VR Art Camp

Sharmi Basu

Sharmi Basu (they/them) is a queer, South Asian American multimedia performance artist, curator, composer, arts advocate, and organizer born and based in the occupied lands of the Ohlone people aka Oakland, CA. They create immersive sound installations, new media controllers and performance pieces that investigate the emotional landscape of people in struggle. They research conflict, accountability, and care work in the interest of creating decolonial narratives toward collective healing, while investigating emotional skill-building through the practice of improvisation and deep listening. Their performance project, Beast Nest transmutes trauma and chronic illness through vast sonic world building, layering strands of sound across the frequency spectrum. They received their MFA from Mills College and host workshops internationally that center on sound healing and decolonization, as well as technical skill-shares. Their organizational work is dedicated to mutual aid and advocating for the rights of survivors, arts workers and artists.

www.sharmi.info

beastnest.bandcamp.com

Kelley O’Leary

Kelley O’Leary (she/they/it) is a transdisciplinary artist based in the Bay Area. As one of the last generations of humans to have pre-Internet memories, she is driven to document and articulate the transformation of life in the digital age on a planetary scale. O'Leary's practice extends to the examination of the Internet's intricate relationship with the expansion of the American West. This exploration traces the connections between digital technology and the ongoing transformation of landscapes, linking the virtual and the physical. Her recent work explores the physicality of the internet through the perspective of an archeologist of the future, conjuring speculative artifacts using site-specific materials to reveal hidden geographies embedded within cyberspace, and pointing towards the immensity of Earth’s extraction across a geological timescale. She received a MFA in Art Studio from University of California, Davis and a BA in Art with a minor in Anthropology from University of California, Santa Cruz. O’Leary is a member of Imaginaries of the Future Collective, a self-organizing nomadic collective of artists and thinkers.

https://www.kelleyoleary.com/

Polly Korbel

∴ I am polly; I am many. Anti-disciplinary artist, political theorist, theologian, alchemist, curious, soft, sometimes prickly. My work is a mirror, to see more clearly the patterns of my being. My work is a spiritual practice hammering out ways of being, meeting the self in the material. Meeting the material in the self. My work is a gleeful engagement with material and immaterial worlds. Every work, every space, a social sculpture. A dance with time and gravity, and all forms of energy – including you and me.

@pollychromatic

Robin Rutenberg

Robin Rutenberg is a sound and media artist with an emphasis on feminist world-building through storytelling & performance, experiential sound, experimental composition, digital arts, and poetry. Robin works across mediums, from interactive game art, to film, to sound installations. By pairing visually striking virtual spaces with experiential, spatial audio, they create emotionally rich and stimulating worlds. 

Their practice is steeped in ruminations on gender, family, and kinship and asks how [missed]communication and [mis]understanding within and between bodies, objects, and environment inform these relations. They are deeply interested in the affective power of using one’s voice, speaking with the body, and being witnessed as generative acts of healing and connection.

Robin holds an MA in Sound Studies and Sonic Arts from the University of Arts Berlin.

https://robinrutenberg.com/

Conny Zenk

Conny Zenk is a transdisciplinary artist who combines visual art, performance and sound art to explore the ways in which a collective body is shaped by sound art and community practices. Her work explores, interrupts and renegotiates her findings by engaging directly with sound art and cycling communities. Since 2014, she has curated the participatory event series RAD Performance. Entitled Dance your Bike! she is developing a new composition format for the bicycle, as part of an Artistic Research Pilot Project at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Since 2020, Zenk has been working on a new music format such as Soundrides in public space. Zenk, lives and works in Vienna, and completed a Diploma in Digital Art at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where she is currently in the PhD in Art program.

https://connyzenk.com

Jungmok Yi

Jungmok Yi (they/them) is a queer non-binary 1.5 generation Korean-American immigrant transdisciplinary artist working with subjects such as U.S. history, diaspora lineage, transnationalism, non-binary practice, love, and entanglement. They hold a graduate degree in sculpture from Tyler School of Art and Architecture. They are the director and a co-editor for Are We A Joke?, a publication series on Pan-Asian LGBTQIA womxn burlesque, drag, and BDSM artists.

"I've designed a virtual karaoke setting to reunite friends and foster emotional expression. Singing taps into our inner feelings and physical presence in a unique way. This initiative is all about providing a platform where we can collectively process our emotions, whether it's finding solace during challenging moments or rejoicing in the richness of human bonds."

@jungmokyi