Jesse Fleming, assistant professor of emerging media arts in the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, had his video work, “Jane the Baptist,” acquired by the permanent collection of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

“There’s a feeling of security and honor for the work to have been placed in a collection like this,” Fleming said. “Whenever a work goes into a permanent collection, it means that it’s guaranteed for the duration of the collection. There are no forevers, but it’s as close as you can get. I feel a lot of encouragement and happiness for the piece, myself and Miguel De Pedro, who collaborated on the work by creating the original score.”

Fleming’s work is the first video artwork to be added to the collection.

Video: An excerpt of "Jane the Baptist," by Jesse Fleming

“Jane the Baptist,” was created in 2017 and runs about 13 minutes. It’s described as “a sci-fi-techno-ecstatic voyage through the birth canals of modern automated car washes within Los Angeles County.”

“It’s a simple thing, but it’s a full sensory experience,” Fleming said. “It has a phonetic, auditory-visual component as well. And there’s a lot of emotion within it, too. It can be nostalgia. It can be sort of awe. And in the case of Los Angeles, it’s almost like worship because cars are quite important. There are many car washes throughout Southern California. There are quite a few that are almost cathedral or Disneyland-level car washes.”

Fleming is an internationally exhibited artist and filmmaker. He came to Nebraska this fall from San Francisco, where he was a lecturer on virtual reality at Stanford University. He also taught virtual reality, video, photography, design and mindfulness for creative process at UCLA from 2014-2017.

Review “Jane the Baptist” and other works by Fleming.