, currently based: Melbourne, Australia
Affiliated institution: Victoria University
http://www.blackaeonium.net
About
Lisa Cianci (A.K.A Blackaeonium) is an artist, archivist, and digital media developer from Melbourne, Australia. She makes art in both analogue and digital formats, with her current focus on real-time, code-driven animations, digital video, and installations that use fabric and discarded clothing as the media.
Her work is an exploration of format deconstructions, [an]archival possibilities, and unexpected artefacts in both digital and analogue media. Her research focus is the intersections of art, archives and digital media technologies and the haunted spaces where systems and structures break down. The study of entropy and the artist’s role in preservation of cultural heritage is an important factor in her work.
Lisa has exhibited her art work internationally in physical galleries and virtual spaces. She completed a PhD by research project in 2012 at RMIT University, occasionally writes academic texts related to her research interests, and teaches at Victoria University Polytechnic in a range of subject areas related to digital media, creative research methods, and sustainable creative practice.
Her work is an exploration of format deconstructions, [an]archival possibilities, and unexpected artefacts in both digital and analogue media. Her research focus is the intersections of art, archives and digital media technologies and the haunted spaces where systems and structures break down. The study of entropy and the artist’s role in preservation of cultural heritage is an important factor in her work.
Lisa has exhibited her art work internationally in physical galleries and virtual spaces. She completed a PhD by research project in 2012 at RMIT University, occasionally writes academic texts related to her research interests, and teaches at Victoria University Polytechnic in a range of subject areas related to digital media, creative research methods, and sustainable creative practice.
CV
Qualifications
2013 Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Education, Victoria University
2012 PhD Creative Media, RMIT University
2001 Advanced Diploma in Electronic Design and Interactive Multimedia, Victoria University
1993 Graduate Diploma, Information Management (Archives & Records), University of Melbourne
1989 Bachelor of Arts, Fine Art, Victorian College of the Arts
Research Interests
•Entropy studies in visual arts & digital media
•Multidisciplinary intersections between creative practice, archives and digital media
•Preservation of variable media artworks and cultural heritage in urban environments
•Contemporary art practice focusing on the creation of recombinant and remixed works as a method of preservation (both digital and analogue)
•Deconstructed, discarded clothing and embroidered text as recombinant and remixed artwork
•Code-driven, digital media works as performance
•Glitch, encoding breakages and resolution concepts in digital media works
•Pedagogy: threshold concepts & troublesome knowledge in creative arts & digital media
Exhibitions & Projects
2020, inverted Walk (Momentum Series video) shown at the Megalith Pavilion as part of The Wrong Biennale, online & Svalbard, Norway
2019 Momentum, solo exhibition of video works at Antecamera de Proyectos, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
2018 Bird Walk (Momentum Series video) exhibited at Blue \x80, Villete Makers, Paris, France
2017 Semblance: an augmented reality exhibition, group exhibition, VU Footscray Nicholson Campus and VITRINE, 300 Flinders St Melbourne
2017 Coming Apart, fabric installation, solo exhibition, VITRINE, 300 Flinders St Melbourne
2017 Lost in Translation, glitch images of encoding errors from tv and film, solo exhibition, VITRINE, 300 Flinders St Melbourne
2017 Okay, Not Okay (digital poem), code-driven animation & online video capture
https://vimeo.com/206207461
