Columbia Artists Named 2023 Harvestworks Artists in Residence
Three Columbia artists have been selected to participate in the 2023 Harvestworks New Works Artist Residencies. They are: Sound Arts alumni Kamari Carter ’19 and Julian Day ’20, and Writing Program alumna Mónica de la Torre ’95 (GSAS ’13).
Founded in 1977, Harvestworks has helped a generation of artists create new works using new and evolving technologies. With initiatives like the artist residency program, Harvestworks seeks to create an environment where artists can make work inspired and achieved by electronic media, as well as create a responsive public context for the appreciation of new work by presenting and disseminating the finished works.
As residents, the artists are commissioned to create a new work in the Harvestworks TEAM (Technology, Engineering, Art and Music) Lab. The TEAM Lab provides an environment for experimentation with project consultants, technicians, instructors, and innovative practitioners in all branches of the electronic arts. The Harvestworks Art and Technology Program is also currently among the organizations in residence on Governors Island.
Carter and Day will use the residency to further work on their ongoing collaborative project, To Be Held, an installation of LED lights that presents emojis, fonts, and visuals with live electronic music. The resulting effect resonates with the social dynamics of 2021 and 2022, as both artists pull from social topics like relationships of power, systems of identity, and more. Former versions of the project have been tested multiple times in several NYC local venues, including an audio-visual performance at Microscope Gallery in 2022.
De la Torre will also use the residency as an opportunity for creative collaboration. She will collaborate with sound artist Hans Tamme as they work on ARBORETUM, a sound installation and live performance piece. The project is based on de la Torre’s poems, which explore the history of each tree species. The project will broaden the imagination of how trees perceive the surrounding environment, and the metabolic process they are going through.
Read more about the Harvestworks Artist Residency Program here.
Carter is a producer, performer, sound designer, and installation artist primarily working with sound and found objects. Driven by the probative nature of perception and the concept of conversation and social science, he seeks to expand narrative structures through sonic stillness. Carter’s work has been exhibited at such venues as Automata Arts, MoMA, Mana Contemporary, RISD Museum, Flux Factory, Lenfest Center for the Arts, WaveHill and has been featured in a range of major publications including ArtNet, Precog Magazine, LevelGround and WhiteWall. Carter holds a BFA in Music Technology from California Institute of the Arts and an MFA in Sound Art from Columbia.
Julian Day is an artist, composer, writer and broadcaster based in New York. Day’s work frames sound as a social and civic practice. This plays out in performance, installation, text and video. Day has presented work at Tate Modern, Whitechapel Gallery, Royal Academy of Music, Cafe Oto, MASS MoCA, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, and many more. Day has also presented papers at Harvard University, University of California - Los Angeles, New York University, University of London and is published in various journals. They have studied at Yale University, Columbia University, and University of Oxford.
Mónica de la Torre is a poet and essayist who explores interdisciplinary art through translation, performance, and visual art. She has published several books in both English and Spanish and her writings have appeared in several periodicals.