Reviewing

New Waves: A Documentary

Ruoyao Chen

Featuring Adelle Lin, Matt Pinner, Monica de la Torre, Hans Tammen, Tansy Xiao, Gisela Gamper, Ahmed El Shaer, Judy Dunaway

New Waves: A Documentary is a captivating record of the Harvestworks New Waves – an art and tech exhibition in 2024. It brings the voices of avant-garde artists into the spotlight, unraveling their creative processes and the future of technology in art. As the first project produced under Ruoyao Chen’s visionary corporate communication plan, it seeks to expand Harvestworks’ influence, fostering a deeper public connection to pioneering art forms and the minds behind them..

LOCATION: Elements! in Art and Tech exhibition

Harvestworks Art and Technology Program Building 10a, Nolan Park Governors Island

Date: Sunday October 13, 2024

Time: 1:00 pm

All events are free. 

New Waves: A Documentary is not just a documentary—it’s a groundbreaking exploration of the intersection between art, technology, and human expression. This film, directed by Ruoyao Chen and produced under the strategic framework of Chen’s corporate communication plan, showcases intimate interviews with some of the most thought-provoking artists of our time. Set against the backdrop of Harvestworks’ acclaimed exhibition, the documentary delves deep into the creative psyche of artists such as Adelle Lin, Matt Pinner, Monica de la Torre, Hans Tammen, Tansy Xiao, Gisela Gamper, Ahmed El Shaer, and Judy Dunaway.

Through candid conversations, viewers are invited into the artists’ and conceptual mind spaces, witnessing firsthand their inspirations, challenges, and the cutting-edge technologies they harness. From exploring the poetic interplay of sound and language to using AI for generative art, this film captures the diverse spectrum of contemporary creativity. More than just a glimpse into the artworks themselves, it provides a rare opportunity to understand the philosophies that shape these experimental installations, offering a backstage pass into the minds of those who dare to push the boundaries of art.

New Waves: A Documentary is a tribute to Harvestworks’ commitment to fostering new media arts and a testament to its role as a hub for technological innovation in artistic practice. By unveiling the unique visions of these pioneering creators, the film seeks to bridge the gap between cutting-edge art and its broader audience, making complex concepts accessible while preserving their enigmatic allure.

•       BIOS

Ruoyao Chen is a talented filmmaker and communication strategist with a passion for merging technology and storytelling. With a background in interactive media and corporate communication, she combines creative vision with technical skills to produce impactful multimedia projects. Her latest documentary, created for Harvestworks, captures the dynamic intersection of art and technology, bringing a fresh perspective to contemporary narratives. As the founder of PSYscape, she is also exploring innovative uses of AI and VR in mental health, showcasing her versatility and forward-thinking approach to the digital arts. 


About the Elements! in Art and Tech exhibition. Programmed for the annual Harvestworks Art and Technology Program Building on Governors Island, the artworks in this group show are inspired by elements of light, water, earth, flower plasma and their influence on humans. Selected by the Harvestworks arts committee and the Executive Director Carol Parkinson,  the works use creative technology such as audio/video spatialization,  gesture, body tracking  and vegetal power.

Ruoyao Chen

Ruoyao Chen is a talented filmmaker and communication strategist with a passion for merging technology and storytelling. With a background in interactive media and corporate communication, she combines creative vision with technical skills to produce impactful multimedia projects. Her latest documentary, created for Harvestworks, captures the dynamic intersection of art and technology, bringing a fresh perspective to contemporary narratives. As the founder of PSYscape, she is also exploring innovative uses of AI and VR in mental health, showcasing her versatility and forward-thinking approach to the digital arts.

Adelle Lin

Adelle Lin, representing the artists collective Meud, will develop
NightGames, an interactive musical public artwork based on an app for smartphones.
NightGames brings audiences together to collaboratively control an interactive sound
and lighting environment, further expanding their understanding of game play and
theatre to include freeform interaction. By leveraging technological systems in
smart phones, a rich terrain for exploration fills the exhibit space. The
installation rewards group cooperation, in addition to personal expression, bringing
a conscious awareness to players that individual can impact and form a collective
ecosystem. Meud works on scalable collaborative experiences mediated by technology.
Phoenix Perry is the head developer of Meud; from digital arts curator to Creative
Director, Perry has extensive experience in new media, design, and user interfaces.
Adelle Lin has worked as an architectural design team member designing retail
fitouts and design strategy for Australia. Currently she works with renewable energy
technology to deliver leading edge sustainable infrastructure. In addition to
Phoenix Perry and Adelle Lin, Meud artists include Sophi Kravitz, Margaret Schedel,
Colin Snyder, and Emi Spicer.

