Artist-in-residence June 9-27, 2020
AUTOMATED
Ray Chang
This summer, Automata is hosting a series of individual artist’s residencies—a program we launched to serve creative process and new work development while we are unable to gather for events. Each Resident Artist has 24-hour access to the full space, allowing for uninterrupted work-time and focus.
Ray Chang was our first artist-in-residence in the series. During his residency, Chang further developed his installation AUTOMATED (working title).
A complex arrangement of individual sculpture-machines, AUTOMATED is a representational kinetic sculpture of a fictional city. Chang's mechanical sculptures share a cyclical relationship to early animation devices, such as the zoetrope, mutoscope, and various automata. Each sculpture-machine is also an optical device, and a means of representing the constant rhythm that flows through the space, as through a city. Constructed by Chang from original 3D printed and wooden elements, AUTOMATED will be a singular experience for viewers.
AUTOMATED presents a juxtaposition of early cinematic principles and urban experience. Each object in the city actualizes an animated image through harmonized intermittency or causes aberration through irregular motion. Viewers will find numerous ways to experience AUTOMATED by peering into windows and buildings, watching the cinematic cycles embedded in each sculpture, and making secret discoveries.
From Ray Chang:
“While at Automata, I was able to explore the relationship between my installation and the space it inhabits. From the shadows it produces onto the walls to the sound that echoes throughout, I experimented with many configurations and finally had the opportunity to walk around, through, and even see from above what the piece looked like from various perspectives.
My goal was to also document the installation, so I experimented with different ways to capture the work on camera, and to edit together a video that captures the physical experience. Certainly, this whole experience has allowed me to openly experiment in ways I could not have before.”
June 9–27, 2020
RAY CHANG
Ray Chang is a Taiwanese-American artist who recently received his MFA degree at the California Institute of the Arts in Experimental Animation. Through experimentation of mechanical sculpture and installation, he explores themes of visual phenomena, automation and broad feelings of ennui and alienation. His 2018 installation Manufactured explored the origins of the manufacturing of goods, by employing early cinematic principles as a way to find intersections with early manufacturing methods. Ray also collaborated with a group of colleagues from the CalArts School of Theater, and together they attended and showcased their toy theater project Ubu Roi at the Prague Quadrennial for PQ Studio of Summer 2019.
Website :: www.rayfchang.com
Instagram :: @rayfchang
The 2020 Automata Residency Project is made possible with generous support from The Jim Henson Foundation and the LA Arts Covid-19 Relief Fund, funded by the J.Paul Getty Trust in partnership with the California Community Foundation.
Our Residency Projects are also funded, in part, through the ongoing support of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and the LA County Arts Commission.