Jamie Richey, Nicolas Romano, Douglas Becht
- Published:
In this UNDERSTORY Session, Amalgamation co-curator Douglas Becht sits down with Jamie Richey and Nicolas Romano, whose collaborative work blends photography and mixed media with projection mapping and interactive video. The two met through Tanya Kaiser’s Renaissance Box project, which paired a traditional artist with a digital one, and they’ve been building on each other’s practices ever since. They talk about Tell-A-Graham, a robot assembled from televisions and found objects, inspired by video art pioneer Nam June Paik and now able to run on its own in the gallery, with a camera that lets viewers move shapes and make video clips appear. They also discuss the mirrored, projected entry piece that draws visitors into the show, and Jamie’s DayDream Machine, which explores the gap between dreaming of a better life and being caught in the machine of work and sleep. Along the way, Doug shares the thinking behind his own piece in the show, and the three talk about why they’d rather hear what viewers see in the work than explain it.