The spring 2012 InterArts History of New Media Class invites the public to attend open screenings of video essays on several topics in the field, produced by current InterArts MFA students. The program will take place on Tuesday, May 1, at 7:00 p.m., and will premiere several works over the course of an hour.

Second-year MFA candidates Alexa J. Rittichier and Juliana Piscitiello will present Telepresence: Inscribing Bodies with Technology,” which investigates the

intervention of the screen in the context of dance, and how this alternative form of presentation changes the way we think about our bodies. The video features interviews with Mark Coniglio, Dawn Stoppiello, Lisa Wymore, and Katherine Mezur.

Michael LaHood, Valentina Vella, and Folleh Tamba investigate Virtual Reality in their video piece Breaking the Frame: Virtual Reality Art. Virtual Reality as a medium carries many preconceived notions. Though interviews with Dan Sandin, Margaret Dolinsky, Daria Tsoupikova, Annette Barbier, and Drew Browning, LaHood, Vella, and Tamba seek to uncover new ways of understanding and working with Virtual Reality as a living art medium.

In a quest to unravel the meaning of the term post-human condition, Leo Selvaggio and Dennis Burke have searched out and interviewed four outstanding artists from Chicago and abroad: Micha Cardenas, Daniel Ploeger, Sabrina Raaf, and Tiffany Funk. The current work of these four artists, when seen through the lens of posthumanism, help in the consideration of what it means to be human in the twenty-first century. The video essay is a short but ambitious exploration into the post-human realm.

All video work will be screened at 916 S. Wabash Avenue, room 201.