Blog
Self-Guided Khlong Tour
When you get to a new place, get lost. Wander in space, wander in time. I adhere to the words of Rebecca Solnit in A Field Guide to Getting Lost and often find myself in the moment in a new city. I finally had some free time during the American Arts Incubator program...
Cambodian New Media Projects Supporting the Environment
The community project descriptions below were written by participants in American Arts Incubator — Cambodia and focus on environmental health in the country. These projects were initiated during Michael Kuetemeyer's Incubator workshop and will continue to develop...
New Media Exhibition on Environmental Health
My month-long American Arts Incubator workshop in Cambodia focused on new media and global challenges. The question posed to participants was, “How can environmental health be supported by new media art projects?” Throughout the workshop we experimented with 360...
Project Development
The community project descriptions below were written by participants in American Arts Incubator — Colombia and focus on social inclusion and peace in the country. These projects were initiated during Nathan Ober's Incubator workshop and will continue to develop after...
Probing the World for Sounds of Peace
Last week, I took a small group on a field recording expedition. We hiked up a short mountain peak close to where I've been staying. As we traveled further up the side of the mountain, the city sounds began to dissipate and blur into a sea of fragmented voices and...
Workshopping Social Inclusion and Peace — PART 2
Wow, this exchange has gone fast! I can't believe how quickly things have moved along. Below are videos from days three, four, and five of the workshop series. On day three, we worked on prototyping and idea conceptualizations while day four was focused on video. Each...
Very Hot, Very Cold
I arrived in Bangkok a couple days ago. Here, you cannot escape the physical effects of the place. It is humid and muggy outside, and once you're inside, your sweat dries from the blasts of AC and you become very cold. This is the dialogue I quickly experienced:...
An Inclusive Showcase on Disability and Art: Presenting the Final Prototypes
The days between the development building phase and prototype presentations on April 22nd were absolutely crazy. The four project teams had a mere two weeks to design, build, and prototype their initial project ideas around themes of inclusion that could be...
Workshopping Social Inclusion and Peace — PART 1
Working with audio electronics. Photo: Nathan Ober Custom contact mic. Photo: Nathan Ober We’ve just wrapped up days 1 and 2 of the workshop series! This group is eager to learn and I can't wait to see what they create together in following weeks. Here are two videos...
Welcome to Medellín!
I am just getting used to the busy sounds of the city here in Medellín, Colombia. As I approach the final hour before the American Arts Incubator program officially takes off, I am completely inspired and spellbound by what I have seen so far. During my first week, I...
15 Days Until Takeoff
With just 15 days left to go, I’m both nervous and excited about the upcoming American Arts Incubator experience in Thailand. Life is getting busy here. After some back-and-forth brainstorming with Bangkok Art and Culture Center American Arts, we came up with the name...
Inclusion Design: Disability Meets Art, Design and the Space In Between
The community project descriptions below were written by participants in American Arts Incubator — Russia. All four projects explore aspects of inclusion through design prototypes that speculate what future inclusive programs could look like in local Moscow...
Guatemala Reflections: The Intangible Experience
I grew up in Guatemala. However, the last time that I visited downtown Guatemala City was over a decade ago. Every time I've gone back, I've avoided downtown. I've had some bad experiences in that city. So when the ZERO1 staff behind American Arts Incubator told me...
A 360 Around Environmental Sustainability
We have now have 4 active teams organized and developing their immersive media projects in Phnom Penh. They are exploring a great range of environmental concerns through immersive media projects. In the week of workshop exercises we played through the production and...
Using Augmented Reality to Connect Past and Future
We are underway with the American Arts Incubator — Cambodia workshop at Bophana Center! In our workshop we have done a series of exercises working with the Aurasma augmented reality app. One group of students created an “aura” that uses the image of a...
What Constitutes an Artist Community?
What constitutes an artist community? And how can art contribute to and challenge political processes? As I prepare for my upcoming exchange trip to Colombia, I am asking these questions and finding answers in unlikely places. I’ve been living off of the grid in DIY...
Prototyping Inclusion Through Four Community Projects
After an intense workshop series that expanded over the course of two weekends plus research excursions during the week, the participants defined their interests and finalized their ideas to develop community project proposals. These projects will be presented at the...
Makerspace Show-and-Tell
The day of the showcase has finally arrived! The doors were opened for the public to come and see our work. To my own surprise there were a large number of attendees, including many curious pedestrians who wandered in. A few hours into the event, we had our panel...
In Guatemala a Makerspace is Born
The community project descriptions below were written by participants in American Arts Incubator — Guatemala. All four projects are collaborating to form a single makerspace, each contributing to an aspect of the whole. These projects were initiated during Balam...
Immersive Media Pathways to Sustainability
The average temparature of Earth's whole atmosphere cycles up and down each year because its southern hemisphere has more ocean coverage than the northern hemisphere. When these temperatures are graphed throughout the past 137 years you see that there is a range of...
