After Dark: Delightful Devices

Encounter delightful designs, outlandish objects, and astounding apparatuses in this celebration of the closing weekend of Curious Contraptions. Incorporating innovators whose hands-on approaches fuse with technology in surprising and enchanting ways, prepare to encounter objects and artists that have left the expected behind to explore curious new possibilities.  Top the evening off with a one-of-a-kind performance merging artistry, comedy, and song from by self-described “electronics company from a parallel world” Maywa Denki.

Ume Course
With Maywa Denki
8:30 p.m.  |  Osher Gallery 1, Kanbar Forum

Delight in the purported nonsense machines of Maywa Denki in this charming performance by president Tosa San. Self-described as an “electronics company in a parallel world,” Maywa Denki builds an array of handmade, absurd devices that serve as the foundation for their public performances, which are a singular blend of song, dance, comedy and art.

Ongoing

CLIO
With Camila Magrane
6:30-9:30 p.m.  |  Osher Gallery 1

Coalesce with CLIO, an interactive photogram mirror from artist Camila Magrane. Upon approach, she comes to life, inviting you to gaze and react and then, like a mirror, reflecting your motion back to you. Superimposing artificial and natural elements onto a human image, CLIO invites interactivity as a form of communication, leaving behind pure observation and asking you to become an explorer and co-creator of the work.

In a Whirl (Studies in Perceptual Glitching)
With Elaine Buckholtz
6:30-9:30 p.m.  |  Osher Gallery 1

Don a pair of perception-altering glasses and watch your sense of space transmute in Elaine Buckholtz’s work In a Whirl (Studies in Perceptual Glitching). By pairing vision-shifting glasses with mirrors that alter awareness, In a Whirl builds a vision of reality that is not quite connected to the real.

Robotic Voice Activated Word Kicking Machine
With Neil Mendoza
6:30-9:30 p.m.  |  Osher Gallery 1, Recollections

Probe your strange relationship with the many talking machines encountered in daily life. Combining projection and robotics, The Robotic Voice Activated Word Kicking Machine is a surreal exploration of language that considers the traverse between the virtual and the physical. Speak to the machine and watch as your words transition to the virtual work, where they may accumulate, get kicked by a robotic foot or be sucked back out into the physical world, manifesting as sound.

Virtual Mutations
Camila Magrane
6:30-9:30 p.m.  |  Osher Gallery 1

Augmented reality unveils a hidden microcosm in Camila Magrane’s mixed-media collages. Seen through the naked eye as a series of 2D works that reframe a female figure in a sparse mechanical space, the works are enlivened through Virtual Mutations, a phone-based AR application. When moved over the works, the active motion of a fully realized 3D space is revealed.

Film Projectors Inside and Out
With the Tinkering Studio
7:00-9:30 p.m.  |  Gallery 2, Tinkering Studio

Dive into the inner workings of the 16mm film projector with a live demonstration, projector take-apart, and the chance to make your own film. Find out just how this marvelous machine works and brings still images to life. There will be tools and crafts on hand to help create your own cameraless animation to project on the big(-ish) screen.