https://allen-riley.com Allen Riley Sun, 14 Apr 2024 20:42:52 +0000 https://allen-riley.com en https://allen-riley.com/dreamcar Sun, 14 Apr 2024 20:42:52 +0000 Allen Riley https://allen-riley.com/dreamcar Dream Car, 2009 <img width="2048" height="1536" width_o="2048" height_o="1536" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b149c24e9e2b978c6e69eeb95059066d98716d49ab84145c877028670768acb9/flickr_3830498879.jpg" data-mid="208938354" border="0" data-scale="55" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b149c24e9e2b978c6e69eeb95059066d98716d49ab84145c877028670768acb9/flickr_3830498879.jpg" />I volunteered as a gallery monitor at La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela’s Dream House: Sound and Light Environment from 2009 to 2016. Shortly after I began working there, I transformed my 1998 Volvo V70 station wagon into a miniaturized bootleg copy of the installation as a response to the limited availability of La Monte Young’s music. I presented the work at AS220’s Foo Fest in Providence, RI and later at an exhibition at Proteus Gowanus in Brooklyn, NY curated by David Mahfouda. Marian Zazeela later told me she found the work “very amusing.”<img width="2048" height="1536" width_o="2048" height_o="1536" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/eb25eb24fb36962f950deaee037269481dd25cb5f80844d7c323fc31e1254261/flickr_3999522037.jpg" data-mid="208938356" border="0" data-scale="55" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/eb25eb24fb36962f950deaee037269481dd25cb5f80844d7c323fc31e1254261/flickr_3999522037.jpg" /> Here is my original proposal for the installation, which I sent to Foo Fest curator Neal Walsh at AS220 in 2009: “I have spent the past six months working at La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela's Dream House sound and light installation in NYC (www.melafoundation.org).&nbsp; My experience with the space gave me an idea for a project called Dream Car. La Monte Young's work is notoriously difficult to hear due to his attitude about recordings.&nbsp; He is very concerned with preserving the purity and exactitude of his work because of its focus on precise tonal intervals.&nbsp; The few recordings that exist are all out of print. Ironically, this results in most people first encountering his work in compressed audio files. For example, my copy of Young's Trio for Strings, a six-hour-plus drone piece, takes up 86.6 MB. That's very portable.&nbsp; As a response to this situation, I thought it would be fun to make a "compressed" version of the Dream House using my Volvo station wagon. I made a bootleg recording of the Dream House sound using my laptop built-in microphone and burned a CD. I'm buying magenta gels for the windows, laying down white carpeting in the back with the seats down, and covering the leather seats with white canvas.&nbsp; The Dream Car allows people to experience a lossy, compressed version of one of the earliest examples of a site-specific sound installation by one of the most important composers of the twentieth century. Its also a way of thinking about the sonic space of cars, which is really the ultimate immersive drone environment.” <img width="2048" height="1536" width_o="2048" height_o="1536" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/44039b19423029c39be8f500d101dc80c53b8ee3d9ee16e826f2851107e0614d/flickr_3831294480.jpg" data-mid="208938357" border="0" data-scale="55" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/44039b19423029c39be8f500d101dc80c53b8ee3d9ee16e826f2851107e0614d/flickr_3831294480.jpg" /><img width="2048" height="1536" width_o="2048" height_o="1536" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d8cd92b60b3ac400782a7d22d9dc47bf7da3a1551c994e9ab36eaae452eeeabf/flickr_3999517613.jpg" data-mid="208938352" border="0" data-scale="55" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d8cd92b60b3ac400782a7d22d9dc47bf7da3a1551c994e9ab36eaae452eeeabf/flickr_3999517613.jpg" /><img width="2048" height="1536" width_o="2048" height_o="1536" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f1095da8abe2506f8445b17e34bb65bc63b66f2c36794e3903afb025fa78a656/flickr_3831296506.jpg" data-mid="208938353" border="0" data-scale="55" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f1095da8abe2506f8445b17e34bb65bc63b66f2c36794e3903afb025fa78a656/flickr_3831296506.jpg" /><img