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New public art, call for entries in Palo Alto
The city of Palo Alto last week unveiled a new work of public art in King Plaza, in front of Palo Alto City Hall. “Luminous Ties” by artist Kiana Honarmand features two benches connected by an arch. When both seats are occupied, the sculpture lights up, highlighting a sense of community and belonging, according to a description of the piece.
Honarmand is the city’s 2025-26 King Residency artist. The residency program, which launched in 2021 and is named for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, aims to engage “the community in conversations about equity, inclusion, and belonging in Palo Alto,” as it’s described on the city website. “Luminous Ties” will be on view in the plaza through summer 2027.
Also, through Nov. 16, the city is inviting artists to apply for Palo Alto’s fifth code:ART festival, taking place Oct. 13-16, 2027. The biennial interactive media festival is held in downtown Palo Alto. The city is seeking applicants to create an interactive piece in Lytton Plaza “with a strong nighttime presence that invites interaction, play, and connection through innovative use of technology,” according to the city’s call for entries. Artists are also sought to create temporary outdoor artworks that invite users to interact through light, sound, motion or other tech.
The call is open to national and international artists, but those from Santa Clara and San Mateo counties are particularly encouraged to apply.
For information on the festival and how to apply, visit paloalto.gov/Departments/Community-Services/Arts-Sciences/Public-Art-Program/CodeART
Silicon Valley group co-hosts ‘Uncanny Alley’ performance
Local special interest group Silicon Valley ACM SIGGRAPH is teaming with other chapters in Los Angeles and San Francisco to present a performance of the Ferryman Collective’s new media production, “Uncanny Alley: A New Day.” The collective recently won an Emmy in the Outstanding Emerging Media Program category for the production.
The show features live actors interacting with the audience in part through a virtual reality framework. This performance, which takes place Nov. 10, will have two physical locations, one in San Francisco and one in Los Angeles, but will connect the performances virtually. The show works from a script, but also features some improv.
Ferryman Collective members Brendan Bradley and Whitton Frank will perform, with Bradley in San Francisco and Frank in Los Angeles. They will be joined in the performance by two audience volunteers who can contribute to the story and help shape the performance.
It’s the first time that “Uncanny Alley” has been staged in two physical locations, noted Silicon Valley ACM SIGGRAPH member and Menlo Park resident Ken Turkowski.
Watch a Facebook video from the Ferryman Collective about the event.
ACM SIGGRAPH is “an international community of researchers, artists, developers, filmmakers, scientists and business professionals with a shared interest in computer graphics and interactive techniques,” according to their website, and part of the world’s first computing society, Association for Computing Machinery. Its Silicon Valley chapter was founded in 1982.
Silicon Valley ACM SIGGRAPH regularly hosts professional events and presentations of film, games and interactive media, Turkowski said.
The San Francisco performance of ‘Uncanny Alley’ takes place Nov. 10, 6-9 p.m., at the Gray Area/Grand Theater, 2665 Mission St., San Francisco. Tickets are $28.52. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit meetup.com/sv-siggraph/events/317117175.
