Rick Silva, La Région Decentralized, 2012
never-ending self-playing videogame
based on Michael Snow’s 1971 experimental film La Région Centrale
Rick Silva, Colorful Colorado, 2011
video, 24 min
remix of Phil Morton’s 1974 video Colorful Colorado
La Région Decentralized is a self-playing video game based on Michael Snow’s experimental film La Région Centrale from 1971. Recording in the Canadian mountains over a period of 24 hours, Snow installed a camera on a robotic arm that had been programmed to move in a non-repeating pattern with the result that each camera movement is different. Taking this idea, Silva programmed software to simulate the horizon captured by a camera that rotates randomly and infinitely.
Silva’s second work on view, which will be shown halfway through the exhibition, is a remix of Colorful Colorado from 1974 – an early example of video art by Phil Morton (1945–2003) who used analog technology to manipulate color. For his version, Silva employs state of the art 3-d technologies and the practice of contemporary artists to reference, assimilate, and appropriate the work of other artists in their own.
Rick Silva was born in São Paulo, Brazil in 1977. He is an instructor of Digital Media and Technology at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, Canada where he lives and works. He studied at the University of Colorado Boulder and received his MFA in Digital Art in 2007 and his BFA in Film in 2001, and was a student of renowned filmmaker Stan Brakhage. Silva’s work has been featured in exhibitions and festivals worldwide, including Transmediale, Berlin, Germany; Futuresonic, Manchester, UK; and Sonar, Barcelona, Spain. He has performed his live multimedia works at E:VENT Gallery, London, UK; The Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts, Tokyo, Japan; and throughout North America, including the Software Cinema Festival, Houston, Texas. Silva has been recognized as a pioneer New Media artist by the authors of “Transmission Arts: Artists and Airwaves,” (2011).
Visual Rhythm has been made possible by Presenting Sponsor Mike’s Camera and by a partnership with the Brakhage Center at the University of Colorado Boulder.With additional support from Sue Cannon, Polly and Mark Addison, Boulder County Arts Alliance, the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Colorado Boulder, and the Hotel Boulderado.
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