This October, Northern Lights and Rochester Art Center presented ‘Art(ists) on the Verge 9,’ featuring the work of MFA mentor Maxwell Hoaglund and recent mentor Ziyang Wu. From Art(ists) On the Verge, "Art(ists) On the Verge (AOV) is an annual, intensive, mentor-based fellowship program for 5 Minnesota-based, emerging artists or artist groups working experimentally at the intersection of art, technology, and digital culture with a focus on network-based practices that are interactive and/or participatory." The show opened with a panel discussion with the artists and a reception. The 5 selected artists presented work they had "created over the course of a year during an intensive fellowship." The practices represented in the show "fall outside of and in between the traditional notions of media or disciplines. Supporting work such as this is one of the fundamental concepts that define the mission of the Art(ists) on the Verge Fellowship for emerging artists." In talking about his work, Maxwell Hoaglund says, "We have become acculturated to a world of artificial support. Facebook asks us how we’re feeling. Alexa plays the music we need. Siri gets us there. Max Hoagland’s The Shallows is a sophisticated acting, primitive looking machine that lays bare such “choices” as an infinitely accumulating set of data points about us, which are not owned or controlled by us, but which increasingly define the world we are presented to act in. We must ask why." Ziyang Wu writes, “I believe that the multicultural, subversive, and resistant spirit of carnival has the power to destroy hypocritical systems of control.” Hop aboard Smarter City 2, a phantasmagoric interactive video installation of a future 洛杉京Los Jing (LA-Beighing) subway stop, to explore the lives of a cast of outlandish straphangers whose data behind their shiny exteriors hint at how the virtual world and data increasingly influences human consciousness on both a macro and micro scale." Art(ists) on the Verge 9 will be on view from October 6 to December 30 at Rochester Art Center. Photography by Tom Bierlein. For more information: Art(ists) On the Verge Art(ists) on the Verge 9 Northern Lights Rochester Art Center Maxwell Hoaglund Ziyang Wu Categories All Mentors