2017 Are Feelings Made of Atoms? Are Glitches Made of Feelings? (digital portrait), code-driven animation & online video capture
https://vimeo.com/206351343
2016 I Mix Myself in Every Dream (Parts 1,2 & 3) for Emmy Hennings, Code Driven Animation, Video Capture and Projection at the States of Blue West Projections Festival, Kindred Studios & online
http://www.blackaeonium.net/colourfields/mixmyself.html
2015 Arrows of Time, Online Video Capture & Code-Driven Animation
http://www.blackaeonium.net/colourfields/LivingGhostVideo3.html
2015 Hey Random Woman, Online Video Capture & Code-Driven Animation
http://www.blackaeonium.net/colourfields/LivingGhostVideo2.html
2014 Smiling in the Grey Light (video capture of digital glitch animation performance) at London Calling 014, The Old Truman Brewery, Dray Walk Gallery, London, UK
http://www.factory-art.com/londoncalling014/catalog.php
2014 Bad Print #4 (video capture of digital glitch animation performance) shown at Dog Is In The Machine – Prism Pipe, Los Angeles, US, https://www.facebook.com/events/1434396176793245/
2014 Virion, (still images of video glitches), QUT Brisbane & projected in various locations around Australia and the UK, http://virionfest.com/submissions/2014
2014 (2004 - ongoing) Blackaeonium Archive (online, interactive, database-driven artwork) http://archive.blackaeonium.net
2013 Lewis & Skinner Archives exhibition at Lady Moustache, Melbourne
2012 Reconnect, Level17 Artspace, group exhibition, Melbourne
2011 Colour Fields, Solo Exhibition, Obscura Gallery, Melbourne
2011 A Different Temporality, MUMA, Monash University (exhibition included the Blackaeonium Archival System containing the archives of Lyndal Jones’ “At Home” performance series)
2012 (ongoing) Atemporal: a collaboration in archival space (online, interactive, database-driven artwork)
http://atemporal.blackaeonium.net
2011 Aura: The Haunted Image, Level 17 Artspace, group exhibition, Melbourne
2011 Group Exhibition, Obscura Gallery, Melbourne
2010 10 Years of Java Museum http://2010.newmediafest.org/?p=1114
2010 Colour Fields (blackaeonium.net) http://www.blackaeonium.net/colourfields/index.html
2010 Virion (Colour Field stills) http://virion2010.com.au/submission/colour-fields-stills
2009 – (ongoing) artwork represented in new media collectives & curated online projects such as:
Rhizome.org (http://www.rhizome.org/profile.php?1005439)
Perpetual Art Machine http://www.perpetualartmachine.com/ (website no longer functional)
[R][R][F]200x—>XP: global networking project (http://rrf200x.newmediafest.org/blog/?page_id=4)
2006 Virtually Still – Still Breathing (interactive code-driven ActionScript & video project)
http://www.blackaeonium.net/vssb2/index.html | http://www.blackaeonium.net/vssb2/videopaintviewer1.html
2006 - 2010, Same Kind III, IV, & V (interactive code-driven ActionScript & video projects)
http://www.blackaeonium.net/samekind3/index.html | http://www.blackaeonium.net/samekind5/samekind5.1.html
2005 Night Windows (interactive code-driven ActionScript & video project) http://www.blackaeonium.net/night/index.html
2006 10,000 Days & Nights (interactive code-driven ActionScript & video project) http://www.blackaeonium.net/10000dan/index.html
2006 A Transient Sleep RGB #1 (Installation using code-driven ActionScript, webcam & projection) (with Jimmy Chan), Level 17 Artspace, Melbourne
2004 I-Ocean, JavaMuseum http://www.javamuseum.org/2004/asiafeature/index.html
2004 RRF 2004 – Remembering-Repressing-Forgetting, Global Networking Project
http://www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/ National Museum of Contemporary Art, Kalinderu MediaLab Bucaresti Romania, Bergen Electronic Arts Centre Bergen Norway, and New Media Festival Bangkok Thailand
2004 Same Kind (online interactive project) http://www.blackaeonium.net/samekind/samekind.html
2003 Loading Morelia http://www.loadingmorelia.web1000.com/
La Universidad Michoacana, Morelia, Mexico
2003 PixelGarden online interactive project (with Ruth Fleishman) http://www.blackaeonium.net/pixelgarden/pixelgarden.html
