cv

Updated February 10, 2013

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PROFILE

Current Positions:
Ph.D. Candidate at the School of Interactive Arts & Technology, Simon Fraser University
Adjunct Faculty, Conceptual/Information Arts Program, San Francisco State University
Researcher/Theorist/President, DPrime Research

Currently investigating cybernetics and systems theory, phenomenology and artificial intelligence in various mediums and contexts. Exploring an artist-as-researcher approach which combines new technologies, inquiry into emerging or abandoned lines of research and traditional scholarly writing. Researching if and how interactive/new media arts can amplify a sense of what I characterize as reciprocal coupling and co-evolution with an increasingly technologized environment.

Imagining ways in which living systems, organic and quasi-organic materials can be used as substrates or “brains” for interactive control systems. Increasingly interested in issues related to art-science collaboration and with bringing the often abstract and esoteric ideas of science and technology “down to earth”.

SELECTED PROJECTS AND EXHIBITIONS

Proof-of-Process. A prototype for a community research laboratory. It consists of a series of a hybrid exhibitions, workshops and symposia where participants, along with artists-researchers, can interact with, and contribute to, the development of science and technology-based artworks and research projects in various stages of development – all within a publicly accessible laboratory and production workshop set-up in the gallery space.

Exhibitions:
2012/06 – Gallery Gachet, Vancouver, BC

2011-12

Biopoiesis. A series of experiments exploring the relationships between structure, matter, and self- organization, with a goal toward the development of autonomous computation and control systems in what can be called a "primordial computational soup". The system harnesses electrochemical reactions that grows into dendritic metallic threads – ultimately leading to the formation of a continuously shifting signal network (not unlike a neuronal cell assembly). These dendrites are fluid and unstable: they bifurcate and dissipate in unpredictable ways, leading to resistance changes that modify the flow of information through the network.

Exhibitions:
2013/01 – Scarfone/Hartley Gallery, Tampa, FL
2012/09 – 12 – Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque, NM
2012/09 – ISEA 2012, Albuquerque, NM
2012/08 – SIGGRAPH 2012, Los Angeles, CA
2012/06 – Gallery Gachet, Vancouver, BC
2011/07 – Gallery Gachet, Vancouver, BC

2011-12

Protocol. Interactive installation that features a set of intelligent acoustic drums that can “bite back” whenever they are struck. The multi-modal interface allows these intelligent drums to sense and comunicate with a participant via sound, rhythmic patterns and electrical stimulation of the participant’s skin.

Exhibitions:
2012/06 – Gallery Gachet, Vancouver, BC

2010-12

Naos. A biometrics and psychological testing system, which includes a “biometric capsule” that measures ones physiological responses to image stimuli. Collaboration with Luther Thie.

Exhibitions:
2009/03 – Root Division Gallery, San Francisco
2008/08 – Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga California as part of their Artist-in-Residence program

2008-09

Biomorphic Aggregator is a bio-responsive network data collection and visualization system presented as an art installation. The system responds to the participant’s mood and affective responses to various media collected from the web. It manipulates and triggers media via the body’s physiology. It renders a visual and sonic interpretation of this media, as influenced by the participant’s physical states.

Exhibitions:
2007/08 – Institute for Contemporary Art, San Jose, California

2007

Fleshserver involves a series of experiments in which a miniature computer with an embedded web server is interfaced with several frog body parts. The server triggers physical activity in the frog’s body based on input from networked users via a web interface. The action can be seen both in the gallery and online, via a live streaming web camera.

Exhibitions:
2006/10 – A live installation/event was exhibited at the San Jose State University Black Gallery.

2006

BodyDaemon is an Internet a server that is powered and configured by a participant’s physiological states. The project also features a protocol for exchanging bio/server data across the Internet.

Exhibitions:
2006/08 – ZeroOne/ISEA 2006 Festival and Symposium of Electronic Art in San Jose, California
2006/05 – San Jose State University Black Gallery

2005-06

Unique Impressions is a Carnivore (http://r-s-g NULL.org/carnivore/) client, a network visualization and sonification software program that measures the amount communication activity between computers on the local network, and between computers on the local network and the Internet. More specifically, Unique Impressions measures the amount of activity in each “unique impression” on a network.

Exhibitions:
2005/12 – San Jose State University White Gallery
2005/05 – College of Creative Studies Media Art Show, UC Santa Barbara

2005

Particle Evolver is an interactive application which uses genetic algorithms to evolve a 3-D particle system. Just as in biological evolution, methods such crossover, mutation and natural selection are used to evolve the system. Properties of the particle system such as speed, color and number of particles are used as genetic material. The user is the selective agent, working as what’s know in GA parlance as the fitness function. All that a user of this system has to do is designate whether he or she likes what they see. If they do, the system continues to evolve toward the predetermined targets, if not the population is killed off and a new one is randomly generated.

