By
Ceci Moss
on
Monday, January 5th, 2009 at
5:00 pm
Video: Response from the iConfessional at Mattress Factory
Image: Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, Hole-In-Space, 1980
Mattress Factory went live with their iConfessional kiosk recently, which allows visitors to instantly post response videos to museum exhibitions using YouTube's Quick Capture feature. Mattress Factory's Jeffrey Inscho got the idea from the Brooklyn Museum, who built a video response station for their exhibition The Black List Project using the same technology. Both illustrate ways museums are attempting to use the web to enhance visitor experience; as the lowercase "i", Apple's signature branding for personal customization, they are geared towards allowing visitors to visualize and share their responses to the exhibition, i.e. leave their personal mark. Simple and inexpensive to implement, it's not difficult to imagine that stations like these will become more commonplace. I viewed an installation of Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz's Hole-In-Space (1980) at the "Art of Participation" exhibition at SFMOMA two weeks ago and I was both amused and blown away by the footage. In the work, crowds in New York City and LA could video conference with one another via this public installation. The crowds were clearly elated about this possibility, hooting and hollering at live feeds of their counterparts on the other side of the country. It was amazing to see their excitement, especially now that video conferencing has become so ubiquitous. This activity hits at the heart of participation online -- but it also raises questions in regards to the limits of this sort of participation, especially if it is realized in the form of talk back mechanisms, such as video kiosks, which are simply an addendum to a larger exhibition, and do not influence its scope or shape.
By
Ceci Moss
on
Monday, January 5th, 2009 at
11:30 am
Brooklyn's Issue Project Room will host two evenings of improvisational violin by luminaries Tony Conrad and Genesis P-Orridge this weekend. Organized by filmmaker Marie Losier, the event promises to be a unique collaboration, for sure. For more information, visit the link below.
By
Ceci Moss
on
Friday, January 2nd, 2009 at
12:30 pm
Artist Steve Lambert just added a video to Artists Space's YouTube Commentary Project, above. For this ongoing series, Artists Space invite artists to select a YouTube video and record their own commentary, which is then uploaded to Artists Space's channel. Lambert deviated a bit from this format by hiring actors to read the commentary posted to the video "Shostakovich, Symphony No. 5." His reasoning is that even "high brow" videos on YouTube generate goofy (e.g. "I like the white tuxedos!") and trivial discussions. His version of the video, with the inclusion of the dubbed comments, was then reinserted into the original conversation as a posted comment.
By
Ceci Moss
on
Thursday, January 1st, 2009 at
12:30 pm
Jonathan Harris, the interactive designer/artist behind We Feel Fine and Universe, kicks off a new project today, according to CR Blog. The project is, as yet, untitled but will follow Harris as he travels solo from southern Africa to eastern China, using only local transportation. He plans to go through 27 countries over the course of this yearlong trip, and will collect stories "in a very specific way." Beyond that, details are vague. Much of his work is a research into modern storytelling through digital mediums, with special attention toward the representation of human emotion through these avenues. The article on CR Blog emphasizes Harris's dismissal of the existence of "masterpieces" in digital and online artwork, while also suggesting that, in attempting to create artworks which are both moving and epically evocative of a larger, ever-shifting zeitgeist, Harris is seeking to achieve something of the like in his own practice.
In this short clip, Yacht proposed a "Digital New Year's Eve Party." Videos tagged
"YACHTNEWYEARSEVE" or added to the group in Vimeo were assembled into one big video. All the footage went into a performance they staged last night, which they will hopefully put online soon.
By
Rhizome
on
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at
3:30 pm
Dear Readers: This is it! There is one day left in our Community Campaign and we are so close to our goal. Please help us close the gap by making a contribution now! Your support will help ensure that we continue to further this important field of artistic practice in 09.
