Urban Video Project

There is still time to apply to our Regional Commission Open Call!

Applications for the 2025 Light Work Regional Media Art Commission are now due Monday, 10/7/24 by 11:59 pm.

This program invites media artists living in Central New York* to propose a project for exhibition in summer 2025 at the Light Work UVP architectural projection on the facade of the Everson Museum of Art in downtown Syracuse.

The program offers a $3500 commission fee, access to Light Work facilities, and other in-kind production support.

Apply today!

Please reach out to [email protected] with any questions.

*Eligible counties: Broome, Cayuga, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego, Schuyler, Seneca, St. Lawrence, Tioga, Tompkins

Update your calendar — we’re extending the deadline!

Applications for the 2025 Light Work Regional Media Art Commission are now due Monday, 10/7/24 by 11:59 pm.

This program invites media artists living in Central New York* to propose a project for exhibition in summer 2025 at the Light Work UVP architectural projection on the facade of the Everson Museum of Art in downtown Syracuse.

The program offers a $3500 commission fee, access to Light Work facilities, and other in-kind production support.

Apply today!

Please reach out to [email protected] with any questions.

*Eligible counties: Broome, Cayuga, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego, Schuyler, Seneca, St. Lawrence, Tioga, Tompkins

For over a decade, Light Work's Urban Video Project (UVP) has invited media artists to create new work for exhibition at our architectural projection on the Everson Museum of Art facade.

We are bringing back our CALL FOR PROPOSALS!

The UVP Regional Commission is a non-residential opportunity for artists in Central New York** to make new video/electronic work for public exhibition at our projection site on the facade of the Everson Museum of Art.

The regional commission will be exhibited at UVP during the summer (June-August).

Commission fee: $3,500

**Eligible counties: Broome, Cayuga, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego, Schuyler, Seneca, St. Lawrence, Tioga, Tompkins.

Deadline: 9/9/24 @ 11:59pm

Follow the link in our bio to find out more and apply!

OPENING NEXT WEEK!

Light Work’s Urban Video Project is pleased to present the exhibition "Unseen/forgotten: An ode to the humble landscape | Invisible/olvidado: Oda al paisaje humilde" from July 18th-September 28th at our architectural projection venue on the Everson Museum facade.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Paulina Velázquez Solís will be present for a live performance on the Everson Plaza on July 26th at 8:30 PM.

"Unseen/forgotten" utilizes observations focusing on plants of Central New York natural areas that present a post-industrial natural wonder – where many species prevail after the severe deforestation through the end of the 19th century and the start of the 1900’s - presented through visuals, media performance and soundscapes, stories learned during the explorations of natural areas, and visits at the L. H. Bailey Hortorium Herbarium at Cornell University.

Lynne Sachs' film, "Contractions", which will be part of Urban Video Project's fall screening, is currently featured on the New York Times home page today.

Check out the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/18/opinion/abortion-ban-clinic-tennessee.html

Join us for a day-long experience, A Day Without A Clock, June 6, 2024! This event is a free or pay-what-you-wish day at the Everson Museum.

At approximately 8:40 PM, Light Work's UVP will be screening a projection created by Aidan Ackerman, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Visit everson.org for more information!

EXTENDED: "Makahiya" by Crystal Z Campbell is on view until June 9th!

Thursday – Saturday, dusk – 11pm
Everson Museum Plaza
401 Harrison Street

Rooted in botanical research on a plant that displays the unusual trait of thigmonasty, or touch-induced movement, Campbell’s film is structured like intertwined vines. Digital video filmed on a recent trip to their mother’s ancestral homeland in the Philippines mingles with hand-drawn animations, manipulated photographs and archival news coverage of the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo and its aftermath. The work explores this seemingly sentient plant’s paradoxical identity, from rampant “invasive” w**d to medicinal plant, reflecting on photosynthesis, memory and the violent colonial impetus of regimented forgetting.

During Lynne Sach's residency period, she worked with local artists, reproductive care providers, and activists to explore issues of reproductive justice and bodily autonomy following the overturning of Roe v. Wade through the lens of our region’s important history in women’s rights.

Sach's and the production crew (Monae Kyrha Sims, Zelikha Zohra Shoja, Minnie S McMillian, and Anneka Herre) collaborated with local organzations and establishments such as , , and Classic Bop.

Check out some behind-the-scenes shots from filming! Participants include: Vernahia Davis, Ja’Rhea Dixon, Angela Stroman, and J’Viona Baker.

Light Work is pleased to announce the awardees for Urban Video Project's Residential Commission! Two commissions were awarded, and today we are highlighting the collaboration of Manuel Molina Martagon and LaJuné McMillian.

Manuel Molina Martagon is a multidisciplinary artist working in performance, video and social engaged projects. Molina Martagon holds an MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media from SVA. His work has been exhibited in Mexico, Spain, China, Cuba, and at institutions such as the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia and the Art Museum of the Americas in DC. He is a Fulbright recipient and has been an artist in residence at Recess, Santa Fe Art Institute and Artists Alliance.

