FRAMEWORK Panel #30
Speculative Futures
Tuesday, May 11, 2021, 6-8 PM (EST)
Moderator: Laura McGough
Panelists: Huntrezz Janos, Jeff Kasper, Armando Lopez-Bircann, Jaimes Mayhew, J. Soto
Presented via Zoom
Transformer's ongoing FRAMEWORK Panel Series returns with FRAMEWORK Panel #30: Speculative Futures - a panel discussion with artists, educators, and activists that explores speculative futures, and the cultural, ethical, environmental, political, and economic systems that will all contribute to a more sustainable and equitable future.
The world has experienced numerous major events, including ecological disasters, social unrest, human rights violations, and political turmoil, with increasing frequency within the past decade. As these disturbances occur at a higher rate, many artists, educators, politicians, and scientists have turned to considering the future, and evaluating what components should, and should not, be included in this future.
In addition to exploring these components, the panelists will also discuss what the role of art and artists is in ensuring this envisioned future, as well as the impact of technology, surveillance, and social networks are to achieving these goals.
This panel is presented in conjunction with Armando Lopez-Bircann's solo exhibition, Arma the Oracle: Extended Reality (XR), in which the artist shares their vision of an ethical queer future. This exhibition is currently on view in Transformer's storefront window, and is presented as a part of Looking In/Looking Out - a series of three solo storefront exhibitions by DC-based artists intended to encourage audiences to look within themselves and outward at the world.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Huntrezz Janos
Transforming adjacent to humanity since ancient times, and existing in a quantum state, Huntrezz Janos generates art in a future that has long passed. Currently working for the Oakwood secondary school in NoHo, she is also a resident artist with Transfer Gallery and NAVEL LA.
Huntrezz is currently making work across mediums and collaborating with a diverse array of human beings online. She often presents her range of works in writing, 3d graphics and fashion, animation, painting, music, and performance in Los Angeles, but is currently calling in from Szekesfehervar Hungary.
Jeff Kasper
Jeff Kasper is an artist, writer, and educator with a background in arts organizing and design for community engagement. He creates objects, social spaces, time-based media, publications, and workshops that serve as tools and practice grounds for queer futures, relational health, and trauma-informed culture. His recent solo-projects include Give & Take Care at Downtown Art and Boundary Objects at University of Massachusetts Herter Art Gallery. He also recently organized the series Access/Points: Approaches to Disability Arts at CUE Art Foundation, and participated in public programs exploring disability justice and the arts at the Brooklyn Museum, BRIC, and The 8th Floor, OCADU, and Cleveland Institute of Art. Kasper was awarded residencies from Art Beyond Sight and Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts. He lives in New York and Western Massachusetts. Kasper is Assistant Professor of Design and Studio Art Foundations at University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Armando Lopez-Bircann:
Armando Lopez-Bircann is a Latinx artist who engineers wearable sculptures, digital media and performances. Their practice is framed by immigrant narratives, genderfluid expression and digital native sensibilities. They are currently based in Washington, DC.
Jaimes Mayhew
Jaimes Mayhew is an interdisciplinary artist whose work is collaborative, and based in his interests of land use, speculative futures and queer ecology. Jaimes’ work has been shown nationally and internationally, and he has received awards and grants from The Fulbright Commission of Iceland, The Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund, The Contemporary Baltimore’s Grit Fund, The Maryland State Arts Council, the Baltimore Museum of Art and Provisions Library. He currently teaches at American University in Washington, DC.
Jaimes’ collaborative and solo work has been shown at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Eyebeam (New York City), Mass MoCa (Massachusetts), Conflux Festival (Brooklyn), The Chapel of St. Cecilia (Brooklyn, NY), This Is Not a Gateway (London), 808 Gallery (Boston), The Transmodern Festival (Baltimore, MD), Goucher College (Baltimore, MD), George Mason University (Fairfax, VA), Hoffmannsgallerí (Reykjavík, Iceland) among others. Jaimes lives in Baltimore, MD teaches at American University in Washington, DC.
J. Soto
J. Soto is an arts administrator and consultant invested in the intersectional community histories and present of queer people of color and disabled people. Soto's work focuses on how to create more equitable practices and access to resources in the arts and dance field. His work and writing can be found in Original Plumbing, Apogee Journal: Queer History, Queer Now Folio, American Realness 2018 Reading series, and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive, and Grant Makers in the Arts GIA Reader. His work is deeply influenced by his experiences as a queer transgender Latino who grew up in the Bay Area, with roots in Southern Arizona and the borderlands. He serves as the Manager of Programs and Inclusion at Eyebeam.
MODERATED BY
Laura McGough
Dr. Laura McGough is a media art historian, curator and educator currently based in Northampton, Massachusetts. She has organized exhibitions, screenings, performances and streaming content for arts organizations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia. Her writings on the visual arts, technology, and performance have appeared in publications such as Journal of Artistic Research, Incite: Journal of Experimental Media, Sculpture, Experimenta and Digital Creativity, and she has served on the editorial boards of Performance Research and FUSE.
Dr. McGough has sat on numerous local, regional, and national grants panels at funding agencies including the Ford Foundation, the President’s Council on the Arts, the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Ontario Writers Reserve Fund. She has also received grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Canada Council and the British Council to support varied curatorial research projects.
She received an MA in interdisciplinary studies from New York University and a PhD from the Department of Media Study at the University at Buffalo. She is a lecturer in the Department of Art, a member of the Film Studies faculty and director of the Herter Art Gallery at UMass Amherst.