Find out what to see at the CURRENTS Art and Technology Festival

Have you ever wanted to be a bat?

At CURRENTS Art and Technology Festival, you can put on a bat mask and travel by echolocation.

“EchoVision” is just one of 72 projects by 90 local and international artists who will assemble in Santa Fe’s Railyard Arts District for the festival’s 16th edition.

From a robotically controlled violin ensemble to animated video sculptures and an AI séance, CURRENTS showcases artworks and performances that use 21st century technologies in novel ways. CURRENTS is also hosting a two-day symposium, titled “Art and Technology in a Culture of Speed,” beginning on Saturday, June 14.

“Our focus is really the art. The technology is secondary,” Frank Ragano, co-founder and executive director of CURRENTS, said. “Everybody’s using the latest technology, but we’re not a gadget show. The technology is just a tool they’re using. We are very human-centric.”

Jordan Eddy, the editorial director of Southwest Contemporary Magazine, who is moderating the first day of the symposium, underscored the humanistic focus.

“What we are trying to do is actually just be humans in a room, talking about these massive changes that are causing so much future shock and paralysis as we tumble forward into the thick of this century,” Eddy said.

He is hoping for a “nuanced conversation” beyond the extremes of “techno-pessimism” and “techno-utopianism.”

“I hope to create almost a sense of relief by shrinking down some of these big issues into digestible ideas and speaking about them in collaboration with artists,” Eddy said.

The second day of the symposium will be moderated by Mary Tsiongas, an experimental art and technology professor at the University of New Mexico. Both days start with a panel in the morning, followed by artist talks and exhibition walkthroughs.

“So, if you want a comprehensive look at the CURRENTS festival, you should attend the symposium,” Eddy said.

Eddy has been in Santa Fe for 13 years and has witnessed the festival grow and change over time.

“This is a festival where you can simultaneously witness technology evolving year by year — especially in recent years, seeing VR and AR (augmented reality) and AI enter the picture,” Eddy said. “But the other thing that I’ve been talking with the symposium participants about in our preliminary conversations, is that CURRENTS is really a ‘slow art’ institution.”

“The average person spends less than 15 seconds looking at an artwork,” Eddy continued. “But these are time-based works, durational artworks that challenge you to experience them over time. And, in fact, what’s interesting about the symposium is that it’s called ‘Art and Technology in a Culture of Speed,’ but the CURRENTS festival jars you out of that culture of speed and puts you in a much slower and more pensive space.”

Although most of the works in CURRENTS are time-based, not all are quiet or slow. “EchoVision,” by Jiabao Li and Botao “Amber” Hu is the interactive-augmented reality piece that lets participants experience life as a bat, which involves putting on a high-tech bat mask and screaming.

“Through ‘EchoVision,’ you can scream to see the environment bouncing back, just like how bats echolocate. They scream, and then they hear the environment bouncing back,” Li explained.

“EchoVision” makes creative use of the iPhone’s LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) system, which people typically use for making 3D floorplans. Li, who worked at Apple from 2018 to 2021, helped develop the sensor.

She was inspired to use LiDAR to simulate the experience of echolocation after reading the philosopher Thomas Nagel’s “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” which argues that humans can never fully understand the lived experiences of other species.

“EchoVision” may be a playful project, but Li hopes it can foster cross-species empathy.

“I work with the Austin Bat Refuge (in Austin, Texas), which is an NGO that rescues bats,” Li said. “A lot of people think bats carry diseases — especially after COVID — and they think bats suck blood. But hopefully this work can change people’s stereotypes of bats. They’re actually amazing creatures.”

“The Emissary (Prayer 1)” by Chicago-based artist Hunter Whitaker-Morrow is another performance piece designed to build empathy.

Using archival audio from his grandparents’ church, along with his own impassioned oratory, Whitaker-Morrow performs what he calls “a science fiction rally or an Afrofuturist sermon.” Behind him, footage from “Star Trek: Deep Space 9” will be processed by voice-responsive software.

The “Star Trek” footage comes from a 1995 episode set in the distant future, in which the captain of the Starfleet, played by Avery Brooks, a Black actor, must travel back in time to 2024 and impersonate a revolutionary leader in order to keep history’s timeline from going off course.

“I was interested in what it would be like to step into the role of the character of the Starfleet captain, who is seen as a religious figure, who is then stepping into this role of a revolutionary in the time period in which I’m currently living,” Whitaker-Morrow said.

The artist’s “sermon” is a collage of texts from various social theorists, sci-fi writers like Ursula K. Le Guin and the jazz poet Gil Scott-Heron, mixed with his own writings, which, taken together, express his “general frustration with the state of the world,” as he put it.

Ragano watched a video of Whitaker-Morrow’s performance before meeting him on a Zoom call. Based on the intensity of the sermon, he said he was expecting the artist to be “really intense,” too.

“But he was just the sweetest, nicest guy,” Ragano said.

“A lot of my friends who’ve seen me do (the performance) are like, ‘Oh, my God! I didn’t know you had it in you!’” Whitaker-Morrow said. “But it’s definitely a character I’m able to slip into.”

In addition to attracting acclaimed artists from around the world, Ragano said he remains committed to “keeping the spirit of community, and a bit of a DIY feeling.”

He estimated that 40% of the participating artists in this year’s lineup are locals. And he keeps prices low to attract local audiences, too, including families. It’s $15 for a ten-day all access pass, and anyone under 20 gets in free.

In the early years of the festival, Ragano said there were fewer local artists experimenting with new technologies.

“But an underground scene started to develop — not only around art but experimental music, as well,” Ragano said. “Over the past decade, this whole underground scene has been developing here, which is quite exciting.”

He said the sheer number of artists, performers and presenters at this year’s conference means there will be “something for everyone.”

“We try to create a magical environment,” Ragano said. “And it’s a real community event, which is as important as the art event to me.”

CURRENTS Art and Technology Festival showcases 'very human-centric' artwork, performances

Logan Royce Beitmen is an arts writer for the Albuquerque Journal. He covers music, visual arts, books and more. You can reach him at lbeitmen@abqjournal.com.