:00 GMT

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Our late summer show at Phase Space was on Saturday, August 27! I had an excellent time performing as part of REALITY ORP, a new collaborative project with Andrei Jay. I performed live with liquids for the first time, and combined that with analog video processing. Our friend Rob Feulner from Montréal also came down to show installation work and do a performance! And there were multiple glowing polyhedra, so that's always a plus.

📺 Watch a recording of our performance as REALITY ORP: Youtube | Peertube

Open Space Encounters at Maverick Concert Hall

Fri, 19 Aug 2022 09:00:00 GMT

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On Friday August 19, my video projections accompanied an experimental music and poetry performance by Dorota Czerner and Augustus Arnone at the Maverick Concert Hall in Woodstock, NY! This was part of a concert called Open Space Encounters: Music from the Time of Renewal.

📺 Watch a recording of the performance: Youtube | Peertube

🌐 Visit Open Space's website: the-open-space.org

Collaborative A/V Performance w/ Matthew Ryals

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 09:00:00 GMT

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On Friday July 1, I performed a collaborative audiovisual set with Matthew Ryals. The video and sound was interactive via control voltage signals from Matthew's modular synthesizer interacting with my modified video hardware. The show was at Littlefield in Gowanus, and celebrated album releases by both Matthew Ryals and Chloe Alexandra Thompson. It also featured excellent performances from live-coder Melody Loveless, dark synthscaper Brian Wenner, and experimental electronic musician Chloe Alexandra Thompson.

In addition to our collaboration on the performance, Matthew Ryals and I also worked together recently on a music video for one of the tracks of his new album, Impromptus in Isolation.

HEXAFLORALIA at Phase Space

Sat, 07 May 2022 09:00:00 GMT

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Friday May 7 was our spring show at Phase Space! We hosted a delightful evening of multimedia art installations and audiovisual performances. We were really glad that the event was successful despite the sudden spell of bad weather that rolled past us that weekend. I did a live set with fellow Phase Space organizers Andrei and Irfan as NEW DELUSION, in which we performed acoustic instruments with live electronic processing, with visual oscillations on a modified Vectrex display. Cskonopka came down from Boston to play a powerful solo audiovisual set, and Insomniac Hotel played a beautiful ambient set with live visuals by ÉMU. We also had a video installation by Monica Panzarino, and a collaborative installation combining sound, glass, and light art by Valeria Divinorum and Camilla Padgitt-Coles. It was an exciting confluence of creativity and community that I was honored to be a part of.

Live video performance for Ambient Church

Sat, 05 Mar 2022 09:00:00 GMT

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On Saturday, March 5, I performed live visuals for Ambient Church, featuring atmospheric music by Suzanne Ciani and Lori Scacco. The projection mapping was done by Eric Epstein, who created custom mattes of the space to allow us to activate the architecture with my morphing video feedback patterns and oscillations, mixed in with live video of Suzanne's Buchla performance. The quadrophonic sound system further spatialized the audiovisual experience. It was certainly a memorable show!

Livestream artist talk for Ljudmila Lab

Wed, 24 Nov 2021 09:00:00 GMT

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On Wednesday, November 24, I presented a virtual artist talk and screening for the Digital Dish series at Ljudmila Lab in Ljubljana, Slovenia! I talked about my recent piece, Magnetic Field Recordings, as well as my Electromagnetic Earth series and some of the concepts and inspiration behind it. We also had a discussion segment with fellow artist Ida Hiršenfelder (a.k.a. beepblip).

🌐 For more info, visit: wiki.ljudmila.org/Paloma_Kop_(en)

📺 Watch a recording of the talk: Youtube | Peertube

Phase Space visits Wesleyan University

Sat, 13 Nov 2021 09:00:00 GMT

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On Saturday, November 13, Phase Space Collective visited Wesleyan University. I helped lead a day of interactive workshops and demonstrations, and participated in a collaborative audiovisual performance.

