transreal.org
Micha Cárdenas, artist/theorist based in Los Angeles, California
Performances/Exhibitions | Publications | Reviews/Interviews | Classes Taught | Talks and Workshops
Education
2015 (Expected) PhD Student, Media Arts and Practice, University of Southern California
2009 MFA Visual Arts, University of California, San Diego
2008 MA Media and Communications, with Distinction, European Graduate School
2001 BS Computer Science, Florida International University
Projects
Current Projects
technésexual / Mixed Relations, 2009
Transborder Immigrant Tool, ongoing
Becoming Transreal, 2010
Slapshock, 2009
Freephone, 2009
Becoming Dragon, 2008
Curatorial/Organizational Projects
Employment
| 2011 | Interim Associate Director of Art and Technology, Culture, Art and Technology Program, Sixth College, UCSD |
| 2007-2011 | Artist/Researcher, Calit2, Transborder Immigrant Tool |
| 2010 | Lecturer, Critical Gender Studies Program, UCSD |
| 2009-2010 | Lecturer, Visual Arts Department, UCSD |
| 2009-2011 | Programmer/Analyst II for Virtual Worlds Training Group, UCSD School of Medicine |
| 2009-2010 | Artist/Researcher, Experimental Game Lab |
| 2008 | InSite_05, Digital Archivist Internship |
| 2006 | Geisel Library, UCSD, Programmer/Analyst II |
| 2005 | Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Lead Interactive Developer, VoicesInTheSea.org |
| 2001-2003 | Lead Software Engineer, Lindows.com |
2011
Sustenance: A Play for All Trans[]Borders, Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0/b.a.n.g. lab, The Mobile Voices of LA’s Immigrants, USC Visions and Voices
Sustenance: A Play for All Trans[]Borders, Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0/b.a.n.g. lab, &Now Festival, UCSD
virus.circus.laboratory, Toronto Free Gallery, September 2011
A Kind of Controlled Alchemy, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, June 2011
TRANS/BORDER, screening of virus.circus.breath and Becoming Transreal, Visual Arts Performance Space, UCSD
virus.cirus.probe, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions
virus.circus.probe, Highways Performance Space and Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
A Kind of Controlled Alchemy, University Art Gallery, UCSD
2010
2010 California Biennial, Orange County Museum of Art, Transborder Immigrant Tool with b.a.n.g. lab
Becoming Transreal, UCLA Freud Playhouse, 2010
Arse Elektronika 2010, San Francisco, virus.circus.breath
Perform! Now! in Los Angeles and at Odyssey in Second Life, virus.circus.breath
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, virus.circus.breath
There Goes the Neighborhood, San Diego, CA, virus.circus
Galeria de la Raza, San Francisco, Sustenance, A Play for all Trans()Borders,
Squeaky Wheel, Buffalo, New York, virus.circus.touch
Queer Pile Up, Amy Adler’s Studio, Los Angeles, virus.circus.prelude
Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Gutted, Los Angeles, technésexual
SoundSense Studio, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, technésexual
2009
Prospectives.09, Nevada Art Museum, Reno, Nevada, technésexual
Artivistic TURN*ON, Montreal, Quebec, technésexual
American Studies Association National Meeting, Washington D. C.