By
John Alderman
on
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at
10:30 am
Image: Philip Ross, Junior Return, 2005
It's easy to see Philip Ross as a recent embodiment of an age-old spirit of inquiry, where aesthetics, personal discovery, and scientific knowledge are linked, and all seem to tap into the fertile edges of local industry. In San Francisco that means computing and biotechnology, and Ross's work makes use of both. The transplanted New Yorker has a body of artwork that centers around human interaction with biological materials like fungus, plants, and mollusks. Ross was also curator of the BioTechnique exhibit at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and frequently teaches classes and gives lectures, such as one he delivered December 2 to amateur mycologists at the Oakland Museum of California.
His current projects include a long-term effort to grow a large building out of mushrooms, and a new, ongoing salon ("Critter") at the Studio for Urban Projects, a unique cultural center opened in 2008 by Alison Sant and Marina MacDougal. Ross describes the studio as "a collective of collectives," with about five or six contributing programmers, all similarly interested in ecology, education,
technology and other related fields. - John Alderman
John Alderman: Can you tell me about Critter and the new center that is hosting it?
Philip Ross: One of the reasons we're interested in urban ecologies is that -- with the writing that's been on the wall for a long time -- we wonder how to make our cities better and more interesting places, so that you don't have to drive out of the city necessarily to get a nature experience. You might just walk down the corner to the Studio for Urban Projects. They've done things like An Unnatural History of Golden Gate Park with walking tours showing how
our nature has been constructed.
Often we demonstrate to people how something is done, in a neighborhood space, as opposed to an institution which might carry with it some prohibitions. At Critter, there are fun crossover events, stuff like music or cooking -- interesting things that you might want to do anyway.
Images: Snapshots from the most recent Critter event, a presentation by Adriane Colburn and Amy Balkin
So it's more hands-on and educational?
Absolutely. We're not interested in doing shows so much, but exploring things that people can do themselves or contribute to. The next event that I'm having, called "Clone Home," is a drop-in plant-cloning afternoon. We'll serve tea and have live
music, and you can bring a plant and we'll have people who will show you how to make cuttings of it. We'll also have people who do more advanced cloning, like orchid growing, and people who can show you how to make genetically engineered plants if you care to. Just basic stuff showing how easy it is to do this, and how if you have a plant you can make all kinds of other things.
Another event is a kimchee contest. There's a huge repository of knowledge in this city around pickling, particularly around kimchee, and there's like 10,000 people whose grandmother makes the best kimchee – it's sort of like chicken soup – so we have an open call to put it to the test with a cash reward. I'm just thrilled to the idea of having a room with 200 open jars of kimchee in it; like a wall of sound, but this will be a wall of smell.
Is this a coming around to something that existed in the past?
I think so, we're at this strange place in history where there's a sense that something is about to be lost that we're not ready to lose yet. But if you can't go to your mother or father or a cousin to learn that, where do you turn? Especially since some of these things don't seem important enough to learn in college.
To me so much of the stuff that is biotech-y is really low tech-y also, or that people don't realize that they're doing all the time. So if your grandmother is making kimchee or you're doing plant cuttings, you're actually doing something that is not dissimilar to what technologists are doing but with slightly fancier tools or surroundings.
By
Rhizome
on
Monday, December 29th, 2008 at
2:00 pm
Do you know what a $1000 contribution to Rhizome's Community Campaign will get you? A Liquor Store Bag. This not any ordinary Liquor Store Bag, mind you, but an an original laser cut drawing by artist Michael Mandiberg. The work is part of a series that explores lines, algorithms, and instructions -- and recalls both Sol LeWitt and John F. Simon Jr. The subdued diagonal lines of Liquor Store Bag need to be on your wall, now.
