[Frameworks] For immediate release: Alison Nguyen: i broke my mind at the link in my bio

[Escobar López Almudena]

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*

November 6, 2020

Shown: Alison Nguyen, Video still from Andra8: my favorite software is
being here, 2020


Hartnett Gallery Presents:

Alison Nguyen: i broke my mind at the link in my bio
<http://blogs.rochester.edu/hartnett/>

November 12–December 18, 2020

Hartnett Gallery is pleased to present Alison Nguyen’s i broke my mind at
the link in my bio in a virtual exhibition featuring a new video work and
screenings of her moving image work from 2017 to the present full. The
exhibition will also include a series of public conversations and an online
lecture-performance by Nguyen.

The virtual exhibition centers on Nguyen’s new body of work, Andra8 which
spans video, installation, sculpture, and online performance. Andra8: my
favorite software is being here  is a digital video work focusing on an
algorithmically generated character living in an apartment in the virtual
void. Throughout the day she works as a “virtual assistant, a data janitor,
a life coach, an aspiring influencer, and content creator” surviving off of
the human data that she collects from these jobs.

Andra8 is a modern day Bartleby. A woman acting in resistance to the logic
of capitalism. Employing techniques of experimental video, 3D animation,
and machine learning, the work expands on dialogue taking place around
technology, gendered digital labor, and the construction of self in the age
of ambient intelligence, revealing invisible structures of control.

In attempting to subvert her prescribed dependence on data, Andra8
instigates questions of data commodification, social media culture, and
online labor. Nguyen worked with Achim Koh, a researcher, programmer and
previous member of the School for Poetic Computation to create a machine
learning program using training data from “B-list” social media influencers
working in areas such a lifestyle, wellness, and technology. This program
was used to generate text that was collaged with Nguyen’s original writing
of Andra8’s monologue. What emerges is a deeply unsettling and thought
provoking performance. On November 23rd, the Hartnett Gallery will
premiere Andra8
through a virtual screening followed by a conversation with Nguyen and her
collaborators. On December 3rd Nguyen will be holding a lecture-performance
via Instagram Live to accompany the piece with technical direction by
digital artist and educator Jonathan Beilin.

i broke my mind at the link in my bio is taking place simultaneously with
the installation my favorite software is being here within the group show The
Earth is Blue Like an Orange
<https://iscp-nyc.org/event/the-earth-is-blue-like-an-orange> at the
International Studio & curatorial Program (ISCP) from September 22–December
11, 2020.

About the artist

Alison Nguyen’s work explores the ways in which images are produced,
disseminated, and consumed within the current media landscape, exposing the
socio-political conditions from which they arise. Creating strategies for
dissent, she re-articulates mainstream visual language and technology in
video, installation, and new media works. Alison Nguyen received her B.A.
from Brown University. She has presented work at Ann Arbor Film Festival;
CROSSROADS presented by San Francisco Cinematheque and San Francisco Museum
of Modern Art; Channels Festival International Biennial of Video Art,
Melbourne; International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York;
Microscope Gallery, New York and AC Gallery, Beijing, among others. Nguyen
has participated in residencies and/or been awarded fellowships from The
Institute of Electronic Arts, Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center, and
BRIC. In 2018, Nguyen was featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of
Independent Film.

About Hartnett Gallery

The University of Rochester’s Hartnett Gallery is a student-supported,
professional art gallery. Named for alumnus John B. Hartnett, this unique
gallery space was designed by the renowned architects of I.M. Pei and
Associates in 1972. Hartnett schedules and presents 5 to 7 exhibitions each
academic year. These vary from solo shows to group exhibitions featuring
local, state, national, and international artists, with an undergraduate
juried exhibition held each year. A wide variety of media and genres are
shown, including sculpture, photography, painting, video, and installation
work, as well as curatorial and community projects. On occasion, Hartnett
Gallery also plans exhibitions in conjunction with local institutions such
as the Memorial Art Gallery and the Visual Studies Workshop.


###

Press contact: Ryan Maciel rmaciel2 at u.rochester.edu
Hartnett contact: Almudena Escobar López, Hartnett Graduate Director
almudena.escobar.lopez at rochester.edu

–––––––––––––
Almudena Escobar López
https://almudenaescobarlopez.com/
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