Elle Mehrmand

Elle Mehrmand is a new media performance artist and musician. Mehrmand's work combines the body and electronics. Her performance art work has been presented at museums, galleries and art festivals throughout the Americas. She is a member of the band Assembly of Mazes.

Mehrmand, second from right, with Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0, Photo by Kinsee Morlan

Overview

She is the singer and trombone player of Assembly of Mazes, a music collective who create dark, electronic, middle eastern, and rhythmic jazz rock. Elle received her MFA from UCSD, and received her BFA in art photography with a minor in music at CSULB. She is a researcher at the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts[1] and the b.a.n.g. lab[2] at UCSD.

Performances and exhibitions

Mehrmand's latest performances explore holographic technology. At the University Art Gallery's "Archive Fever" series, Mehrmand performed "Robert Breitmore will bring a Hologram" using a transparent screen from Reintek.[3]

In November 2010, Mehrmand performed Becoming Transreal[4] with Micha Cárdenas at the UCLA Freud Playhouse.[5] The performance demonstrates the interest in her work across disciplines, as it was supported by the UCLA Department of Theater, School of Theater, Film, and television, LGBT Studies, the Center for the Study of Women, The Center for Research in Engineering, Media and Performance, and the Center for Research in Computing the Arts at UCSD and San Diego State University's Second Life Initiative, Aztlan Island. The performance was reviewed by Linzi Juliano for the Center for the Study of Women.[6]

In January 2010, Mehrmand performed technésexual with Micha Cárdenas at Duke University's Visualization Technology Group's Interactive Studio.[7] The performance was supported by Duke's Women Studies Department, Information Science + Information Studies, Art, Art history and Visual Studies and the Franklin Humanities Institute. The performance was followed up by an artist lecture at the Nasher Museum.[8] Mehrmand's writing about technésexual has also been included in the peer reviewed journal Version.[9]

Mehrmand's work has been shown in numerous museums and galleries in 2010, including the California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, the Galeria de la Raza in San Francisco[10] and the Perform! Now! festival in Chinatown, Los Angeles.,[11][12][13][14] Exhibitions in 2009 included "Intimate Simulations" at Lui Velazquez in Tijuana, among others.

Performances and talks in 2009 include technésexual at Arse Elektronika 2009 in San Francisco,[15] at Artivistic 2009 in Montreal[16] and at the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics in Bogota, Colombia,[17] Slapshock at Compactspace in Los Angeles[18] Dorkbot Socal,[19] Sextrument at Upgrade! Tijuana,[20] Something is Happening[21] and UCSD Open Studios.[22]

Assembly of Mazes has performed recently at the Long Beach Museum of Art,[23] Gallery Azul, the Prospector and the Pasadena Gallery.

Reviews

Mehrmand is a member of the Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0 and the b.a.n.g. lab, whose project the Transborder Immigrant Tool received extensive media coverage in 2010 around the world in on the web[24] print,[25] television[26] and radio.[27] The project has also been the subject of numerous academic papers, including "Reading the Transborder Immigrant Tool" at MLA 2011[28] and "The Transborder Immigrant Tool: Violence, Solidarity and Hope in Post-NAFTA Circuits of the Body Elec(tron)ic" at Mobile HCI 2010.[29]

Her performance art work has been reviewed in Art:21,[17] The Los Angeles Times,[30] Reno News & Review,[31] Synthtopia,[32] The UCLA Center for the Study of Women, and Furtherfield.org.[33]

The band Assembly of Mazes' music has been reviewed in the OC Weekly,[34] Artslant[35] and Strung Out Zine[36]

Awards

Mehrmand's erotic mixed reality work has been awarded the Emerging Fields Award from the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts.

References
  1. Center for Research in Computing and the Arts website
  2. "b.a.n.g. lab, web pages featuring elle mehrmand". Archived from the original on December 10, 2009. Retrieved January 2, 2010.
  3. "Archive Fever- Poetry, Performance, and Dance". Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
  4. Becoming Transreal, Center for Performance Studies Archived July 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  5. Kate Bornstein, S. Bear Bergman, Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, p. 116 (Seal Press, 2010) ISBN 978-1-58005-308-2. Found online at Google Books. Accessed March 12, 2011.
  6. "Review by Linzi Juliano, Center for the Study of Women" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 4, 2011. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
  7. "Visiting Artists Micha Cárdenas and Elle Mehrmand at Duke". Archived from the original on July 26, 2011. Retrieved March 12, 2011.
  8. "technésexual". Archived from the original on June 19, 2010. Retrieved March 12, 2011.
  9. "AROUSALS.ELLE+MEHRMAND.MICHA+CÁRDENAS .EROTIC+ELECTROSYMBIOTIC+ENCOUNTERS .032310". Archived from the original on March 23, 2011. Retrieved March 24, 2011.
  10. The Transborder Immigrant Tool
  11. OCMA, California Biennial, ""
  12. MCASD, Here Not There Press Release, " Archived October 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine"
  13. Galeria de la Raza, Sustenance a play for all Trans[]borders, ""
  14. Perform! Now!, ""
  15. Monochrom, Arse Elektronika 2009, ""
  16. Artivistic, Video of technésexual – echolalia azalee and azdel slade at TURN*ON, " Archived January 11, 2010, at the Wayback Machine"
  17. Gaskins, Nettrice, Performative Interventions: The Progression of 4D Art in a Virtual 3D World, ""
  18. Calit2 Life, Slapshock by Elle Mehrmand and Micha Cardenas in LA Thurs Night, ""Archived copy". Archived from the original on January 24, 2010. Retrieved January 22, 2010.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)"
  19. Dorkbot Socal, Dorkbot SoCal 38, ""
  20. Dream Addictive Labs, Upgrade! December 19, " Archived January 6, 2010, at the Wayback Machine"
  21. Something is Happening, " Archived June 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine"
  22. UCSD Open Studios, ""
  23. Assembly of Mazes, Long Beach Museum of Art, ""
  24. Boing Boing, The Transborder Immigrant Tool helps Mexicans cross over safely
  25. Taxpayers Should be Outraged by Use of Funds, San Diego Union Tribune
  26. Border Crossing: There's an App for That
  27. "Phone App Doubles as Coyote, NPR Los Angeles, Southern California Public Radio". Archived from the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved March 13, 2011.
  28. Reading the Transborder Immigrant Tool, Mark C Marino, MLA 2011
  29. The Transborder Immigrant Tool: Violence, Solidarity and Hope in Post-NAFTA Circuits of Bodies Electr(on)/ic, Community Practices and Locative Media Workshop, Proceedings of Mobile Human Computer Interface 2010
  30. Haithman, Diane, Freephone Art Project offers the deported a chance to phone home*, ""
  31. Bynum, Brad, Digital Graffiti, ""
  32. Synthtopia, Technesexual – Erotic Avant Garde Music Meets Second Life , ""
  33. Menotti, Gabriel, Artivistic: TURN*ON, " Archived November 27, 2009, at the Wayback Machine"
  34. Segal, Dave, [Sprawl of Sound] Hommes & Femmes Vitales, ""
  35. ArtSlant, Photo of Assembly of Mazes Performance, ""
  36. BlackMagSG, Assembly of Mazes – SOZ – Interview, ""
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