width="2048" height="1536" width_o="2048" height_o="1536" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2b91d4dfff39023feb0b6241d2c54e45568079bf76b1e56212d62a87baad1269/flickr_3831295816.jpg" data-mid="208938355" border="0" data-scale="55" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2b91d4dfff39023feb0b6241d2c54e45568079bf76b1e56212d62a87baad1269/flickr_3831295816.jpg" /> https://allen-riley.com/Allen-Riley-s-website Sun, 10 Jan 2021 20:41:04 +0000 Allen Riley https://allen-riley.com/Allen-Riley-s-website Allen Riley's website body { font-family:Times,serif; margin:1em; padding:0; font-size:.8em; width: 75%; } h1 {margin:0 0 0.5em 0; font-weight:normal; font-size: 1.4em; text-align: left; text-shadow: 1px 1px #0FD699; } h2 {font-weight:normal; font-size: 1.5em; } a {color: #FF704D; } ul { list-style: none; margin-left: 0; } li { list-style: none; margin-left: 0; } img { max-width: 75%; height: auto; } #blink { animation:date 2s infinite; animation-iteration-count: infinite; -webkit-animation:date 2s infinite; /* Safari and Chrome */ } @keyframes date { from {background:#FF704D;} to {background:#FFFFFF;} } @-webkit-keyframes date { from {background:#FF704D;} to {background:#FFFFFF;} } #email { transform: rotate(180deg); text-align: right; } Allen Riley's website. Updated: 18 March 2026I'm an artist, educator and curator specializing in socially interactive video, media art, and learning. <img src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0f2751d5d10fe593a3b63b5dd5c98fd5eb3c2539b9667e4909604a50808a0d6c/image_6483441.JPG"> I design hands-on learning at Beam Center and make arcade cabinets with Arcade Commons (previously&nbsp;Death by Audio Arcade). I received an MFA in&nbsp;Electronic Integrated Arts at the New York State College of Ceramics and I’m currently a PhD candidate in Film &amp; Digital Media at UC Santa Cruz, where I participate in the Expressive Intelligence Studio.&nbsp;My dissertation is titled The Imagination Synthesizer and it is about the history and future of socially interactive video. My creative projects include arcade games, narrative feature films,&nbsp;video synthesis, live performances, installations, songwriting, and designing STEAM curriculum. I often work with themes of learning and transformation. As a curator, I work closely with artists and venues to develop new projects and ways of sharing work. My goal is to create moments in which audiences experience and participate in the learning process of the artist.&nbsp; CV | Portfolio Performances and Events ↓Hypnogenesis, video synthesis arcade game made with Andy Wallace, in progress in 2026 Earth’s Basement (with Shannon Kerrigan), ISM Festival, Olympia, WA, September 14, 2025 | videoOddly Satisfying curatorial project featuring Blake Andrews, Nina Sobell, Lee Friend Roberts, and Taku Hannoda, Indexical, Santa Cruz, CA, Spring 2025 AI and Video Feedback: An Artist in Conversation with Video Feedback, Immersion Fest, Urbana, IL, September 6, 2024 | video VIDEOFREAK, Museum of the Moving Image, Queens, NY, February 29–September 8, 2024 | link | news Synchronization Station, Indexical, Santa Cruz, CA, January 27, 2023 | video | 2024 Lumen Prize Finalist | Official Selection 2024 Slamdance Film Festival Performance of my songs with Maggie Carson and Or Zubalsky at Sunny's Bar, Brooklyn, NY, January 2020 Episode of The Organist podcast hosted by Andrea Silenzi that features Let the Truth Be Told, the birthday song that I wrote in 2012Doomed, a grunge fantasy movie I directed in 2009 and screened at Spectacle Theater in 2022 Total Oversight, participatory video installations made between 2014-2017 Dream Car, bootleg copy of La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela’s Dream House made in a Volvo station wagon, 2009 Research and Writing ↓ Riley, Allen. “Video Feedback as a Model for Emergent Narrative.” In Interactive Storytelling, edited by María Cecilia Reyes and Frank Nack. Springer Nature Switzerland, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-12405-0_17. “Risk Aesthetics in Participatory Art”, SLSA 2025 Society for Literature, Science and the Arts | video Riley, Allen. “Popcorn Movie: Dynamic Narrative Feedback for Spontaneous Video Storytelling”, ICIDS 2025 Interactive Conference for Interactive Digital Storytelling | paper | video