Automata Garage

Automata Garage is a multimedia sculptural installation presented by Automata Studio that will be on display at UC Irvine’s Experimental Media Performance Lab (xMPL) 2–6 p.m. on May 29, and 30, 2026. Automata Studio is a transdisciplinary platform for the object-based collaboration between University of Michigan-Flint faculty Ash Arder and UC Irvine M.F.A. student Beatrice Schleyer. Their dialogue explores non-human agency primarily through the modification of found car parts. As the psychological and physical relationships humans have with their cars are particularly poignant, the automotive medium is a fertile field of interrogation into the anthropomorphism of machines and the potential that lies beyond it.

Automata Garage features seven headlights from a Jeep Grand Cherokee WJ (1999–2004) which will function as performers, responding to the movements of the audience through the space. The installation features further activation by a soundscape composed by ICIT Ph.D. candidate Reed Wixson, melding sounds from technical and organic bodies to give voice to the object-collaborators.

By allowing these assemblages to take center stage and express their own agency in response to the audience, the viewer is invited to reconsider their relationship to technology; if we begin to treat the built world as a part of our eco-system rather than being merely instrumental, perhaps we can find more a more considerate approach to the non-human entities we live and work with.

Ash Arder (she/they) is a transdisciplinary artist whose research-based approach works to expose, deconstruct or reconfigure physical and conceptual systems — especially those related to ecology and/or industry. Ash manipulates physical and virtual environments to explore materials, mark making, mechanical portraiture and sound design as tools for complicating dynamics of power between humans, machines and the lands they occupy.

Ash is included in the 2026 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and has recently exhibited at the Swiss Institute, Cranbrook Art Museum, California African American Museum, Amant and NXTHVN. She is a 2026 Creative Capital State of the Art Prize awardee, 2025 Knight Foundation Arts + Tech Fellow and 2023 Joan Mitchell Fellow. She received an MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Reed Wixson’s (they/them) music is a curiosity-fueled exploration of the sonic potential inherent in objects and environments. Employing technology, improvisation, field recordings and found objects, they construct evocative and immersive pieces that are often informed by the sounds and processes of nonhuman worlds. Their music challenges the listener to attend deeply to sonic detail, and to find interest and beauty in sounds that are often otherwise overlooked.

Their work has been performed at NIME, ICMC, NYCEMF, SEAMUS and New Music Gathering, and by ensembles such as Line Upon Line Percussion and Unheard-of//Ensemble.

They hold a Master of Arts in composition from Stony Brook University and a Bachelor of Music degree with a composition emphasis from Texas Tech University. They are a Ph.D. candidate in Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology at the University of California, Irvine, where their advisor is Kojiro Umezaki.

Beatrice von Rague Schleyer (she/her) is an artist working primarily in sculpture and photography. Her work denaturalizes the boundary between the human body and technology, raising questions about their intersubjectivity. Her sculptural assemblages and close-up portraits of damaged automobiles invite the audience to slow down and begin to psychologically metabolize the collaboration between humans and machines.

She is currently an M.F.A. candidate in Art at the UC Irvine Claire Trevor School of the Arts. In addition to her research and studio practice, she offers practical, technical and conceptual support to the community at UCI in her roles as a teacher’s assistant, graduate liaison for academic year 2025–26 and grad student researcher in the sculpture area.