LaJuné McMillian is a Multidisciplinary Artist, and Educator creating art that integrates performance, extended reality, and physical computing to question our current forms of communication. They are passionate about discovering, learning, manifesting, and stewarding spaces for liberated Black Realities and the Black Imagination. LaJuné believes in making by diving into, navigating, critiquing, and breaking systems and technologies that uphold systemic injustices to decommodify our bodies, undo our indoctrination, and make room for different ways of being. They have continued their research during residencies and fellowships at the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, Eyebeam, Pioneer Works, NYU ITP, Barbarian Group, and Barnard College.

Martagon and McMillian's proposal, "Portal's Keeper", follows the journey of their avatars exploring an alternate reality through meditation and prayer. Particles radiate from their bodies - an abstract representation of the energy they access and emit when they are able to move through the world freely. The piece is part of a larger body of work including performances and XR installations exploring themes of embodiment, inner child healing, spirituality, and liberation.

Light Work is pleased to announce the awardees for Urban Video Project's Residential Commission! Two commissions were awarded, and today we are highlighting Alisha Wormsley.

Alisha B Wormsley (Pittsburgh, PA, USA) is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural producer. Her work contributes to the imagining of the future of arts, science, and technology through the Black matriarchal lens, challenging contemporary views of modern American life through whichever medium she feels is the best form of expression. She is a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow in Fine Arts with longtime collaborator Li Harris. Wormsley has an MFA in Film and Video from Bard College and is an Assistant Professor of Art and Social Practice in the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University.

Wormsley's proposal, "Children of NAN: a Survival Guide" is a film for future black femmes. The work will consist of a series of performed philosophies, myths, rituals, survival strategies on various landscapes staged in a mobile set handcrafted by Wormsley.

Stay tuned for more updates and announcements!

"Makahiya" by Crystal Z Campbell is on view until June 1st!

Thursday – Saturday, dusk – 11pm
Everson Museum Plaza
401 Harrison Street

Rooted in botanical research on a plant that displays the unusual trait of thigmonasty, or touch-induced movement, Campbell’s film is structured like intertwined vines. Digital video filmed on a recent trip to their mother’s ancestral homeland in the Philippines mingles with hand-drawn animations, manipulated photographs and archival news coverage of the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo and its aftermath. The work explores this seemingly sentient plant’s paradoxical identity, from rampant “invasive” w**d to medicinal plant, reflecting on photosynthesis, memory and the violent colonial impetus of regimented forgetting.

CODE^SHIFT welcomes filmmaker Lynne Sachs for "Contractions" film screening & workshop!

On March 28, UVP's commissioned artist, Lynne Sachs, visited the CODE^SHIFT lab to host a workshop and screening of her latest film, "Contractions".

"This is such a timely moment for a film like Contractions, which discusses the discontinuation of abortion services in Memphis. I felt privileged to see the screening with the director Lynne Sachs, along with other women concerned with the state of women’s health and reproductive rights in the country. Lynne’s film transported us to the testimonies of health workers who have experienced firsthand the effects of the overturn of Roe v Wade in such a sensitive, touching, and poetic way that makes it hard to describe. I’m still thinking about her film, and I feel incredibly moved to have been a part of the screening of her film here at Newhouse."
- Raiana de Carvalho, PhD Student (Mass Communications), Newhouse School

Read more here: https://www.drsrivi.com/post/code-shift-welcomes-filmmaker-lynne-sachs-for-contractions-film-screening-workshop

Light Work Newhouse Syracuse University Lynne Sachs

This weekend, the UVP projection will be paused so that we can address some issues with the climate control that keeps our projector running cool. Thanks for your patience!

Wave Farm announced seventeen grantees for the 2024 Media Arts Assistance Fund (MAAF) for Artists, including Light Work UVP's 2023 Regional Commissioned Artist, Evan Starling-Davis!

The Media Arts Assistance Fund (MAAF) for Artists provides New York State media artists up to $7,500 for the completion and/or public presentation of new works in all genres of sound and moving image art, including emergent technology.

From Wave Farm:

FRACTURE can be conceptualized as an Afro-Surreal interactive “breathing collage.” Abstracted as a meditation-based extended-reality (VR/XR) experience—which explores emerging technologies as conduits of mindfulness—the project devises a sur/real dreamscape to unlock radical imagination within participating audiences. Investigating disparities in accessibility of the “institutionalized collection,” Fracture alchemizes Afro-diasporic objects, localized Rust Belt archives, and poetry to re/imagine curatorial practices in context of stimulating literacy development, motivation, and introspection. Explicitly, Black history, archives, and archival practices testify to the complexity of how Black life and our cultural imprints have lived, been documented, and remembered. Often, Black publics do not have pathways to content reflective of their spirits. MAAF funding will support completion, including digitizing remaining objects to be included in the dreamscape, re-coding haptics, as well as mastering audio.

