Elle Mehrmand
Encyclopedia
Elle Mehrmand is a new media
performance art
ist 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, who regularly perform in Southern California
.
player of Assembly of Mazes, a music collective who create dark, electronic, middle eastern
, and rhythmic jazz rock. Elle is currently an MFA candidate at 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 and the b.a.n.g. lab at UCSD.
In November 2010, Mehrmand performed Becoming Transreal with Micha Cárdenas
at the UCLA Freud Playhouse. 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.
In January of 2010, Mehrmand performed technésexual with Micha Cárdenas at Duke University's Visualization Technology Group's Interactive Studio. 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. Mehrmand's writing about technésexual has also been included in the peer reviewed journal Version.
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 and the Perform! Now! festival in Chinatown, Los Angeles., 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, at Artivistic 2009 in Montreal
and at the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics in Bogota
, Colombia
, Slapshock at Compactspace in Los Angeles
Dorkbot
Socal, Sextrument at Upgrade! Tijuana
, Something is Happening and UCSD Open Studios.
Assembly of Mazes has performed recently at the Long Beach Museum of Art
, Gallery Azul, the Prospector and the Pasadena Gallery.
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 print , television and radio . The project has also been the subject of numerous academic papers, including "Reading the Transborder Immigrant Tool" at MLA 2011 and "The Transborder Immigrant Tool: Violence, Solidarity and Hope in Post-NAFTA Circuits of the Body Elec(tron)ic" at Mobile HCI 2010.
Her performance art work has been reviewed in Art21
, The Los Angeles Times
, Reno News & Review, Synthtopia,, The UCLA Center for the Study of Women, and Furtherfield
.org.
The band Assembly of Mazes' music has been reviewed in the OC Weekly
, Artslant and Strung Out Zine
work has been awarded the Emerging Fields Award from the University of California
Institute for Research in the Arts.
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
ist and musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
. Mehrmand's work combines the body and electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
. 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, who regularly perform in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
.
Overview
She is the singer and tromboneTrombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
player of Assembly of Mazes, a music collective who create dark, electronic, middle eastern
Middle Eastern music
The music of Western Asia and North Africa spans across a vast region, from Morocco to Afghanistan, and its influences can be felt even further afield. Middle Eastern music influenced the music of India, as well as Central Asia, Spain, Southern Italy, the Caucasus and the Balkans, as in chalga...
, and rhythmic jazz rock. Elle is currently an MFA candidate at UCSD
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...
, and received her BFA in art photography with a minor in music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
at CSULB
California State University, Long Beach
California State University, Long Beach is the second largest campus of the California State University system and the third largest university in the state of California by enrollment...
. She is a researcher at the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts and the b.a.n.g. lab 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.In November 2010, Mehrmand performed Becoming Transreal with Micha Cárdenas
Micha Cárdenas
Micha Cárdenas is a transgender performance and new media artist. Her work deals with the interplay of technology, gender, sex, immigration and biopolitics. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles.- Education :...
at the UCLA Freud Playhouse. 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.
In January of 2010, Mehrmand performed technésexual with Micha Cárdenas at Duke University's Visualization Technology Group's Interactive Studio. 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. Mehrmand's writing about technésexual has also been included in the peer reviewed journal Version.
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 and the Perform! Now! festival in Chinatown, Los Angeles., Exhibitions in 2009 included "Intimate Simulations" at Lui Velazquez in Tijuana, among others.
Performances and talks in 2009 include technésexual at Arse Elektronika
Arse Elektronika
Arse Elektronika is an annual conference organized by the Austrian arts/philosophy collective monochrom, focused on sex and technology. Speakers at past conferences have included Mark Dery, Violet Blue, Annalee Newitz, Rudy Rucker, Carol Queen, and Richard Kadrey with demonstrations by Kyle...
2009 in San Francisco, at Artivistic 2009 in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
and at the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics in Bogota
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, Slapshock at Compactspace in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
Dorkbot
Dorkbot
Dorkbot is a group of affiliated organizations worldwide that sponsor grassroots meetings of artists, engineers, designers, scientists, inventors, and anyone else working under the very broad umbrella of electronic art...
Socal, Sextrument at Upgrade! Tijuana
Tijuana
Tijuana is the largest city on the Baja California Peninsula and center of the Tijuana metropolitan area, part of the international San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area. An industrial and financial center of Mexico, Tijuana exerts a strong influence on economics, education, culture, art, and politics...
, Something is Happening and UCSD Open Studios.
Assembly of Mazes has performed recently at the Long Beach Museum of Art
Long Beach Museum of Art
The Long Beach Museum of Art is a museum located on Ocean Boulevard in the Bluff Park neighborhood of Long Beach, California. The museum occupies the historic 1912 Elizabeth Milbank Anderson house and carriage house and a new two-story pavilion, and includes oceanfront gardens. The museum is open...
, Gallery Azul, the Prospector and the Pasadena Gallery.
Reviews
Mehrmand is a member of the Electronic Disturbance TheaterElectronic Disturbance Theater
Ricardo Dominguez, Brett Stalbaum, Stefan Wray, and Carmin Karasic are collectively known as The Electronic Disturbance Theater or EDT for short. Taking the idea of the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, the EDT members always used their real names. They never concealed their identities...
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 print , television and radio . The project has also been the subject of numerous academic papers, including "Reading the Transborder Immigrant Tool" at MLA 2011 and "The Transborder Immigrant Tool: Violence, Solidarity and Hope in Post-NAFTA Circuits of the Body Elec(tron)ic" at Mobile HCI 2010.
Her performance art work has been reviewed in Art21
Art21
Art:21 - Art in the 21st Century is a PBS series, educational resource, archive, and history of contemporary art. It premiered in 2001, and is now broadcast in over 50 countries worldwide. Premiering a new season every two years, Art:21 is the only series on United States television to focus...
, The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, Reno News & Review, Synthtopia,, The UCLA Center for the Study of Women, and Furtherfield
Furtherfield
Furtherfield.org is an artist-led online community and arts organization. It creates and supports global participatory projects with networks of artists, theorists and activists and offers "a chance for the public to present its own views and enter or alter various art discourses".Furtherfield...
.org.
The band Assembly of Mazes' music has been reviewed in the OC Weekly
OC Weekly
OC Weekly, a sister publication of both LA Weekly and The Village Voice, is a free, left-wing weekly paper distributed in Orange County, California and also in Long Beach....
, Artslant and Strung Out Zine
Awards
Mehrmand's erotic mixed realityMixed reality
Mixed reality refers to the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualisations where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time...
work has been awarded the Emerging Fields Award from the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
Institute for Research in the Arts.