Allison Holt
Allison Holt is a media artist who works with video, sculpture, installation and performance. She has exhibited nationally and internationally at the Institute Seni Indonesia (Java), the Boston CyberArts Festival (MA), Howard Yezerski Gallery (MA), Upgrade! International (Melbourne, Australia), Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum (CA), and solo at Axiom Gallery for New and Experimental Media (MA). Her artist residencies include the Experimental Television Center (NY), Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum (CA) and Oxeye Art Center (CA, upcoming). She received an M.F.A. from Massachusetts College of Art and a B.A. from The Evergreen State College. Currently, she is a contributing artist/researcher to ZooMorph, a project by U.C. Santa Barbara professor Lisa Jevbratt (funded by Creative Capital), and is a 2009-2010 Fulbright Fellow to Indonesia for research in traditional Javanese philosophy.
"The object of my research is the Javanese concept of multi-dimensional reality, the tools that the culture has developed to navigate it and the logic that underlies it. I am interested in methods of engaging in human comprehension that extend beyond the world in terms of its temporal and spatial limits, focusing specifically on a ritual called ruwatan. I explore this system of traditional knowledge through the lens of cognitive science, epistemology and philosophy of mind. As an artist, I apply my investigations directly to my art practice, constructing creative analogies to this system using video, sculpture, performance and installation."