Kickstarter

Hi, my name is Jason Sho and I’m going to Leipzig, Germany for three months to build an interactive art installation. I want it to expand the connections between the studio, gallery, and internet communities. It's an exploration of the relationships between people, nature, and technology.

THE WORK

The wall installation is a landscape that spirals into a city in the center. It will be a mixed media assemblage of drawings, paintings, sculpture, robotics, and projections. The outer scenes are inspired by Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangements). They're simple and carefully spaced. As they give way to the cityscape, it becomes a lush chaos of lights and movement.

The inner city portion will be a dense accumulation of buildings, electroluminescent lights, projections of visitors, moving cameras, animations, and mechanical parts. I want it to feel like emerging from the subway in Tokyo or NYC.

A few cameras in the installation will film the landscape, streaming to the internet. They'll be situated within the scenes, giving viewers a first person view as if they're living in the installation world. I'm experimenting with a Kinect (basically a 3d camera) to extract people from the studio environment, then project them back into the cityscape. Some parts of the installation will be controllable by internet activity. I hope for it to be an interesting connection between the physical installation space and visitors to the virtual space on the web.

I'll also be building an educational portion of the website with step-by-step instructions, links to good sources, and credits to where I found inspiration for these projects. I'm hoping it can be a good resource for people interested in entry level robotics, toy hacking, and simple interaction design.

THE PROJECT (AUGUST, SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER)


I've been accepted into the One Sided Story residency in Leipzig, Germany to build and exhibit this work. I'll be working alongside a rotating group of artists at the Spinnerei under the sponsorship of the nonprofit international art organization Halle 14.

BUDGET: $4500 Total

$800 : Technology (2xPico Projectors, 4xArduino, 2xsmall LED displays, Electroluminescent wire, LED's, IC's, servo motors, other small parts)
$500 : Art Materials and Hand Tools (Wood, paints, hardware)
$300 : Hand Tools (hand saws, carving knives, Dremel, various tools)
$750 : Shipping (of work back to NY)
$1000 : Travel (flight plus trains)
$900 : Residency Fees for 3 months
$250 : Prize Fulfillment (printing, shipping)

EXHIBITIONS

• SEPT 15-16: Spinnerei Rundgang. Leipzig. 10 weeks into the residency, 15,000 visitors and collectors come to the Spinnerei Rundgang to visit the galleries.

• EARLY OCTOBER: Akademie Schloss Solitude. Leipzig. I've been invited to participate in an exhibition to show the robotic works at this truly inspiring institution that mixes Art and Science.

• LATE OCTOBER: Akademie Schloss Solitude. Stuttgart. A second group exhibition with at Schloss Solitude.

• 2013: Meštrovićev Paviljon. Zagreb, Croatia. Selected pieces from residency artists will be sent to Zagreb for a Museum Exhibition alongside the work of Leipzig artists.

Other places to see my work this summer

• 
JUNE/JULY: Morton Fine Art. Washington DC. Morton Fine Art will be showing some of my paintings in the early summer.
• JUNE/JULY: Flowers Gallery. Chelsea, Manhattan. I'll have a village sculpture in the NYAA Summer Group Exhibition.
• SEPTEMBER: Field Projects. Chelsea, Manhattan. A group show entitled "Young Man Reclining" that teams up writers with artists.

REWARD DETAILS

All rewards will be delivered in November 2012 and every donation above $5 gets a hand written thank you card.

$10 : Your choice of the Germany or Japan sketchbook zine. Get all 3 for $25. 8.5x5.5”. 24-32 pages.

$15 : Book of larger drawings from the exhibition. 11x8.5”. Get this plus 2 sketchbooks for $30.
$25 : An 8.5x11" print from my sketchbook/photo series. (see grid above for example) As I continue it through the residency, you can select any image and I'll send you a print.
$25 : Small cutout drawings and collages from the scenes in the installation, mounted on 4x6" cards.

$50 : 4x6" pencil portrait. You are a part of the colony, in the installation. I'll send it to you after the exhibitions. Larger drawings are a bit more.

$100 : Small painted wooden avatar portrait of you to be included in a colony installation, then shipped to you after the exhibitions.

$200+ : Select a piece from the installation. This includes everything from small sculptures and carvings to painted characters to illuminated houses (like lamps). More complicated pieces like animatronic sculptures will be a bit more, starting at 300+. I will build a webpage with every piece and it's price level and send updates when new pieces are available.

$200 : Full body action figure sculpture to be included in a colony assemblage, then shipped to you. 8"-12" tall.

$350+ : Combinations of small pieces. I’ll work with you to put together an assemblage of 2 or more pieces.

$500+ : Original drawings from the installation. 14x17"

A huge thank you goes out to Yair aka Big Spider's Back, who is letting me use his music in this video and other parts of the project. Please think about pre-ordering his new album! He's a super talent.

Even if you can't make a pledge, you can help out by sharing the project by word of mouth, on Twitter, or Facebook. Kickstarter is an all or nothing funding platform, so if I don't raise the full amount of $4500, I don’t receive any funding.

Please follow jasonsho.tumblr.com for frequent updates.

Thank you so much for your support!