Riley, Allen. "Network Enhancement Video." In A decade to download: The Internet Yami-ichi 2012-2021. Edited by エキソニモ, Idpw, 赤岩やえ, 千房けん輔, and Last Fish. A decade to download project team, 2022. “Videofreak: Video Games and Video Art”, MAGFest, 2020 | video “Learning Productions: Beyond Project-Based Learning”, Reclaiming Digital Futures, with Grace Freedman, Brian Cohen, Calvin Stalvig, and Juan Pablo Sarmiento,&nbsp; Susan Crown Exchange, UC Irvine, 2019 |&nbsp;paper “Education in the Digital Age: Learning and Making at Beam Center”, No Such Thing hosted by Marc Lesser, 2017 | podcast"33CC66", my entry for Websafe2k16, edited by Jo Livingstone and Ben Sisto, 2016 Internet Environments, MFA Thesis Book, 2012 | pdf Instagram: @twoeggshomefriesryetoast allen@emsiac.com <img width="825" height="311" width_o="825" height_o="311" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/59fdc8001272e7bbc2a14f153316ae696f3d4ec3a687f4b7d18122e1202eb6a2/arpa.gif" data-mid="202177484" border="0" data-scale="40" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/825/i/59fdc8001272e7bbc2a14f153316ae696f3d4ec3a687f4b7d18122e1202eb6a2/arpa.gif" /> https://allen-riley.com/paik Mon, 08 Mar 2021 20:33:53 +0000 Allen Riley https://allen-riley.com/paik Video Creatures Nam June Paik: Becoming Robot Description: In 2014, the Asia Society Museum invited me to design and lead a hands-on workshop exploring ideas and materials related to Nam June Paik’s “Family of Robot” video sculptures as part of their public programming surrounding the exhibition “Nam June Paik: Becoming Robot.”&nbsp;Following a tour of the gallery, I led participants through a collaborative design challenge to build a series of increasingly complex video creatures using multiple cameras, looping media players, and displays. <img width="1503" height="1128" width_o="1503" height_o="1128" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/30226894a601cf1f77d7c16b23b375d5988c6d42ed16181a7f84e39ce8bc0df1/-allen-njp-paik-gallery.jpg" data-mid="101617507" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/30226894a601cf1f77d7c16b23b375d5988c6d42ed16181a7f84e39ce8bc0df1/-allen-njp-paik-gallery.jpg" /> Photo: Leading workshop participants through a tour of the “Nam June Paik: Becoming Robot” exhibition. In addition to examining the Family of Robot video sculptures, we interacted with Paik’s installation “Participation TV.” <img width="3759" height="2506" width_o="3759" height_o="2506" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/73107ee8bd2e5639614b8fb460b881b31b367155d17da51d981ec92d0390405b/asiasociety9b.jpg" data-mid="101615345" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/73107ee8bd2e5639614b8fb460b881b31b367155d17da51d981ec92d0390405b/asiasociety9b.jpg" /> <img width="4496" height="3000" width_o="4496" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e00ed4f828bc5c683b1bb06900f7a4c9bf072ea34cf0a7d6f1174d797b13b2e4/DSC_1685b.jpg" data-mid="101614859" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e00ed4f828bc5c683b1bb06900f7a4c9bf072ea34cf0a7d6f1174d797b13b2e4/DSC_1685b.jpg" /> <img width="4496" height="3000" width_o="4496" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/53e1e3304bd6dbed5f8addc08ce4c17f68c68e9a109edfd3b7efe874e5f620c5/asiasociety11b.jpg" data-mid="101614685" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/53e1e3304bd6dbed5f8addc08ce4c17f68c68e9a109edfd3b7efe874e5f620c5/asiasociety11b.jpg" /> <img width="2472" height="1648" width_o="2472" height_o="1648" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4ee9a21ceaaedb25ad2944b8ddc6e38459a17166aa338f0b66fc2abaccf6cf86/njp-diagram.jpg" data-mid="101616971" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4ee9a21ceaaedb25ad2944b8ddc6e38459a17166aa338f0b66fc2abaccf6cf86/njp-diagram.jpg" />Photo: Starting patch diagram for the workshop. Participants began by working in small groups to create a face using a CRT and two 7” TFT displays. The groups then merged to create a collective video creature <img width="4496" height="3000" width_o="4496" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d553431c479255f528304a47eb4a6e6343ba9bc26cf83d019fde9cf4e61efb04/asiasociety4.JPG" data-mid="101613595" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d553431c479255f528304a47eb4a6e6343ba9bc26cf83d019fde9cf4e61efb04/asiasociety4.JPG" />