Andrew Haik Demirjian

Any flash of joy registers as cognitive dissonance as our communities face cascading imperial violence, but we were grateful to gather with collaborators and kin to mark many moons of collective work on Բաժակ Նայող (One Who Looks at the Cup: Querent), for the show “Technologies of Relation” @massmoca . Curated by the incredible Susan Cross and @meghan___clare . The installation takes its title from the Armenian term for tasseography, training an AI model to perform coffee reading by identifying visual patterns in visitors’ cups and outputting bilingual predictions in Armenian and English. These pre-scripted predictions were authored from a community dataset collected through coffee readings and conversations conducted with SWANA diasporans in and beyond Los Angeles. Those conversations are the basis of the work's predictive outputs, proposing forms of divination that counter the necropolitics of algorithmic prediction. It’s believed that coffee reading became especially widespread in Armenian diasporic communities after the Armenian Genocide of 1915–23 as a tactic of collective survival that affirms futurity in the face of a catastrophic present. Translation by Margo Gevorgyan & @doodleswithoutborders ; Technology and Software Production by Ben Kudler; and Sound by @lara_sarkissian . Dataset Contributors: Atlas Acopian, Erik Adamian, Gilda Davidian, Kareem Estefan, Aroussiak Gabrielian, Margo Gevorgyan, Ani Kalafian, Natalie Kamajian, Hayk Makhmuryan, Carene Rose Mekertichyan, Ara Oshagan, Nadia Sarkissian, Yasaman Sheri, Lia Soorenian, Marina Terteryan, Meldia Yesayan, Ryat Yezbick The development of this project has been supported by the @musiccenterla Digital Innovation Initiative, @calartsredcat with @pstinla , and the @veralistcenter at the New School. With special thanks to @kamalsinclair @futureofnonfiction @dunadarina @t_____alia Carin Kuoni @eriolasgram @fullpointgraphics @morganlehmangallery and @r_christian__ . And with much gratitude to the remarkable team at MASS MoCA: Susan Cross, @lydsterr_ Spencer Byrne-Seres @rorycoyneart @laurenlevatocoyne @artepoveda @zaweberg among many others.

A few images from a new installation created with @dahliaelsayed at @locustprojects in Miami, opening Saturday, March 2nd (6 - 8 pm). It is called SK3000 and is based on an Ottoman-era architectural form called a sabil kuttab, that features a fountain on the bottom floor and a school on top, a structure to quench both physical and intellectual thirst. We imagined this sculpture to be as a gift structure from our ancestors for an indeterminate future, as a potential pathway out of the limits of current thinking to imagine new ways of being. Images #2 & #4 show the ziggurat speaker object that plays a collection of original compositions written for the piece during a residency this fall @macdowell1907 Thank you to @official_odabashian and Tom Mickelson, @evonnemdavis and @jlstumpf for their help in realizing this project.

After several pieces far afield, @dahliaelsayed and I have a new solo exhibition closer to home at Rutgers University Newark @expressnewark - opening Tuesday, Feb. 25th from 5 - 9 pm. There are a series of exhibits opening this night that explore the frontier between the visible and invisible and the limits of perception and representation. The installation features an 8-channel (28 speaker) sound poem we created based on a 17th century sufi training manual. It is a permutation poem that exhaustively recombines one sentence - it's weird and trance-y. More info in bio about the exhibitions. The piece as a whole meditates on the permeability between interiorities and exteriorities, prompting visitors to imagine a space between the physical and spiritual worlds collectively. Transforming the Box Gallery into an invented outdoor courtyard featuring mirrored reflection, moving sounds, and tangible objects, the space offers an invitation from the material world for greater comprehension and interpretation of the immaterial. #powers_of_the_unseen #installationart #experimentalpoetry

