Public art piece merges contemporary art and technology
PRESS RELEASE – 21c Museum Hotel has partnered with conceptual artist Serkan Özkaya to present his latest project, MyMoon, a free, interactive mobile app available for both Android and Apple phones (link to download available at 21cMuseumHotels.com/mymoon). Launching on May 4 in conjunction with the next full moon, MyMoon enables users to look at the world in a new way and experience a public art piece that employs augmented reality at the intersection of the digital and celestial.
Utilizing the smartphone’s GPS location coordinates, MyMoon prompts users to follow an arrow directing them to the location of artwork in the sky made visible to the naked eye through the phone’s screen. Users can snap a shot of the piece and upload it to the app’s website http://MyMoonApp.com/pictures.php to contribute to a larger, web-based exhibition.
MyMoon uses technology to manipulate actuality, utilizing an object as a primary source, creating an alteration of the senses that allows users to see and imagine the sky in a new way. Each viewer of MyMoon will see it from a unique perspective.
“21c is dedicated to integrating contemporary art into everyday life through innovative platforms,” says Alice Gray Stites VP, Museum Director for 21c Museum Hotels. “Serkan Özkaya employs appropriation in a wide range of thought-provoking, multi-media works, which have appeared on city sidewalks, in newspapers, and in the menus of restaurants, as well as in galleries and museums. We have collaborated with him on a number of these compelling projects, including David (inspired by Michelangelo), a 30-foot tall gold replica of Michelangelo’s David, which is currently installed outside of 21c in downtown Louisville. We are excited to work with Özkaya to launch this new media project that will reach a broad audience.”
On May 12, MyMoon is Your Moon!, a panel discussion inspired by the launch of MyMoon, will take place on May 12, 2015 at 6:30 p.m. at Postmasters Gallery in New York, NY. Panelists include Serkan Özkaya , Alice Gray Stites, Poet Robert Fitterman, Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, Princeton University Art and Architecture Historian Spyros Papapetros and Dr. Guven Guzeldere of The Mind Brain Behavior program at Harvard University. Writer and cultural critic Lynne Tillman will serve as moderator.
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About Serkan Özkaya
Serkan Özkaya is a conceptual artist whose work deals with topics of appropriation and reproduction, and typically operates outside of traditional art spaces. Özkaya’s latest works include, Mirage, installed at the Postmasters Gallery in New York and consisted of a shadow of a passenger airplane that crossed the room for 45 seconds every four minutes; One and Three Pasta (with George L. Legendre), where the duo created 3D computer models for 92 types of pasta after Legendre’s mathematical equations and David (inspired by Michelangelo), at two-times the size of the original. Özkaya is the author and editor of ten books, including Double (Lars Muller Publishers, 2013), The Rise and Fall and Rise of David (21c Museum and Yapi Kredi, 2011), and Today Could Be a Day of Historical Importance (artwithoutwalls, 2010). Learn more at SerkanOzkaya.com
About 21c Museum Hotel
21c was founded by Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, contemporary art collectors and preservationists who have a passionate belief in the power of innovative and thought-provoking art to transform communities. Brown and Wilson founded 21c with a mission of broadening the audience for and deepening appreciation of contemporary art. A multi-venue museum, each 21c property features contemporary art exhibition space open free of charge to the public, combined with a boutique hotel and chef-driven restaurant. 21c presents a range of arts programming curated by Museum Director, Alice Gray Stites, including solo and group exhibitions that reflect the global nature of art today, as well as site-specific, commissioned installations, and a variety of cultural events. The organization collaborates on arts initiatives with artists and organizations worldwide, including North Carolina Museum of Art, MASS MoCA, Contemporary Art Museum Houston, The Barnes Foundation, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Creative Capital Foundation, and others. Since opening in Louisville, KY in 2006, 21c Museum has presented more than 80 exhibitions, including Simen Johan: Until the Kingdom Comes; Cuba Now!; Alter Ego: A Decade of Work by Anthony Goicolea; Blue: Matter, Mood, and Melancholy; Aftermath: Witnessing War, Countenancing Compassion; Seeing Now; Dis-semblance: Projecting and Perceiving Identity; and Wild Card: The Art of Michael Combs, a Fifteen-Year Survey.
Media Contact:
Amanda Schinder
Baltz & Co.
212.202.6506
aschinder@baltzco.com
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