Plant Powered Robotic Orchestra at Action Art Fest, presented by the Rail Arts District and Action Avenue Projects.

On Saturday, August 29, 2026 12 Noon SHARP
FREE!

The succulent (Sedum Cuspidatum) plays a drum machine.
The Mother-In-Law plant (Dracaena Trifasciata ) plays the cello.
The “vocals” if you will, are performed by the Spider Plant (Chlorophytum cosmosum).
With a guest appearance from a plant from the DiRosa Ats Center! Playing a banjo, most likely.
SEE HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OYoiGUUs0w

Every plant emits a tiny variable voltage. I attach sensors directly to the plants and harvest that voltage, amplify it and send it to motors triggering my sound orchestra via microcontrollers triggering custom built sound robots.
The audience will be able to interact with the plants changing the speed, pitch and rhythm and the “band”!
The Audience can trigger and change the speed of the instruments by touching the plants.

Performance at 1621 Action Ave. Napa Ca.
The Plants start at 12 noon sharp until 1:00!
There may be sporadic plant generated sounds for a bit after.

https://www.radnapa.org/rad-action-art-fest-2nd-annual/
https://www.instagram.com/actionaveprojects
https://www.dirosaart.org/

This event is curated by #Twyla Ruby and #Tim Kelly!

This is a from my listening to nature series.
https://youtu.be/Maws22zT0no
https://youtu.be/V6CvRVnbA3o
#plantmusic  #robot  #arduino #sensor

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SFAI Legacy Foundation + Archive Party!!

sfai_legacyThe amazing lineup for Sunday’s SFAI Legacy Foundation + Archive Party!! In addition to the Silent Auction featuring the work of 60+ artists (plus experiences including walking tours with Jeff and Becky), we also have an all-star roster of performers and activities that will make this a party worthy of the SFAI name, including:

—@kalspelletich’s plant music—a band played by plants—called The Sedum Trifasciata Cosmosum Ensemble

—Lindsey White’s Big Sandwich—the biggest sandwich @ldubbles has ever attempted!

—Live music by @penelopehouston & the Jailbirds

—More live music by Mike Henderson & Cabin Fever with special guest Dave Getz

—Tarot readings with Ailee John

—SFAI merch by Sherry Knutson @shhayo

—100% adoptable puppies from @gobeyondrescue

—Plus alumni film screenings, wine by @skylarkwine, RE/Search Publications @vale_research, commemorative Carlos Villa pens, PUPPIES, and so much more…all hosted by the one and only Cliff Hengst @cleoff_le_baron!

Get your by-donation tickets now at the link in bio—and see you Sunday!

SFAI Legacy Foundation + Archive Party
Sunday, February 15
12-4pm
@minnesotastreetproject

OCCUPIED STATE

ICE (age)

Upcoming screening at Franklin Furnace online on February 20, 2026.

FREE!
https://franklinfurnace.org/iceage-occupied-state/
[6:00pm ET, February 20, 2026] Live Stream via the FF LOFT on Zoom] with a Q&A afterwards.

Screened at Artists Television Access in S.F., Ca.

AND, KUBA:Kulturbanhoff in Klein Warno, Germany.

“ICE(age): OCCUPIED STATE” Film Screening

SPELLETICH/THOMPSON: ON ICE + LORD + WOBBLY + Prelinger

UPDATE:

ICE(age)

On November 22, 2025. I curated a screening and performances on and about ICE at Artists Television Access in San Francisco, California.
Craig Baldwin, of course, made it all happen in the way only he can.
A standing room crowd packed the immutable venue. For the final screening, I collaborated on, with Seamus, and a legendary punk composer, and a notorious international reporter, creating a live remediation of ICE depredations, garnered from reporters on the ground.
An ICE pineta was disemboweled, and treats were scattered about the audience.

After the screenings and events, a LONG and deep conversation and Q & A occurred with the audience with reporters on the front line, and arists’s responses.

Some takeaways from the conversation were:
There is plenty of inspirational dissent happening.
Locals are banding together and resisting in profound and EFFECTIVE ways.
It’s a class war after all.
People of color are being targeted first. Next, they will come after any and all dissenters. Don’t be tricked into thinking you are immune to this. This is just the beginning.
Corporations run and funded by oligarchs are funding this.
Boycotts are effective.
Everyone hates Nazi’s.