Entijuanarte 2009, Centro Cultural de Tijuana, Tijuana, BC, MX, technésexual
Arse Elektronika 2009, Center for Sex and Culture, San Francisco, CA, technésexual
ISEA 2009 – Space is the Place, Gallery of the National College of Art & Design, Dublin, Ireland, Transborder Immigrant Tool
Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, Mapa Teatro, Bogotá, Colombia, technésexual
Mérida Biennale: Arte Nuevo InteractivA ’09, Museo de la Ciudad, Mérida, Mexico, , Transborder Immigrant Tool
GLAMFA, Cal State University, Long Beach, Slapshock
MFA Conversations II, I-5 Gallery at the Brewery, Los Angeles, Becoming Dragon
The Dark Tower, compactspace, Los Angeles, Slapshock
Satellite Ensemble II, Lui Velazquez, Tijuana, BC, MX, Freephone
MFA 2009, University Art Gallery, UCSD, Becoming Dragon
Gender and Performativity, Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum, Azarita, Egypt, Becoming Dragon
“@”, College Art Association Conference, Southern California Institute of Architecture, (SCIarc), Los Angeles, CA
Society of Molecules, distributed event coordinated by the Sense Lab at Concordia University in Montreal, QC
Postborder Proposals, La Plaza de la Raza, Los Angeles, CA
StayBite: Modes of Operation, University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX
Supersonic 2009, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA
Positive Negative Feedback Loop, Marcuse Gallery, UCSD, La Jolla, CA
Open Studios, Pendergrast Gallery, UCSD
2008
Becoming Dragon, 365 hour durational performance, CRCA, UCSD
Sharing is Sexy Radio, in collaboration with Neighborhood Public Radio at the Whitney Biennial, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Radio CUBO Project, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA
Art and Social Space Laboratory, Central Bank Museum of Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador
Gender Agenda, The Gallery Project, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tangential Trajectories, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Los Angeles, CA
The Circus of (Im)Migration, Evergreen State University, Olympia, WA; University of Oregon, Eugene, OR; The Watershed, Portland, OR; Bike Church, Santa Cruz, CA; The Rubber Rose, San Diego, CA
Sharing is Sexy Queer DIY Burlesque Show, The RadioActive house, San Diego, CA
Sex Worker Art Show, Opening DJ Set, Brick by Brick, San Diego, CA
Sharing is Sexy Release Party, DJ Set, Kadan Nightclub, San Diego, CA
2007
Transito_MX 02, El Centro de la Imagen, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Political Equator II, Boredom Patrol Performance at US/Mexico Border Checkpoint
Artivistic 2007, Artivistic Temporary Headquarters, Montreal, QC
2006
CineClub Copyflex, Casa de Iniciativas 1.5, Málaga, Spain
Cinco de Mayo Virtual Sit-in, Collaboration between the Borderlands Hacklab and Electronic Disturbance Theater
Virtual Sit-in in Solidarity with French Striking Students, Collaboration between the Borderlands Hacklab and Electronic Disturbance Theater
Curated Exhibitions
2011
Y53K, Co-curated with Eliza Slavet, ARTifact Gallery, Sixth College, UCSD
TRANS/BORDER, Visual Arts Facility Performance Space, Part of Transnational Queer and Transgender Studies Symposium, UCSD
Many Worlds, Many Times, ARTifact Gallery, Sixth College, UCSD
MySpectacle, ARTifact Gallery, Sixth College, UCSD
2010
Demand Nothing, Occupy Everything: Neoliberalism and its Discontents, film series, Visual Arts Facility Performance Space
$0 Tuition, Panel and Forum Discussion, Visual Arts Facility Performance Space
2009
Intimate Simulations, Co-curator, Lui Velazquez, Tijuana, MX
2008
Panroc, Curator, Lui Velazquez, Tijuana, MX
Publications
Ongoing
Transreal.org, blog
Forthcoming
The Transreal: Politics and Aesthetics of Crossing Realities, Atropos Press
From Tactical to Virtual Biopolitics, Intelligent Agent
2011
I Want to Touch You: Transreal Aesthetics in virus.circus, Proceedings of the 2011 International Symposium on Electronic Art
virus.circus.mem, digital event ’11, Subversive Technologies, e-fagia
Erotic Electrosymbiotic Encounters, Of Intercourse and Itracourse– Sexuality, Biomodification and the Techno-Social Sphere, Arse Elektronika Anthology 2009, Re/Search Publications
virus.circus.mem, Speculative Exhibition Catalog, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions
No Borders Struggles: Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0, Digimag, Italy
“Productive Confusions: Learning from Simulations of Pandemic Virus Outbreaks in Second Life”, SPIE Engineering Reality of Virtual Reality 2011 Proceedings, with Laura S. Greci, Samantha Hurst, Karen Garman, Helene Hoffman, Ricky Huang, Michael Gates, Kristen Kho, Elle Mehrmand, Todd Porteous, Alan Calvitti, Erin Higginbotha, Zia Agha M.D.