Exhibitions:
02/2012 – San Francisco State University Fine Art Gallery (part of SmARTspace exhibition), San Francisco

2005

Connected Memories.is an interactive piece exploring themes of time and memory. This utilized common everyday objects such as keys or old photographs. These objects, along with their associated memories, connotations and denotations were all stored in a database which was accessed via a 3-dimensional interface. This interface served to demonstrate their relationships and interconnectedness.

Exhibitions:
2004/04 – San Francisco State University Fine Art Gallery, San Francisco

2003-04

Presence. Exploring ideas of time and place, this piece features a looping digital video of an indoor space. Whenever a participant walks close enough to the projected video, another video (of an outdoor space) is displayed in its place, but only in the area where the person is standing.

Exhibitions:
2003/12 – New Media Night, Works Gallery, San Jose, California

2003

I Remember. Film/video piece exploring memory. Is a memory perceived in the same linear fashion in which it occurred? Is memory just a reconstructed version of the original? How are memories connected?

Exhibitions:
2002/12 – Video Synchrony, StudioZ, San Francisco

2002

Memoria Technica. Digital information is experienced as abstract, arbitrary and ultimately ephemeral. Furthermore, according to Jean Baudrillard there is also an inverse relationship between information and meaning. This piece explores these ideas by using sample-rate conversion, compression and other digital means of adding and removing information. A single still image was used.

Exhibitions:
2002/11 – Stillwell Art Show, San Francisco State University, San Francisco

2002

Simulations. Self-released CD of electronic music compositions.

2002

FORMAL EDUCATION

School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT), Simon Fraser University – Vancouver, BC Canada
Ph.D. (expected 2013)

2007-

CADRE Laboratory for New Media, San Jose State University – San Jose, CA.
MFA, Digital Media (2007)

2005-07

Media Arts & Technology Program, University of California, Santa Barbara – Santa Barbara, CA.

2004-05

Conceptual/Information Arts Program, San Francisco State University – San Francisco, CA
B.A., Art (2004)

2001-04

Music/Sound Engineering Program, Miami-Dade College – Miami, FL

1988-90

PUBLICATIONS / PRESENTATIONS / ARTIST TALKS

Castellanos C. & Barnes, S. (2013). “Biopoiesis”. Artist talk, Electronics Alive VII, Scarfone/Hartley Gallery, University of Tampa.

2013

Barnes, S. & Castellanos, C. (2012).”(Re)Structuring Innovation: Community-Based Wet Labs for Art-Science Collaborations”. Invited White Paper for the Network for Sciences, Engineering, Arts and Design (SEAD). http://seadnetwork.wordpress.com/white-paper-abstracts/final-white-papers/restructuring-innovation-community-based-wet-labs-for-art-science-collaborations-2/, accessed December 12, 2012.

Castellanos, C. & Barnes, S. (2012). “Biopoiesis”. Presented at the Interactive Media Arts Conference (IMAC 2012) & Re-new Digital Arts Festival (Re-new 2012), Copenhagen. http://re-new.org/conf2012-welcome/conf2012-program/, accessed October 30, 2012.

Castellanos, C. (2012). “Ambiguity and Unknowability in the Emergent Arts”. Presented at the Society of Literature, Science and the Arts, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. http://litsciarts.org/slsa12/program.php, accessed October 30, 2012.

Castellanos, C. & Barnes, S. (2012). “Biopoiesis”. In Leonardo 45(1), pp. 382-383.

Castellanos, C. & Barnes, S. (2012). “The Message is in the Medium”. Panel Discussion, SIGGRAPH 2012, Los Angeles. http://s2012.siggraph.org/attendees/art-gallery, accessed October 30, 2012.

Castellanos, C. & Barnes, S. (2012). “Biopoiesis”. Presented at Subtle Technologies 2012, Toronto. http://subtletechnologies.com/events/festival-2012/symposium/poster-exhibition, accessed October 30, 2012.

2012

Castellanos, C., Gromala, D. & Pasquier, P. (2010). “Heterogenesis: Collectively Emergent Autonomy”. Workshop on Interactive Multimedia Installations and Digital Art, ICME 2010 (pp. 1606-1611), Singapore.

Castellanos, C., & Gromala, D. (2010). “The Symbiogenic Experience: Towards a Framework for Understanding Human-Machine Coupling in the Interactive Arts”. In Technoetic Arts Journal, 8(1), pp. 11-18.

