Void Contemplation Tactics: Karl Erickson
The first 2021 installment in our ongoing virtual mindfulness installation series
For the first 2021 chapter of the Void Contemplation Tactics virtual mindfulness installation series, we're featuring audio and visual work from artist Karl Erickson.
In May 2019 I began hosting a series of IRL yoga/meditation installations with Erickson and musician Mark Perretta in Muncie, Indiana. Lay Your Body Down was “an evening of slow movement with meditative sound and visuals.” This 90m session included live keyboard drones from Perretta, "visual drones" by Erickson, and meditation and yin yoga instruction from myself.
Those experiences were the beginning of a new chapter in my creative practice, and so it’s a pleasure and a privilege to present this new installment of Void Contemplation Tactics featuring audio/visuals from my old friend and helpful mentor. This episode also includes my guided meditation intro, and language from Alan Watts.
"The video is of a tree recorded through a screen, then translated through an analog video and sound synthesis system," says Erickson. "This system is a lot like a living being, with electrical signals flowing through wires, sending messages as voltages, responding to touch stimuli, in general wanting to be fed and caressed. It is a way of connecting with other ways of thinking and being. For this, we moved slow and low, gentle pulses leading the way."
Continue reading at researchcatalogue.net
Go deeper still with the Void Contemplation Tactics catalog at danielchamberlin.com.
Karl Erickson makes videos, performances and collages centering on themes of transformative experiences, self-betterment and environmentalism. Recent exhibitions include “Are You Connect?” at the Electronic Arts Gallery of Colorado State University, “Time For Something Else” with Laurie Nye at Day & Night Projects, Atlanta and Megalith, part of The Wrong Biennial. Recent video screenings and performances were included in Indie Memphis 2019 and 2020, and Adjusting the Lens: Experimental Film and Video Festival at Unrequited Leisure, Nashville, TN. He has been an artist in residence at The Arctic Circle, Plyspace and Signal Culture. He teaches Digital Art at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. He received his MFA from California Institute of the Arts and his BFA from Wayne State University, Detroit, MI.
Find more Karl at www.karlhugoerickson.com