You are cordially invited to the kick-off of the Library's 2023 Artist Residency to learn more about Tristan Al-Haddad's Reading, Arithmetic, and Writing Artist-In-Residence (RAW AIR) student co-created project. Join us for a lunch in the Scholars Event Network Theater, located on the first floor of Price Gilbert, on Friday, Feb. 3 at noon.
This event is open to all students interested in participating and will include pizza and a discussion with Al-Haddad about the project.
Al-Haddad, who also designed and implemented the Library’s seventh-floor roof terrace Crosland Chroma project, said RAW AIR “seeks to transform the written knowledge stored in the library into large-scale, interpretive drawings across the north façade of the building.”
For this project, said Al-Haddad, robotically enabled machines will translate the library’s information resources into a sprawling work of art spanning a whole side of the Judge S. Price Gilbert Memorial Library. This work will be co-created by students and executed by the human-style painting robot from by PhD student Gerry Chen.
Al-Haddad said as part of the project, students will use two seminal texts – the “Reading, Arithmetic and Writing” portion of RAW AIR -- as “provocations” to get their creativity flowing.
Work will continue through the spring and summer, with workshops and classes a planned part of the residency.
Don't miss this opportunity to learn more about this exciting project and how you can get involved!
ABOUT TRISTAN AL-HADDAD
Tristan Al-Haddad
Tristan Al-Haddad is a multi-medium designer and visual artist in addition to previously holding the position of assistant professor in the School of Architecture at Georgia Tech. He leads Atlanta-based Formations Studio.
Al-Haddad’s work has been exhibited in venues including the Pompidou Center, The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, The Boston Center for the Arts, The International Contemporary Furniture Fair, and The AIA’s Center for Architecture in New York, as well as being published in print sources including the New York Times, Dwell, Metropolis, Art Papers and The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Al-Haddad was one of seven recipients of the ARTADIA Artist Award in 2009 in addition to being a Fulbright Scholar at the Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria in Valparaiso, Chile. In 2014 Al-Haddad was selected by the US Department of State to represent the United States at the Colombo Art Biennale in Sri Lanka. He has large scale permanent sculptures located throughout the United States.
ABOUT GERRY CHEN
Gerry Chen is a PhD student at Georgia Tech, where he studies artist-robot collaboration to understand how robots can superpower artists and how art can drive technology. Growing up, Chen had a passion for science and technology and was inspired to pursue a career in robotics by a 2006 documentary about self-driving cars (DARPA grand challenge).
During his undergraduate time at Duke, he double majored in engineering and minored in computer science and math, culminating in breaking two Guinness World Records for vehicle fuel efficiency as a leader of the Duke Electric Vehicles team.
Chen continued his studies at Georgia Tech's Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM) PhD program in the School of Interactive Computing under Professors Frank Dellaert and Seth Hutchinson. He authored several publications in the fields of robot art, optimal control, and agricultural robotics, evidencing that learnings in the field of robot art can readily transfer to other applications. Chen’s thesis on human-robot collaboration in the art domain is a key step in his longer-term ambitions to make personalized robots accessible for everyone.
Through technological innovations, robot literacy, and open discourse, Chen dreams of a world where, instead of feeling fearful of robots stealing jobs, we can all feel empowered by the potential they have to help each and every one of us.
ABOUT THE GEORGIA TECH LIBRARY ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM
The Georgia Tech Library Artist-in-Residence program enhances and expands the current educational experience through arts-based programming as it relates to STEM fields and Georgia Tech areas of study. A visiting artist engages the Georgia Tech community in an artistic and aesthetic exploration of the role of the libraries in society, and the Artist-in-Residence program supports the mission of the Library through arts-based programming and engagement as a core responsibility of the artist-in-residence.
World-renowned multimedia visionary Deanna Sirlin was the inaugural 2022 Library Artist-in-Residence. Her piece, Watermark, is on display on the ground floor of Crosland Tower.
Watermark addresses the most important issue of the 21st century-- climate change-- through color, transparency and composition, and it is influenced by the exhibition "50 Years of Science Fiction at Georgia Tech."