CATS+ Interactive Cinema

About

This residency session was part of the CATS+ program and ran from June to August 2023. 6 artists and game developers spent the summer learning, experimenting, and creating interactive cinema projects for the MoHA Drive-In theater.

The CATS+ residents are Sebastien Hubiera (Dust Bunny), Temitope Olujobi, Rose Ott, E Pettigrew, Cathryn Ploehn, and Miranda Viskatis. Contributing mentors and artists include Kristine Fernandez, Rachel Weil, Kristin Lucas, Cindy Popp, Jay Roff-Garcia, and Rachel Stuckey.

Projects

22 Bands

E Pettigrew's video installation art 22 Bands is an intimate, poetic reflection on gender identity and hair in the context of Moor, Christian cultural values.

Credits

E Pettigrew: Performer and Video artist CATS+ Interactive Cinema resident.

Artist Statement

Experiencing gender through a Moor (Black) lens, Allowing space for Gender neutrality to be explored through this process of something just as neutral; "The Moor hair". I've become interested in this subject due to my recent pronoun change and understanding of how I express my gender through gender-bending—growing up in a Christian society, which is very popular in the Moor community. I felt it would be interesting to dive into this idea of understanding how important hair is to us and how it identifies us. The understanding is that women should have hair because it makes them more appealing and straight. Mostly for the male gaze, in particular. And if we don't have hair, we appear to want to be that male gaze or of the LGBTQ which goes against the "Bible". On the opposite of this spectrum, where if a man has long hair it somehow deteriorates their manhood, being less of. My questions are why do something as neutral as our hair do we allow these ideas to dictate our gender? Why aren't we allowing our moor youth to figure themselves out but allowing a book to tell us who we are? What are we afraid of? Why do we have to uphold a society look, that wasn't built for us to begin with? Why does gender expression matter so much for others' approval?

Hands That Steal from “Other” Mouths

A theatrical, surreal two-player video game/music video about Empire and extraction, Hands that Steal from “Other” Mouths, personifies the exploitative relationship between the global North and South in a frenzied tale about a community of mouths battling a group of greedy capitalist hands.

Credits

Temitope Olujobi: Game Designer, Artist, Programmer & Narrator. CATS+ Interactive Cinema resident.
FLARM: Music
FLARM, founded in the year of our lord 2018, features the dynamic stylings of Hot Mitzvah (Alex Lievens), Jelly Goulding (Gabriel Boyajian), occasionally Crybaby Burtcocaine (Josh Bransky), and Mayor Clamrai Bonerthumb (Anrai Pearson) who was recently appointed in last years midterm erections. Spotify

Artist Statement

A theatrical, surreal two-player video game/music video about Empire and extraction, Hands that Steal from “Other” Mouths, personifies the exploitive relationship between the global North and South. Players that choose to defend, will play as the “Mouth.” Your role is to protect the community of “Moutheria,” a peaceful society of anthropomorphic mouths that are indigenous to the land they have preserved for centuries. As a guardian of “Moutheria,” it's your goal to roll through the environment protecting the land’s valuable treasures and resources, stopping those who seek to steal them by biting. Players that choose to extract, will play as “The Hand,” a literal hand that plunder’s the land of “Moutheria” for profit. Taking is your legacy, It's what your parents did, It’s what your ancestors did and now, it’s your turn to get a piece of the action. Control the hand like a crane drifting above the environment on the hunt for resources and grab what you can without getting bitten.

Hands That Steal from “Other” Mouths, is played in the foreground of a music video, scored by Flarm with art and narration by Temitope Olujobi, that details the story of US imperialism through AFRICOM (United States Africa Command).

Mycorrhizal Myth Machine

Gather 'round for a haunting storytelling drive-in at the end of the world.

We've developed the technology to commune with the mysterious, hidden mycelial intelligence under our feet. It seems to have an seismic wisdom about how to grapple with what feels like the end of times.

Unfortunately, we've discovered that this mycelium is quite hungry...for stories.

We need to figure out the language of the mycelium's plant partners to commune with this intelligence.

In the safety of their cars, participants will unlock the secrets of plant-mycelial communication, submitting their stories of climate-anxiety and livability along the way.

Credits

Cathryn Ploehn: Project creator. CATS+ Interactive Cinema resident.

You Are Invited

We cordially invite you to join us for an intimate gathering in our interactive living room to celebrate [occasion]. We are thrilled to announce that our living room will be transformed into a lively karaoke haven, featuring the Wow! Premium Filipino karaoke machine, with more secrets to be found... As valued friends, we would be delighted to have you share in this special occasion with us: our drive-in with 4D desire.

Credits

Miranda Viskatis: Set designer and concept co-creator. CATS+ Interactive Cinema resident.
Rose Ott: Technical Lead. CATS+ Interactive Cinema resident.
Dust Bunny: Set designer and concept co-creator. CATS+ Interactive Cinema resident.