Matt Pinner

Matt Pinner is a dynamic artist and creative technologist originally
from Colorado, now based in Brooklyn, NY. With a background in software engineering
and a passion for sculpture and physics, he creates immersive, interactive lighting
sculptures and volumetric installations that engage and connect people in timeless,
limitless experiential spaces. Holding a degree in Math and Astrophysics from the
Colorado School of Mines, Matt has had impactful roles such as Head of Architecture
and Technical Director for projects like The Illuminated River Project and Intel’s
Robot Dance Party. Deeply involved in the Creative Technology community, he leads
global projects, creates fashion technology, collaborates on projects like
Crashspacela and SPARK FUN. He also worked with artists such as DJ Qbert and Lady
Gaga at events like the Grammys and CES. Matt’s recent work focuses on interactive
sculptures that foster discussions about the future of technology, positioning him
at the forefront of novel interactions between art and technology.

MĂłnica de la Torre

Mónica de la Torre’s most recent book, Repetition Nineteen (Nightboat),
centers on experimental translation. Other books include The Happy End/All Welcome
(Ugly Duckling Presse)—a riff on Kafka’s Amerika—and Public Domain. She has
published several books in Spanish, including Taller de TaquimecanografĂ­a (Tumbona),
written jointly with the eponymous women artists’ collective she co-founded. She is
a contributing editor to BOMB Magazine and, with Alex Balgiu, co-edited the
anthology Women in Concrete Poetry 1959–79 (Primary Information). She is recipient
of the 2022 Foundation for Contemporary Arts C.D. Wright Award for Poetry and a 2022
Creative Capital grant. She teaches poetry at Brooklyn College.

Hans Tammen

​​Hans Tammen creates sounds that have been described as an alien world
of bizarre textures and a journey through the land of unending sonic operations. He
produces rapid-fire juxtapositions of radically contrastive and fascinating noises,
with micropolyphonic timbres and textures, aggressive sonic eruptions, but also
quiet pulses and barely audible sounds. Signal To Noise called his guitar works “…a
killer tour de force of post-everything guitar damage”, All Music Guide recommended
him: “…clearly one of the best experimental guitarists to come forward during the
1990s.” He currently plays an analog modular synthesizer built around chaotic
behaviors, where small changes in the settings may yield widely diverging sonic and
rhythmic changes, forcing the player to constantly rethink and rearrange music. Hans
Tammen’s numerous projects include site-specific performances and collaborative
efforts with dance, light, video, and theatre, utilizing technology from planetarium
projectors to guitar robots and disklavier pianos. He received a Fellowship from the
New York Foundation of the Arts (NYFA) in the category Digital/Electronic Arts in
2009 for the ”Endangered Guitar” – a hybrid guitar/software instrument used to
control interactive live sound processing. His THIRD EYE ORCHESTRA open form
compositions for large ensembles and live sound processing, or laptop/electronic
ensembles, are inspired by Earle Brown’s Available Forms, and based on numerous
scored “building blocks” that are constantly rearranged when performed. His works
have been presented on festivals in the US, Canada, Mexico, Russia, India, South
Africa and all over Europe. He recorded on labels such as Innova, ESP-DISK,
Nur/Nicht/Nur, Creative Sources, Leo Records, Potlatch, Cadence, and Hybrid. Hans
Tammen received grants and composer commissions from MAPFund, Mid-Atlantic Arts
Foundation, American Music Center, Chamber Music America, New York State Council On
The Arts (NYSCA), New York Foundation For The Arts (NYFA), American Composers Forum
w/ Jerome Foundation, New York State Music Fund, Goethe Institute w/ Foreign Affairs
Office, among others.