2010
Freephone, Adaptive Actions Madrid
I am Transreal, book chapter in Gender Outlaws the Next Generation, Seal Press
Interfaccia Technesexual: Erotic Mixed Reality Performance, co-authored with Elle Mehrmand, Digimag, Italy
Sustenance, A Play for All Trans[]Borders, co-authored with Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0, Printed Matter
Becoming Dragon: A Transversal Technology Study, book chapter in Code Drift from CTheory
Trans Desire / Affective Cyborgs, co-authored with Barbara Fornssler, Atropos Press
Erotic Electrosymbiotic Encounters, co-authored with Elle Mehrmand, Version Journal
Occupy the University: Reconsidering the Local, Pros* Journal
2009
The Transborder Immigrant Tool: Violence, Solidarity and Hope in Post-NAFTA Circuits of Bodies Electr(on)/ic, Community Practices and Locative Media Workshop Mobile HCI 2009
Realityshifting, Augmentology.com
Freephone, Micropolitics: Exploring Ethico-Aesthetics, Inflexions: A Journal for Research-Creation. Vol 3, September 2009.
Io Non Ho Niente Da Dire (I Have Nothing to Say), co-authored with Felipe Zuniga, Digimag.it
I Am Transreal, Augmentology.com
Radical Porn: Intercourse Between Fantasy and Reality, Do Androids Sleep with Electric Sheep? Arse Elektronika Anthology, ReSearch publications
Becoming Dragon: a durational, mixed reality performance in Second Life, SPIE Electronic Imaging Proceedings
2008
A Warcry for Birthing Synthetic Worlds, Augmentology.com
Arse Elektronika, San Diego Reader
A Transgender Christmas, San Diego Reader
The Messy, Dirty, Silly Interplay of Art and Activism: Artivistic 2007, NewMediaFix.net
Reviews/Interviews
2011
The “Speculative” Exhibition: May Fiction Redefine Reality?, Digitcult.it, Mattia Casalegno
The Tail Wagging the Brain, Virtual Body Language, Jeffrey Ventrella
UCLA Queer Studies Conference Brings Together Theory, Performance, UC Humanities Forum, Amanda Phillips
Micha Cárdenas, Trabajando por la Visibilización Trans Desde Arte Interactivo, Filosofía del Postporno, Marisol Salanova
Artist Profile, Interview with Elspeth Walker, Special Collections of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics
Plugging Art into The Environment, Hyperallergic.com, Leila Nadir
Trans Desire by Micha Cárdenas, E-Misférica 7.2, Zach Blas
The Language of Invention, San Diego City Beat, Kinsee Morlan
Arts and Culture News, San Diego City Beat, Kinsee Morlan
UCSD Roundtable to Consider Higher Education Crisis, La Jolla Light
2010
The Future of Sexology comes to San Francisco with the Arse Elektronika Conference, Annalee Newitz, io9.com
Screw-Embedded Football ‘Breathes’ on Respirator, Wired.com, Hugh Hart
CRCA, Calit2: Hotbeds of Activity in Visualization and Virtual Reality, Calit2.net, Doug Ramsey
San Diego Artists Crash OC Party, San Diego Union Tribune
MCA Presents ‘Here Not There’, Will Bowen, sdnews.com
Calit2 and CRCA-Affiliated Artists Featured in ‘Here Not There’ Exhibition, Tiffany Fox, Calit2
Demand Nothing, Occupy Everything – FilmScreening, The New Gay
(UC Crisis) Post 1: The Story of a Movement Overview, Marc Herbst, Art21 blog
Think of it as ‘a kind of Banquet or Feast’, San Diego Union Tribune
CODE DRIFT from CTHEORY, Bruce Sterling, Wired.com
Mixed Relations: Bitchin’ Performance Art Presents New Ways of Thinking About Identity, burst market blog
Suzanne Wright + Queer Pile Up, Darin Klein & Friends blog
Crashing the Cukoo’s Next, UCSD Guardian
Art Tap Out 3 @ MCASD afterthoughts from the ref, AGITPROP blog