Video performance for MESMARIZE06

Sun, 07 Nov 2021 09:00:00 GMT

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I performed live video for the sixth edition of MESMARIZE, a recurring showcase organized by Mesma Records. It featured a variety of performances, ranging from machines to dry leaves, modular synthesis to guzheng, all taking place in an intimate and transportive atmosphere.

🌐 For more info, visit: mesmarecords.com/events/mesmarize-06.html

Video performance for ARTIFACT

Sun, 24 Oct 2021 09:00:00 GMT

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I enjoyed performing video with Hiro Kone's music on Sunday, October 24th as part of an exciting evening of experimental music and video. The event was held outdoors in Chelsea, and organized by Testu Collective.

HYPERBOREALIS at Phase Space

Sat, 09 Oct 2021 09:00:00 GMT

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On Saturday, October 9th, we hosted a show at Phase Space called HYPERBOREALIS! There were installations in our basement studio space, and a series of live performances in our outdoor yard/garage. I collaborated on a live performance that combined light art and experimental sound, along with Valeria Divinorum, Jonathan Sims, Max Coker, and Andrei Jay.

Video performance for MESMARISE05

Sun, 11 Jul 2021 09:00:00 GMT

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I performed live visuals on Sunday, July 11 at Trans-Pecos for the fifth edition of MESMARIZE, a recurring showcase presented by Mesma Records.

PHOTON PLAYGROUND at Phase Space

Sat, 10 Jul 2021 09:00:00 GMT

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On Saturday, July 10, Phase Space hosted an evening of multimedia installations and performances called PHOTON PLAYGROUND. Phase Space is a diy multimedia art studio based in our basement in Bushwick. I also performed as part of a very vague band called New Delusion a.k.a. Nude Illusion.

TRVLR Collaborative Performance

Tue, 29 Jun 2021 09:00:00 GMT

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On Tuesday, June 29, I participated in a collaborative multimedia performance with a number of fellow artists, musicians, and dancers. I performed live music in collaboration with three other parallel sound performances, as dancers activated the space around us with kinetic sculptures. Here is the concept from Testu Collective:

Inspired by seeing a performance of Marginal Consort, a Japanese improvisational collective, Testu is gathering a group of sound makers to create unique simultaneous soundtracks with custom-built instruments, sound-making devices and synthesizers. Each sound station centers around a modular sculpture that is activated by two movement artists.

'TRVLR' is about The Travelers, microscopic alien life forms found on meteorites that have journeyed from Deep Space to Earth. The concept focuses on the fictional telling of what their first moments on Earth would be like if we zoomed in; through movement, sculpture and sound.

Performers:

Yoko Murakami & Maki Kitahara (movement)
Testu Collective - Serena Stucke & Dan Tesene (sound)
Alec Fellman & Maria Takeuchi (sound)
Gabriel Mester (sound)
Paloma Kop (sound)

Scanlines Birthday Showcase

Tue, 20 Apr 2021 09:00:00 GMT

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On April 20th, we had a community screening to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of the founding of scanlines.xyz!

Last year, I teamed up with Andrei Jay, Cyberboy666, and Olivia Jack to create a new forum to discuss diy video and audio projects. Over the past year, the community has evolved, and we now maintain a chat platform, a custom livestreaming service, and a peertube video hosting setup, all on our own infrastructure. I really value having this community around experimental video art that's outside of the advertising-ridden hellscape of corporate social media.

🌐 More info about the event: scanlines.xyz/t/scanlines-birthday-community-showcase-open-call-for-participation

Performance at Ann Arbor Film Festival

Sat, 27 Mar 2021 09:00:00 GMT

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On Saturday, March 27, I did a livestreamed performance for the 2021 edition of the Ann Arbor Film Festival. Several fellow Signal Culture community members were also featured this year, including Kit Young, Scott Kiernan, and Jason Bernagozzi.

The Ann Arbor Film Festival is the oldest avant-garde and experimental film festival in North America, founded by George Manupelli in 1963. Internationally recognized as a premiere forum for independent filmmakers and artists, each year's festival engages audiences with remarkable cinematic experiences. The six-day festival presents 40 programs with more than 180 films from over 20 countries of all lengths and genres, including experimental, animation, documentary, fiction, and performance-based works.

