Camilo Ontiveros, Nina Waisman and Felipe Zuniga: Los Dos Lados - A Review by the UC San Diego Guardian on Oct 15 '09

UC San Diego Guardian, October 15 2009

EGG WOMB SPEWS FOUND MEDIA

Seemingly inspired by Brooklyn artist Tara Donovan’s sublime “Untitled” sculpture — a piece crafted from hundreds of Styrofoam cups and glue — the exterior of “Media Womb” is deceivingly simple. Sitting smack dab in the middle of Atkinson Hall’s main walkway, the layered structure is made from more or less unsophisticated materials: Hundreds of cardboard egg cartons are stacked to form a rectangular womb large enough for four people to sit in.

Clear plastic tubes equipped with motion sensors dangle from the womb’s ceiling, forming wind-chimey patterns. The slightest movement inside the structure is picked up by the sensors and met with an immediate aural response. One side of the womb produces environmental static recorded in Tijuana, while the other end answers simple motion with harsh gunshots lifted straight from popular media reports of violence at the border.

After a few minutes of experimentation, you begin to learn a sense of the womb’s sonic patterns, and how to manipulate your movements in order to change volume, pitch and speed.

“Media Womb,” a collaboration between Giacoma Castagnola, Camilo Ontiveros, Nina Waisman and Felipe Zuniga — three of whom studied visual art at UCSD — imposes on us a sense of hope. Upon understanding the space, its noise is no longer dictated by the programmed womb, which represents popular media. Rather, the decision-making power is shifted onto ourselves as individuals: We can now control this environment in sonic expression.

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Original story on the UC San Diego Guardian website at:
http://www.ucsdguardian.org/hiatus/los-dos-lados-1.1999739