The evening also featured the incomparable Chip Lord screening 2 shorts, NOT Top Gun and WEIRD Turn Pro.

Also, Wobbly performed a stunning live soundtrack to Negativland, the pieces “Sycamore” and “A nice Place to Live”, the masterful Mr. Rick Prelinger expertly unspools what’s too often hidden in the archive–how a geographic paradise has been despoiled by prisons and factory-farming. Incredible.

It was all live, improvisational, chance entered into the dialogue, humor, terror and rebellion. People showed up early and stayed late. The conversation continues.

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
-Upton Sinclair

Here is some B role footage form ICE(age)

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The Cali Apocalypse plays out ever more cinematically in this scream of rage against the evil machine that is ICE! Mission gem/Ant Farm vet Chip Lord kicks it off with the new super-cut of his classic Not Top Gun, puncturing the retrograde militarism oozing out of San Diego.

https://youtu.be/FXY6ocvaZyE?si=npN7-mYf9BTRWTYw

Also a neighbor, Wobbly steps up with live remixes of the most Contra Costa-critical audio collages cooked up by Negativland, https://negativland.com/videos

https://youtu.be/EseXUufowr8?si=or6TlFxTTB1d0x9P

and Mr. Rick Prelinger expertly unspools what’s too often hidden in the archive–how a geographic paradise has been despoiled by prisons and factory-farming.

https://prelingerlibrary.org/home/

We climax with Kal Spelletich & Space Time Solution’s live remediation of ICE depredations, garnered from ProPublica reporter AC Thompson. AC shares updates, fields questions, and joins us in smashing an ICE piñata! Gilbert’s beer’s here too. $13

http://www.othercinema.com/calendar/

at ATA Gallery, 992 Valencia (@ 21st).

ICE piñata! Gilbert’s beer’s here too. $13

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/person/a-c-thompson/

https://w0bbly.bandcamp.com/

Space Time Solutions are performing Mike Morasky and Kal Spelletich

At Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on Thursday October 2, 2025. 701 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 We are opening for the astonishing Tommy Guerrero! Our set starts promptly at 7 P.M.

We have produced a sound score to a series of videos of the San Francisco landscape using custom sound machines and sound processing.

This is part of the exhibit, BAY AREA THEN Curated by Chris Johanson and Ethan Swan, the free series celebrates the artistic spirit of the Bay Area’s countercultures and artist communities. https://ybca.org/event/bay-area-then/

We are reflecting on the noise machines conceived and constructed in 1913 by the Italian futurist artist Luigi Russolo (1913), John Cage, Einstürzende Neubauten, Eno, Stravinsky, Penderecki, Stars of the Lid, John Adams, Terry Riley.

-Stop the Wars-

I submitted some ephemera and posters that are in the show celebrating the 1990’s. Below is a thing I wrote for the exhibit (which didn’t make the cut for the show). +++++++++++++++++++++++ These posters and zines were our internet. Xeroxed gospel, handed out, wheat-pasted, stapled and taped to telephone poles. They were a summoning and a battle cry. Some were so beautiful we stole them back to hang on our walls. A calling, it was a communion.

We stood on the shoulders of those who came before. The Black Panthers in leather and rage. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, cloaked in satire and sacrament. Radical punks and extreme artists, raw and righteous. Even the hippies. Each one a spark. This was a mass gathering, strange and unstoppable. A critical mass of freaks.

We showed anywhere but mainstream places. Nonprofits, fundraisers in old drafty warehouses 8 people lived in, basements that smelled like ghosts, abandoned buildings full of echoes, bars and most sacred of all: the streets. The streets didn’t care about credentials. The streets respected nerve.

Cops came sometimes, but we had charm. Or lies. Or dumb luck.Most shows were illegal. That was the truth of it. That was the point. This was art with steel toe boots.

Performance/Talk and Film Screening: Plant Feedback Music

We have created a band that is played by plants.

I kid you not.

The succulent (Sedum Cuspidatum) plays a drum machine.