Virtual Sit-In, Inside Higher Ed
2009
Performative Interventions: The Progression of 4D Art in a Virtual 3D World, Nettrice Gaskins, Art21 Blog
Technesexual – Erotic Avant Garde Music Meets Second Life
GPS tool helps illegal immigrants cross US border, Associated Press
Celular para cruzar ilegalmente, BBC World
Border Crossing: There’s an App for That, NBC San Diego
Low-Tech App Aids in Crossing Mexican Border, UCSD Guardian
GPS para indocumentados, Telemundo
Border Crossing Application, Fox 5 TV San Diego
GPS Technology to Help Illegal Immigrants, KSRO – Santa Rosa,CA,USA
Poll: 56% say border-crossing tool threatens national security, OC Register
Border-Navigating Phone App Raises Concerns, KMJ Now – Fresno,CA,USA
mobile phone application gets mixed reactions, State Press
Border Crossing: There’s an App for That, NBC Chicago
UCSD Researches Creating Phone App For Border Crossers, MyStateline.com – Rockford,IL,USA
Want to sneak into US? There’s an app for that, WND.com – Washington,DC,USA
Geek, Sex and Fun, Anne Laforet, Poptronics
Digital Graffiti, Brad Bynum, Reno News and Review
FOLLOW THE GPS ESE, Alex Dunbar, Vice Magazine
Artivistic TURN*ON, Gabriel Menotti, Furtherfield.org
University of California to Launch $0 Tuition Program, Says Spoofed Press Release, Zach Behrens, LAist.com
Forum Discussion Centers on Call for Free Tuition, Ayelet Bitton, UCSD Guardian
Body Image and the Human, Gracie Kendal, Gracie Kendal’s so-called Second Life!!
On the SLon de Refuses, L1Aura Loire and Sage Duncan, Brooklyn is Watching.com
Slapshock Performance by Elle Mehrmand and Micha Cardenas at Compactspace Los Angeles, Art as Authority
Haithman, Diane, Freephone Art Project offers the deported a chance to phone home, Los Angeles Times
Grimm, Ernie, My Gender is Bunny, Cover Story, The San Diego Reader
Ebersole, Amy, Living a Life that Doesn’t Feel Quite Right, Daily Aztec
Gonzalez, Edwin, Art and Soul, UCSD Guardian
Virtually Trans with Micha, Trans-ponder Radio
Harrasser, Karin, PORNO ALS PÄDADOGIK, Missy Magazine
Silva, David, What’s in a Pronoun, San Diego City Beat
2008
Fox, Tiffany, UC San Diego Researcher Explores Gender, Humanity and (Virtual) Reality, Calit2.net
Lafee, Scott, Online-world immersion probes ‘possibilities of transformation’, Front Page story, San Diego Union Tribune
Sweetman, Katherine, The Gender Dragon, San Diego City Beat
BiW visits Azdel Slade — Becoming Dragon, Brooklyn is Watching
Second Life – Becoming Dragon – Micha Cardenas, Networked Performance
Researcher to Spend 365 Hours Immersed in Second Life, Dr. Dobbs Journal
The Gender Dragon, Secondlife.com
Lanna’s List for November 27-December 3: Thanksgiving in SL, UN Conf. on Climate Change, Dead Avatars, and more…, New World Notes
Messina, Sergio, Libero Sexo en Libero Web 2.0, interviewed with Sharing is Sexy, Rolling Stone Italy
Le-Phat Ho, Sophie, Locative Media as War, .dpi magazine
Le-Phat Ho, Sophie, On How Porn Can Teach Us All to Share, interviewed with Sharing is Sexy, .dpi magazine
The Risk Issue, interviewed with Sharing is Sexy, Lickety Split
Power to the Pornographers: A Naked Revolution?, interviewed with Sharing is Sexy, Hot Movies for Her.com
Talks/Lectures/Workshops
2011
Wearable Electronics as Femme Disturbance, “Techno-queer Self Fashioning” Panel, 2011 UCLA Queer Studies Conference
Performing the Body: Wearable Electronics, Sound and Erotics, Toronto Free Gallery, Fall 2011
I want to touch you: Transreal Aesthetics in virus.circus, in “Queer Viralities: Resistant Practices in New Media Art & Philosophy” Panel, ISEA
