Synchronization Station is a 30-minute participatory performance created by Allen Riley that examines practices of synchronization among people and digital systems and their impact on the conditions of communication. Participants enter a fictional laboratory and engage in an activity in which they are asked to visually align images of their hands on a video monitor, seeking to establish intuitive human-to-human synchronization within the system. They will be asked to sit in pairs for a short 30 second activity in which they will each place their hands in front of a pair of cameras whose signals are being mixed together on a video monitor by a vertically-rolling oscillator. The resulting recordings will be played back for the community for analysis.

Allen Riley is an artist and educator working with video and electronic media. He designs hands-on learning at Beam Center and builds indie arcade cabinets with Death by Audio Arcade. Riley has participated in residencies at Signal Culture in Owego, NY, the Institute for Electronic Arts in Alfred, NY, the Lower East Side Ecology Center, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. His work has been presented at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, AS220, Union Docs, Spectacle Theater, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Riley received an MFA in Electronic Integrated Arts from the New York State College of Ceramics in 2012 and is a PhD student in Film & Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz.