Home Base

A working artist and PhD student at the Center for Digital Art and Experimental Media, Tivon Rice is at home with robotics, sculpture, computers and the “Vacu Suck 2000.”

Photo by Victoria Lahti

A) In preparation for his February show at the Lawrimore Project, Tivon Rice is working with this motorized panning tripod, which he will employ with a robotic feedback system.

B) Rice recently used these fleshy-feeling silicone touch pads in the construction of a video sculpture titled Pink Noise, which allowed audiences to have tactile interaction with the image of a human finger.

C) Rice’s “Vacu Suck 2000” can be used to fabricate molds and distortions by sucking plastic over actual objects and then inflating that fresh plastic cover by pumping it full of air. The machine, based on an existing model owned by the University of Washington’s School of Art, where Rice obtained an MA, was hand-built by Rice and his father.

D) A permanent phosphorous impression of the artist is continuously being burned into the screen of a small television set, with the image remaining visible even after the television has been turned off.