Transitional Stages

Gaucho OpenLab Initiative, led by Natalia Spritzer, undergraduate art major at the College of Creative Studies, University of California Santa Barbara

This project encompasses various themes and emotions that stemmed from being in a transitional stage due to COVID, including visions for the future, the dismantling of self, and more. Making and choosing work to share amongst ourselves was easy, teasing out a component of our project that combined these works to create a coherent through-line was much more challenging. Inspired by the interdisciplinary work of UCI Art Professor Simon Penny and UCSD Art Professor Ricardo Dominguez, who virtually visited our working group, we embraced technology as a tool to combine our collaborative efforts. We ran each of our artworks through a machine learning model that functioned on surface mapping human presence (via shape and color). Some of our works provided no results, even if there were humans depicted in the artwork. Eventually, the model produced results from one element of each of our work selections. With a diverse set of creative practices, finding relevant ways to mesh our pieces together and identifying bridges has been conceptually challenging. The use of the software was a breakthrough that provided an eye-opening experience to an invisible aspect of our distanced collaboration and our general circumstance; it would not be possible – or as facilitated – without our machines. And art fits right into their networking.

UCSB Cohort members include: Erin Adams (UCSB MFA Art candidate); Ahsia Barrientos (first year art major at CCS); Andrew Chan (fourth year economics major); Camila Uriegas Fabian (third year Letters & Science art major); and Natalia Spritzer, (fourth year art major at CCS).