Clément Valla

Origine :

Domaines de compétences :

Biographie

Clement Valla is an artist and programmer interested in processes that produce unfamiliar artifacts and skew reality. Valla works within systems, applying a ‘programmed brain’ that pushes problem-solving logic to irrational ends. After working as an architect and designer in the USA, France, and China, Clement Valla began using computers and digital technologies to explore formal, mathematical, linguistic and social systems. He studied the intersection between art and computer programming at the Rhode Island School of Design’s Digital+Media MFA program, focusing on issues of individual and massively collaborative authorship, and generative algorithms applied to systems of reproduction. He has collaborated with a number of artists and architects, and his work has been shown internationally. He currently teaches in Digital + Media and Foundation Studies at RISD. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

CV & Parcours
2009    MFA, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
2001    BA, Columbia College, Columbia University, New York, NY
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Site Specific Installations
2010    “Sketch/Sketch,” Waterman Building, RISD, Providence, RI
2009    “Six Geometric Figures within Six Geometric Figures by Mechanical Turk Workers,” Center for Integrated Technology, RISD, Providence, RI
2008    “White Collar,” White Collar Store, Beijing, China
“Digital Pond,” Water Cube, Olympic Park, Beijing, China

Selected Group Exhibitions
2010    “Public Records,” Public Fiction (the museum of), Los Angeles, CA
“The Big Country,” The Moviehouse in Millerton, Millerton, NY
“pixilerations [v.7],” Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence, RI
“A Flawed Providence,” Dorsch Gallery, Miami, FL
“The Wassaic Project Summer Festival,” The Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY
“ELOAI,” Brown University, Providence, RI
2009    “Left To Chance,” Firehouse 13, Providence, RI
“pixilerations [v.6],” Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence, RI
“The Wassaic Project Summer Festival,” The Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY
MFA Thesis Exhibition, Rhode Island School of Design Rhode Island Convention Center, Providence RI
“Boston CyberArts Festival,” Boston, MA
2008    “Reverse Turing Tests: Hilary Berseth and Kevin Zucker,” Eleven Rivington, New York; collaborator on Zucker’s “curated” paintings
“From Big Box to White Box,” Gelman Gallery, Chace Center, RISD, Providence, RI
“MircroMediations,” Sol Koffler Gallery, RISD, Providence, RI

Teaching
2009-11    Adjunct Professor, Digital + Media, RISD, Providence, RI
-Continuum Studio, First Year Graduate Studio
-3D Modeling for Artists and Designers, Graduate Studio
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2009-11    Adjunct Professor, Foundation Studies, RISD, Providence, RI
-Design, First Year Undergraduate Studio
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2010-11    Research Coordinator for G-Speak gestural technology, RISD, Providence, RI
2010-11    Digital Technician, NSF EPSCoR at RISD, RISD, Providence, RI
2008-11    Instructor, Introduction to Computer Programming Workshops, Foundation Studies, RISD, Providence, RI
2008-09    Instructor, 3D Modeling for Artists and Designers, Digital + Media, RISD, Providence, RI
2009    Teaching Assistant, Programming for Digital Art and Literature, Computer Science, Brown University, Providence, RI
2007    Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Creative Code, Digital + Media, RISD, Providence, RI

Awards
2009     Award of Excellence, Rhode Island School of Design
Written Thesis Award, Rhode Island School of Design

Artist’s Statement
My work focuses on socio-technical systems that raise a number of interesting questions about authorship and human/computer relationships. I explore digital technologies that are not simply new tools to create and distribute copies of things but that also enable new social relationships through which people produce multiples. I treat existing artifacts, existing site conditions, market relationships, or networked and collaborative systems as programmable systems, using simple algorithmic methods : copying, repetition, iteration. When my programs run their course, inherent contradictions and absurd situations result from the very structure of the system itself, producing unfamiliar artifacts and juxtapositions. Like an anamorphic projection, my programs produce distortions that reveal their own underlying logic, but also point to the system as it functions when we fail to notice it- when it works conventionally.