Media artist, sculptor to present on campus April 30

Paul DeMarinis, one of America’s most innovative and advanced media artists using new and old technologies, will lecture and present his art at several events this week, including at 3 p.m. Thursday, April 30, in the Old Main Theater.

DeMarinis has been making noises with wires, batteries and household appliances since the age of four. One of the first artists to use microcomputers, DeMarinis has toiled since the 1970's in the areas of interactive software, synthetic speech, noise and obsolete or impossible media. He has created installations, performances and public artworks throughout North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. He is a professor in the Department of Art & Art History at Stanford University in California.

He collaborated with Rebecca Cummins on the 'Lunar Drift: Sun and Moon Pointers' kinetic sculpture currently on display in the Student Collaboration Space in Miller Hall. Commissioned by the Washington State Arts Commission in partnership with Western Washington University, 'Lunar Drift' is two slow-time kinetic sculptures that will constantly point at the Moon and to the Sun, wherever they are located, whether above or below the horizon, in daylight or night, clear skies or overcast lending a continual presence to the entire path of their movements.

DeMarinis will be lecturing, performing and presenting his video art at the following venues as part of the 2015 Sound Culture Adventures Festival:

• Thursday, April 30, 3 to 4 pm: Lecture on Art and Technology, Old Main Theater.
• Thursday, April 30; Video Art presentation; “All without a Sound” (2015); 4 minutes, looped, Western Gallery.
• Thursday, April 30; Video Art presentation; “Turing’s (Screen) Test” (2015) 12 minutes, looped, Whatcom Museum Lightcatcher, Bellingham.
• Saturday, May 2, 1 pm; Presentation/Performance, Spark Museum, Bellingham.