The Mother-In-Law plant (Dracaena Trifasciata ) plays the cello.

The “vocals” if you will, are performed by the Spider Plant (Chlorophytum cosmosum).

All via sensors attached directly to the plants, run through microcontrollers triggering sound robots I built.

The audience will be able to interact with the plants changing the speed, pitch and rhythm and the “band”!

AT

Gray Area Foundation for the Arts

September 5, 2025 at 6:30 P.M.

2665 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA.

On top of all of that, there will be a film of scientist/artists doing this exact thing but with synthesizers in the 1970’s!

Some absolutely trailblazing geniuses, pioneers in sensor systems, synths, interactive art. All done here in S.F., glorious hippy 1970’s!

This will be an evening you will not want to miss and shalt never be repeated.

In the magnificent Grand Theater (Grey Area) with their monstrous sound system on Mission Street in lovely San Francisco.

Screening of The Secret Life of Plants and Plant Music Performance

This event is curated by Anastasia Chernysheva, Research Fellow at Gray Area!

#plantmusic#robot#arduino#sensor

The Revolution IS Being Televised!

American Aria is a durational video installation created by multimedia artist Kal
Spelletich and James Davis which invites audiences to reflect on the transgressive nature of the
insurrection that took place at our nation’s capital on Jan. 6, 2021.

Anti Authoritarian

At Telematic gallery April 2025

In San Francisco!

ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN

Demagoguery, White Supremacy, and Resistance

Featuring works by Nic[o] Brierre Aziz, Christy Chan, Nicólas González-Medina, Doug Hall and Kal Spelletich April 19th – June 7th, 2025

Opening Reception, Saturday, April 19th 6:00 – 9:00pm

323 10th St. @ Folsom (SoMa), San Francisco, CA 94103

415-336-2349 | @tttelematiccc

Info@tttelematiccc.com | www.tttelematiccc.com

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https://vimeo.com/1044321317
https://franklinfurnace.org/americanaria/

#J6

Hearing Color 玫瑰

3 sensors read the colors of a bouquet grown in my garden activating motors striking cymbals. Reading the Light of a Bouquet Flower color is the result of pigment molecules accumulating in cells, but it’s not as simple as just making pigment. The location, type of pigment, and amount produced, are all very important. These aspects are genetically controlled. Two main groups of genes control flower color. Roses were present in Europe by the early Oligocene. Today’s garden roses come from 18th-century China. There are other factors that can affect how colors present themselves.  The amount of light flowers receive while they grow, the temperature of the environment around them, even the pH level of the soil in which they grow can affect their coloration.  Another factor is stress from the environment.  This stress can include a drought or a flood or even a lack of nutrition in the soil, all of which can dampen the coloration of flowers.  And then, of course, there is the visual that the eye and brain form together: humans can, for the most part, view all colors in the visible spectrum, BUT every creature perceives color differently, so a red rose may appear more vibrant to one animal while it appears more muted to another insect. Flower colors, produced by pigments like anthocyanins, flavonoids, and carotenoids, are primarily meant to attract pollinators like bees, butterflies, and birds. Flower colors, produced by pigments like anthocyanins, flavonoids, and carotenoids, are primarily meant to attract pollinators like bees, butterflies, and birds. Different colors can also symbolize various emotions and ideas, such as red for romance and passion, pink for femininity, and yellow for happiness. 

#Rose #Roses #Rosecoloredglasses #Naturetechnologyhybrid #hybrid #Hearing #synesthesia #colormixing #colors #rose #sound #soundcloud #cymbals #sensor #sensoryplay #pigments #pigmentation #optics #science #anthocyanin #flavonoids #augmentedreality #pollinators

A Talk With The Smithsonian Institution

I am in an online talk Artists Talk on Art.

It has been happening since 1974. The talk will be archived at the Smithsonian Museum.

Here is the LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT0LvV1s63E

https://www.atoanyc.org/upcoming-programs

The conversation will begin with an arts festival I attended 6 times in the 1990’s in a desert.

I will discuss How to show technology can be used in anti-capitalist subversive funny and innovative ways.

To misuse tech.

Creations for transformative impact.