📺 Watch the recording of my set: Youtube | Peertube

Performance at ChaShaMa Residency Space

Sun, 14 Mar 2021 09:00:00 GMT

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On Sunday, March 14, I performed at Testu Collective's ChaShaMa residency space in the Brooklyn Navy Yards. I performed a solo a/v set and then participated in our group jam session at the end. It was very nice to be able to collaborate with other artists in my local community, and we look forward to organizing more public events once that becomes possible.

Currents.FM Common Multiverse Initiative

Sat, 13 Mar 2021 09:00:00 GMT

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My piece, Magnetic Field Recordings, was screened in a room curated by Testu Collective within the Common Multiverse Initiative, a volunteer-run online event hosted by Currents.fm involving a constellation of artists around the world.

Testu Collective are an intermedia art collective that creates experimental videos, concept soundtracks, and audiovisual installations/performances. Testu Collective's curated A/V Room in COMMON MULTIVERSE INITIATIVE focuses on diversity of sonic and visual artists and a mix of analog and digital techniques. The audience is taken on a sonic adventure from lush field recordings to modular synth electro-scapes to brutal ambient. Visuals range from video feedback manipulation to otherworldly audio-reactive designs created in TouchDesigner to sci-fi landscapes created by cymatics. Their room featured performances by ÉMU + Insomniac Hotel, Im_pakt, The Josh Craig, Fernando Molina, Paloma Kop, Toru Izumida, Testu Collective, Chaka Benson, ACE + Detroit Bureau of Sound.

🌐 Visit our collective on Currents.fm at this link: currents.fm/collective/FXNQbrULv51sfEWzDzCp

SPACE(TIME) THRESHOLDS Virtual Opening

Sun, 13 Dec 2020 09:00:00 GMT

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My online MFA thesis exhibition, SPACE(TIME) THRESHOLDS, virtually opened on Sunday, December 13. This body of work was created during my studies in Electronic Integrated Arts at Alfred University from 2018-2020.

I also released the accompanying book, From Material Space(time) into Electronic Space(time), which serves as my written thesis and a window into my process. Printed books are available to order, and the digital PDF is linked as well.

I performed a livestreamed a/v set to celebrate and bring in a realtime component. It incorporated video and sound elements from the exhibition, manipulated and remixed live.

🌐 See the work, book, and performance: palomakop.tv/mfa

A/V Performance for Edge of Light

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 09:00:00 GMT

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I performed an a/v set with an 8 foot weather balloon for the opening of Edge of Light, an exhibition curated by Jonathan Sims for HoloCenter. The opening performances were curated by Testu Collective. The opening took place on December 3 and our performances were streamed online.

This was my first time incorporating this large spherical balloon into a live performance with analog video synthesis. I found that I was able to create a variety of weather patterns, as one might see on the surface of a gas giant planet.

📺 Watch a recording of my set: Youtube | Peertube

Collaborative a/v performance with Andrei Jay for Vidicon

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 09:00:00 GMT

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On Sunday, November 15, I performed a collaborative a/v set with Andrei Jay, which was livestreamed as part of Vidicon. This year was the second edition of Vidicon, and due to the pandemic, it took place entirely online, with performances by many wonderful video artists and friends. The set I played with Andrei was enjoyably eccentric. My favorite part was performing on musical saw while video of me was being processed through a slit scan frame buffer. We had a lot of fun! Additionally, the scanlines.xyz team and I were able to contribute to the festival's video streaming and chat infrastructure, to help create an online venue independent from major social media sites and platforms.

📺 Watch a recording of our set: Youtube

Recursive News at /'fu:bar/

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 09:00:00 GMT

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I participated in a livestreamed performance with some friends at this year's edition of /'fu:bar/ Glitch Art Festival! The festival is usually held in Zagreb; this year it is fully online.

Our performance was titled Recursive News and used 1990's broadcast video equipment to re-interpret cable access style news broadcast into an echoing void of infinite recursion. We streamed live from the Phase Space studio in Brooklyn.

