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Associated Press
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
From Ruin, a World Emerges: Inside EX UTERO, a Living Sequence Curated by UAAD at ARTIFICE 004
At the dimly lit CultureHub, something unusual unfolded—an exhibition that did not ask its visitors to walk through white walls or glance at objects in a quiet vacuum. Instead, it invited them to sit, to circle, to listen, and to interact. Presented by Underground Art and Design (UAAD) at the fourth chapter of ARTIFICE 's ongoing event series, EX UTERO turned the exhibition format inside out. As part of ARTIFICE 004, a two-part showcase split between Black Box (new media art, curated by UAAD) at CultureHub and White Box (material art, curated by //PIXELMOUTH ) at La MaMa Galleria, EX UTERO offered six digital artworks not simultaneously but sequentially—each piece appearing like a scene in an unfolding narrative. The space was arranged less like a gallery and more like an immersive theatre. Lights dimmed. Screens flickered. Sounds swelled. And the audience stayed still, not out of passivity, but because they were part of it. Titled after the Latin for 'beyond the uterus,' EX UTERO imagined a world unbound from biological beginnings or inherited narratives. Instead, the curatorial concept proposed a new genesis—life born not from Eden but from collapse. What emerged was a procession of hybrid creatures, mythic beings, and sensorial ruptures—a heterogeneous world where bodies morph, memories glitch, and meaning resists linearity. The exhibition began with SPRING WORM, WORM, a projection-based performance-installation by Jiayi Li, Audrey Chou, and Enddle Jianhao Zheng. The audience formed a loose circle around the performer, immersed in a landscape of shifting visuals and unsettling fairy tale narration. Themes of femininity and fluid identity emerged through layered visuals and performative gestures, which enveloped the viewers physically and emotionally. There was no pedestal, no rope barrier—just an intimacy that drew everyone closer. SYMBIOTIC REVERIE by Renner Yetong Xin, Crystal Yingbo Li, Rainee Yunyi Wang and Yilin Ye followed, transforming the room into a surrealist florist's den. Projections of blooming forms stretched across the walls as dancers entered the scene. The audience, again, surrounded the work rather than walked through it. Eyes tracked every limb and petal with the dancer's move, the boundaries between plant and woman, performer and viewer, slowly eroding. The third piece, Body Took by Am'Blance, was a virtual reality encounter staged like a ritual. Each participant donned an elaborate, beaded VR headset, becoming both wearer and witness. Around them, others waited in near-silence, watching their transformed companions navigate a fractured digital terrain. The scene had the feel of a collective meditation. The murmured essay soundtrack—delivered via headphones—reflected on queer intimacy and the corpse flower's rare bloom, while the headset itself became a kind of mask, a liminal portal. With Time Coils by LOREM, the fourth work, the experience shifted into visual and sound. The audience settled into a stillness as deep, looping audio filled the room—less like a concert and more like an ambient ceremony. Composed from global sound archives, reprocessed through machine learning, and interwoven with LOREM's own musical language, the piece blurred cultural borders and temporal edges. It was less about hearing individual tracks than about being submerged in a living sonic fabric. The tone turned elegiac in the fifth piece, Elegy for a Terrestrial Collapse by Dan Gorelick, Yuj Archetype, and Enddle Jianhao Zheng. Here, visitors sat on the ground, quietly captivated by a visual performance that blended natural footage with data sonification and live cello. The performance took place up close—no stage, no front or back. The audience became an acoustic field around the artists, the body and screen visuals drawing them into a contemplative experience of ecological grief and planetary urgency. Some held their breath. Others closed their eyes. The proximity of it all collapsed the usual art-audience boundary. The show concluded with CLAI by Interactive Items and Vasilii Miroliubov, an interactive artwork where text inputs instantly changed the generative visual environment. Here, interaction was direct and immediate. Audiences approached the console, tested verbal prompts, and watched the visual world respond in real-time. Each command altered the artwork, creating a feedback loop between human and machine. Throughout the evening, EX UTERO created a space where digital art felt warm, urgent, and profoundly human. Audiences stayed from start to finish, not out of obligation but because the structure invited their full attention. It wasn't simply a showcase of new media—it was a shared experience of storytelling, transformation, and speculative futures. At a moment when digital art is often either gamified or isolated, EX UTERO proposed something else entirely: a communal format that embraced slowness, embodiment, and emotional resonance. It offered no single answer, no clean conclusion—only a world where decay and emergence co-exist, and where art, like life, unfolds one breath at a time. Credits: This project is a collaboration between Artifice, UAAD, and //Pixelmouth. The Artifice team includes Bobi Z. (Lead Director), Renaise K. (Creative Director), Sarah K. (Communications), Ethan P. (Technical Designer), and Andrew D. (Assistant Director). The Blackbox [UAAD] team features Amy Xiaofan J. (Lead Director) and Aurora Zhaoqing C. (Curator). The Whitebox [//Pixelmouth] team comprises A. Kazal, Tench C., and Tao X. as Co-Directors, with production support by Tabi Cass and Leia Loeser. Additional production assistance was provided by Max H., Havi M., Julian D., Kelisi S., Supreme H., Svet, Zo, Corina D., Xuan T., Renee, Waner L., Jes V., and Emma C. Photographer: Raven ( @corvus_visio )Media Contact Company Name: Underground Art and Design Contact Person: Jess D. Email: Send Email Country: United States Website: Press Release Distributed by To view the original version on ABNewswire visit: From Ruin, a World Emerges: Inside EX UTERO, a Living Sequence Curated by UAAD at ARTIFICE 004
