Rewilding Cultures: artist-in-residence @ Radiona – Marlon Barrios Solano

In 2024 we are continuing the collaboration with Marlon Barrios Solano, multidisciplinary artist within the project Rewilding Cultures with artist-in-residence program in Radiona during April 2024.

Marlon Barrios Solano (cc)

Artist statement: During my artistic residency at Radiona, I will advance my research on the dynamics of interactivity and generativity within the contexts of real-time emergence and computational poetics. My exploration extends to algorithmic creativity and AI generativity, particularly within the browser space and through the various interfaces and connectivity of a common laptop.

This includes a focus on performativity, integrating machine learning, and enhancing AI-driven creative processes. Utilizing open-source tools, my outputs will include code, comprehensive documentation, video materials, and performance scores. This project aims to deepen our understanding of technology’s role in artistic expression while ensuring accessibility and transparency through open-source contributions.

Marlon Barrios Solano (cc)

Marlon Barrios Solano is an international interdisciplinary artist and researcher with expertise in software engineering, generative AI, dance improvisation, and mindfulness. His varied portfolio encompasses AI-driven apps, digital therapeutics, web applications, interactive installations, and multimedia performances. A significant aspect of his contributions is the creation and curation of dance-tech.net, a social network for dancers and innovators, and the production of over 200 dance-techTV video interviews. His groundbreaking work with Sati-AI exemplifies the convergence of AI and mindfulness.

Marlon provides his proficiency to diverse sectors, assisting both individuals and organizations in maximizing the benefits of AI. He’s a resident researcher at Lake Studios Berlin and Wisdom Labs in San Francisco, and his research endeavors have spanned across, USA, South America, Germany, Amsterdam, Switzerland, and the UK.

Educationally, Marlon boasts an MFA from The Ohio State University and a completion certificate from the General Assembly Software Engineering Program in 2021. He’s a Kernel Fellow Block5 2022 and imparts Vipassana meditation knowledge to artists and tech professionals. He served as a research associate at the Inter-University of Dance/University of The Arts in Berlin between 2012-2016.

As a dancer in NYC, he collaborated with choreographers Lynn Shapiro, Merian Soto, Dean Moss and Susan Marshall and with musicians Philip Glass, John Zorn and Erik Friedlander. He has an MFA in Dance and Technology 2004 (new media, performance of improvisation and embodied cognition) from The Ohio State University, USA. 

Marlon was a research associate at the Inter-University of Dance/University of The Arts (UDK/HZT) in Berlin (Germany) from 2013 to 2016. He was 1 2017 Hombroich Fellow (Germany).  He was artist/researcher  in residency at ICK Amsterdam 2013-14 and at the Gilles Jobin Company in Geneva (Switzerland) 2009-2012. He has taught and developed projects in the US, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and South America.

Certified as a Vipassana/Mindfulness Meditation Teacher by the Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Marlon resided at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA from 2016 to 2021. Under the tutelage of Stephen Batchelor, Marlon’s learning journey persists. As an Embodyoga® 200 Hour Certified Teacher, he has globally shared his expertise and spearheaded projects. In 2023 he was a fellow with the Mind and Life EUROPEAN SUMMER RESEARCH INSTITUTE (ESRI).

Rewilding Cultures (RC) is a Creative Europe collaboration project which wants to reposition the wild within the field of art practices connecting to science and technology. As the European cultural sector has been and still is affected by multiple subsequent and coincident crises (incl. COVID-19, war-induced inflation, migration) we need to rewild on terms fit for the present and future.