Performance: Recursive News
Who: Paloma Kop, Andrei Jay, Allen Riley, Rob Yohe, Irfan Brković
When: Monday October 5, 2pm (NY time) / 8pm (Zagreb time)
Where: the internet

📺 Watch a recording of the performance: Youtube | Peertube

Talk and screening at Vector Hack

Sat, 03 Oct 2020 09:00:00 GMT

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As part of this year's Vector Hack Festival, my work was included in a screening program on Friday October 2, and I gave an artist talk on Sunday October 4. This edition of the festival was hybrid onsite & online, taking place across three cities in Croatia and Slovenia from October 1-10. (Note that all times are in Central European Summer time zone.)

Screening: Signal Culture Series
When: 21:00-23:00 CEST, Friday, October 2
Where: Exportdrvo, Rijeka, Croatia and online

Talk: Modulating Material
When: 17:00-18:00 CEST, Sunday, October 4
Where: Deltalab, Rijeka, Croatia and online

📺 Watch a recording of my talk: Youtube | Peertube

🌐 More info: vectorhackfestival.com/2020

📄 Full festival programme: vectorhack-2020-programme-RI.pdf

Interval II: Performance at Synesthesia

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 09:00:00 GMT

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On Thursday, October 1, I did a live a/v performance at Interval II, an event combining music and video, sculpture, and dance, curated by Testu Collective and held on the open-air rooftop of Synesthesia. I greatly appreciate the organizers' ability to manifest a physical gathering while maintaining safe pandemic practices. It was wonderful to experience performances by fellow artists ÉMU (Maria Takeuchi), Impakt, Testu Collective, Yoko Murakami, and Will Atkins beneath the full moon.

🌐 More details: withfriends.co/event/5040222/i_n_t_e_r_v_a_l_ii

Coaxial Summer Series

Sat, 11 Jul 2020 09:00:00 GMT

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I was thrilled to have my work included in the livestreaming program for Coaxial Summer Series on Saturday, July 11. The series continues every Saturday at 9pm PDT through August, and is hosted by Coaxial, a wonderful media arts organization in Los Angeles. Since in-person events are not an option right now due to the pandemic, this kind of virtual programming is even more vital.

📺 View Coaxial's livestreams: twitch.tv/coaxialarts

Scanlines.xyz forum

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 09:00:00 GMT

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Some friends and I got together and set up a new discussion forum for DIY A/V things called scanlines.xyz. So far, it's been a refreshing place to connect with friends and people with common interests, away from big corporate social media sites. It's hosted on our own server, and we also run a livestreaming server, chat, and video hosting platform, all using open source software.

🌐 Check it out: scanlines.xyz

Kickstarter for book printing

Thu, 14 May 2020 09:00:00 GMT

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I launched a 2-week kickstarter to fund the printing of my MFA thesis book, From Material Space(time) into Electronic Space(time): Interfaces, Simulations, Hybridizations.

🌐 More info: kickstarter.com/projects/palomakop/paloma-kop-mfa-thesis-book

SOLACE benefit a/v compilation

Fri, 01 May 2020 09:00:00 GMT

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My work is included in SOLACE, a benefit a/v compilation for COVID-19 organized by some wonderful friends in the NYC audiovisual community. 100% of proceeds go to IRC (rescue.org) and local food banks. The release was celebrated with a livestream event.

📺 The audiovisual album is online at: testucollective.bandcamp.com/album/solace

Coronavirus/COVID-19 Update

Wed, 18 Mar 2020 09:00:00 GMT

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There's a lot going on in the world right now, but I wanted to share a small update from my end. As you might know, I'm currently in my final semester of my MFA program at Alfred, located in a remote town in western NY. My university recently announced that all classes will be remote for the rest of the semester. The art building was shut down and I lost access to my studio, so I moved all my equipment to my apartment, and set up a temporary workspace in which to complete my thesis.