2002 Matter + Memory (matière + mémoire), Montreal, Canada http://www.mobilegaze.com/m+m
(website no longer functional)
2002 Net.art Open, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Ireland http://www.irishmuseumofmodernart.com/
(website no longer functional)
2002 Free Biennial, New York, USA http://www.freewords.org/biennial/fbdir.html
2001 The Narcise Collar, online interactive, data-driven artwork http://www.blackaeonium.net/narcisse/narcisse.html
2001 Same Old Dreams, interactive art project http://www.mmorphe.com/sameolddreams/
2001 What's Your Vanity? Fitzroy Gallery, Fitzroy (part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival)
2001 V-Fest Virtual Gallery, Victoria University http://edim.tafe.vu.edu.au/ggiannis/CF/
1998 Personal Geography, Footscray Community Gallery, Melbourne (part of the Next Wave Festival 1998)
1997 Cabinet of Curiosities Project, Canberra – travelling exhibition, 1997 - 1998 "Kaleidoscope of Life" Biodiversity Exhibition (all major Australian cities and London)
1997 Letters to M, Linden Gallery St Kilda, Melbourne, VIC
1995 Pins and Needles, Tin Sheds Gallery, University of Sydney, NSW
1994 Passionate Women, Mechanics Institute Gallery, Brunswick, Melbourne
1993 Keith and Elizabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship Exhibition, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
1993 IF 6 WERE 9, Caulfield Arts Complex, Melbourne
Books, Journal Articles & Conference Presentations
Cianci, L. 2020 “Applications of Energy: A Study of Artists and Entropy”, chapter 4 in Materiality in the Visual Arts Archive (to be published later in the year) Sue Breakell & Wendy Russel eds, Routledge, UK.
Cianci, L. 2017 “Small acts of resistance: teaching young and emerging artists sustainable preservation strategies for contemporary creative practice”, Archives and Manuscripts Vol. 45 , Iss. 3, 2017
Cianci, L. & Schutt, S. 2015 “Keepers of Ghosts: old signs, new media and the age of archival flux” in Participatory Archives in a World of Ubiquitous Media, ed. Natalie Pang, Kai Khiun Liew & Brenda Chan, Routledge
Cianci, L. & Schutt, S. 2014 “Keepers of Ghosts: old signs, new media and the age of archival flux” Archives & Manuscripts, Vol 42, No 1, March 2014, pp 19-32.
Schutt, S., Berry, M. & Cianci, L. 2014 “Lost Melbourne: A Digital Ethnography of a Facebook Local History Group”, Global Ethnographic, May 31 2014 < http://oicd.net/ge/index.php/lost-melbourne-a-digital-ethnography-of-a-facebook-local-history-group/>
Cianci, L. 2010 “Born Archival: Creative Possibilities for Digital Media & Archival Methods”, Presented at: Future Proof: Resilient Archives 2020 and Beyond, Melbourne 12-17 October 2010, Australian Society of Archivists Conference
Cianci, L. 2006 “Points of Departure: Narrative Research in New Media Arts Practice,” Narrative Research Symposium, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia
Cianci, L. 2005 “Points of Departure: keeping, using and reusing digital multimedia object”, Resisting the Loss of a Culture: Seeking Archival Means – Vital Signs Conference, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne Australia, September
Cianci, L. & Morgan, H 1997 “Application of New Archival Theory and Database Technologies: Beyond the ADS”, Archives and Reform - Preparing for Tomorrow, Australian Society of Archivists 1997 National Conference, Adelaide
Employment
2002 – 2020 (ongoing) - Victoria University – Teacher, Lecturer & Researcher
1986 – 2020 (ongoing) - Multidisciplinary Art Practice
1996 – 2020 (ongoing) Academic Writing & Research
1998 – 2004 – Freelance Web & Database Development
1994 – 2002 - University of Melbourne – Archivist and Information Management Consultant - Australian Science Archives Project & Melbourne Information Management
1994-1996 - RMIT University - Archivist - Fashion & Textile Design, Frances Burke Textile Collection
News
Exhibitions & Events
Publications & References