Light Work UVP is delighted to host filmmaker Lynne Sachs () for UVP's Residential Commission this April. Sachs will be working on a project with the working title, "Citizen Second Class". To create this piece, Sachs plans to work with local artists, reproductive care providers, and activists to explore issues of reproductive justice and bodily autonomy following the overturning of Roe v. Wade through the lens of our region’s important history in women’s rights.

Lynne Sachs is an American experimental filmmaker and poet based in Brooklyn, New York. Working from a feminist perspective, she has created cinematic works that defy genre through the use of hybrid forms, incorporating elements of documentary, performance, and collage into self-reflexive explorations of broader historical experience. Her films have screened at the Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, Wexner Center for the Arts, and festivals such as New York Film Festival, Oberhausen Int’l Short Film Festival, Punto de Vista, Sundance, Viennale and Doclisboa. Retrospectives of her work have been presented at Museum of the Moving Image, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Cork Film Festival, Havana Film Festival, among others.

Read more on lightwork.org!

Join us for "How Do I Tell You I Remember", a screening of short works by experimental filmmaker Crystal Z Campbell, followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker. Light refreshments from Recess Coffee & Roastery.

This event is FREE & OPEN to the public.

"How Do I Tell You I Remember" is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Crystal Z Campbell: Makahiya, which will be on view in the plaza following the indoor event.

For more information, visit: https://www.lightwork.org/archive/how-do-i-tell-you-i-remember-screening-qa-with-crystal-z-campbell/

Light Work Everson Museum of Art Crystal Z Campbell

How Do I Tell You I Remember: Screening + Q&A with Crystal Z Campbell

This Friday, March 8, from 6-7 PM, join us for a special outdoor projection of “TeenReel” by “Teens with a Movie Camera” on the façade of the Everson Museum, sponsored by Urban Video Project and the Everson Museum of Art.

"Teens with a Movie Camera" is a filmmaking collaboration between City of Syracuse teens and City of Syracuse media artists. This program is made with the support of the Urban Video Project / Light Work, Nottingham High School, The North Side Learning Center, Engaged Humanities, SOURCE, VPA and CNYArts.

This event is free and open to public. Hope to see you there!

Light Work CNY Arts Everson Museum of Art VPA - Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts

Light Work will have reduced hours starting this Saturday, March 9th, due to Syracuse University's Spring Break. Visit us at lightwork.org!

Image: Morgan Ashcom, 2016 Artist-in-Residence

Join Light Work’s (Light Work) Urban Video Project for "How Do I Tell You I Remember", a screening of short works by experimental filmmaker Crystal Z Campbell, followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker. Light refreshments from Recess Coffee & Roastery.

This event is FREE & OPEN to the public.

"How Do I Tell You I Remember" is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Crystal Z Campbell: Makahiya, which will be on view in the plaza following the indoor event.

Rooted in botanical research on a plant that displays the unusual trait of thigmonasty, or touch-induced movement, Campbell’s film is structured like intertwined vines. Digital video filmed on a recent trip to their mother’s ancestral homeland in the Philippines mingles with hand-drawn animations, manipulated photographs and archival news coverage of the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo and its aftermath. The work explores this seemingly sentient plant’s paradoxical identity, from rampant “invasive” w**d to medicinal plant, reflecting on photosynthesis, memory and the violent colonial impetus of regimented forgetting.

OPENING TONIGHT!

Light Work’s Urban Video Project is pleased to present the exhibition Crystal Z Campbell: Makahiya from February 22 – June 1, 2024 at our architectural projection site on the north facade of the Everson Museum of Art.

This exhibition features new work by Campbell, commissioned by Light Work for exhibition at UVP. Campbell was in-residence at Light Work in June 2023 to create this work.

"Makahiya", a Tagalog word that translates to “shame” or “shyness”, is the latest short experimental film from Crystal Z Campbell. Rooted in botanical research on a plant that displays the unusual trait of thigmonasty, or touch-induced movement, Campbell’s film is structured like intertwined vines. Digital video filmed on a recent trip to their mother’s ancestral homeland in the Philippines mingles with hand drawn animations, manipulated photographs, and archival news coverage of the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo and its aftermath.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Crystal Z Campbell will present a special in-person event on Thursday, March 21 at 6:00 p.m. in the Everson Museum auditorium.

Join us on Thursday, January 25th for Light Work's Open House, and to celebrate Syracuse University's BFA work in photography.
Sophia Chai's exhibition, "Character Space", will also be on view in the Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery.

RSVP here: https://docs.google.com/.../1FAIpQLScH3Opziq5CR7.../viewform

Hope to see you there!

JOIN US NEXT THURS, NOV 2!
Art collective Institute of Q***r Ecology in conversation with Jack Halberstam in the Everson Museum of Art auditorium at 6pm. FREE!