Transreal Bodies and Digitized Clones: Bridging Realities With Sound, Biometrics and Motion Capture, in “Virtual Doppelgengers” Panel, ISEA
Queer Viral Aesthetics, Panel, American Studies Association, 2011
Gender Play in Transmedia Worlds, Sixth College Video Production Club, UCSD
“Productive Confusions: Learning from Simulations of Pandemic Virus Outbreaks in Second Life”, SPIE Engineering Reality of Virtual Reality
Science Fiction and Speculative Thought as Social Critique and Social Action, Panel Moderator, ARTifact Gallery, UCSD
World Building and Contemporary Art, Panel Moderator, Visual Arts Facility Performance Space, UCSD
Performative Strategies for Rethinking Queer (Non-)Identities, Round Table, “Racialization, Neoliberalism and Queering Public Spheres”, UCSD
net.walkingtools.Transformer.shift(), Catalyzing Knowledge in Dangerous Times, Center for Race & Gender, UC Berkeley
Roundtable with Michael Hardt, Literature Department, UCSD
CRCA Exchange: Cyborg Culture, Center for Research in Computing and the Arts, UCSD
Science Fiction and Speculative Thought as Social Critique and Social Action, ARTifact Gallery, UCSD, Panel moderator
Construyendo Mundos Posibles Queer, Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, Tijuana, BC, Mexico
Queering Pedagogy Workshop, Transnational Queer and Transgender Studies Group, LGBT Center, UCSD
The Global and Local Struggle to Reimagine/Reclaim/Remake Education, Agitprop Gallery, San Diego
Mixed Reality Performance from Becoming Dragon to virus.circus, Guest Lecture in Marcela Fuentes’ “Gender and Performance” Class, Women’s Studies Department, UCLA
From Science of the Oppressed to Transreal Aesthetics, Guest Lecture in Liz Losh’s “Public Digital Rhetoric and Practical Communication” Class, UCSD
Game Theory, Game Art & Transreal Aesthetics, Guest Lecture in Emily Roxworthy’s “Animation, Simulation and Performance” Class, UCSD
2010
DIY Somatic Architecture and Wearable Erotic Electronics, Arse Elektronika 2010, Noisebridge, San Francisco
Digital Activism Workshop, From ECD to Mixed Reality, Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, Chiapas, Mexico
Crisis Culture and Emergency Aesthetics: virus.circus and the Transborder Immigrant Tool, The Next Hope, New York, NY
Trans Desire, Towards a queer politics of Autonomy, Bluestockings Books, New York, NY
City (De)Centered, The Transborder Immigrant Tool, City Centered Conference, San Francisco
Queer and Feminist New Media Spaces, HASTAC Forum invited presenter
Crisis Culture and Emergency Aesthetics, Failed State? Conference, UC Davis
Erotic Mixed Reality Performance Art, Nasher Museum, Duke University
2009
Becoming Dragon: An Epistemology of Transition, Digital Arts and Culture Conferene, UC Irvine
Experimenta Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
Dorkbot Socal, Machine Project, Los Angeles, CA
$0 Tuition, Marcuse Gallery, La Jolla, California
Technesexual, Artivistic 2009, Montreal, Canada
The Transborder Immigrant Tool: Violence, Solidarity and Hope in Post-NAFTA Circuits of Bodies Electr(on)/ic, Community Practices and Locative Media Workshop, Mobile HCI 2009
New Hacktivism: From Electronic Civil Disobedience to Mixed Reality Performance, Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, Bogotá, Colombia
Becoming Dragon: An Epistemology of Transition, Ctheory Critical Digital Studies Workshop, Victoria, BC
