This past fall, as part of the Australia Festival in Pittsburgh, Penn., Wood Street Galleries hosted a survey exhibition of contemporary video and installation artists from Australia. Participating artists included Tracey Moffatt, John Gillies, Denis Beaubois, Christian Bumburra Thompson and John Tonkin.

Arterati had the chance to talk with Sydney-based new media artist, John Tonkin, about his work Personal Eugenics.

After studying science at the University of Adelaide, Tonkin experimented with film before making his first computer animation in 1985. Tonkin develops his own software in programming languages such as C++ and Java.

His recent works involve building frameworks / tools / toys in which the artwork is formed through the accumulated interactions of its users. In 1999 Tonkin received a fellowship from the Australia Council’s New Media Fund. He is currently working on Strange Weather: a grand unified theory, a visualization tool for making sense of life.
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From Friday, November 30, through Sunday, December 2, LABCO Dance brings a new range of works, including a world premiere by Pavel Zustiak, to the New Hazlett Theater in the program, “Private Domain.”

Read more about the new work, plus Jennifer Keller’s “Interior Spaces” and Gwen Hunter Ritchie’s “La Femme en Flammes” in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Nov. 30 & Dec. 1 at 8pm; Dec. 2 at 2pm
Ticket prices for Friday and Saturday Performances:
$20 general admission; $15 in advance
$15 students/seniors at the door; $10 in advance
Sunday Performance: PAY WHAT YOU CAN Admission

For tickets 412-394-3353 or go to ProArts Tickets. For directions call 412-320-4610.

The Melbourne-based dance company, Chunky Move, comes to Pittsburgh, courtesy of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, for the concluding performances of the five-week Australia Festival.

On Thursday and Friday, November 15-16, Chunky Move will present the U.S. premiere of GLOW. Defined as an “illuminating choreographic essay” created by artistic director Gideon Obarzanek and interactive softward creator Frieder Weiss, GLOW comprises a sophisticated video tracking system that maps a digital landscape created in real time by a dancer’s movement. A 90-second video clip of the piece can be viewed on the website.

On Friday, Chunky Move will present “I Want to Dance Better at Parties,” a piece that begins as a live documentary about five indivdual men’s relationship to dance. The festival concludes with a post-show after party at the home of Peter Karlovich and Steven Herforth.

For more details, visit pgharts.org or call (412) 456-6666.

Read a preview by Jane Vranish of the Post-Gazette.

As part of the Australia Festival, an extraordinary survey of Aboriginal Australian artists is on display at SPACE (812 Liberty Avenue) through December 31st.

Among the artists included in the exhibition, titled “New Works from Utopia: Paintings by Australian Aboriginal Artists,” are the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye, who helped pave the way for contemporary Australian Aboriginal art, Gloria Petyarre, Minnie Pwerle and Barbara Weir.

Utopia is located in the Western Desert “bloc” of Australia, next to the traditional land of the Eastern Anmatyarre and Alyawarre people. The work of the artists of Utopia is cutting edge contemporary art. Yet it also depicts the “Dreaming,” a coded culture which tells how the ancestral spirits created—then became the land—and how the land is alive and sacred.

Listen to an interview by Mark Nootbaar of WDUQ with curator Murray Horne.

Read a preview by Mary Thomas in the Post-Gazette.

On view beginning tomorrow at The Tom Museum: a three-part exhibition featuring a new installation, Peace in 2008, by Pittsburgh photographer Larry Rippel, and a new collection of works by local graphic designer and photographer Robert Revay. A third element of the photography exhibition is a show titled SNAPSHOT. For this part of the show, works received from an international call for submissions will be displayed.

Friday, September 22, 2007, 7pm to 10pm: Photography Artist Reception. Free. The Tom Museum, 410 Sampsonia Way.

In the spring of 2007, Wood Street Galleries in Pittsburgh’s Cultural District hosted three installations by Dutch artist Edwin van der Heide. The exhibit featured “Sound Modulated Light #1,” a participative environment in which visitors were invited to explore and interact with the light, sound and space. In this ARTSINPGH exclusive, the artist gives a brief description of the inner workings of the installation.

In 1989 Edwin van der Heide started performing with custom-built sensor-based instruments. This led him to create a form of music with a strong physical approach and an emphasis on sound itself. The formation of Sensorband in 1993/1994 was a continuation in this direction. While performing he developed more and more an interest in space/spaces. He realized that it would be possible to approach a space as an instrument and, even one step further, to approach the human senses and the perception of the audience as an instrument for which you could compose. Over the years the focus of his work has shifted to sound installations, interactive installations and environments. The performance aspect is still present in part of the work, but the emphasis has shifted to the content of the environment and less focus on the performer.

The American Shorts Reading Series presents The National Endowment for the Arts Operation Homecoming on Thursday, July 26, at the New Hazlett Theater on the Northside.

The evening features readings from the best-selling anthology, Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families, performed by local actors and military personnel.

As a part of the program, American Shorts will present a new short film by Shawn D. Bronson, a Pennsylvania National Guardsman who served as a gunner stationed at Camp Habbaniya and whose films have aired on The Discovery Channel. Special guest host will be Andrew Carroll, the founder of the Legacy Project and the editor of three New York Times bestsellers, including Letters of a Nation and War Letters, in addition to Operation Homecoming.

Doors open at 7 p.m., reading starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $7 and available at the door. For more information, please call 412.622.8866.

Pittsburgh: The City of Lights? In celebration of the Year of Glass, Pittsburgh is keeping its lights on for visitors with a unique public lighting design by French artist Lucette De Rugy.

By transforming buildings in downtown Pittsburgh into spectacular works of art, the first Pittsburgh Festival of Lights features the largest lighting installation of its kind in the United States.

Downtown buildings that are illuminated include:
* Penn Avenue Place (the former Horne’s Building) at Stanwix and Penn Avenue

* Agnes Katz Plaza at the corner of Penn and Seventh

* Rear façade of 411 Seventh Avenue at intersection of Liberty and William Penn Place

* The historic Omni William Penn Hotel at 530 William Penn Place.

Free and a must-see for all ages, the display runs through Sunday, July 8.

The cutting-edge company 4-D Art stages performances with virtual images projected onto the stage through the use of stunning holograms to create a mesmerizing fusion of technology and dramatic art. Performed in French, with English surtitles, La Tempête has been described as “A real tour de force! It’s magical and brilliantly demonstrates all the possibilities of virtual reality technology…” (Voir).

Byham Theater, March 30-31, 2007, 8 p.m.
Tickets: $20.50-$32.50
pgharts.org or (412) 456-6666

Billed as “the best time you can have with your clothes on,” The Dirty Ball celebrates the fun and fabulous side of Pittsburgh’s great exporter of dance, Attack Theatre. Founded by Michele de la Reza and Peter Kope, Attack Theatre has taken their choreographic wonders to the shores of Bali, the island of Japan and the landlock heart of Germany. Their work, Games of Steel is fast approaching in April. Stay tuned to ARTSINPGH for details to come.

Until then, join Attack Theatre and the dance world’s chicest physiques as they toast the city’s great dance aficionado Richard Parsakian. Performances, art installations, food and cocktails.

Saturday, March 10, 2007, 8 p.m. – Midnight
121 Ninth Street, 9th Floor
Tickest are $45 at the door.