Mapping the Desert/Deserting the Map
An Interdisciplinary Response
October, 2009 - May, 2010


The University of California, Riverside Sweeney Art Gallery and the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts (UCIRA) are collaborating on MAPPING THE DESERT/DESERTING THE MAP, an arts-centered investigation of California's upper (Mojave) and lower (Colorado) deserts and the new, not-so-new and downright ancient technologies that make such mapping possible. The investigation is being framed through a series of experimental "Dry Immersion" on-site gatherings which aim 1) to seed new art works and interdisciplinary research projects focused on the desert's natural, social and cultural landscapes and 2) to showcase and broadcast the work produced through this process throughout the 2009-2010 academic year. UCIRA Desert Studies was launched in January 2009 by Dick Hebdige in association with UC Riverside's Palm Desert Graduate Center as a UCIRA demonstration project exemplifying the Institute's commitment new Social Ecologies, California-centric embedded arts research program.

Curated by Dick Hebdige, UC Institute for the Arts Desert Studies Project Director, UCSB; Tyler Stallings, Director, Sweeney Art Gallery, UCR; and Shane Shukis, Assistant Director, Sweeney Art Gallery, UCR; with the assistance of Georg Burwick, Director of Digital Media, ARTSblock, UCR; Kim Yasuda and Marko Peljahn, Co-Directors, UCIRA, UCSB; Holly Unruh, Associate Director, UCIRA, UCSB; and ZouZou Chapman, Program Coordinator, UCIRA, UCSB. Additional information on UCIRA, www.ucira.ucsb.edu.