News about our work
Projection at Mendocino Film Festival onto Masonic Temple, Mendocino California
by Ben Wood
Published on June 1, 2016
Following the success of last year's projection on the MacCallum House Water Tower and the Savings Bank, famed audiovisual artist Ben Wood returns to Mendocino for this year's Festival with all-new animated imagery and text for his latest multimedia project.
Sponsored by the Mendocino Art Center, he will share his recent video installation about the Native Californian, Ishi, at Long Fellows Hall in Mendocino Village.
Projection at Temple of Kwan Tai, Mendocino California
by Ben Wood
Published on February 15, 2016
San Francisco based visual artist Ben Wood, known for his transformative site-specific video projections on buildings and spaces, comes to Mendocino to retrieve histories hidden in the fabric of our own buildings. His upcoming video projection onto the historic Kwan Tai Temple , explores the early Chinese history of the town through archival images, text, video and story. He connects people with site and history through site-based projection art.
Developed in collaboration with the Temple of Kwan Tai, the Mendocino Art Center, and working with the Kelly Museum, and local historians, the projection will illuminate the facade of the historic temple with animated imagery, video and text.
Ben Wood, returns for Chinese New Year, to reprise the work he created for the 2015 Film Festival that was beamed onto the facade of the Savings Bank and the Macallum House Water Tower. The project strives to create a bond of community through sharing histories specific to the town and those who have inhabited it through generations.
Images will be projected onto the facade of the Temple at 45160 Albion Street, in the town of Mendocino, California and will be viewable after sun down, on Friday February 12th, 2016. The video will be looped and viewable from 6:30pm to 8:30pm.
Seeing Sound: Ishi & IRENE
by Subframe
Published on January 10, 2016
This episode features artist Ben Wood and physicist Carl Haber discussing their respective approaches to cultural preservation. Ben Wood is an installation artist who took an interest in presenting early recordings of Ishi, who is known as the last of his tribe. Early recordings such as these pose a problem in that they are in a state of decay that does not allow them to be played back. Enter the work of Carl Haber, whose research as a particle physicist led him to see that we could create a scanner powerful enough to visualize and playback these decaying recordings.
Read MoreIshi, last of his tribe, bridges 2 worlds in film every night
by Carl Nolte, San Francisco Chronicle
Published on August 29, 2015
Every evening at twilight, a video projector mounted inside the office of the California Historical Society on Mission Street in downtown San Francisco turns on, and flickering images of Ishi, perhaps the most famous of all California's Indian people, light up the windows.
Read MoreHistoric Techniques: The Walls Have Eyes
by California Historical Society
Published on Aug 3, 2015
On July 1, 2015, visual artist, Ben Wood gave a presentation at the California Historical Society on his work related to two historic episodes in San Francisco's history.
Read MoreA New After-Dark Projected Light Installation, is a unique encouter with Ishi, last Yahi Indian speaker
by California Historical Society
Published on August 24, 2015
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. August 24, 2015 - From Thursday, August 20 to Sunday, October 4, 2015, projected light artist Ben Wood brings his new work Lopa Pikta (Rope Picture) to the windows of the California Historical Society, located at 678 Mission Street, in San Francisco.
Read MoreHistoric Techniques: A Series about the Intersection of Art, Science, and History
by Ben Wood
Published on JUNE 24, 2015
The genesis of the program series Historic Techniques originated, perhaps fittingly, with a chance meeting at the vintage paper fair at the Golden Gate Park botanical garden in the autumn of 2013. The California Historical....
Read MoreOutdoor art projection will bring Mendocino's history to life
by the Mendocino Art Center
Published on May 28th 2015
Famed visual artist Ben Wood comes to Mendocino! During the Tenth Anniversary Mendocino Film Festival, he will illuminate the MacCallum House water tower and the Savings Bank with animated imagery and text in an exploration of the early history of our town. This is a collaboration with the Mendocino Art Center and many other local patrons of the arts.
Read MorePresentation at the California Mission Studies Conference in Ventura
by Ben Wood
Published February 2015
At the annual California Mission Studies Association Conference, this year in Ventura, Ben Wood presents recent, in progress, research with photo and video documents about the hidden 18th century mural.
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Fun Fact
Ben Wood is the middle of a set of triplets, the others being Bryan (identical) and Richard (fraternal) When the Wood Triplets were born, they were the first triplets to be born in many years at Southlands Hospital in West Sussex, United Kingdom. Ben weighed the least at a little under 2 llbs. He is one of six boys.See news from 1980.