Cultivating creative communities with Rena Tom
This month, Gray Area debuted its first first large-scale immersive exhibition entitled, The End Of You, inviting visitors to explore multi-sensory installations that encourage new ways of perceiving the self within the living world. Throughout this fall, artists participating in the Experiential Space Research Lab have been reimagining ways to radically shift perspective through the power of immersive art.
Rena Tom works as an instigator, matchmaker and strategist to uplift and support the multitude of creative communities that she is connected with. Learn more about she has contributed her expertise in creative placemaking, community organizing, and experiential design to the lab.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your practice.
Some nice person called me a polymath in an interview once, but I like to think of myself as nosy and curious. I’ve cycled through lots of careers in different fields, including art, tech, maker, retail and community planning, and am now happily exploring experiential spaces and participatory art. The theme that has emerged is a desire to work with artists and makers, to bring them together to collaborate in the analog world. I think that face to face interactions are so important for problem-solving.
What are some of the themes that drive your creative explorations?
I always have community in mind. How will people work together (or not work together) and what do they create? How can people support each other’s work in a healthy way? How will people feel when they experience something together?
At the same time, I am interested in one’s personal experience in our current environment of constant surveillance and limited privacy that uses data and exposure as currency. I am investigating self-image and self images/selfies with mirrors. Reflections have been purposefully been distorted and used for optical illusions for centuries, and mirrors are an early surveillance device; I want to play with that concept.
What are some obstacles you’ve faced throughout your career?
Lack of time and space to experiment! I need some solid, dedicated time to think, but I seem to keep getting derailed by awesome collaborative art opportunities. I also have a ten year old son, and work commitments. Life is busy.
What led you to Gray Area’s Research Lab on experiential spaces?
I have been a fan of Gray Area for a while, and the Research Lab sounded very relevant to my current interests. I was sold when I learned that part of the grant’s goals is to help artists in this field learn to make money and support themselves. I think that’s so important, and difficult (especially in the Bay Area), and I’m pleased that that is an explicit aim of the program.
In what ways does your work resonate with Gray Area’s Research Lab?
If you combine all of the major projects I’ve worked on — a retail store, an art gallery, a collaboration hub — you get most of the facets of experiential spaces as we know them today.
How do you consider your audience throughout the creative process?
I want to steer audiences toward a particular emotion or outcome, and am happy to do it in an unorthodox way — getting people to stop and look toward the unfamiliar is the best way to do it. That said, people are gonna do what they want to do, and I respect that. I am a tinkerer and a what-if person myself, and I recognize the itch to push against the rules.
What do you hope people gain from interacting with your work?
I want people to feel. I want them to think, of course, but something that is felt will get baked into someone’s brain more deeply. I am a believer in non-optimization, and think that discomfort has a purpose, and sometimes creating a darker, more complex feeling can lead to more thought-provoking art.
Throughout your career as a curator and community developer, you have taken part in the creation of a series of collaborative workspaces and community centered pop up exhibits. How do you see yourself working with or against the ephemeral nature of experiential design when designing work that activates communities through participation?
I like to explore narrative both in a linear fashion and in asynchronous formats. In a media-saturated society, FOMO is a strong emotion — how can we frame this positively? I think providing for immediate ways to participate, as well as leaving (real or virtual) breadcrumbs to continue the conversation, is important for a more inclusive experience.
Your past projects “Rare Device” and “Window Take Over” among others, have this playful inviting element to them, through which they transform retail spaces and shop fronts through artistic collaborations and participatory projects. What influence do the spaces you occupy have on your design process?
Most of what I have made is site-specific. The container shapes the visuals and the modes of participation, as well as providing necessary constraints. I would have a very hard time with a completely blank canvas; I need spaces to push back against my proposals to make them better.
With a background in printmaking and web design, do you see yourself integrating these practices into your work at the research lab? What tools and mediums are you interested in taking on now?
No, I don’t get to flex my creative muscle very much right now. I’m a generalist and am leaving the specialists on the team to do amazing work. What helps them is strategy, encouragement, and logistical advice, so I’ve been filling in on the project management/producer side at ESRL. However, I like learning what’s possible and the lab is a great place for me to catch up on so much that’s been happening in art, nature, and technology.
With deep ties in a myriad of creative communities, Rena Tom builds on her background in design, community-building, and curation to bring artistic visions to life.
She creates participatory experiences that addresses ethics, diversity, and curiosity to cultivate social presence and collective growth.
The End Of You is on view at Gray Area from February 7–March 1, 202
Reserve your tickets at EndOfYou.io.
The End Of You is the culmination of a year-long collaboration between Gray Area and Gaian Systems, with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, to explore the potential of immersive art for social impact through the Experiential Space Research Lab. The open call for participation, Reworlding: The Art of Living Systems, invited artists to propose novel experiences to cultivate planetary thinking.
The Experiential Space Research Lab is an initiative by Gray Area studying how artists can work with immersive environments as critical thinking tools. The Research Lab supports a diverse team of artists exploring the potential of immersive art as sustainable creative practice, and as a tool for engaging with our world. Through research, field surveys, prototyping, and the production of new works, the Experiential Space Research Lab will ultimately develop a playbook for artists interested in creating immersive digital art experiences.
This interview was conducted by Miriam Abraham, Gray Area’s Creative Development Intern. Portrait of Rena Tom by Hannah Scott.
