Phillip David Stearns (Brooklyn, NY/USA), artist-in-resident of IRAA and institut bild.medien during spring/summer 2017 will share his artistic work and research in a weekly seminar exploring present and future issues in the post-internet age.
Topics will change weekly following a trajectory through tactical media, the deep, dark web, encryption and cyber espionage, computer viruses and bot nets, and potential design vernaculars based on generative principles and tropes within the culture of technology.
In the wake of the referendum on Brexit and the election of US President Donald J. Trump set against the backdrop of a European Union visibly in the grips of a sweeping wave of Nationalism, truth seems to be in thumbs of the Tweeter. In light of an apparent and culturally pervasive lack of regard for facts, his research will focus on reworking the notion of the Digital Dark Ages, a hypothetical future condition where history and knowledge become lost in an amnesia of techno-obsolescence.
Phillip Stearns work uses electronic technologies and electronic media as tools to explore dynamic relationships between ideas and material as mobilized within complex and interconnected societies. Deconstruction, reconfiguration, and extension are key methodologies and techniques employed in the production of works that range from audio visual performances, electronic sculptures, light and sound installation, digital textiles, and other oddities both digital and material.
He received his MFA in music composition and integrated media from the California Institute of Arts in 2007 and his BS in music technology from the University of Colorado at Denver in 2005. His work has been exhibited internationally at electronics arts festivals, museums, and galleries.