Our in-person thesis exhibitions were cancelled. I have decided to move to an online exhibition format — basically a site to allow viewing of my thesis work online. Although I haven't pursued web-based media as much recently, this is something I luckily have experience with, from working with The Wrong, Gallery T, and others. And in spite of the gravity of the situation, I am excited to be able to present my thesis work in a format that will be even more accessible to people regardless of their geographic location.

In addition to the show, our thesis work will also culminate in the form of a book. I am going ahead with creating and printing my books as I had originally planned. I will be sharing my book freely and openly in digital PDF form, but I also want to offer printed copies for those who want them. I'll be opening up pre-orders for the book in advance of their printing in May/June.

I am trying to decrease my dependency on certain social media platforms, so as an alternative way to keep people in the loop about my activities, I've created a newsletter/mailing list. In addition to updates about my upcoming online thesis show and book, I'll send occasional updates when I am doing a show or performance.

🌐 Sign up here: palomakop.tv/newsletter

Metacognition at Spring/Break

Tue, 03 Mar 2020 09:00:00 GMT

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My work is included in Metacognition, an exhibit at Spring/Break Art Show, curated by Tali Hinkis and Robin Kang. It ran from March 3-9 in NYC.

Metacognition: the awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes. This exhibition surrounds a conversation between a group of artists who employ meditative and repetitive processes to creatively navigate through the dimensional realms of reality. The physical, algorithmic, emotional, virtual, spiritual, and scientific planes are investigated through clever uses of technology and innovative combinations of the material and the digital.

🌐 More info: springbreakartshow.com

🌐 Press coverage: observer.com/2020/03/spring-break-art-show-2020-best-booths

DECOHERENCE Book

Tue, 07 Jan 2020 09:00:00 GMT

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I created a short book to explain some of my process and ideas about a video piece I made using cymatics. The book is a small part of my MFA thesis, and I printed and bound several to share with faculty.

📄 PDF version: decoherence_book.pdf

Performance at SOLSTICE

Sat, 21 Dec 2019 09:00:00 GMT

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I did a solo a/v set at the opening of SOLSTICE, an exhibition of light art works at Flux Factory, organized and curated by Jonathan Sims. The opening took place on the night of the winter solstice, and the opening was marked by 4 a/v performances by me, Testu Collective, ÉMU (Maria Takeuchi), and Night Shining. The performances and installations of light works complemented each other amazingly and I was thrilled to be a part of it all.

🌐 More info: fluxfactory.org/event/solstice

🌐 Exhibition review: artspiel.org/solstice-at-flux-factory

📺 Video documentation of my set: Youtube | Peertube

APPALACHIAN VORTEX TOUR Album

Wed, 18 Sep 2019 09:00:00 GMT

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I am very excited to share this album I made with Andrei Jay, titled: APPALACHIAN VORTEX TOUR. Near the end of summer, we went on a camping road trip through the Appalachians in search of caves, hollows, and other basins of vortex energy in the forest. I brought my field recorder and my shortwave radio, and Andrei brought two Volca FM synthesizers, and we recorded a series of jams at various locations along the way. We were able to pick up electromagnetic interference within the shortwave bands from the built-in amplifier circuits in the Volcas, making the radio act as a kind of extra amplifier which added unique distortions and textures.

The sounds of the environment also became part of the recordings, so you can hear crickets, running water, wind, other humans, natural reverb of stone and metal, and the spatialized presence of the built-in speakers of the volcas, intertwined with signals drifting in and out from shortwave broadcasts.

The album art, a map of the vortexes we toured, was drawn electronically and then plotted with a robotic drawing machine in the expanded media department at Alfred University.

🔈 Listen to the album: Bandcamp

Exhibition at SPACES

Fri, 21 Jun 2019 09:00:00 GMT

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From June 21 to August 2, selected audiovisual works from my series Experiments in Public were on view at SPACES in Cleveland, OH, in an immersive viewing chamber called The Vault.

