Our studio/lab supports the research of director micha cárdenas, as well as the research of the research associates involved in the studio. Here are some of our current projects:
The Probability Engine | Sin Sol/No Sun | Oceanic | Lost Chinatowns Everywhere
The Probability Engine
The Probability Engine (2024) draws inspiration from studies predicting that a 1.5°C increase in global warming could trigger several global tipping points. This series of artworks envisions a machine allowing audiences to explore potential futures of climate disasters and justice. Click here to read more.
Oceanic
Oceanic, Portal, 2023, micha cárdenas, Cynthia Ling Lee, Gerald Casel, Susana Ruiz, Huy Truong, Ian Costello, Anna Friz
Oceanic considers how in this moment of COVID and climate change can we mourn the loss of people, places and capacities, and build new queer abolitionist futures. Oceanic is a multidisciplinary art project that includes poetry, dance, installation and Augmented Reality (AR) to engage with landscapes and aquatic species threatened by climate change, stitching the line from colonization to neoliberalism to racial capitalism through holographic dance performances captured with volumetric video. Click here to read more.
Sin Sol / No Sun
Sin Sol is a multidisciplinary art project including poetry, dance, installation and an augmented reality (AR) app. The app portrays a trans Latinx AI character to consider the intersections of personal trauma with environmental trauma, how the feeling of being unable to breathe intertwines with the effects of climate induced wildfires. Click here to read more.
Lost Chinatowns Everywhere: Performative Documentary Using Play, Augmented Reality, and Dance, Prof. Susana Ruiz
“Here, on the banks of this river that was the lifeblood of Santa Cruz’s last Chinatown, it is hard to imagine those lost bodies, those child bodies… fishing steelhead trout, catching little frogs and river creatures: the way play looks before capitalism takes over.” ~ Lost Chinatowns: A Solo Show by Cynthia Ling Lee
This video documents a current in-progress collaboration between artists Cynthia Ling Lee and Take Action Games (TAG). LOST CHINATOWNS EVERYWHERE is a mobile game about the historical erasure, lost vibrancy, and violent destruction of Santa Cruz’s Chinatowns from 1860-1955. It adapts and expands an existing performance by dancer and choreographer Cynthia Ling Lee. The game combines dance-theatre, documentary, augmented reality, and volumetric video with casual player mechanics based on gesture and movement. Click here to read more.