LA - "quasar" (01.25.08 - 03.09.08)

SCI-Arc Gallery Exhibition

Jean Michel Crettaz
quasar

January 25 through March 9, 2008

Opening reception: Friday, January 25 from 7 to 9pm
Discussion with Eric Owen Moss & Jean Michel Crettaz: Friday, February 15 at 7pm

The SCI-Arc Gallery is pleased to present, quasar, a new site-specific installation by the LA/NY-based design/media firm slap!, founded by architect Jean-Michel Crettaz, and produced in collaboration with the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and Stanford’s Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology.

quasar is an immersive light and sound space made from prototype membranes and realized as an interactive light/sound object and comprised of a dense array of interlinked elements describing an intricate three-dimensional structure. The gallery is fitted with sensors that draw real-time data from the installation and the people within the exhibition, which is then synchronized with streamed real-time data of solar activity and nuclear processes provided by SLAC and NASA. This information is then fed back into the object through layers of LED strands, re-visualizing the space in order to create an interactive spatial experience.

The word “quasar” is a contraction of the term quasi-stellar-radio-source, used historically by astronomers to describe entirely unknown cosmological objects. Today, it is believed that quasars are the most distant, and yet still detectable, objects in the universe. Giving off enormous amounts of energy produced from massive black holes in the center of their own galaxies, quasars are intensely bright; their emitted light drowning out all other stars in the same galaxy.

The exhibition draws on slap!’s continued interest in developing an awareness of the interconnectedness of space and material, with a goal of extending established notions of volume and scale. quasar is an artificial counterpart hovering in response to the currents and activities of the visitors, and in doing so, stretches and collapses the horizons of the known. The possibilities of interrelated synthetic and natural processes begin to define new emergent ecologies. quasar questions the boundaries of scale and the psyche, offering immersion into a vastly expanded space which renders perception permeable, and in the end, disperses identity.
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slap!
The LA/NY based media design firm is intent on exploring conceptions of emergent synthetic ecologies. Founding member Jean-Michel Crettaz studied Visual Arts, Engineering and Architecture in Switzerland, the Cooper Union in New York and at the Architectural Association (AA) in London (Diploma Honors and1st Prize, 1988). In addition to being a SCI-Arc faculty member—and since 2004, the head of their Visual Studies Program—Crettaz taught at the AA for over 9 years and at several European and US institutes for art and architecture. His interests merge the documentation of civilizing environments with the study and work of new science. His projects incorporate strategies for speculative visions and cultural evolution.
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Public Program
Discussion: Eric Owen Moss & Jean Michel Crettaz
Friday, February 15 at 7pm
Free
In this panel discussion, Eric Owen Moss reviews Jean Michel Crettaz’s exhibition quasar and argues the success of the exhibition’s investigation into the relationship between the interconnectedness of space and material.
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ABOUT SCI-Arc
Since 2002, the SCI-Arc Gallery has invited internationally recognized architects to fabricate and install site-specific installations with a team of SCI-Arc students. Exhibitions are open daily from 10am to 6pm.

All SCI-Arc events are free and open to the public. SCI-Arc is located at 960 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013. The building entrance and parking lot are located at 350 Merrick Street, between 4th Street and Traction Avenue. For additional programming information, please visit www.sciarc.edu or call 213.613.2200 x328.

SCI-Arc, an independent, accredited degree-granting institution, offers undergraduate and graduate programs in architecture. An educational laboratory, SCI-Arc tests the limits of architecture in order to transform existing conditions into the designs for the future. With its location in a quarter-mile-long former freight depot in the intensely urban Artist District in downtown Los Angeles, SCI-Arc provides a uniquely inspiring environment in which to study architecture. An integral part of the emerging cultural hub of a city with a tradition of architectural experimentation, the school is devoted to finding radically new responses to the real needs and aspirations of today's world. It is distinguished by the vibrant atmosphere of its studios, where some 500 students and 80 faculty members—mostly practicing architects—work together in a fluid, non-hierarchical manner, re-examining assumptions and exploring and testing new ideas through making.

Southern California Institute of Architecture
960 E. 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
t. 213.613.2200
f. 213.613.1272