Michelle Kasprzak

Dr. Michelle Kasprzak is an established contributor to the field of digital culture as a curator, educator, writer, and artist. Currently she is the Course Leader of the MA Design at the Piet Zwart Institute, as well as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. In 2024, Michelle is also an invited seminar leader for the Digital Art department at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria. As a curator, Michelle has produced exhibitions across North America and Europe, at V2_ Institute for Unstable Media, Future Flux Festival, Dutch Electronic Art Festival, ZERO1 Biennial, and others. She has written critical essays for HOLO, C Magazine, Volume, Spacing, CV Photo, Public, Mute, Blackflash, and several online journals on a wide range of subjects in the realm of contemporary culture. She has written for many exhibition catalogues, most recently for Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin. Michelle’s current creative practice spans writing, conceptual design, and digital media works. She most recently exhibited her work in the group show “Materializing the Internet” at MU (Eindhoven), and has benefited from the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Creative Industries Fund NL. Michelle is a sought-after moderator and event host, having worked with VPRO, Het Nieuwe Instituut, FIBER Festival, and many others. She is the founder of Little Earth Mountain Press, which soft-launched with the release of Blue 23, a tract responding to the series of Belgian Surrealist tracts called Correspondance. Further publications are forthcoming late 2024. In 2020, she obtained her PhD with the UT Austin|Portugal CoLab, University of Porto. Her dissertation, “Curating-with: Artistic Methodologies for Social Innovation and Community-focused Acts of Care, Maintenance, and Repair”, was supervised by Sandra Silva (U Porto) and Chris Csíkszentmihályi (Cornell).

Creator Id: 316
Web Site Link: Web Site Link
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
City: Toronto
Country: Canada
Type of Creator: Artist
Gender: Female
Mediums: digital, performance, photography, sculpture, video
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Work by Michelle Kasprzak

Stereotactic

Work ID: 49199

Description: 2001 [1 min. 45 sec.]
[performance documentation]

Performance parameters:
1. two performers
2. live video mixing
3. the projection
4. the screen
5. the DJ

A series of internet searches is conducted, using the five performance parameters as search terms. These searches are the visual research that the performance gestures and set design is based on.

Each performer creates a performance environment in front of a video camera, and each performance is being projected in the space, with the projectors pointed at each other.

Guests are invited to wear portable screens, and step between the two video projector beams. The movement of the guests creates a constantly evolving image.

Website: Stereotactic

Production Centre: InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre, Toronto.
Collaborator: Michelle Teran
Past Presentations: Mercer Union, Toronto, August, 2001
Supported by: The Ontario Arts Council

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Date Made:

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Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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Immaterial

Work ID: 49198

Description: 2002 [1 min. 8 sec. / excerpt: 4 min. 25 sec.]
[performance documentation]

With Immaterial, Michelle Kasprzak explores the frontiers of 3D visualization, video and live performance. Kasprzak integrates digital video loops with 3D objects being animated and textured in real time.

The objects appear to be responding to the movements of the video character (Kasprzak), but it is not immediately apparent which is initiating the interaction: the character, the objects, or both. Notions of actual time and retransmissions are then questioned, and the artist herself has to confront this inversion of time by re-enacting the exact initial movements in order to maintain the integrity of the image.

Upon closer inspection, the audience slowly realizes that their initial assumption, which is that a live video is responding to pre-rendered digitised elements, is false. The performer is in the physical performance space, live, but her representation on the screen is not live. The video character is a loop, an echo of the real person at the computer. The essence of the performance is the harmonization of real time 3D graphics and a video representation of the artist. With the palette of 3D objects transforming in real time, Kasprzak attempts to respond to and trace her past movements. "Immaterial" is Kasprzak's conversation with her video persona in 3 dimensions.

Website: Immaterial

Production Centre: InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre, Toronto. Past Presentations: Lecture/demo at DigiFest, a digital media festival hosted by the Design Exchange. March 21, 2002, Toronto, Canada.
Beta test at the e-lounge of the New Media in Canada conference. December 2, 2001, Ottawa, Canada.

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Date Made:

Materials: video

Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

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