Now in it's second year, Low Lives is a one-night exhibition of live performance-based works transmitted via the internet and projected in real time at numerous venues throughout the U.S.

Produced and curated by Jorge Rojas,  Low Lives examines works that critically investigate, challenge, and extend the potential of performance practice presented live through online broadcasting networks. These networks provide a new alternative and efficient medium for presenting and viewing performances. Low Lives is about not simply the presentation of performative gestures at a particular place and time but also about the transmission of these moments and what gets lost, conveyed, blurred, and reconfigured when utilizing this medium. Low Lives embraces works with a lo-fi aesthetic such as low pixel image and sound quality, contributing to a raw, DIY and sometimes voyeuristic quality in the transmission and reception of the work.

El Museo del Barrio: 1230 5th Avenue, NYC - 8:00 – 11:00pm
Galería de la Raza: 2857 24th Street, SF - 5:00 – 8:00pm
Diaspora Vibe Gallery: 3938 North Miami Ave., Miami – 8:00 – 11:00pm
The Temporary Space: 1320 Nance St., Houston - 7:00 – 10:00pm
Obsidian Arts: 3501 Chicago Avenue South, Minneapolis - 7:00 – 10:00pm
Terminal: APSU- Clarksville - 7:00 – 10:00pm
Co-Lab: 613 Allen St., Austin - 7:00 – 10:00pm
Studio 304: 304 Boerum St., Brooklyn - 8:00 – 11:00pm
 
Live Broadcast: www.ustream.tv/channel/low-lives-2

7:00 – 10:00pm (Central Time)

A 2010 Streaming Class Portrait
Since 1999 Michael Smith has been taking his students to the Sears Portrait Studio to sit for a group class portrait, a picture that later may become their only memento and reminder  of a semester spent together with Professor Smith. For Smith, it is not only a reminder of time spent with his class it is also and a not so subtle reminder of years passing. When looking over a group of the Sears Class Portraits it's apparent that the project is a chronicle of aging, the students stay the same age as Smith gets older.

For Low Lives 2, Smith and his performance art students will animate the Sears Sessions and sit together for a live tableau vivant portrait for online viewers. Quiet and still, the sitters will attempt to hold their poses and freeze a moment in time.