AURUM@836M

San Francisco has its roots in the gold rush: in the mid-19th century, its population grew from a few hundred to tens of thousands, attracting immigrants from around the world. Kinetech Arts‘s multi-media project entitled Aurum portrays a modern-day “gold rush” in San Francisco, with the world’s tech capital viewed through the lens of the events of 1849. Humanity is in a disruptive transition era analogous to that time of proliferation, as developments in AI are growing exponentially. By reflecting on the gold rush, when greed fueled ecological and human tolls, especially on the indigenous population and exploited workers, this project reflects on our place within a delicate ecosystem. This ecosystem now includes the intimate relationships between humans and the digital world. 

Aurum is the Latin word for gold but can also be understood as money, wealth, or something noble and beautiful. The title references the aural nature of Kinetech Arts’s project, as sound will be the generator of movement, and the light in this work will be the cymatics (the visual manifestations of sound waves). Kinetech Arts founders Weidong Yang and Daiane Lopes da Silva used a multi-modal, multi-sensory approach to create an interactive dance performance and participative installation. This project will render bio-data audible, visual, and haptic (using technology to simulate the senses of touch and motion when interacting directly with physical objects). 

Aurum created a space for that contemplation, using reflections of dancers and spectators alike in shimmering golden light. This visual metaphor illustrates how the past has led to careless excess and abandonment while representing possible balance and harmony between humankind, nature, and technology that could be a part of San Francisco’s future. 

Historically, technology has been thought of as a tool that distances, but when employed creatively and judiciously, technology can serve as a means of connecting meaningfully with our bodies, thoughts, and emotions. In the final four performances, audience members will be allowed to experience its potential while simultaneously witnessing the representation of the lure and luster of gold, which has attracted people from around the world to San Francisco from the 19th century to today. 

During their residency, Kinetech Arts ran a weekly open lab where artists and engineers shared research and experimented with fresh ideas. These labs, hosted by 836M and free and open to the public, offered opportunities to conduct artistic and technological exploration around the subjects related to this residency – namely, biosensors/somatics, cymatics, audiovisual interaction, and haptics. 

Soft Opening and Preview – February 24

About the Artists

Daiane Lopes da Silva is a dancer, choreographer, educator, and artistic director of Kinetech Arts, where she explores the intersection of dance, science, and technology. Lopes da Silva often incorporates biometric devices and nondeterministic technologies in her work, reflecting upon societal issues in relation to the human body. Since 2013, she has created over ten full-length performances, which have been performed in South America, Europe, and the U.S. She has performed with esteemed companies and choreographers in the Bay Area and Portugal and has been commissioned by various companies and Universities in the U.S.A. Lopes da Silva is a faculty member of Alonzo King LINES Ballet Dance Center and Western Ballet, teaching contemporary dance, improvisation, composition, and ballet. She was a guest lecturer at S.S.U. (Dance and Technology), UC Davis (SHAPE) and U.S.F. (LASER) and has choreographed for UC Berkeley Dance Project. Her residencies include Headlands Center for the Arts, CounterPulse, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, O.D.C. Theater, SAFEhouse arts, Temescal Art Center, Estalagem da Ponta do Sol/Madeira, and participation at Dancing Lab at NCCAkron. She studied at The Municipal Ballet of São Paulo, Brazil, and at P.A.R.T.S. (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios), directed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker in Brussels. She graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from S.F.S.U. 

Weidong Yang is the co-founder and director of Kinetech Arts. He also founded Kineviz, creating visual analytics solutions for understanding complex data creatively. He received his Ph.D. in Physics and a Masters’s in Computer Science. He has collaborated with and created many
performances and installations. As a dancer, he has performed with various dance companies in San Francisco. His residencies include Djerassi Resident Artists Program, KUNST-STOFF, CounterPulse, and ODC Theater. He was granted 11 US patents.

Tessa Nebrida (she/they) is a Filipina improvisational dance artist and bodywork + energy healing practitioner rooted in community healing practices. Her work is heart-centered and regenerative and invites a grounded inquiry into the body as both a landing place and bridge for interconnection, expression and deeper experiencing of source and mystery. Her inquiries live within the integrative space of consciousness and form, the seen and unseen, the local and non-local dance that makes up our rich human experience. She holds a BFA in Dance and Composition from the California Institute of the Arts and 20 years of training and exploration in healing arts therapies. She has collaborated and performed in the works of JoAnna Mendl Shaw, The Ensemble Project, De Facto Dance, Joyce S. Lim, Manuelito Biag, Erin Mei-Ling Stuart, Lisa Townsend, Aura Fischbeck, SAMMAY Peñaflor Dizon, and pateldanceworks.