Tansy Xiao

Tansy Xiao is an artist, curator and writer based in New York. Xiao
creates theatrical installations with non-linear narratives that often extend beyond
the fourth wall. Her work explores the immense power and inherent inadequacy of
language through the assemblage of stochastic audio and recontextualized objects.
She finds solace in the unknown, ludicrousness in the authorities, and absurdity in
the geopolitical demarcations that separate and differentiate people. Xiao’s work
has been shown at Queens Museum, New Media Caucus, Piksel Festival, Sound Scene at
Hirshhorn Museum, Torrance Art Museum, NARS Foundation, HASTAC Conference, UKAI
Projects, The American Society for Theatre Research, University of Porto, Osaka
University of Art, Taipei Digital Arts Festival, WIP Arts and Technology Festival,
New Adventures in Sound Art, Pelham Art Center, among others. She has received
grants and support from NYSCA Electronic Media & Film

Gisela Gamper

Gisela Gamper, (b. Germany) is known for her photography and
experimental video work. Since 1968, she has lived and worked in the United States.
Gamper began working with photography in 1971 and since then has built a body of
work that is personal and inspired by her life experiences. In 1999, Gamper began
working with video and so began a long and creative collaboration with her husband,
musician and composer, David Gamper. Together they created, See Hear Now, a live
music and video installation that was performed and presented in New Music venues in
New York and elsewhere. Returning to photography in 2013, Gisela created a series of
photographs called ‘Longing for David’ dedicated to him, who died in 2011. In 2023,
she published a limited edition art-book, No Longer Sleeping Alone, that is
distributed by Printed Matter, Inc. Among Gamper’s grants and awards are two
Fellowship Grants from the Vermont Council on the Arts in 1985 and 1990, and the
Hasselblad Cover Award in 1991. For two concurrent solo exhibitions in New Orleans
in 1997, the Contemporary Artists Collection of Station Hill Press, Barrytown, NY.
published Fabrications, a catalogue of Gamper’s photographs with text by Rachel
Pollack. Gamper’s photographs are in numerous private collections and in the
collection of the Albany Institute of History & Art, Albany, NY. Gamper lives and
works in New York City and Vermont.

Ahmed El Shaer

Ahmed El Shaer is a contemporary artist born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1981
who currently lives and works in New York, USA. El Shaer is a multi-disciplinary
artist whose practice spans the mediums of installation, photography, sound, and
moving images, with a particular interest in new technologies. holds a B.F.A. from
the Faculty of Art and Education and is currently a Ph.D. student at the computing
and games department at Abertay University, Scotland, UK. He exhibited in various
international art venues, including the 56th Venice Biennal, Venice, Italy (2015).
Bamako Biennale, Bamako-Mali (2011) Cairotronica New Media Festival, Cairo, Egypt.
Sanctioned Array, White Box, New York, USA (2010). Solo show at the Museum of the
Moving Image, New York, USA (2019). Rencontres Internationales Festival
Paris/Berlin: Represent Egypt at the 59th Venice Biennale 2022.

Judy Dunaway

For the past twenty years Judy Dunaway has primarily been known for her
numerous works for latex balloons as sound producers, including free improvisations,
electronic and multi-media works, sound installations, and compositions. She has
presented these works throughout North America and Europe at many important venues,
festivals, museums and galleries including the Academy of Media Arts Cologne
(Germany), Alternative Museum (NYC), Bang on a Can Festival (NYC), Everson Art
Museum (Syracuse), Frau Musica Nova (Germany), the Guelph Jazz Festival (Canada),
Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors (NYC), the New Museum of Contemporary Art (NYC),
Performance Space 122 (NYC), Podewil (Berlin), Roulette (NYC), the Roy and Edna
Disney Center (Los Angeles), Seltsame Musik Festival (Austria) and STEIM
(Netherlands). Her discography includes CDs on the CRI and Innova labels. Her
awards/grants/residencies include the Electronic Music Studios Stockholm, New York
State Music Fund. the Aaron Copland Fund Recording Grant, the American Composers
Forum’s Composers Commissioning Fund, ZKM, Harvestworks and the National Endowment
for the Arts performance fund. She has given academic presentations about her works
at many colleges and universities, including The Berlin University of the Arts,
Cornell University, Rennselaer Polytechnic, Tufts University, Syracuse University,
Juilliard School of Music, Musik Akademie Basel (Switzerland), University of
Gothenberg (Sweden), Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (Milan, Italy) and Hochschule
fuer Gestaltung, Karlsruhe (Germany). She has a Ph.D. in music composition from
Stony Brook University and an M.A. with emphasis in experimental music composition
from Wesleyan University, where she studied with Alvin Lucier. She has been a
Visiting Lecturer at Massachusetts College of Art and Design since 2005. She has
been working with Cycling 74‘s Max for the past 10 years and received a
Max/MSP/Jitter certificate from Harvestworks in May 2011.