SIGNALS is a collaborative project by artists Nicolas Sassoon (Vancouver, BC) and Rick Silva (Eugene, OR) that focuses on immersive audio-visual renderings of altered seascapes. Sassoon and Silva share an ongoing theme in their individual practices; the depiction of wilderness and natural forms through computer imaging. Created by merging their respective fields of visual research, SIGNALS features oceanic panoramas inhabited by unnatural substances and enigmatic structures. The project draws from sources such as oceanographic surveys, climate studies and science-fiction to create 3D generated video works and installations that reflect on contamination, mutation and future ecologies.

A Forest Through Time: Seasons of Isolation creates the experience of a forest through the seasons, from spring rain to winters snow, from star filled night to the warmth of summers sun. Christopher Andrew uses long exposures and overnight time-lapses with the camera often left in places devoid of the human element for days at a time. The technology used to document the forest, as well as the complex editorial sequencing, creates images that are both awesome and foreboding. This film seeks to capture the tension between a longing for the natural world, and the ties of technology that keep us from its embrace. The soundtrack by Tablapusher speaks of the secret, haunting and majestic quality of the forest giving voice to the wind, the sky, and the trees themselves.

Starmesh is a multidimensional landscape with warping starfields and geological formations. Its vast horizon dissolves the surrounding space, creating a large expanse reminiscent of the cosmos. This site-specific work breaks the mundanity of the everyday to present a contemplation on the interconnectedness of being; reminding us we are more than our tethered routines.

Shrouded in Smoke is a shifting field of abstract forms. Shadows cast by dancing figures filter through progressively agitated environmental imagery. Prompted by the devastating Australian bushfires, the work ties human action and natural disaster in a cyclical three-act structure. It weaves together images of trees and foliage reflected in water to create an environment that progressively becomes more agitated and deconstructed.

This work was created by Patrick Steppan and Odessa Sagli, recent graduates from Knox College (Galesburg, IL), who won the 150 Media Stream Scholarship for Digital Art, cosponsored by Associated Colleges of Illinois. Their proposal was selected from among twenty-seven invited colleges by Yuge Zhou, curator of 150 Media Stream. Tim Stedman, assistant professor of design at Knox College, supervised the students’ project.

In conjunction with American fiber artist Bisa Butler’s solo exhibition “Portrait” at the Art Institute of Chicago, 150 Media Stream is featuring an animated version of Butler’s quilted artwork Southside Sunday Morning. In all her work, Butler creates arresting portraits—composed entirely of vibrantly colored and patterned fabrics—that reimagine and celebrate narratives of Black life. The inspiration for Southside Sunday Morning was a photo taken by Russell Lee for the Farm Securities Administration on Easter morning in the Bronzeville section of Chicago in 1941.

Read more about Bisa Butler’s work here.