LaJuné McMillian's new art installation, "The Portal’s Keeper," gracing the exterior of Mandeville Art Gallery at UC San Diego with its three-sided LED screen, engrosses passersby daily from twilight to closing time. This visual spectacle, proudly co-sponsored by the university's Black Studies Project, illuminates a dynamic conversation around the Black movement, liberation, and the very meaning of technological interaction with human narratives. It's on view through September 26, inviting contemplation and connection.

In the creative crucible of UC San Diego, students reveled in movement and meditation as McMillian led a workshop on cultural representation issues in digital media. Participants' movements were immortalized through avatars and extended reality, leaving a digital legacy that contributes to the fiber of the "The Portal’s Keeper" project, as detailed in a UCSD news release. It's a tangible encounter with McMillian's broader push against the commodification of Black culture in the tech-savvy realms of motion capture.

Offering deeper insights into their perspective, McMillian shared with Mandeville Art Gallery’s Facebook followers, “We prescribe machines all of this power. In the term ‘motion capture,’ that term capture assumes that machines can capture us and within my work, within my process, I’m rejecting that. Machines don’t capture us—they witness us in different ways. So what does it mean to transition that relationship from being captured to being witnessed?” This rhetoric champions the shift from passive data collection to active engagement with the subject.

Beyond the local buzz, McMillian's installations and performances have coursed through the veins of America's cultural hubs. With a feature in downtown Denver's Night Lights and a nod during Times Square's Midnight Moments back in 2022, the artist's manifesto has found resonance from coast to coast. Come fall, Nashvillians will get an intimate look at "The Portal’s Keeper: Origins" in what is poised to be a transformative solo exhibition at the Frist Art Museum.

"The Portal’s Keeper" curation falls to Ceci Moss, who oversees the vanguard of Mandeville Art Gallery's contemporary transformations. This institution, embedded within the School of Arts and Humanities, has been a cornerstone at UC San Diego, providing the academic community and residents a haven for transformative art experiences, especially after its reopening in March 2023 after extensive renovations.