Kristin Lucas: Primordial Soup of the Day
264 Canal Street #3W New York, NY 10013
Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) is thrilled to present a special evening with Kristin Lucas, an artist whose wide-ranging experiments with video, computer-generated imagery, technology history, and interactivity utilize playful, open-ended inquiry to examine the impacts of technological progress on Earth’s life forms and ecologies.
Springing from Lucas’ decades-long engagement with networked technology, the evening will begin with a screening of Inforeceptor (1994)—a lighthearted yet ominous anticipation of the cresting World Wide Web shot on Hi-8 and Super-8, recently restored by the artist. A live performance will follow the screening, integrating display equipment from different eras to echo the evolution of life on our planet. Lucas will transform EAI’s office with video and augmented reality evoking the underwater home of a distant ancestor, a fish called the alligator gar, often referred to as a “living fossil” due to its morphological resemblance to ancestors dating back 100 million years. Alongside a live biodata soundtrack generated from the electrical signals of nearby plants, Lucas will narrate her research into the evolution of humans from fish, and her ongoing project of underwater breathing.
Lucas explores connectivity as an interpersonal process and a condition of the digital age that is as technological, electrical, and cybernetic as it is familial, ancestral, and ecological. She writes: “Amidst the challenges of global warming, glacial melting, and the climate trends signaling the sixth mass extinction, I have embarked on a quest to reconnect with family and train for breathing underwater. Through the wonders of genomic mapping and internet research, I came to a surprising revelation: my distant cousin, a resilient lizard-like tetrapod who survived the previous extinction event, resides in Texas! Inspired by investigative TV series, I have slithered into the primordial soup, journeying sideways through the depths of time, literature, science writing, freshwater pools, and text messaging with family.”
RSVP here. Seating is first come, first serve. RSVP does not guarantee entry, but helps us track interest and send event updates and reminders.
Kristin Lucas is a multidisciplinary artist working in video, installation, live, networked, and hybrid media art forms. In works that gain their currency within the context of public and private systems, Lucas responds to the uncanny overlaps of virtual and lived realities, and to the fast-changing mediascape that reconfigures perception and identity. Lucas has been featured in Art in America, Artforum, Engadget, and Hyperallergic. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally at venues including Artists Space, FACT Liverpool, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Harvestworks, Haus der Kunst, HeK Basel, ICA Philadelphia, Nam June Paik Art Center, Pioneer Works, OK Center for Contemporary Art, MoMA, New Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and ZKM; and at festivals including BAM Teknopolis, Cinekid, EarthxFilm, Impakt, ISEA, Okeechobee Music & Arts, Print Screen, TIFF, Transmediale, World Wide Video, and WSJ Future of Everything. She earned degrees in art from Cooper Union and Stanford University and is faculty of Studio Art at University of Texas at Austin.
Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI)’s venue is located at 264 Canal Street, 3W, near several Canal Street subway stations. Our floor is accessible by elevator (63" × 60" car, 31" door) and stairway. Due to the age and other characteristics of the building, our bathrooms are not ADA-accessible, though several such bathrooms are located nearby. If you have questions about access, please contact cstrange@eai.org in advance of the event.
If you are experiencing symptoms that could be related to COVID-19 or other contagious infections, we ask that you please stay home. These may include: cough, sore throat, headache, chills, fever, or shortness of breath.
