Rachel Clarke Artist Talk

 

    Rachel Clarke is an artist and professor of new age media at Sacramento State University. She uses video animation, experimental 3D work, instillation, and augmented reality to show her work, but her work involves themes of nature, culture, and technology. Clarke's work has been shown in galleries, museums, and film festivals nationally and internationally. Clarke serves on the Board of the New Media Caucus and founder of their international journal, Media-N. A question that was similar to the one that I was going to ask was "how long does it take you to complete one piece?" In response to that, Clarke said that it depends on the project, but sometimes she has to make herself stop working on one. She said that projects can take months to years to "complete" depending on what it is.

One of the works Clarke talked about was this one entitled The End, and The Beginning created in 2019. This project was created with the game engine, Unity, and it was an immersive environment using the physical space of the gallery. The gallery itself was mapped out and then the environment was planned around it. This ia an example of liminal space and the objects included are neither alive nor dead, such as the bones and sea shells. The sounds included in the piece were also composed by her husband, Stephan Blumberg.