So happy that the collaborative audio AR app Radical Atmospheres was selected to be in the 50th issue of @thenewrivervtm - The New River Journal of electronic lit and digital media. This project is an audio walking tour of radical Puerto Rican acitivism in East Harlem, it was created in my Spaces Speak grad class in @hunterimamfa . The audio is a combination of sound poetry made with archival materials from @centropr archives and oral histories conducted over a year. The piece features the words of activists from the Young Lords, MPI/PSP, El Comite, the East Harlem Renegades, and people from the community that were impacted by their work. On Tuesday, May 5th at 11 am there will be a kick off party where authors will discuss their projects. I’ll be joined by the amazing @prometheus.brer to discuss our process, link in bio. There are currently over 120 audio pieces that cover roughly 10 blocks and three avenues. It’s best if you hear it in-person in East Harlem but it can be navigated via laptop or desktop. See more info in bio link. Thank you to @leosano for the graphics and design work, all of the interviewees and students who participated in the project: Students: Nina Bowers, Emma Rose Brown, Samantha Carter, Mary Gruesser, Anisa Hodzic, Kassandra Luyando, Phillip Desmond, Andrey Patino, Susanna Randolph, and Leo Sano. Interviewees: Gil Cintron, Máximo Rafael Colón, Olga Iris Sanabria Dávila, Frank Diaz, Ray Delgado, Rolando Gonzalez, Lillian Jiménez, Iris Morales, Denise Oliver, Raymond Perez, Carmen Vivian Rivera, Walter Bosque Rosa, Minerva Solla, and Andrés Torres. Support: @karinajasmin_o_ , @checkitoutloves , @marc_anthony_nyc @film_media_hunter @huntercollege

A few pics from Hassan Fathy's old studio. So beautiful to spend time in this space, thinking about it's relationship to his work. No tourists or anyone rushing us, just time to listen and breathe. 1. rooftop facing Sultan Hassan Madrassa 2. interior mashrabiya 3. I ❤️ maquettes 4. wind studies 5. Hassan on the rooftop #maquette #hassanfathy #architecturephotography

Swipe left for Mr. Personality

Starting the installation of Բաժակ Նայող (One Who Looks at the Cup) this week @massmoca - so happy this collaborative project with @mashinkahakopian @dahliaelsayed and @dannysnellson will be on the east coast in the ‘Technologies of Relation’ exhibition (opening Feb. 21st). Lots of my favorite artists creating large scale installations, can’t wait to see how it all comes together. Also, I LOVE working with @fullpointgraphics - they are perfectionists and so easy to communicate with. Thank you!

Thank you @creative_capital for supporting the collaborative work with @silentpatterns We are thrilled about this! Congrats to all the wonderful artists who are on this list. 🌟🌟 Celebrating 25 years of national artist support, we’re thrilled to announce the recipients of the Creative Capital Award and Inaugural State of the Art Prize - $2.9 million in grants to 109 artists. For the first time in Creative Capital’s 25-year history, the inaugural State of the Art Prize will provide unrestricted grants to 53 individual artists, one in every state, as well as Guam, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. With this new grant, Creative Capital extends its democratic, national, open call to serve more artists at the grassroots level and to foster creativity and innovation in a broad range of rural, regional, and urban communities.

A few poetry book recommendations for the year's end. These are all recently published books I've really appreciated this year. 1) The act of translation is central to Agitated Air, @performingseale & @robinmoger iteratively translated each others translations of this medieval source material - it's genius and beautiful. 2) Translator of Desire is based on the same poems as the first book, it is like a third translation, this one has a great notes section at the end that explains the symbolism and references in the original text 3) Output edited by @lillianyvonnebertram & Nick Montfort is a huge help to have for teaching #creativecoding - so grateful they've put all of these texts in one place 4) Larval Trails by @higgsflash has some amazing text gems along with the stellar artwork (seek out Shards of Limbo too if you like this one) Enjoy! See you in the new year

This Friday I'll be screening & reading pieces at the The Poetry Project - part of their interdisciplinary Friday series. more info: This evening pairs two interdisciplinary artists working at the intersection of video and poetry to share work alongside and with each other: Ricardo Bracho, a writer and educator known for his queer anti-capitalist plays, and Andrew Demirjian, an artist and educator working across a variety of media who re-mixes archival materials to reconsider habituated notions of freedom, identity and belonging. In addition to sharing their individual and collaborative work in text and video, Bracho and Demirjian will be joined by a cohort of emerging poets including Jamaal Spence, Rae Norman, and WENXI. Friday, October 24, 8pm at St Mark's Church poetryproject.org/events link in bio #poetrycommunity #interdisciplinary #videopoetry @poetry_project

I’m thrilled to be part of the Friday night Interdisciplinary Series @poetry_project . I'll be screening and reading some new work together with one of my favorite poet/playwrights, @cardobracho at St. Mark’s Church, 131 E. 10th st. (at 2nd Ave.) Friday, 10/24 8pm. More info: This evening pairs two interdisciplinary artists working at the intersection of video and poetry to share work alongside each other: Ricardo Bracho, a writer and educator known for his queer anti-capitalist plays, and Andrew Demirjian, an artist and educator working across a variety of media who re-mixes archival materials to reconsider habituated notions of freedom, identity and belonging.