Saul Villegas
Interdisciplinary artist and researcher [Saul Villegas](/artists/saul-villegas-046) is a featured artist of the [CODAME](/orgs/codame) [ART+TECH Festival](/orgs/codame/events/codame-art-tech-festival-2013) - Virtual Exhibition (2024) #Essence Saul Villegas, an interdisciplinary artist and researcher, focuses on exploring scientific taxonomies, digital art, and new media. During his MFA program, he collaborated with the OpenLab Collaborative Research Center and the Venom Lab at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), merging art and science to create interactive artworks that center on environmental themes and the reimagining of archives through storytelling. Saul also participated in a flagship residency program with EmergeNYC at Brooklyn's Art Exchange through E.A.R.T.H. Lab SF, where he developed the character of The Sun. His thesis titled Cristela's Shadow explored themes of grief and trauma—where he investigated perception, optics, and philosophical groundings to his autoethnographic cautionary tale of losing a loved one through violence. He continues to metamorphosise the Sun character in which his theatrical performances and unique video projections offer a visual lens into the complexity of memory. The work has been recently published in Leonardo's Graduate Abstracts. He was born and raised in Avenal, California, Saul divides his time between Santa Cruz, the Central Valley, and San José State University where he currently is a lecturer in the Art & Art History Department. Explore More About Saul Website Saul Villegas is a featured artist of the [CODAME ART+TECH](/orgs/codame/events/codame-arttech-c1a) Festival - Virtual Exhibition (2024) #Essence