Visions of the Future Festival | 2015
Date: 23 October 2015
Time: 8:00 pm
Location: La MaMa, Downstairs, 66 E. 4th Street, NY 10003

This Hyphen Hub event was in collaboration with CultureHub. Visions of the Future was a showcase night of cutting-edge multimedia art and performance focusing on new forms of audio-visual interpretation about visions of the future. 

The night featured eight leading artists presenting works of immersive audience experience. It was presented in partnership with CultureHub at their new space at La MaMa Experimental Theater Club.

Artists involved included:

Catalonian Cyborg pioneers Neil Harbisson and Moon Ribas: Harbisson performed a Concert from Space via his antenna that is embedded into his skull. Ribas showcased her piece Waiting for Earthquakes, where she connected her sensors to the seismology satellite in space and danced as earthquakes happened at any given moment. The two artists performed simultaneously.

Portland, OR-based MSHR duo Brenna Murphy and Birch Cooper produced unusual installations and live performances that revolved around a unique system of light-audio feedback, employing handmade synthesizers, sculptural interfaces, and ritualistic performances. Their work placed the human body into a dynamic relationship with sound and light as they explored the hyperscapes of a transhumanist ceremony.

​Juan Cortés & Ricardo Arias

Juan Cortés and Ricardo Arias, both artists visiting from Bogotá, Colombia for MOMA’s hybrid media exhibition, presented their latest performance. Tidal Flares is a performance/installation that draws its inspiration from the dramatic effect of solar flares on the Earth’s behaviors, in both its organic and its inorganic systems. The performers interfered/interacted with this activity via sensors in ways akin to those deployed by certain biological organisms such as bioluminescent algae, frogs, and tarantulas.

Yucef Merhi

Yucef Merhi, a New York-based Venezuelan artist, presented Facial Poetry, a playful multiuser installation where facial gestures are transformed into hundreds of poems. Merhi did not perform but his installation was in view throughout the performance and the audience was able to interact with it via a Kinect camera. 

​Mark Bolotin

Mark Bolotin showcased The Lumiphonic Creature Choir, a futuristic installation that consists of a giant twelve-headed multimedia creature that triggers faces talking about their vision of the future. The audience was able to interact and play directly with the voices and sounds of the 16 heads of the Creature Choir.