Image
a steel volcano sits in the middle of the concert hall on a platform

Commissions

A main focus of the EMPAC program is the development and production of new works that span all domains of time-based arts, including music/sound, dance, theater, time-based visual art, and moving image. These commissions optimally utilize the EMPAC media infrastructure to pursue new ideas at the intersection of technology, media, and the performing and visual arts. Some commissions are site-specific to EMPAC and find their premiere here, while others, especially co-commissions with outside institutions, are developed for presentation at other national and international venues.

Main Image: Beatriz Cortez, Ilopango, the Volcano that Left, 2023. Pictured in Shifting Center, EMPAC / Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer, Troy, NY, 2023 (installation view). Courtesy the artist and Commonwealth and Council. Photo: Shannon K. Johnson/EMPAC.

in Progress

Rama Gottfried, Abby Manock, and Yarn/Wire / Schismogenesis

2024

On the Recursivity of Care / Marina Vishmidt
Susceptible Chambers / Antonia Barnett-McIntosh & Jessie Marino
μ (mu) / Marina Rosenfeld

2023

CONDICIÓN_1023 / Hugo Esquinca
Evidence of Labor: State of the Kitchen / Michelle Ellsworth and Satchel Spencer
Shifting Center: Concert Hall / Beatriz Cortez, Nancy Mounir, and Cannupa Hanska Luger
Shifting Center: Studio 2 / Julian Abraham “Togar”, Maurice Louca, and Gala Porras-Kim
Shifting Center: Theater / Padmini Chettur & Maarten Visser, Guillermo Escalón & Igor de Gandarias, and Micah Silver

2022

ANTHEM / Adam Weinert
Concert in Wave Fields / Miya Masaoka, Bora Yoon, Nina Young, and Pamela Z
Only Breath, Words / Anna Craycroft
Oriana / Beatriz Santiago Muñoz
Paper Pianos / Alarm Will Sound
PHONO KINETIC / Bora Yoon
Resonances / Lesley Flanigan
The Inheritance / Ephraim Asili
Transtraterrestrial / A prequel and premiere of The Unarrival Experiments—Unconcealment Ceremonies

2021

Graveyards and Gardens / Vanessa Goodman & Caroline Shaw
Rest / Annie Saunders & Wild Up
TIME:SPANS Festival 2021 / Wave Field Synthesis

2020

Chameleon (The Living Installments) / Jaamil Olawale Kosoko
The Glow That Illuminates, the Glare That Obscures / Nina C. Young / American Brass Quintet
The Inheritance / Ephraim Asili

2018

echo/archive / Elena Demyanenko & Erika Mijlin
If It Bleeds / Isabelle Pauwels
Listening Creates an Opening / Mary Armentrout Dance Theater
Sagittarius A. / Yara Travieso
SlowMeDown / Maria Hassabi
Sudden Rise / Moved by the Motion (Wu Tsang and boychild with Patrick Belaga, Josh Johnson, and Asma Maroof)
They Are Waiting for You / Laure Prouvost with Sam Belinfante and Pierre Droulers

2017

,000, / Isabelle Pauwels
AFTER / Andrew Schneider
Telepathic Improvisation / Boudry / Lorenz
Tesseract / Charles Atlas, Rashaun Mitchell, and Silas Riener
Work-in-Progress: They are Waiting for You / Laure Prouvost, Sam Belinfante, & Pierre Droulers

2016

Atlas Revisited / Karthik Pandian and Andros Zins-Browne
Operator / Patricia L Boyd and Anne Boyer
WITHIN / Tarek Atoui

2015

DANCE MOViES 2015 / Seline Baumgartner, Orit Ben-Shitrit, Chameckilerner, Dana Gingras, & Marianne Kim
Extra Shapes / DD Dorvillier
France Jobin / 4.35 - R0 - 413
Lost & Found / Marianne Kim
Love Streams / Tim Hecker and MFO
Nothing Else / Seline Baumgartner
The Extra People / Ant Hampton
WITHIN 2 / Tarek Atoui

2014

,000, / Isabelle Pauwels
26 Letters to Deleuze / Alain Franco, Jörg Laue, Peter Stamer
Bloopers #1 / Michael Bell-Smith, Sara Magenheimer, + Ben Vida
Bridal Shower / Petra Cortright
Carl dis/assembling w/ self / Patricia Lennox-Boyd
CODA I + CODA II / Peter Gidal
Darker Imposter / Erika Vogt
Empathy School / Aaron Landsman + Brent Green
Expanded Piano / Stavros Gasparatos
Gordon Hall / “Read me that part a-gain, where I disin-herit everybody”
Jacqueline Kiyomi Gordon / The Only Thing that Makes Life Possible is Not Knowing What Comes Next
My Voice Has An Echo In It / Temporary Distortion
The Vision Machine / Melvin Moti
Thomas Keenan / New Media, New Documents: On Images, Examples, and Evidence
Yarn/Wire / Fall 2014

2013

Ewa Borysiewicz / How a Sausage Dog Works
Flip Phillips / Deconstructing Perception
Randy Martin / Dance and Finance—Social Kinesthetics and Derivative Logics
TAO / Cayetana Vidal
The Angola Project / Jeremy Xido
Time Will Tell / Manuella Blackburn
Ursula Heise / The Beautiful Violent Futures of J.G. Ballard

2012

4Walls / Ralph Lemon
CLUSTER / Kurt Hentschläger
fluid hug hug: (glowing) / Kota Yamazaki
Index / Jennifer + Kevin McCoy
Primal Matter / Dimitris Papaioannou
The Periphery of Perception / Ryan + Trevor Oakes
Thom Kubli / Black Hole Horizon
TOOL IS LOOT / Wally Cardona & Jennifer Lacey
We Have An Anchor / Jem Cohen

2011

69˚S. / Phantom Limb
Dionysia / Poor Dog Group
Hyper-Rainforest / Francisco López
The White Room / Francis and the Lights

2010

Alien Vision Revolution / Mark Changizi
Cold Spring / Sean Griffin
DANCE MOViES 2010 / Hoop, Anatomy of Melancholy, Quince Missing, The Closer One Gets, the Less One Sees, MO-SO
Hoop / Marites Carino & Rebecca Halls
Multi-channel Double Feature / Klien + Tutschku
Room Pieces Troy 2010 / Michael J. Schumacher
Upending / The OpenEnded Group

2009

DANCE MOViES 2008 / KINO-EYE, Veterans, PH Propiedad Horizontal, Nora
DANCE MOViES 2009 / Body/Traces, Eyes Nose Mouth, Looking Forward—Man and Woman, Sunscreen Serenede
Steven Connor / The Chronopher
Take a Day for Yourself! / Mads Lynnerup
They Watch / Workspace Unlimited

2008

THERE IS STILL TIME..BROTHER / The Wooster Group

2007

2006

True Fictions / New Adventures in Folklore

2005

EMPAC 360 / On Site + Sound