2010

Castellanos, C., & Gromala, D. (2009). “Symbiogenic Experiences in the Interactive Arts”. Digital Arts & Culture Conference, 2009 (7 pgs), Irvine, CA. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8807m77k, accessed May 4, 2011.

Castellanos, C., & Gromala, D. (2009). “The Symbiogenic Experience: Towards a Framework for Understanding Human-Machine Coupling in the Interactive Arts”. Consciousness Reframed 2009, 10th Annual Planetary Collegium Research Conference (7pgs), Munich. http://www.planetary-collegium.org/presentations.html, accessed May 4, 2011.

Castellanos, C., & Gromala, D. (2009). “The Symbiogenic Art Experience: A Phenomenological and Aesthetic Approach to the Question of Human-Machine Co-evolution”. Presented at the Society of Literature, Science and the Arts Annual Conference, Atlanta. http://www.litsciarts.org/slsa09/program.php, accessed May 4, 2011.

Castellanos, C. & Schiphorst, T. (2009). “BodyDaemon”. In Proceedings of the seventh ACM conference on Creativity and Cognition (pp. 423-424), Berkeley, California.

2009

Castellanos, C., Pasquier, P., Thie, L., & Che, K. (2008). “Biometric Tendency Recognition and Classification System: An Artistic Approach”. In Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Digital Interactive Media in Entertainment and Arts (pp. 166-173), Athens, Greece.

2008

Castellanos, C. (2007). Biomorphic Aggregator. Masters Thesis, San Jose State University.

Castellanos, C. (2007). “BodyDaemon”. Presented at Subtle Technologies 2007, Toronto. http://www.subtletchnologies.com, accessed May 4, 2011.

Castellanos, C. (2007). “Body in Quotes”. Invited session moderator, Borders Boundaries and Liminal Spaces (conference hosted in the online virtual world Second Life).Panelists: Stuart Bunt, Nathaniel Stern, Jeremy Turner. Hosted by Ars Virtua, http://arsvirtua.com/borders, accessed May 4, 2011.

2007

Castellanos, C. (2006). “Towards New Bodies and New Biologies: Life as Code, Body as Protocol”. Presented at the International Digital Media & Arts Association, (8 pgs), Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. http://www.units.muohio.edu/codeconference/proceedings/conference_papers.htm, accessed May 4, 2011.

2006

Castellanos, C. (2005). “Towards New Bodies and New Biologies: Life as Code, Body as Protocol”. Switch: The New Media Art Journal of the CADRE Laboratory, 21. http://switch.sjsu.edu/v21/switch.sjsu.edu/mambo/switch_21/towards_new_bodies_and_new_biologies.html, accessed May 3, 2012.

2005

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Systems Art – Conceptual Art – Cybernetics – Systems Theory – Complexity and Emergence – Artificial Intelligence – Art/Science Collaboration – Art & Research – Body Sensing – Art & Biology – Environmental Sensing – Networks – Electronic Music and Sound Design – Cultural Theory – Embodied Cognition – Phenomenology.

TEACHING

Systems Art & Interactivity (ART 511.2)
Role: Instructor/Visiting Artist/Course Design & Development
Semester(s) taught: Fall 2012
Institution: San Francisco State University, Conceptual/Information Arts Program

Conceptual Strategies (ART 410)
Role: Instructor/Visiting Artist
Semester(s) taught: Fall 2012
Institution: San Francisco State University, Conceptual/Information Arts Program

Sound Design (IAT 380)
Role: Teaching Assistant (Instructor: Philippe Pasquier)
Semester(s) taught: Fall 2010, Spring 2012
Institution: Simon Fraser University, School of Interactive Arts & Technology

Media Across Cultures (IAT 206)
Role: Teaching Assistant (Instructor: Michael Filimowicz)
Semester(s) taught: Spring 2011
Institution: Simon Fraser University, School of Interactive Arts & Technology

Interactive Arts (IAT 222)
Role: Teaching Assistant (Instructor: Ben Unterman)
Semester(s) taught: Fall 2009, Spring 2010
Institution: Simon Fraser University, School of Interactive Arts & Technology

New Media Images (IAT 202)
Role: Teaching Assistant (Instructor: Michael Filimowicz)
Semester(s) taught: Spring 2008
Institution: Simon Fraser University, School of Interactive Arts & Technology

Speculative Design (IAT 431)
Role: Teaching Assistant (Instructor: Diane Gromala)
Semester(s) taught: Spring 2008
Institution: Simon Fraser University, School of Interactive Arts & Technology

Digital Image Design (formerly Systems of Media Representation) (IAT 100)
Role: Teaching Assistant (Instructor: Lorna Boschman)
Semester(s) taught: Fall 2007
Institution: Simon Fraser University, School of Interactive Arts & Technology