OAMF - 2026
Open Air Media Festival
Open Air Media Festival (OAMF) is excited to announce the 2026 program; a traveling film/video art screening presented in three cities in late May and early June. The program will travel across the Midwest and Southeast bringing artists from across the country to outdoor, public locations.
The 2026 OAMF screening schedule:
Iowa City, IA
Friday May 29th, 8:30pm,
FilmScene in the Park
Greenville, SC
Friday June 5th, 8:30pm,
Monaghan Mill
Louisville, KY
Saturday, June 13th, 9:00pm,
Big Four Bridge
OAMF is co-organized by Zen Cohen, Assistant Professor of Digital Media at Clemson University, Clemson, SC and Dana Potter, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the Hite Institute of Art + Design, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY with production assistance from Caleb Payne.
Participating artists were curated from a national open call, from 12 U.S. states, and spanning ages 25 to 72. Selected works exhibit a vast spectrum of video art including non-traditional documentary, 3D animation, narrative, and non-narrative, expanding public access to contemporary media art.
Open Air Media Festival is generously supported by:
City of Iowa City Public Art Program
FILM & VIDEO SCREENING
Karl Erickson
Memphis, TN
website
@karlhugoerickson
Karl Erickson makes digital animations, videos, installations, and audio/visual performances. His key themes are recognizing the agency of the other-than-human, trash, and the physicality of language. A major influence are 1970s’ children’s shows, with their “anything-goes” spirit. Absurdity is a key component. His work takes place in galleries, museums, film festivals, and music venues.
He has been an artist-in-residence at Surel’s Place in Boise, ID, Hub Feenix in Finland, The Arctic Circle (twice!), Loop Art, Plyspace, and Signal Culture. He is a 2025 recipient of a Current Art Fund award from Tri-Star Arts. His MFA is from California Institute of the Arts and his BFA is from Wayne State University. He lives in Memphis, TN where he is Associate Professor of Digital Art at Rhodes College.
Club Walrus
00:05:49
Animation, Experimental, Short
Club Walrus features puppet-sculptures made from trash collected from the shores of Svalbard in the Arctic Circle. The puppets were 3D scanned and rigged in animation software to behave like poorly constructed marionettes. The setting is also made from 3D-scanned scenes, including ice and rocks from Svalbard, backyard snow mounds, and 3D models extrapolated from 2D photos of glaciers and icebergs. The whole digital set is clearly constructed, with the seams frequently sticking out. The titular walruses were made with the misuse of image-generating software. The animation is about the ecstasy of being in the Arctic environment and the despondency of how managed that experience is. Club Walrus is also about the impact the Arctic has on humans, and the human impact on the Arctic. It is about our trash, the fragility of connections and the agency of the other-than-human.