Globe and Mail
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
From Ruin, a World Emerges: Inside EX UTERO, a Living Sequence Curated by UAAD at ARTIFICE 004
At the dimly lit CultureHub, something unusual unfolded—an exhibition that did not ask its visitors to walk through white walls or glance at objects in a quiet vacuum. Instead, it invited them to sit, to circle, to listen, and to interact. Presented by Underground Art and Design (UAAD) at the fourth chapter of ARTIFICE 's ongoing event series, EX UTERO turned the exhibition format inside out. As part of ARTIFICE 004, a two-part showcase split between Black Box (new media art, curated by UAAD) at CultureHub and White Box (material art, curated by //PIXELMOUTH) at La MaMa Galleria, EX UTERO offered six digital artworks not simultaneously but sequentially—each piece appearing like a scene in an unfolding narrative. The space was arranged less like a gallery and more like an immersive theatre. Lights dimmed. Screens flickered. Sounds swelled. And the audience stayed still, not out of passivity, but because they were part of it. Titled after the Latin for 'beyond the uterus,' EX UTERO imagined a world unbound from biological beginnings or inherited narratives. Instead, the curatorial concept proposed a new genesis—life born not from Eden but from collapse. What emerged was a procession of hybrid creatures, mythic beings, and sensorial ruptures—a heterogeneous world where bodies morph, memories glitch, and meaning resists linearity. The exhibition began with SPRING WORM, WORM, a projection-based performance-installation by Jiayi Li, Audrey Chou, and Enddle Jianhao Zheng. The audience formed a loose circle around the performer, immersed in a landscape of shifting visuals and unsettling fairy tale narration. Themes of femininity and fluid identity emerged through layered visuals and performative gestures, which enveloped the viewers physically and emotionally. There was no pedestal, no rope barrier—just an intimacy that drew everyone closer. SYMBIOTIC REVERIE by Renner Yetong Xin, Crystal Yingbo Li, Rainee Yunyi Wang and Yilin Ye followed, transforming the room into a surrealist florist's den. Projections of blooming forms stretched across the walls as dancers entered the scene. The audience, again, surrounded the work rather than walked through it. Eyes tracked every limb and petal with the dancer's move, the boundaries between plant and woman, performer and viewer, slowly eroding. The third piece, Body Took by Am'Blance, was a virtual reality encounter staged like a ritual. Each participant donned an elaborate, beaded VR headset, becoming both wearer and witness. Around them, others waited in near-silence, watching their transformed companions navigate a fractured digital terrain. The scene had the feel of a collective meditation. The murmured essay soundtrack—delivered via headphones—reflected on queer intimacy and the corpse flower's rare bloom, while the headset itself became a kind of mask, a liminal portal. With Time Coils by LOREM, the fourth work, the experience shifted into visual and sound. The audience settled into a stillness as deep, looping audio filled the room—less like a concert and more like an ambient ceremony. Composed from global sound archives, reprocessed through machine learning, and interwoven with LOREM's own musical language, the piece blurred cultural borders and temporal edges. It was less about hearing individual tracks than about being submerged in a living sonic fabric. The tone turned elegiac in the fifth piece, Elegy for a Terrestrial Collapse by Dan Gorelick, Yuj Archetype, and Enddle Jianhao Zheng. Here, visitors sat on the ground, quietly captivated by a visual performance that blended natural footage with data sonification and live cello. The performance took place up close—no stage, no front or back. The audience became an acoustic field around the artists, the body and screen visuals drawing them into a contemplative experience of ecological grief and planetary urgency. Some held their breath. Others closed their eyes. The proximity of it all collapsed the usual art-audience boundary. The show concluded with CLAI by Interactive Items and Vasilii Miroliubov, an interactive artwork where text inputs instantly changed the generative visual environment. Here, interaction was direct and immediate. Audiences approached the console, tested verbal prompts, and watched the visual world respond in real-time. Each command altered the artwork, creating a feedback loop between human and machine. Throughout the evening, EX UTERO created a space where digital art felt warm, urgent, and profoundly human. Audiences stayed from start to finish, not out of obligation but because the structure invited their full attention. It wasn't simply a showcase of new media—it was a shared experience of storytelling, transformation, and speculative futures. At a moment when digital art is often either gamified or isolated, EX UTERO proposed something else entirely: a communal format that embraced slowness, embodiment, and emotional resonance. It offered no single answer, no clean conclusion—only a world where decay and emergence co-exist, and where art, like life, unfolds one breath at a time. Credits: This project is a collaboration between Artifice, UAAD, and //Pixelmouth. The Artifice team includes Bobi Z. (Lead Director), Renaise K. (Creative Director), Sarah K. (Communications), Ethan P. (Technical Designer), and Andrew D. (Assistant Director). The Blackbox [UAAD] team features Amy Xiaofan J. (Lead Director) and Aurora Zhaoqing C. (Curator). The Whitebox [//Pixelmouth] team comprises A. Kazal, Tench C., and Tao X. as Co-Directors, with production support by Tabi Cass and Leia Loeser. Additional production assistance was provided by Max H., Havi M., Julian D., Kelisi S., Supreme H., Svet, Zo, Corina D., Xuan T., Renee, Waner L., Jes V., and Emma C. Photographer: Raven (@corvus_visio) This project is made possible with support from our partners La MaMa Galleria and CultureHub, and sponsors Lunar Seltzer, Best Day Brewing, and Waterloo Sparkling Water. Media Contact Company Name: Underground Art and Design Contact Person: Jess D. Email: Send Email Country: United States Website:
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
City of Scottsdale council members vote to end DEI practices
The Brief The Scottsdale City Council voted on Tuesday to eliminate DEI practices in its hiring. FOX 10 made several attempts to talk with council members about why this was added to the agenda, but no one responded. Scottsdale residents appear to be split on whether DEI should be used when hiring within city government. SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - The Scottsdale City Council voted to eliminate DEI programs and "ensure city employees are hired, evaluated, and promoted based on merit." Residents are split on the issue, and council members refused to provide clarity before the meeting on why this was on their Feb. 11 agenda. The backstory A lot of people were crammed into city hall on Tuesday night, and everyone had an opinion on DEI. Before the meeting, not one council member would speak about why they put this on the agenda, or how this program adversely impacts the city of Scottsdale. What they're saying The idea of getting rid of diversity, equity and inclusion programs in Scottsdale elicits fiery responses. "DEI was implemented, in fact, so that mediocre white men couldn't hire more mediocre white men," Christopher Owens, founder and CEO of CultureHub said. Scottsdale council members think, according to the meeting agenda, erasing the city's DEI efforts will benefit residents by ensuring its employees are hired and promoted based on merit. As the agenda item reads, "Ensure city employees are hired, evaluated, and promoted based on merit, protecting City of Scottsdale employees from unlawful and anti-meritocratic forms of discrimination, and ensuring that residents and taxpayers are served by the most qualified city employees." Here's what some had to say about the issue: "I don't mind if people are different nationalities and different ethnicities, but they got to be equally qualified." "There's no proof that DEI is not merit-based." Dig deeper FOX 10 wanted to ask council members to explain why they decided to take a vote on eliminating the programs and staff of the city's diversity department, which includes Juneteenth and Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations, but after numerous calls and emails, the item's originator, councilman Adam Kwasman, refused to speak. Scottsdale Vice Mayor Jan Dubauskas ran away when FOX 10 approached her. Checking X though, a post from Kwasman read, "You can't walk into Scottsdale City Hall without being bombarded with DEI. This poison will be rooted-out of our beautiful city. No matter one's race, orientation or creed, we value content of character." "If you thought that Scottsdale was white now, wait until the weekend when this kicks in," Owens said. He says DEI programs are meant to open doors, not just for people based on the color of their skin, but for white women, who make up a majority of the city's population. "If you don't want us, it's fine. You're not hurting us. You're simply exposing yourself for who you are, which is what most of us knew in the first place," Owens said. Vote Ends DEI More than 40 people were signed up to speak during public comment, and they had a one-minute limit instead of the usual three, per Scottsdale Mayor Lisa Borowsky. By 7:45 p.m., the council voted to end DEI, 5-2. The Office of Diversity has been in place in Scottsdale since 1998. After Tuesday's meeting, that is not the case anymore. Some at the meeting said their voices were not being heard. Two council members called for a work study to be done looking at the DEI programs. Instead, it was a 5-2 vote to eliminate DEI. The city's diversity department is also responsible for Americans with Disabilities Act oversight, anti-discrimination, and Juneteenth and Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations in the city. Three of the council members that voted to remove DEI were just elected with their terms starting last month. Once that vote was made to remove DEI from the city of Scottsdale, what was standing room only quickly cleared out, with many people chanting "shame on you." A lot of that group gathered outside and talked about recalling some of these council members. Of the 47 people that spoke during public comment, only two of them were in favor of removing DEI. Click to open this PDF in a new window. Big picture view President Donald Trump ordered that all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off, part of his efforts to eliminate affirmative action within the federal government. The announcement came following the executive order signed on his first day in office that mandates a sweeping dismantling of the federal government's diversity and inclusion programs. This could include everything from anti-bias training to funding for minority farmers and homeowners. The sweeping executive order rolls back legislation dating back to the 1960s and it could have widespread impacts for the more than 2.4 million federal workers.
