Oscar Miguel Santos

performance | music | design | education | curatorial | arttrax radio podcast | cv |




  2. Variedades ‘Little Central America: 1984″

    I was a member of the collaborative ensemble cast of Variedades “Little Central America: 1984” presented by Grand Peformances

    VARIEDADES, the performance series conceived and curated by Rubén Martínez, explores Los Angeles history most often by presenting under-told stories from the point of view of its visionaries and outsiders. Two of its episodes have been filmed by KCET for television broadcast: The Ballad of Ricardo Flores Magón and VARIEDADES on Olvera Street (part of the station’s award-winning Artbound series).

    “We present this Central American and American story to make visible a forgotten chapter in our history and to shed light on the deep context of violence and trauma that today’s refugee crisis stems from –violence that we approach with the healing salve of art.”

    https://www.grandperformances.org/more_info.php?show_id=550



  3. N enter S

    LACE, Hollywood, CA, 2015

    A collaborative performance and conversation with Odeya Nini. We were invited by Native Strategies to dialog about our work and perform with and for each other. The conversation was recorded on a mock television set inside of LACE. More information about this performance series can be found here. The conversation was transcribed in a publication available here in pdf.



  4. En Caso De Enciendo

    Arista 1701, Mexicali, Mexico, 2015

    A collaborative performance with Juan Manuel Gudiño and Julio Salcedo as part of ‘3 Days in Mexicali’.
    I sang and played the bass as Juan Manuel Gudiño created a painting using tortilla packages, cal (quicklime), and ańil (indigo). Julio projected videos during the performance.



  5. I Only Have Eyes For You / It’s Too Late Baby

    Confusion is Sex III, Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Area, Los Angeles, 2013

    I walked around a tree while I silently held my hand out to viewers in attendance.
    I approached the viewers and if they took my hand i led them in a walk around the tree.
    I walked around the tree and gazed into their eyes and sang the songs “I Only Have Eyes For You” by the Flamingos and “It’s Too Late” by Carole King . I then led them away from the tree and let go of their hand.

    photos by : Jorge Espinosa



  6. Tree For Ten Hours

    UCLA Sculpture Yard, 2002

    I dug myself into the ground from the waist down.
    I impersonated a tree for ten hours.



  7. Bellevue Park

    Bellevue Park, Los Angeles, 2002
    Documented by Christian Vallejos

    A video of my performance at Bellevue Park in Silverlake, CA.
    My hands and feet were bound with duct tape.
    I also had duct tape over my mouth.



  8. Arrival Departure Absence Forfeit

    Trauermusik: HumanEar Summer Concert Series, Curated by Shoghig Halajian and Alex Black of eighteen-thirty, and HumanEar’s Jason Grier.
    eigheen thrirty, Los Angeles, 2009

    The video and performance were created for the Trauermusik series organzied by HumanEar. The video was displayed as I performed an improvised vocal performance. All sound and images were pulled from Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.



  9. Rooftop Noise

    eigheen thrirty, Los Angeles, 2008

    Video of a noise performance at the eighteen-thirty short film festival.
    Equipment used:
    EH Deluxe Memory Man, EH Smallstone, Ibanez Tubeking, SIB Mr. Echo, Boss DD7 all looped together through a Fender Squier amp.



  10. 1884

    eighteen-thirty, Los Angeles, 2007

    I created a list of 1884 different musical note combinations (3 note combinations, ex: A,A,A# and A,A,B etc.).
    Click here for the  1884_Note_Combinations list.pdf
    I also made a list of 1884 different primary color combinations (3 color comginations ex: Red, Red, Red-Orange and Red, Red, Yellow etc).
    Click here for the_Color_Combinations list.pdf
    Click here to view the 1884 Color Combinations.pdf

    Visitors to the performance were asked to participate in a series of chance based games to chose 9 note and 9 color combinations from the lists.
    Each of these 9 chosen color combinations were then projected for a minute each in the exhibition space while a group of 10 musicians used the note combinations to perform a live improvised score.