J no.e Parker: Composing [De]Composition

Sweeney Art Gallery

June 27 - October 17, 2015

J no.e Parker: Composing [De]Composition joins the seemingly unconnected practices of home composting, data collection, and music composition into a research-based, new media artwork. Parker’s interest in creating integrative works that explore new pathways through interconnections between visual art, sound, music, science, and technology, has inspired her to repurpose Sweeney Art Gallery as an active BioArt research lab, and addresses issues such as pollution and environmental sustainability from a localized perspective. Throughout the summer, temperature data, generated by an on-site compost pile, will be collected continuously and translated into a soundscape. The project reflects Parker’s varied interests in data sonification, which creates sound of out of data; in maintaining an indoor composting environment; and in translating the data into a body of music that will be performed toward the end of the exhibition on October 17. In essence, compost, a complex living material, becomes for Parker a multi-faceted activator for regenerating soil and generating new music.

J no.e. Parker has a separate project, The Elements, on view for the Culver Center Digital Mural on the façade of the building, July 31-August 29, 2015. In this project, Parker pairs the elements with an associated Indonesian Hindu-Buddhist deity: Water :: Uma; Wind :: Bayu; Earth :: Sri; and Fire :: Agni. Layering imagery from her own hometown of Brigantine Beach, New Jersey and footage recorded while living on the islands of Bali and Java in Indonesia, Parker attempts to create a meta-narrative addressing issues of environmental and economic sustainability.

J no.e Parker received a B.S. in Textiles and Apparel Design at Cornell University, a Digital Art/New Media MFA at UC Santa Cruz, and is currently a Digital Music Composition Ph.D candidate at UC Riverside. Her work has been exhibited, performed and screened internationally at venues such as DNA Lounge, Bledog Art Space, and Giancolis Park for the Arts. Parker also participates in international art, video and sound festivals such as the Surabaya Biennale International Video Festival, Yogyakarta International Media Arts Festival, Ubud Earth Day Festival and Soundgate: Sound Art Festival.

J no.e Parker: Composing [De]Composition is organized by UCR ARTSblock and is curated by Tyler Stallings, Artistic Director of the Culver Center of the Arts and Director, Sweeney Art Gallery. Jennifer Frias, Associate Curator, Sweeney Art Gallery, curated J no.e Parker: The Elements, as part of the Culver Center Digital Mural Project 2015-2016 series.

UCR’s College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CHASS) and the City of Riverside have provided support for J no.e Parker: Composing [De]Composition. Additional support has come from Adrian Freed at UC Berkeley Music Department’s Center for New Music & Audio Technologies (CNMAT); UCR Music Department Professor & Chair Paulo Chagas and Assistant Professor Ian Dicke; UCR Environmental Sciences Department Associate Professor David Crohn; UCR Culver Center of the Arts; Anas Muzamil; Judith Parker; and David Carter at the UCR Institute for Integrative Genome Biology.

Gallery Talk with J no.e Parker is organized by UCR ARTSblock and is supported by the Gluck Fellows Program of the Arts at UC Riverside. The Gluck Fellows Program is made possible by the generosity of the Max H. Gluck Foundation.

Image: J. no.e Parker, detail of "Green Bin, 901," (2015), courtesy of the artist.

• Digital mural
• Artist's website
• City of Riverside’s Long Night of Arts & Innovation