Paseo Prototyping Festival
This past weekend I was asked to take part in the San José Paseo Public Prototyping Festival as a representative of ZERO1’s American Arts Incubator (AAI) program. The festival was created to celebrate the culmination of the San José State University Paseo Prototyping...
Welcome to Mother Russia
Snowy caps and white plains filled the window scene outside of the aircraft as we descended into Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport. I was quite a world away from the warm and sunny California coast of home. I could feel the temperature dropping as the snow reminded me...
GPS Tracks
I am building water quality sensors which will capture geolocated data. This was my first test with this technology. This is part of my ongoing research at the Santa Fe Water Rights residency (March-April) and for the American Arts Incubator program in...
A Sensorium Exploration: Workshop on the Body, Disability and Empathy
As I prepare for departure, I’m getting even more excited to host a workshop at the Garage Contemporary Museum of Art soon after I land in Moscow. The workshop will explore how art be used as a tool to address disability inclusion. I will leverage my skills in...
Los Proyectos
Women making technology. Photo: Balam Soto Fun times are still rolling here in Guatemala! After a week of soldering, programming, and LEDs, the participants have split into four groups to work on their own projects. I must say how impressive these four groups are....
Catching Spilled Light
One month until American Arts Incubator begins in Cambodia. In preparation, I am working with Bophana Center and Kruosar Solar to design and install a local solar electric power system at Bophana, where the exchange program will occur. It will provide electricity for...
Arrival
It has been a few days since my arrival in Guatemala City. My memory of downtown is different. I remember it being a place of transit and noise. Now a few streets have become pedestrian streets. But the noise is still there! So far the experience has been great. I've...
Finally, it is time to travel to Guatemala!
Finally, it is time to travel to Guatemala! Over the past few weeks, I have literally been working non-stop, from coding to imagining how the project will be. I love to be ready ahead of time (not an inborn trait, but something that my wife taught me), however I know...
How Can Art Create New Technologies of Disabilities Inclusion?
Research As a designer, I look towards my environment and observations of the people around me as sources of inspiration and intrigue. In observing, watching and looking for threads of disability throughout my travels and in daily reoccurance, I have become acutely...
Update from Dunedin Youth Map
Work has begun with Tahuna Normal Intermediate on the Dunedin Youth Map. The aim of this project is to link the project into the Year 7 curriculum. Room 15 who were part of the initial programme have been working on locating reference points for the map. The school...
Shining A Light Towards Disabilities
It is quite a time to be traveling to Moscow, Russia for my American Arts Incubator Exchange with ZERO1. As both an artist and a cultural ambassador, this type of opportunity exemplifies how art has the potential to change and create new dialogue around social issues....
Orientation: Not Lost Yet
I am not lost in Guatemala City yet, but am still in my comfortable home writing this blog. However, I have started my travels by attending the American Arts Incubator orientation week in California. This was the week for “getting you ready to leave, dude." I had...
Inclusive Memory for Peace
I am beginning to solidify my proposal and workshop series for my upcoming trip to Medellín, Colombia with ZERO1 in partnership with the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The exchange will take place in May and June 2017. Colombia has...
Developing Sustainability: Plans for the Cambodian Arts Incubator
I have a lot to digest after the intensive American Arts Incubator orientation retreat with ZERO1 in rainy San Francisco. Kate Spacek, Shamsher Virk and Michelle Peregrin provided valuable support and resources. Fellow AAI artists Balam Soto, Elaine Cheung, Scott...
Preparing for my Thailand Exchange
The first week of 2017 was orientation week for the American Arts Incubator program. I met the four other artists and soon associated their names with their respective exchange countries: Elaine Cheung (Russia), Michael Kuetemeyer (Cambodia), Nathan Ober (Colombia),...
Guatemala Hello
March 2017 will be a memorable time. For a long time now, I have daydreamed of finding an opportunity to go back to my native Guatemala to make art and support others in their passions, dreams, and ventures. I searched without success until one evening I received a...
Meet ZERO1’s 2016-17 American Arts Incubator Artists
Come meet this year’s American Arts Incubator artists and learn about the program on Wednesday, January 11th from 6:00pm-8:00pm at CounterPulse in San Francisco. Enjoy refreshments and light hor d'oeuvre while getting to know Elaine Cheung, Scott Kildall, Michael...
Update from Shedding Some Light
Dark Skies in Dunedin We have greatly improved on our prototype that was for the Climate Kit exhibition. We kept the same hexagonal structure with cubbies built in, but we modified the streetlight models to more accurately represent their real-world counterparts. We...
Apply to the 2017-18 American Arts Incubator
Calling innovative new media and digital artists who have a love of travel and passion for community-driven art. Apply to participate in the 2016-17 American Arts Incubator. We are excited to open the next round of applications for the following participating overseas...
Updates from Team Sea Sense
The team perceived the problem of the stakeholders in Banilad regarding traditional fish searching during the community immersion on the second day of the workshop. The activities include area project reconnaissance, interview with concerned stakeholders and locals,...
