Matt Wellins Colloquium: Barely Working Model (2/12/2024)

Found most frequently at transfer stations, dollar stores, and internet forums for bootlegged films, 2023-2024 Visiting Fellow Matt Wellins otherwise resides in New Haven, CT. His work is broadly occupied with the way objects resist control, the snafus of live performance, and how difficult it is to do very simple things. Insomuch as any of this can be heard, he generally works with analog circuitry, field recording, notated music and computer programming. In this talk and performance, Wellins will demonstrate some of his work from the past year as a visiting artist at the Ammerman Center, including experiments with magnetic tape, underwater recording, and using computers to generate sounds that are not heard. In line with the above interests, the focus will be on snags, blockades, and outright flops.

The Ammerman Center at Connecticut College in New London, CT, announces its Colloquia dates and guest speakers. The aim of these public events is to create an inclusive forum for multidisciplinary dialogue at the intersection of arts, technology, and contemporary culture in a variety of formats. This year’s theme is Material/Culture: Our relationships with art, culture, and everyday living have radically shifted in a digital age. Both in conversation with and defiance of technology as invisible or ineffable, this year’s theme seeks to reframe materiality, and ground us with stakes that art and technology pose—culturally, environmentally, politically, and representationally. What does it mean to be a creator, producer, or maker in the 21 st century? What are the ways in which we should (re)consider art and technology’s impact?