Events

Mycorrhizal Myth Machine

August 4, 2023 | 9pm–10:30pm

Gather 'round for a haunting storytelling drive-in at the end of the world.

We've developed the technology to commune with the mysterious, hidden mycelial intelligence under our feet. It seems to have an seismic wisdom about how to grapple with what feels like the end of times.

Unfortunately, we've discovered that this mycelium is quite hungry...for stories.

We need to figure out the language of the mycelium's plant partners to commune with this intelligence.

In the safety of their cars, participants will unlock the secrets of plant-mycelial communication, submitting their stories of climate-anxiety and livability along the way.

Cathryn Ploehn is an interaction designer and professor. Her work interrogates how to design for livability in the midst of climate crisis and injustice. To this end, she creates data visualizations, taking the form of botanical simulations, to help de-estrange us from ecological community (humans and more).

cathrynploehn.com

This project was developed for the CATS+ residency program.

CATS+ Expanded Cinema Showcase and Karaoke Night

August 12, 2023 | 8:30pm–9pm

Join us for a showcase of very fresh, experimental video art, video games, and interactive installation art brought to you by this summer’s CATS+ residents! It just might be your new favorite identity questing, queer, anti-capitalist karaoke night.

The Collaborative Art + Technology Situation (CATS+) residency program encourages thoughtful, critical, creative engagement with technology by pairing artists and tech wizards to learn together, make new projects, and share their process. We host collaborations, artist-led workshops, hangouts, public showcases, and a wiki to remove the mystery from tech and make magic together.

The CATS+ residents are Dust Bunny, Temitope Olujobi, Rose Ott, E Pettigrew, Cathryn Ploehn, and Miranda Viskatis. Contributing mentors and artists include Kristine Fernandez, Rachel Weil, Kristin Lucas, Cindy Popp, Jay Roff-Garcia and Rachel Stuckey. Read more about the program, artists, and projects here.

Workshops

Interactive Drive-In Media 101

June 22, 2023 | 7pm–8pm

An introduction to the MoHA Drive-In with a focus on interactive experiences including past successes and failures, high and low tech opportunities for interactivity, and available equipment, workspaces, and resources.

For the CATS+ Interactive Cinema residency program.

Hacking old tech: Mystic Hotline

June 29, 2023 | 6pm–8pm

Artist Rachel Simone Weil presents her interactive media project Mystic Hotline and talks through her process of hacking older technology as an ecological, political, and playful art practice. Weil also discusses the importance of working in line with your values when using technology in art.

This event was created for the CATS+ Interactive Cinema Residency.

AR collaboration: flARmingos

July 6, 2023 | 6pm–8pm

Artist Kristin Lucas presents her augmented reality project flARmingos and discusses her experiences working collaboratively on tech projects for different budgets, scopes, and audiences.

This event was created for the CATS+ Interactive Cinema Residency.

Resident Bios

Dust Bunny

Dust Bunny is a practicing multimedia artist based in Austin, TX. They continue to explore their unique intersectional identity as a 1st generation queer Filipino American and the unexpected experiences of everyday life through drag performance, drawing, sculpture, projection mapping, and mixed media. In hopes to make sense of these experiences, Dust Bunny plays off distinguishable forms of easily defined characteristics as caricature (Bunny) while introspectively distorting those definitions into indistinguishable loose forms (Dust). Their work is an ever developing exchange based on this relationship. IG @dustxbunnyb

Temitope Olujobi

Temitope Olujobi is a Queer Nigerian-American Architect turned Game Designer using their design practice to visualize speculative environments, featuring powerful quixotic visions of resistance that depict a world without hegemony. thezhato.portfolio.site

Rose Ott

Rose Ott is a programmer, game designer and pastels kinda gal. She is fascinated with surreality, unreality, and liminality; focusing on those aspects of “strange yet eerily familiar”. She usually makes first person video games, but is excited to get to experiment with physical space and how it interacts with the virtual one. roseott.dev

E Pettigrew

E Pettigrew is a Moor-American artist who uses video and photos to speak about our relationship with media consumption. Their main focus of work plays on being a product of our environment and how media consumption and programming make us who we are today. elexuspettigrew.com

Cathryn Ploehn

Cathryn Ploehn is an interaction designer and professor. Her work interrogates how to design for livability in the midst of climate crisis and injustice. To this end, she creates data visualizations, taking the form of botanical simulations, to help de-estrange us from ecological community (humans and more). cathrynploehn.com

Miranda Viskatis

As a first-generation American who grew up in-between Argentine and American cultures, Miranda Viskatis is fixated on identity and memory, and how it relates to Being in time and in space. She is continually attempting to represent this relationship in her work; a process which leads her to a nebulous realm, where subjectivity reigns, and things are constantly shifting— including one’s perception. mirandaviskatis.com

Resident Materials

The following materials were utilized by the CATS+ Interactive Cinema residents.