Month: January 2021

Photographer Kyle Adler Named as a LABA 2021 Artist Fellow

Shown here: Virtual meets reality as Carly Lave’s body floats through the physical world while her motion is informed by her interactions with the virtual world playing inside her headset.

Dear Readers,

I am excited to announce that I’ve been selected as a 2021 Fellow in the LABA Artist Fellowship. LABA is a house of study and culture laboratory which uses classic Jewish texts to inspire the creation of art, dialogue, and study. The program began in New York City in 2007 at the 14th Street Y, expanded to Buenos Aires in 2015, and more recently opened in the SF Bay Area. LABA was named one of the most innovative Jewish organizations. The goal is to present Judaism’s rich literary and intellectual tradition in a free and creative setting, where they can spark new thought and culture. The creative output from LABA pushes the boundaries of what Jewish art can be and what Jewish texts can teach.

Shown here: Arina Hunter presents a multimedia performance integrating projected moving images of her movement while simultaneously mapping the range of her motion in shape and color.

I am thrilled to be joining an incredibly talented cohort of fellow artists for the 2021 program! Check out their bios here: https://labaeastbay.org/fellows

This fellowship will allow me to reanimate and repurpose my ongoing passion project, “Human/Machine Dance Project”. Beginning as a collaboration with the infinitely creative choreographer/scholar/dancer Carly Lave, the project explores through visual storytelling the ways in which advanced technology may impact humanity. I’ve explored this theme in depth with Carly and also with a number of other culture makers and thought leaders. For the LABA Artist Fellowship, I will be adapting the concept of the Golem–an artificial person created by humans rather than by the divine–from classic Jewish texts into the 21st century via extending the stories to embrace advanced technologies such as AI and robots. Can’t wait to collaborate with the other LABA fellows and staff to spark new life (so to speak) into my passion project!

Shown here: Erin Yen and Liselle Yap block a dance piece with movement generated by a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) coded by Erin. This neural network learns and adapts in concert with human feedback.