Join us for the opening of Essential Engagement: The Works of Joseph DeLappe, a retrospective exhibit of the works of Joseph DeLappe (b. 1963) in the Silicon Valley Archives exhibition space, Hohbach Hall, Cecil H. Green Library, on the Stanford campus. This event will feature an artist’s talk by Joseph DeLappe, followed by an engaging conversation with Joel Slayton, founding director of the CADRE Lab at San Jose State University, to celebrate the opening of this exhibit.

The prolific work of Joseph DeLappe, spanning a wide range of physical and digital mediums, provides an opportunity for critical reflection and thoughtful discussions about our relationship to technology and the post-9/11 political landscape. As the most comprehensive repository of materials related to the history and development of the Silicon Valley region, the Silicon Valley Archives is honored to exhibit a selection of this work and bring the history of recent technology into conversation with our present through this pioneering artist’s work.

Growing out of a prior project and conference at San Jose State in 1984, the CADRE Lab was founded as an academic program for exploring the emerging interactions between computation and the arts. It was arguably the first such lab, and the first student to pass through the program was Joseph DeLappe. Joel Slayton, the founding director of the Lab, will join us for a conversation about CADRE’s impact on digital and media arts, particularly in the Bay Area. This conversation will be moderated by Henry Lowood, the Harold C. Hohbach Curator and head of the Silicon Valley Archives.

A guided tour of the exhibit will follow the event.

Free and open to the public. Registration is requested.

Joseph DeLappe, born San Francisco 1963, is an artist, activist and educator, he relocated to Scotland from the USA in 2017 where he is the Professor of Games and Tactical Media at Abertay University, Dundee. Working with electronic and digital media since 1983, projects in online gaming performance, sculpture and electromechanical installation have been shown throughout the world. He has developed works for venues such as Eyebeam Art and Technology in New York, The Guangdong Museum of Art, China, the Southern Utah Museum of Art and Transitio MX, Mexico City, among many others. Creative works and actions have been featured widely in scholarly journals, books and in the popular media, including the New York Times, The Australian Morning Herald, Art in America, The Guardian and the BBC.

Joel Slayton is a pioneering artist, researcher, and curator with over 35 years of experience involving art and technology. His work engages a wide range of practice including media, installation and performance and has been featured in over 100 exhibitions around the world. Joel is Professor Emeritus at San Jose State University where he was Founding Director of the CADRE Laboratory for New Media. Joel Slayton was 2018-2019 Stanford University Sterling Visiting Scholar in Department of Chemical Sysems and Biology in the School of Medicine. Joel was curator for the 5th LAST Festival Exhibition at the SLAC National Accelerator at Stanford University in 2018. From 2008-2016 Joel was Executive Director of ZERO1, a Silicon Valley based arts organization where he was responsible for the ZERO1 Biennial, an international exhibition program celebrating creativity and innovation in the arts. Joel serves on the Board of Directors of LEONARDO/ISAST (International Society for Arts, Science, and Technology) where he founded the Leonardo-MIT Press Book Series in 1999 and is a Senior Fellow of the Silicon Valley American Leadership Forum.