🌐 More info: spacescle.org/exhibitions/2019/06/21/paloma-kop-experiments-in-public

FUGITIVE DREAM RECOVERY: Experiments 2016-2018 VHS

Tue, 18 Jun 2019 09:00:00 GMT

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Experiments 2016-2018 is a 60 minute VHS tape by my collaborative side project Fugitive Dream Recovery, released under Bleu Nuit Video.

📼 Order a VHS: bleunuitvideo.bandcamp.com/merch/the-bureau-of-fugitive-dream-recovery-experiments-2016-2018

📺 Watch the trailer: Youtube

Télépresence III

Sat, 01 Jun 2019 09:00:00 GMT

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On June 1, we held the third edition of Télépresence at La Lumière's collective space in Montreal. It was so lovely to hang with my fellow video artists, and to perform as 1/2 of Fugitive Dream Recovery during the evening's a/v show. Here are some photos from people's setups during the tabling portion, as well as the performances.

Performance at 6 Unusual A/V Sets

Fri, 22 Mar 2019 09:00:00 GMT

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On Friday, March 22, I did a set at Secret Project Robot in Brooklyn, along with 5 other amazing solo a/v acts. This was an exciting show for me because it brought together a group of artists who each have a unique approach to audiovisual performance. The show was co-organized by all the performers around a visit from Helsinki-based artist and educator Derek Holzer.

Collaborative Performance w/ Killick Hinds

Tue, 26 Feb 2019 09:00:00 GMT

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On Tuesday 2/26, I did a collaborative a/v performance in the Turner Gallery at Alfred University with guest musician Killick Hinds. The show was accompanied by an artist talk for the Foundations students the following day.

📺 Video documentation of our set: Youtube | Peertube

Performing Media Exhibition

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 09:00:00 GMT

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From February 18 through March 9, my work was installed as part of Performing Media Exhibition at IU South Bend Gallery, in South Bend, Indiana. This exhibition was part of Performing Media Festival, and represented an international selection of artists focusing on real-time media, including Christopher Biggs, Ted Davis, Mathew Schlanger, James Connolly, Karl Erickson, Sara Goodman, Debora Bernagozzi & Jason Bernagozzi, Kevin Kripper, Jonathan Gillie, Toby Kaufmann-Buhler, and myself.

A reception and talk was held on February 28, followed by the rest of the festival, including two nights of live performances.

Performance at Transient Visions

Sat, 20 Oct 2018 09:00:00 GMT

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On Saturday, October 20, I did a solo experimental a/v performance at Transient Visions: Festival of the Moving Image, held at Spool Mfg. in Johnson City, NY. My performance closed out the festival following an evening of experimental film screenings.

📺 Watch a recording of my set: Youtube | Peertube

Installation at Stull Observatory

Wed, 03 Oct 2018 09:00:00 GMT

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On October 3, I did a pop-up style projection-mapping installation at Stull Astronomical Observatory at Alfred University.

📺 Video documentation: Youtube | Peertube

Post Analog:: Exhibition Opening

Thu, 20 Sep 2018 09:00:00 GMT

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Post Analog, an exhibition of new print and video works by me and fellow media artist Sara Goodman, opened on September 20th in Portland, OR! The show was curated by Sarah Turner, and will be up at Grapefruits Art Space until October 21. During the opening celebration, there was a live transmission-based sound performance by drc // erc, a collaborative duo of local experimental musicians Darcy Neal and Erin Cooper.

Event page for the opening: facebook.com/events/260599604578721

Many thanks to Drew Pauper of BPMC for doing a lovely write-up on the glitchart.com blog: glitchart.com/post-analog-paloma-kop-sara-goodman

Post Analog:: Paloma Kop & Sara Goodman
Grapefruits Art Space (2119 N Kerby, Suite D)
Opening: September 20, 6-9pm
Performance on opening night @ 8pm by:: drc // erc
Exhibition runs: September 20-October 21
Curated by Sarah Turner

Performance at Trans-Pecos

Thu, 23 Aug 2018 09:00:00 GMT

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I performed an experimental A/V set as sleepwalks, as well as providing visuals for the rest of the acts, at this show at Trans-Pecos in Brooklyn. It was fun to collaborate with some touring artists from Minneapolis, and the collaborative set by Machine Girl and Bonnie Baxter (of Kill Alters) had people dancing so hard I felt as though the floor might collapse. For me, this show was a way to say goodbye to Brooklyn, as I prepared to move upstate for grad school.

