Extended Reality Artist Armando Lopez-Bircann Premieres Interactive Performance, ‘Extended Bloom,’ on June 10

How does art help us envision the future? Registration is open for “Extended Bloom,” an interactive performance by artist Armando Lopez-Bircann

Extended Bloom, an interactive performance by D.C.-based artist Armando Lopez Bircann, brings art history to new life through augmented (AR) and virtual (VR) reality on June 10 at the DC Public Library Central Branch.

Lopez-Bircann is a Washington, D.C.-based artist who engineers wearable sculptures, digital media, and interactive performances through Extended Reality (XR) practices that draw from human movement and history framed by shared spaces and experiences.

Using wearable sculptures, music, and augmented reality, the artist will activate a harmonious experience between nature and technology. Audience members participate using their smartphones to unlock and layer AR text and images linking the present to the possible.

 While the performance is tech-forward, Lopez-Bircann's practice foregrounds human expression as a natural extension: “I’m always inspired by nature...sometimes a thing that we call artificial, like technology, is actually very natural because it comes from us. I guess for me, I'm trying to bring in some of the things that I enjoy the most in the world into this digital realm.”

Inspired by Smithsonian artworks and archival materials, Lopez-Bircann reimagines themes explored by artists notably Giacomo Balla, Pedro Friedeberg, and Joseph Stella to conjure vibrant, interconnected paths for everyone. Lopez-Bircann's practice draws on both formal elements as well as conceptual foundations from past artists, adapting iconographies and aims to create performances driven by the desire to encourage all to flourish.

On the importance of communal connection through performance, Lopez-Bircann adds that “it's not so much about creating a simulation, but staying connected to our humanness or our nature while we're in digital spaces where we can transcend our bodies, sometimes our identities.”

 “My hope with the Extended Bloom project is that there's some sort of optimism in it. Some of the songs are about sort of dark things or struggles, but ultimately it's a colorful, hopeful take on my experience and mostly just to see that 3D printers are here, AR is here, VR is here, the future is like happening now.”

Experience Extended Bloom on Tuesday, June 10 at 5:30 p.m. at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library – Central Library, 901 G Street, NW. Event is free but registration is encouraged: dclibrary.libnet.info/event/13504418. This program, best appreciated by an adult audience, is presented by the Archives of American Art and DC Public Library with support from the Keith Haring Foundation.

Ben Gillespie | Read More

Ben Gillespie is the Arlene and Robert Kogod Secretarial Scholar for Oral History at the Archives of American Art.