ONOH & MELANIE
2021 SEED Artists-In-Residence
ONOH'S BIO
ONOH is an interdisciplinary artist who takes many forms - animator, educator, performer and creative coder. She exhibits her art internationally and currently expands her knowledge at Arizona State University, earning her MFA in Theatre - Interdisciplinary Digital Media & Performance. ONOH is easily seduced by synthetic realities, artificial presences and their participation in storytelling. She is an ASU Gammage Teaching Artist trained in the Kennedy Center Arts Integration method, with a BFA in Expanded Media from the University of Kansas and a BA from Baker University double-majoring in Political Science and International Studies. She currently lives and creates in Tempe, AZ.
What is at the core of your work?
At the core of my work is an affinity for the potential of technology, while also a critical understanding of its ability to perpetuate oppressive tactics and hierarchies. I believe in multiple modes of intelligence, including creative intelligence as a capacity for unique meaning-making. I engage collaboratively with technology to produce creative art that is a product of both human and non-human artistry. The choice to validate synthetic processes and intelligence as a collaborative process is intentional and ever present in my work.
MELANIE'S BIO
Melanie Holm is a singer using song and dance both to reframe opera through a female-driven lens, and to collaborate with living composers on new works that challenge systemic norms within classical music. Melanie is a member of the Arizona Women’s Collaborative, collaborating with other female-identifying artists to create new interdisciplinary compositions, and is an alum of the DBR Lab at Arizona State University curated by Daniel Bernard Romain and Jeff McMahon. Melanie is an ASU-Gammage Teaching Artist, a former Education Artist with Arizona Opera, and an alum of Opera in the Ozarks Emerging Artist Program. She holds degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (BM/Voice, Dance Minor) and Arizona State University (DMA/Voice, MM/Opera)
What is at the core of your work?
At the core of my work is a desire to blend opera singing with dance, choreography, and storytelling through a female-driven lens. I am interested in where opera and classical music go when fused together in new and exciting ways. As my creative voice has evolved, particularly over my late twenties, I have become a lot less interested in whether someone “important” likes my work, and am more interested in developing creative work that speaks to my own artistic voice.