After months of planning and preparation, production began on the Carnival Project. The first shoot took place July 27-29, 2009 at the Porter County Fair in Valparaiso, IN. I shot footage of people riding the Feuerball (Fireball) and the Starship Area 51 (also known as the Gravitron). Here are some behind-the-scenes shots of the Fair and stills from the Feuerball.

Learn more about the Carnival Series

Related posts:

1. The Carnival Project

August 28th – September 25th, 2009
Ruffin Gallery, University of Virginia
(Charlottesville, VA)

Motive is a short video that I shot with the University of Minnesota’s Cheerleading team.

Gallery Hours and Location:

179 Culbreth Road
3rd Floor, Ruffin Hall
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA

Related posts:

1. Motive
2. Metamorphoses at the Niche
3. Motive at Normal Projects

August 28th-September 25, 2009
The Niche in the Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library at the University of Virginia
(Charlottesville, VA)

The Niche presents a three-up version of the Metamorphoses videos. This project was shot at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum earlier this year. It documents transgressive and playful interactions that occur as people perform and stage encounters with “celebrities”.

Gallery Hours and Address:
August 28th-September 25, 2009
Opening reception August 28th, 2009
Mon.-Thu. 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. | Fri. 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sat. Closed | Sun. 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Directions

Related posts:

1. Metamorphoses at White Flag Projects
2. The Metamorphoses Series
3. Motive at Ruffin Gallery

Upcoming Shows

Institute of Contemporary Art
Boston, MA (October 22, 2009-October 25, 2009)

Herberger Theater
Phoenix, AZ (November 6, 2009 & November 7, 2009)

About
STREB – BRAVE is my 3rd collaboration with Elizabeth Streb, and our first to utilize responsive and generative visual content. Using video tracking and custom sensors (developed by Arizona State University’s Arts, Media and Engineering Department), we sense the position, velocity and direction of performers and equipment. This information is used to control responsive and visceral 3-d environments. This project uses openFrameworks, an open source C++ library, to create the real-time visuals, and we’ve created a specialized playback software, “playOF” to facilitate the realities of creating a powerful, responsive and tour-able projection design.

Collaborators
Aaron Henderson – Projection Design
Elizabeth Streb – Choreography
Mark Beasley – openFrameworks/Python programming
Byron Lahey – Pendaphone development*
Winslow Burleson – Pendaphone development*

*Arts, Media and Engineering, Arizona State University

Tour History
Prospect Park Bandshell (Brooklyn NY), The State Theater (New Brunswick, NJ), SLAM (Brooklyn, NY), University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI)

Related posts:

1. STREB VS GRAVITY
2. STREB – Wild Blue Yonder
3. Catapult Review – Village Voice

Since I was a kid, I’ve always loved local fairs. There was one every year in Dearborn Heights, pretty close to my parents house—I remember it at only at night—harsh sodium lights casting black shadows, the rumble of car tires as the Gravitron took off, cotton candy wisps, too much perfume and sweat streaked backs. I loved the rides, they were an opportunity to exceed the limits of rationality, especially because getting on one always seemed to involve waiting in long lines watching the rusty parts shudder under the impact of the constant surges of momentum.

Currently, I am working on 4 separate video installations (Feuerball, Gravitron, Pharoah’s Fury, Giant Loop), each focusing on the physical experience of a different ride. I’ve been working with one of the largest Midway operators in the country (North American Midway Entertainment) and they’ve been very supportive, even allowing me to attach my gear directly to the different machines. I’m finished shooting most of the rides, and am beginning editing. I’m planning on finishing these up to premiere in a show I have in Charlottesville early next year.

More info soon!

Here’s an update of the shoot in Indiana – www.aaronhenderson.com/carnival_shoot_valparaiso/

Preparatory drawings:

Related posts:

1. Carnival Shoot in Valparaiso, IN

I’ve got really complicated feelings about Michael Jackson. Last year, I spent a full day in front of his wax figure at Madame Tussaud’s in New York which resulted in Metamorphoses (Michael). Watching people act out their fantasies and fears with him was a cathartic experience for me. Although I like showing him with Britney, George W, Biggie and Oprah, I just finished a 3-up version that compresses many of the interactions into a 3 1/2 minute chunk, which I hope is a fitting tribute.

Music: Michael Jackson – Pretty Young Thing (U-Tern edit)

Related posts:

1. The Metamorphoses Series
2. Metamorphoses at White Flag Projects

“…Aaron Henderson’s vivid projection design shows us some numbers from overhead, occasionally multiplying images into kaleidoscopic patterns. Shapes swim in and out of focus. The short sentences in Laura Flanders’s libretto are projected kookily in addition to being heard on tape. You might want to memorize them for your next science test, as well as for a clue to the impending action (sample: “There is no stasis, only a sequence of situations”)…”

Photograph by Tom Caravaglia

Read full review

Related posts:

1. Fall for Dance Festival Review – New York Times
2. SLAM SHOW X Review – New York Times
3. STREB – Wild Blue Yonder

I’ve graduated and am sticking around Chicago. Currently, I’m continuing work on my own projects, with STREB on their newest project—BRAVE—and I’m teaching at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Roosevelt University. More information about classes I’ve been teaching: http://www.aaronhenderson.com/teaching/

Related posts:

1. Back to school
2. Metamorphoses in Cover Blown (Graduate Exhibition)
3. The Astounding Race

The proposed sculpture is a trace of an unrealized action, Russian gymnast Dimitri Bilozertchev’s Pommel Horse routine at the Los Angeles Olympics. The personal, social and political collided when the Russian team decided to boycott the Olympics, derailing Dimitri’s dreams of Olympic gold. The full scale (approx 8’ x 10’ x 10’) steel sculpture imagines the path of his feet as they rise, circle and twist, inscribing a gesture rehearsed thousands of times. The impossibly complex arcs appear to hover, suspended from above, with two points touching the ground.

This project draws from Ettiene-Jules Marey’s early studies of movement, created at the advent of the photographic image.

“Dimtri” is the first of a series of sculptural projects that attempt to physicalize gestures or movements that have not happened, but have been imagined.

Related posts:

1. SLAM SHOW X Review – New York Times

October 3-5, 2008
ChicagoWorks
Non Grata Art Container
Pärnu International Film & Video Festival (Fideofest)
(Tallin, Estonia)

Curated by Andrew Hicks

Related posts:

1. Motive at Normal Projects
2. Motive at Ruffin Gallery
3. Motive