Updates from Team TAPOK
Due to the environmental pollution tampering our mother Earth that is spreading across the world nowadays, team TAPOK (Tinguha Alang sa Pagpalapnag sa Obligasyong pang Kalikupan) have come up with an idea of spreading environmental awareness with the use of theater...
Updates from Team Viz
With increasing pollution levels, it is essential for our team to find new ways to psychologically approach a new medium pertaining to self awareness in relation to the environment. The aim for this project is, (1) to get people involved by sparking their interest,...
Updates from Team FUPPI
Foundation University Precious Plastics Initiative (FUPPI) is a project based on the Precious Plastics program of Dave Hakkens. He has posted blueprints of a shredding machine, extrusion machine, compression machine, and an injection machine. The idea is that we can...
Artists Selected for 2016-17 American Arts Incubator
ZERO1 and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs are pleased to announce the artists selected to participate in the 2016-17 American Arts Incubator (AAI), an international new media and digital arts exchange program developed by...
Balloon Mapping
Balloon mapping, using a tethered red weather balloon with a small time lapse camera attached, was a great way to meet curious walkers along the water’s edge. It was also an amazing way to explore and document areas along Dunedin’s coastline that are vulnerable to sea...
Climate Kit Exhibition
The public is invited into the Climate Kit exhibition. Photos courtesy of the artists. The Climate Kit: Field Tools from the Anthropocene exhibition at the Otago Museum was a big success with a great turn out on opening night, despite the morning ice storm. Check out...
New Zealand Community Projects
This past weekend marked the end of our workshops and the distribution of our community small grants. On Saturday, at the Otago Museum, we heard from community groups about local issues ranging from sea level rise, to erosion, to neighborhood resiliency, to light...
Climate Workshops in Dunedin
This weekend we started a series of community workshops at Otago Museum. Yesterday we kicked things off by discussing and mapping the various climate resources and threats in the Dunedin area. We learned a lot from the community about the bay, its estuaries, and...
Heading to the South Island
We are headed to New Zealand and have a huge week of events ahead of us in the wonderful South Island city of Dunedin. We are joining the Dunedin community in the midst of the country’s annual science festival (SciFest), in which we will be participating through two...
Why You Would Poach
The Protected Land Jack, a brilliant naturalist takes us through the volcano. Photo by A. Quitmeyer. Jack is a big dude and an equally big nerd for nature. The man is a machine-gun rattling off bullets of knowledge about everything he sees. “This bird is named...
More Than Love on the Horizon
More Than Love on the Horizon After four weeks, lots of conversations and translations, hard work, and even some tears, we installed the More Than Love on the Horizon exhibition. We opened the show featuring my hologram project and the work of six community...
Takeaways, Sustainability Plan, What’s Next
I am still astounded that we managed to actually build the portal, both the physical structure and its virtual realities in the space of a month. Here is a short video documenting the entire project: Portal to an Alternative Reality, John Craig Freeman, 2016. Edited...
Waterspace – The Exhibition
We managed to get the full BOAT Lab built and fully operational in the two short weeks before the big exhibition! To celebrate this achievement, we held a grand gala opening ceremony for the BOAT Lab and all the Waterspace projects. This new video describes the whole...
Waterspace Projects – Overview
Simply put, this is how the whole program works: we try to complete 5 big projects in just 3 weeks! There’s a main project led by myself as the ZERO1 American Arts Incubator lead artist, which will be the BOAT Lab, a floating art and technology laboratory focusing on...
Closing Ceremony and Reception
Portal to an Alternative Reality. Video by John Craig Freeman and Jinglin Li. After much anticipation, Portal to an Alternative Reality was launched last night at the Arts Incubator program's Closing Ceremony and Reception at K11 art village. Despite the rain, we had...
The Water’s Big Problems
Meeting with the locals at our site in Banilad, we asked them what the biggest problem was in their area. They unanimously said the same thing: garbage, trash, basura. Not only is there a lack of trash pickup on land, resulting in discarded bottles everywhere, but...
Views of the Late Night Hack
The sun goes away here each day in a glorious explosion of colors. The darkness doesn't cause anything to slow down though. The fast-paced Waterspace teams keep on trucking throughout the night. The crew is excitedly tinkering away on a million different little...
Glaciers, Fault Lines, and Climate Mapping: Fieldwork on The South Island
We are excited to be kicking off our work with ZERO1. The American Arts Incubator is an opportunity to work with international artists, designers, and scientists on global and local climate change issues, digital tech, and forms of civic engagement. This involves a...
Workshop Mania
The workshop phase of the Arts Incubator went into full force this week. The goal was to fill the participants' brains with new ideas, complex issues, practical experience, and technological know-how until their minds were completely blown, then to clean up those...
The Nice Side of Queer
Guest blog post by project photographer, Yen Nguyen. Over dinner one evening, I talked to my husband and our two sons about an LGBTQ art project I was about to engage in. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) are terms we all are familiar with, even for our...
American Arts Incubator is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs developed in partnership with ZERO1.
Visit exchanges.state.gov
Visit zero1.org
info@zero1.org
T +1 408.909-3761
Contact Us