To be honest I was wary to do this, I try to not look back. Only forward, I randomly scanned the list of artists and the first one I saw my former friend Ana Mendieta (who was murdered). The 2nd was my dear mentor Martha Wilson. So that sealed the deal!

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Artists Talk on Art has provided a forum for visual artists in New York City for nearly a half-century and is the longest-running panel series in art history.

Among the many artists and others who have appeared at ATOA have been: Benny Andrews, David Amram, Dore Ashton, Will Barnet, Romare Bearden, Robert Blackburn, Linda Benglis, Ashley Bickerton, Louise Bourgeois, Nancy Burson, Doris Chase, Herman Cherry, Judy Chicago, A. D. Coleman, Paula Cooper, Ed Clark, Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Chuck Close, Minna Citron, Arthur Danto, Douglas Davis, Robert De Niro, Agnes Denes, Inka Essenhigh, Audrey Flack, Ronald Feldman, Dorothy Gillespie, Michael Goldberg, Leon Golub, Ron Gorchov, The Guerrilla Girls, Anthony Haden-Guest, Grace Hartigan, Al Held, Jenny Holzer, Budd Hopkins, Wolf Kahn, Ivan Karp, Alex Katz, Ellen Koment, Ruth Kligman, Hilton Kramer, Joseph Kosuth, Donald Kuspit, Al Leslie, Lucy Lippard, Robert Longo, Alice Neel, Vernita Nemec, Robert Mapplethorpe, Mercedes Matter, Knox Martin, Marisol, Musa Mayer, George McNeil, Clement Meadmore, Jonas Mekas, Ana Mendieta, Jay Milder, Elizabeth Murray, Jules Olitski, Dennis Oppenheim, Betty Parsons, Pat Passlof, Philip Pavia, Philip Pearlstein, Judy Pfaff, Howardina Pindell, Larry Poons, Deborah Remington, Milton Resnick, Faith Ringgold, Larry Rivers, Geno Rodriguez, Barbara Rose, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Jerry Saltz, David Salle, Irving Sandler, Joan Semmel, Andres Serrano, Peter Schjeldahl, Miriam Shapiro, Nancy Spero, Pat Steir, Carolee Schneemann, Marcia C. Sheer, Kenneth Snelson, Lucas Samaras, Calvin Tomkins, Judd Tully, Ultra Violet, Lilly Wei, Hannah Wilke, Martha Wilson, James Wines, Kehinde Wiley and Fred Wilson.

Artists and all interested in presenting a panel are welcome to submit proposals for the coming season to: dougsheer@gmail.com

�ATOA archives are held at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Waterway as Lens to The World

Video gazing pool.
A Bootjack Creek, Mt. Tamalpais.
37.9235° N, 122.5965° W
April 23, 2024

A Looking Glass

Fundraiser: Aaron Peskin for San Francisco Mayor this Friday at Incline Gallery

I will have an art piece for sale (cheap! )at this fundraiser for Aaron Peskin for San Francisco Mayor this Friday at Incline Gallery. There will be a bunch of great stuff there for great deals for a great progressive for mayor.

5-8 PM

766 Folsom St.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=934187155186510&set=a.358150782790153

This is San Francisco’s first opportunity in over 30 years to elect a truly Progressive Mayor who reflects the values of the working and creative people who make our City so special. Aaron is the only candidate who is not backed by right-wing billionaires, who have been dumping money into heinous policies nationwide. With over 25 years of legislative experience inside and out of City Hall, he is the most qualified candidate, with a long history of supporting LGBTQIA rights, protecting our neighborhoods from speculators and displacement, and supporting our City’s arts, entertainment and cultural scenes within his district and across the city.

To learn more about Aaron Peskin, see his website at: https://www.aaron2024.com/

And follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aaronpeskin2024/

Aaron Peskin is endorsed by the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, the SF Tenants Union, San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters, the National Union of Healthcare Workers, Service Employees International Union, UNITE HERE! Local 2 hotel workers, Supervisors Dean Preston and Connie Chan, and former Board of Supervisors President, artist, and co-host of this art auction, Matt Gonzalez – among many others!

Event details:

Incline Gallery, 766 Valencia

Friday, September 27th

5 – 8pm