Title:
Aesthetics of Gender Oppression

Work:
Multimedia Generative Film.

Opening:
July 7th, 2023
Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute. Dorsoduro, 1, 30123 Venezia VE, Italy

Details:
Aesthetics of Gender Oppression is a multimedia generative film that syncs wavetable synthesis with a dancer's movements. The waveform sounds represent flowing human energy, and the creative coding interacts with the dancer's shifting body— capturing fragments of still frames to create meta shadows of her mutations. Aesthetics of Gender Oppression is a story about sexual abuse told through creative coding and dance to capture the sequential sensoria of the body. As a child, when Jess found herself in places with men, she often hunched her back and pushed her hips inward, attempting to deform her feminine features. She aimed to transform her body's gender and vanish or appear grotesque and physically undesirable because she no longer wanted to be sexually abused. In Aesthetics of Gender Oppression, dancer Madi Tanguay performs a story about perseverance, vulnerability, the complexities of identity evolution, and the lingering melancholy shadows of self-doubt. Aesthetics of Gender Oppression also contemplates gender inequality and how we morph our bodies to blend in with society's directives. To survive, we learn to assimilate when we experience oppression, and through art, we long and fight for liberation and acceptance.

Film Duration:
00:09:39
Nine minutes and 39 seconds.

Creative Coding, Sound/Music Composition, Edited and Directed by Jessica Adriana Rivera.

Click here to download the MiRNArte app.

Title:
Juniregen in Friedrichshain

Work:
Multimedia Generative Video. Juniregen in Friedrichshain is a creative coding audio and motion-reactive video that transforms a summer thunderstorm into various colorful elements that embody the earth's ecosystems.

Opening:
June 8th, 2023
Experimental Digital Arts, Broad Art Center. Los Angeles, CA

Details:
In June 2019, on a hot summer's day, a thunderstorm crept into Berlin, Germany. The sky rumbled as clouds overlapped and rain pelted down the city. On full display, Nature's grace and fury cleansed away the megalopolis grime and the troubles of everyday life. Some birds sought shelter, while others embraced the bombardment on rooftops. Inactive, serene, and accepting. It was a paralyzing event that took place outside of time. Earth's wilderness constrained many of us. We released our social roles and consumer demands. Our ever-present ecological impacts became the dominant focus, and our ego-centric importance withered.

“Wilderness offers us the illusion that we can escape the cares and troubles of the world in which our past has ensnared us.” -W. Cronon
Video Duration:
00:05:00
Five minutes.

Title:
Echoes From The Ocean

Work:
Ecological Arts & Justice Fieldwork for Counterforce Lab.

Opening:
June 7th, 2023
Counterforce Lab. Los Angeles, CA

Details:

Echoes From The Ocean is an ecological arts and justice research-based film exploring ocean noise pollution’s impacts by examining seven species of whales’ mental, emotional, and physical well-being through sound-reactive abstract visuals. The glass contains water within a 3D sculpture that depictS captivity, ocean erosion, acidification, oil spills, and tar balls that harm marine ecosystems. Echoes From The Ocean uses colors, sounds, and shapes to visualize the communication of whales. A red air gun survey simulation created by three wavetable synthesis represents one of the many noise pollutants whales endure daily. The rest of the visuals distinguish light from dark in shades of grey; monochromatically, they emulate the underwater eyesight of cetaceans. Throughout the film, the species change with sound and color transitions that form various shapes, illustrating their echolocation in motion.

Film Duration:
20 minutes
Twenty minutes.

Multimedia:
Generative Art film, custom glass conatiner & 3D print sculpture.

Technical Description:
- One air gun survey simulation, made with three wavetable synthesis.
- Seven sound-reactive creative coding visuals, six from different whale species around the world.
- One glass case with water.
- One eroded & acidified 3D print housing with “tar.”

