There is a sheep confined in ceramic blocks at the Sol Koffler Gallery, and two blocks away, at the Space at Alice, a rooster will crow at the push of a button. No, downtown Providence isn't overrun with animal rights violations - it's Pixilerations [v.4], a series of new media and digital art installations, concerts and screenings that showcase the works of dozens of local and international artists.
Now in its fourth year, Pixilerations is part of the larger FirstWorksProv festival, a nonprofit organization that works in collaboration with the city of Providence's Department of Art, Culture and Tourism. The installations at this year's Pixilerations showcase mainly mixed-media sculpture with audio and video components.
"FirstWorksProv is all about creating firsts, and exploring what's new. So in addition to the performances we bring, we wanted to have a really cutting edge component to it. Digital arts seemed to offer that possibility," said Kathleen Pletcher, FirstWorksProv's executive artistic director.
Preparations for this year's festival began months ago with a call to artists. FirstWorksProv received over 120 submissions from artists in the United States and other countries such as Germany and South Africa. Later, a curatorial committee combed through submissions to find works that were best suited for the festival.
"It got to be a very competitive year," said Clara Schuhmacher '06, FirstWorksProv's development associate.
FirstWorksProv has numerous ties to the University - both faculty and students have actively contributed to Pixilerations and its other events. Brown's Creative Arts Council partners with FirstWorksProv on performances and artist residencies and is currently involved in four different collaborative projects. The curatorial committee and technical staff for Pixilerations include University faculty and staff.
In addition, several of the films screened for the festival were submitted by Brown students.
"(Pixilerations) is really a kind of public and private crossover," Pletcher said, referring to the collaboration between the city of Providence and private universities such as Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design.
"It's downtown, and in some ways that's just a matter of logistics, but it's also significant. Brown students are coming downtown," Pletcher said. "It's a melding of Providence, as a city, and what's happening at the universities."
So far, Pixilerations has included openings for gallery shows on Sept. 28, two concerts last weekend and a screening of short films Wednesday at the Cable Car Cinema. Electronic, audio-visual trio SKIF++ will perform tonight at the Space at Alice.
"They're like rock stars in Amsterdam," Pletcher said. "All around Europe, too."
In coordination with Pixilerations, Brown will host the Reading Digital Literature Conference from Oct. 4 -7, which is cosponsored by the Departments of Literary Arts and German Studies.
The Pixilerations exhibits will be up in RISD's Sol Koffler Gallery and the Space at Alice through Oct. 14, when the plastic rooster will crow no more.