Performance at Secret Project Robot

Thu, 26 Jul 2018 09:00:00 GMT

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On July 27th, I performed an experimental audio-visual set as sleepwalks at Secret Project Robot in Brooklyn. The show was organized by euglossine, an experimental musician from Gainesville, Florida. I enjoyed setting up a cave-like spatialized projection environment and filling it with warm synth sounds and evolving video textures.

VISIBILITY Exhibition in Buenos Aires

Fri, 04 May 2018 09:00:00 GMT

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My work is included in this exhibition at the Kirchner Cultural Centre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which opened on May 4. The show features six female experimental audiovisual artists from different countries, including Blanca Rego (Spain), Modular Dreams (Brazil), Sol del Río (Argentina), AGF poemproducer (Germany), Sabrina Ratté (Canada), VJ Um Amel (Egypt), and myself (United States). It was curated by Milena Pafundi.

Here is a rough translation of the description (originally in Spanish): Visibility is a disruptive sample because it brings together the power of women's work in the field of audiovisual experimentation. It is about artists that are also the representation of many others that are out there producing and simply can not be seen, because we still have to deconstruct prejudices around minority women / trans / non-binary in relation to technology, art, and their presence in formal spaces: the works of women usually take place only on the internet.

Performance at Ambient Church: Malcolm Cecil & Steve Moore

Sat, 21 Apr 2018 09:00:00 GMT

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On Saturday, April 21, I performed video for a concert at a church in Brooklyn, NY featuring ambient electronic music sets by Malcolm Cecil (formerly of TONTO's Expanding Head Band) and Steve Moore (of Zombi). I output two channels of live analog video, which corresponded to layers of projection mapping in the architectural environment. I loved helping to create such an immersive and transportive audiovisual experience, and I hope to incorporate projection mapping in future performances. Many thanks to Ambient Church for inviting me.

Télépresence II

Sat, 07 Apr 2018 09:00:00 GMT

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On Saturday, April 7, I organized the second edition of Télépresence, a yearly conference of analog video artists and evening of audio visual performance. I also performed as 1/2 of Fugitive Dream Recovery, a collaborative side project. We held a tabling session for artists to show the methods and devices they use to manipulate video signals, then hosted an evening of a/v performances.

It was amazing to hang with artists and engineers from all across the U.S. and Canada, and very rewarding to get the chance to help facilitate creative cross-pollination around the medium of video. Many thanks to everyone who helped make it happen.

Screening at Flat Earth Film Festival

Mon, 12 Feb 2018 09:00:00 GMT

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On Monday, February 12, my Psychokinesis series was screened at Flat Earth Film Festival in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland. The film festival took place in the days leading up to List í ljósi, a light art festival held during the darkest time of the year.

🌐 More info: flatearthcinema.club

Live performance at H0L0

Thu, 04 Jan 2018 09:00:00 GMT

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A photo from a memorable, nearly-cancelled a/v performance at H0L0 in Ridgewood, Queens during a blizzard on January 4. The only other performers who were able to make it to the venue in the icy conditions were Rue Bainbridge. A number of guests were also able to make their way through the snow to watch. The result was a very special and intimate atmosphere.

Video screening at Ende Tymes

Sun, 12 Nov 2017 09:00:00 GMT

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My Psychokinesis series was screened on November 12 at Outpost Artist Resources in Ridgewood, NY as part of Ende Tymes 8: Novo Apocalypso, along with a myriad of other interesting audio-visual works.

Artist residency at Signal Culture

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 09:00:00 GMT

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Today I have begun my week as Artist in Residence at Signal Culture, an organization that runs an amazing residency program in Owego, NY. I am indescribably excited to experiment with this unique array of historic analog video devices and electronics!

🌐 Visit Signal Culture's website: http://signalculture.org