Creative Direction, Sound, & Design by_
Jessica Adriana Rivera

Title:
The Aesthetics of The Oppressed

Work:
World Arts & Cultures/Dance

Opening:
April 4th, 2023
Experimental Digital Arts, Broad Art Center. Los Angeles, CA

Details:

The Aesthetics of The Oppressed is a film that explores identity roles and body transformations. Through habitual chest binding and various body compression methods, we mold our physiques to acquire social acceptance, enduring and pushing beyond the limitations of comfort and safety. Our oppression is shared through stories, and our vulnerability is expressed through sounds, images, and movements. We withstand and persist, longing for social liberation and equality. The vertical fragments in the videos are transformative still frames that represent the dancers' extended bodies—moving and evolving, giving light to the shadows of the past.

"If I do not understand the word, I understand the gesture; if not the gesture, the sound; if not the sound, the silence; if not the silence, the tone; if not the tone, the movement." - Augusto Boal
Film Duration:
00:09:39
Nine minutes and 39 seconds.
Directed, Edited, Creative Coding, & Music by_
Jessica Adriana Rivera

Title:
Human Print

Work:
NANOBIOTECH + DESIGN

Opening:
April 12th, 2023
ART | SCI Center, California Nanosystems Institute. Los Angeles, CA

Details:
Human Print critiques the beauty industry and society's constant marketing of consumer products meant to "fix" women's physiques and appearances, with the implication that women are "flawed" or that their natural bodies and skin are imperfect. Human Print's designs flip the narrative and accentuate the parts of women's bodies and skin that are natural but typically looked down upon as ugly, undesirable, or unattractive. The YOU dress was designed as a 3D model and rendered to precisely project on a white canvas dress that Maxine Gonzalez sewed. Using projection mapping, the YOU dress features natural skin "defects" such as acne scars, ingrown body hairs, stretch marks, pores, eczema patches, vitiligo, wrinkles, age spots, birthmarks, etc. The YOU dress closely examines our shared insecurities and "imperfections," so we shine a light on what we hide in the dark to fully embrace every bit of ourselves. All the images used for projection mapping were captured using microscopy and micro photo tools. They are the skin of friends and loved ones and the bodies of Jessica Adriana Rivera, Maxine Gonzalez, and Bela Chauhan. The Human Print collection also included a leotard, pants, and a coat created and naturally dyed using onion skins, beets, mycelium, and Lactarius indigo. Fabrics, materials, and techniques included canvas, chiffon, organza, hair extensions, sashiko and boro Japanese embroidery.

Nanobiotech fashion designs by Jessica Adriana Rivera, Maxine Gonzalez, and Bela Chauhan.

YOU dress 3D design & projection mapping by Jessica Adriana Rivera.

Title:
Expired New Life

Hey, Can you pick me up? I’m scared. I’m at the Intersection of Art & Technology: UCLA DMA UG Exhibition

Work:
p5.js creative coding & 35mm expired film.

Opening:
January 19th, 2023
New Wight Gallery. Los Angeles, CA

Details:
Expired New Life repurposes traditional media by reviving expired 35mm film with creative coding. The rendered mixed media captures Akihabara, Tokyo’s electrical chaos, Mexico City’s architecture and its curanderos’ cultural rituals (witch doctors who use indigenous medicinal practices to heal physical and psychological illnesses linked to evil spirits). Printed on transparent vellum.

p5.js creative coding & 35mm expired film by_
Jessica Adriana Rivera

Title:
Elements + -
ALLEGORIES

Work:
Ecology Field Research

Opening:
December 2nd, 2022
Experimental Digital Arts, Broad Art Center. Los Angeles, CA

Details: Elements + - explored various photo tools and techniques by examining ecology within Los Angeles, dead and alive. A two-part series of analog and digital images. The photograms depict past life, featuring dried plants, cinnamon bark, random vintage consumer household decor, and discarded scraps from hardware shops in LA's Miracle Mile neighborhood. The digital images exemplify the living, local plants merging with UCLA's architecture.

Photograms & digital images by_
Jessica Adriana Rivera

jess adriana rivera |

exhibitions photography design + typography

| info

© 2025 j.a.r all rights reserved

los angeles, california

exhibitions
photography
design + typography