Violence, Solidarity and Hope: Transborder Immigrant Tool, Violence, Technology and Public Intervention Symposium, Calit2
Becoming Dragon, Upgrade! Tijuana, Tijuana, BC, MX
Becoming Dragon, New Media Lounge, UCSD
Reconsidering the Call for Local Action in a context of Knowledge Production, Distributed Creativities Conference, UCSD
The Body in Transmission/Transition, A New Body for New Worlds, Guest Lecture for Ricardo Dominguez’s class Introduction to Art Making: Motion and Time Based, UCSD
Becoming Dragon, Guest Lecture for Nayan Shah’s class History of Sexuality, UCSD
Becoming Dragon, Guest Lecture for Amy Adler’s class Performing for the Camera, UCSD
Mexican/Chicano Art in Context, Panel Moderator, Agitprop Gallery, San Diego
Direct Action Clowning, talk in Understanding Theater class at University of Texas, Dallas
2008
Emergencia – Agencia Emergente / Emergency – Emergent Agency, part of Proyecto Civico: Dialogos y Interogantes, talk at the Centro Cultural de Tijuana, Series of workshops and live broadcasts at Lui Velazquez
Radical Porn: Intercource between Fantasy and Reality, Arse Elektronika, San Francisco
Thinking Smut, talk at McGill University
Rebel Clowning in the Borderlands, Guest Lecture in Media Studies class at McGill, University
Community Arts Program, Talk with Ricardo Dominguez and dj lotu5, Calarts, Los Angeles, CA
“What is Public Culture?” Conference, Panel Moderator, UCSD
2007
*Silent Observers*, Talk on “Streaming Across Borders with the Borderlands Hacklab”, gallery@calit2, streamed live to Eyebeam, New York City
Classes Taught
2010
Lecturer, Gender and Sexuality in Art, Fall 2010, Critical Gender Studies Program, UCSD
Lecturer, Electronic Technologies for Art, Fall 2010, Visual Art Department, UCSD
Lecturer, Electronic Technologies for Art II, Spring 2010, Visual Art Department, UCSD
Lecturer, Electronic Technologies for Art II, Winter 2010, Visual Art Department, UCSD
2009
Lecturer, Electronic Technologies for Art, Fall 2009, Visual Art Department, UCSD
Teaching Assistant to Amy Alexander, Digital Media I: Time, Movement, Sound, UCSD
2008
Lecturer for Collective Art Practice, under Prof Brett Stalbaum for UCIRA Open Classroom Challenge Grant, UCSD
Teaching Assistant to Ricardo Dominguez, Introduction to Art Making: Motion and Time Based, UCSD
Teaching Assistant to Adriene Jenik, Introduction to Computing and the Arts in the Interdisciplinary computing and the Arts (ICAM) major, UCSD
Teaching Assistant to Brett Stalbaum, Introduction to Computing and the Arts in the Interdisciplinary computing and the Arts (ICAM) major, UCSD
Teaching Assistant to Mathieu Gregorie, Introduction to Art-Making: 3-Dimensional Practices, UCSD
2007
Teaching Assistant to Rob King, History of Film, UCSD
Awards/Grants
2009
Mixed Relations, Emerging Fields Award with Elle Mehrmand, University of California Institute for Research in the Arts (UCIRA)
2008
Becoming Dragon, Collaborative Demonstration Grant with Chris Head and Kael Greco, UCIRA
Becoming Dragon, land grant, Ars Virtua
Becoming Dragon, finishing funds, Calit2
Collective Art Practice, 2008 Open Classroom Challenge Grant from UCIRA
2005
Silver MUSE Award in “Interpretation and Education in Science” for VoicesInTheSea.org, American Association of Museums (AAM) Media and Technology Committee
Entijuanarte 2009, Centro Cultural de Tijuana, Tijuana, BC, MX
Arse Elektronika 2009, Center for Sex and Culture, San Francisco, CA
ISEA 2009 – Space is the Place, Gallery of the National College of Art & Design, Dublin, Ireland
