The newest exhibition in Target Gallery, the contemporary exhibition space for the Torpedo Factory Art Center, explores emerging technological and interactive media in art. Glitch: An Exploration of Digital Media features the work of 11 artists from across the country, five of whom are from the region. Adriel Luis, curator of digital and emerging media at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, juried the show.

“Ever since the invention of fire, humans have approached technology with intrigue, bewilderment and audacity – sometimes all at the same time,” said Luis. “The work submitted for this exhibit presented a treasure trove of ways that artists attempt to tame this flame. I learned that technology and media-based art is not merely a genre or medium, but rather a layer of reality that will inevitably become present in all forms of creative expression.”

The work on view in Glitch shows the complex—and sometimes messy—relationship between emerging technologies and basic human communication. Technology can be an obstacle, a distraction, or a placeholder for storytelling. For example, in Sasha de Koninck’s Zeroes and Ones, each jacquard weaving has musical compositions embedded into them. Viewers can play preprogramed compositions or create their own arrangements based on where they move and direct the camera on the accompanying tablet device.

“I chose works that insisted on telling their tales in spite of these challenges,” said Luis. “The works presented here may demonstrate new ways of looking at media, but more importantly, they are new ways of looking at ourselves.”

The participating artists are:

Jill Burks, Cambridge, NY
Eric Corriel, Brooklyn, NY
Sasha de Koninck, Santa Monica, CA
Alexis Gomez, Dumfries, VA
Ed Grant, Brooklyn, NY
Maxim Leyzerovich, Washington, D.C.
Tracy Miller-Robbins, Westerville, OH
John Mosher, Salisbury, MD
Zach Nagle, Minneapolis, MN
Lyric Prince, Arlington, VA 
Kaylah Waite, Hyattsville, MD 

About the Juror

Adriel Luis is a musician, poet, visual artist, curator and coder from the California Bay Area. Adriel is currently based in Washington, D.C., as the curator of digital and emerging media at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, where his team has been developing a series of “culture labs” as community-created alternatives to traditional museum exhibitions. He is also a founding member of the psychedelic spoken word collective iLL-Literacy, and moonlights on design projects with artists and non-profits. Adriel frequently travels, with particular interest in how digital space shapes global communities. Adriel can be found across online platforms as @DRZZL.