Erin Coyne is a San Francisco-based dancer, choreographer, and educator. Originally from the Chicago area, Erin graduated from the University of Minnesota with her Master’s in Education and a dual degree in Dance and Education. Since then, Erin has had the pleasure of performing with FACT/SF and Roseann Baker while presenting her work at various venues throughout Minneapolis, Chicago, and the Bay Area. Her dance film, shift, was an award-winning Dance Film in the 2021 San Francisco Indie Short Film Festival. Most recently, Erin co-produced and directed the dance premiere, A Flight of Movement & Drinks, at Uzay Gallery in February 2023 with a local music producer.

Feng Ye is a “National First-Class Dancer” in China. She was a seasoned professional, serving as Artistic Director and President of the dance company in the China National Song and Dance Troupe. As a performer, choreographer, and artistic director, her works were presented in the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies three times in 2004, 2008, and 2014, respectively. In the South Bay Area, Feng Ye launched the Feng Ye Dance Studio and Feng Ye Dance Troupe and successfully produced and performed a grand annual gala entitled ENCOUNTER at the San Jose Art Center Montgomery Theater in 2018 and DANCE WITH NATURE at the Cowell Theater in San Francisco in 2019. For three consecutive years, the Feng Ye Dance Troupe was selected as the only representative of Chinese dance to participate in the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. Feng Ye has emerged as an important figure in the region, promoting the integration of dance cultures from multiple ethnic groups.

Lillian Bickley is a dancer and choreographer with a BA in Dance from UC Berkeley. She has been dancing and choreographing since 2014. Her primary focus is contemporary, modern, and improvisational dance. She worked with Kinetech Arts previously as a dancer performing in their piece from the 2022 Berkeley Dance Project film and their recent performance/installation of Sublimation. She has also participated as a choreographer and dancer in the NACHMO 2023 performance. She enjoys yoga, listening to music, and sharing her passion for art with others.

Patricia Alessandrini is a composer/sound artist. Her intermedial, interactive and theatrical works have been presented in the Americas, Asia, Australia, and over 15 European countries. She is also a performer and improviser of live electronics, and instrument and interface designer. She holds two PhDs, from Princeton University and the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC), Queens University. She currently teaches and performs research on embodied interaction and immersive audiovisual experience – including instrument design for inclusive performance – at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University serves on the international board of Share Music and Performing Arts, Sweden.

Michael Koehle received his BA in Art Practice at UC Berkeley, his MS in Biomedical Engineering at UC Davis, and his MFA in studio art from Mills College. He has received residency grants from the Headlands Center for the Arts, Autodesk Pier 9, and Djerassi. He is also the recipient of the general prize in the YouFab Global Creative Awards in Japan and the Murphy & Cadogan fellowship. Koehle lives and works in Oakland.

Pierre Mariaca is a Swiss composer and sound artist based in the Bay Area. His music is mainly composed for acoustic and electronic instruments and has been performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony, the Mivos Quartet, the TAK Ensemble, the Ecce Ensemble and the CalArts Ensemble. His compositions often explore esoteric topics (astrology, tarot) and are in the intersection between contemporary classical music, experimental music, interactive electronics and improvisation. Very interested in expanding the sonic possibilities of instruments in an interdisciplinary way, he creates interactive music installations with prepared instruments (piano and harp) performed by musicians and dancers.

Miguel Mariaca is a Swiss composer, sound designer, music producer and film director based in the Bay Area. As a media composer, he has scored for commercials, films, animations, video games and dance companies like the LA Philharmonic, 20th century Fox, Disney and Hublot. His compositions explore electronic music, visual arts and contemporary classical music. He blends acoustic and electronic instruments to create ambient soundscapes. Lately, he has developed a new interest in visual notation performance that includes the audience in the notation to explore a new sonic universe.

Tanja London is a performing, haptic, visual and sound artist as well as a somatic educator based in West Oakland, CA. She grew up in Germany rummaging around in the beautiful wide spread forests of the South and in her WWll family history. Querying social and hierarchical constructs is an integral part of who she is. Her work has an inclusive feminist viewpoint. She loves to explore sociopolitical and ecological discourses with her choreography. Topics such as the erosion of democracy, inherited stress and trauma, the cultural impact of military technology, climate change and resilience shape her theoretical and in studio research.With her electronic sound projects Tanja London alias qualia-c is dedicate to experimentation and to explore the somatic impact of vibrations, interconnection, as well as the edges of her emotions and thoughts. Besides a BA in Social Pedagogy and Contemporary Dance she majored in Math and Art in German High School, holds a MFA in Modern Dance including a Screendance Certificate, is a certified STOTT Pilates® Instructor and Medical QiGong Practitioner.