That's not all! Council members also receive a number of additional benefits, including:
* Two complementary VIP tickets to Rhizome 2008 Benefit
* Special curators tour of Rhizome Exhibitions
* Two additional Council events/ per year, including studio visits with artists and conversations with leading technologists and entrepreneurs
By
Marisa Olson
on
Monday, December 29th, 2008 at
12:00 pm
In an essay hoisted upon every media studies student ever, Walter Benjamin argues that the mechanical reproduction of art works separates the viewer from the original object and therefore diminishes that object's "ritual value." Strangely enough, Stephanie Syjuco's work takes a different approach. She gives us all reproductions, all the time. From paper TV's to faux designer furniture, these readily-reproduced images and things comment on the importance of the originals in our daily lives and the cultural value we've built-up around the notion of originality. Her current solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, entitled "Stephanie Syjuco: Total Fabrications," is full of fake design objects pulled from circulation within the mainstream -- or culturally specific niches therein -- and recreated in a way that references their genesis as well as the contextual implications (or even clichés) of reproduction. In fact, Syjuco's work further delves into the processes of production itself, and it's ritualization. Her reconstructions comment on the origin of materials, their high and low statuses within culture, the technologies through which they operate, and their impacts on systems ranging from the environment to the visual vocabulary of the zeitgeist. This is highly manifest in her ongoing project, The Berlin Wall, in which she pulls what she calls "proxy chunks" of the famous wall out of spaces around the world. These are not souvenirs from the wall, but rather a different kind of facsimile, which Syjuco feels approximates the political and architectural situation of the wall and the promises offered in its deconstruction. The proxy chunks have embarked on their own roadshow, exhibiting in new cities under plaque-capped vitrines, so as to however-falsely invoke the aura of the wall and the hope its demolishedness represents. Her Towards a New Theory of Color Reading takes local Houston Spanish-language, African American, and Filipino American newspapers and translates the text into blocks of color which have been printed on billboards and re-printed on newsprint and given out to museum visitors. The connection between color and race at play is obvious, if not tongue-in-cheek, but the resultant unlabeled illustration of similarities and differences in layout and orientation--and the visually profound invocation of change--allows readers to parse relationships and come to their own conclusions about what it means to bring these papers out of and back into circulation. These and other projects are on view at CAMH through February 22nd, and continuously on the artist's website. - Marisa Olson
Image: Stephanie Syjuco, Towards a New Theory of Color Reading, 2008
By
Ceci Moss
on
Monday, December 29th, 2008 at
10:00 am
"Video Game Soundtracks 1983-1987" is from the "Title Variable" (2001-) series and was originally released as a CD-R. These compilations researched "the ways that digital technologies have effected music production, both in popular forms as well as in more rarified modern composition" and were each accompanied by an essay. This particular installment assembled video game soundtracks found on the internet. Link to an mp3 of the compilation and the original essay below.
Excerpt from the accompanying text: "Until now, these songs have existed solely as digital information: programmed, encoded, extracted, sometimes going through MIDI translation, uploaded and downloaded, finally burned to compact disc; all the while passing through numerous data compressions and file formats. The album release wraps them in plastic and cuts them loose from their origins. In a sense, the shift of context is a liberation; on the other hand, they are stamped with the authenticity accorded to genuine cultural articles (as opposed to mere electronic data)-- and this raises the question of how much an authentic article of culture depends on legitmization by packaging and distribution system of the market."
By
Rhizome
on
Friday, December 26th, 2008 at
3:39 pm
Thanks to the generosity of artists, readers, curators, critics and all those who rely on Rhizome, we are now $2,500 away from meeting our goal of raising $30,000 by midnight December 31st. All Campaign supporters are listed here; we hope you'll join the ranks today!
Excerpt from text accompanying Comma, Pregnant Pause:
A comma indicates a pause or break between parts of a sentence; in spoken communication, a pregnant pause is one that is full of meaning - significant - suggestive. This video features mobile phones, in whose text messages commas are seldom used. There are often, however, pregnant pauses during the wait for a reply. This work starts with the commentary:
'I want to be the best there ever was, to beat all the best that's my cause.'
The video is dominated by two seated people dressed as mobile phones. Their costumes are based on 'Mowbli', the ubiquitous mobile phone logo from Carphone Warehouse, and their faces are covered by scary-looking masks, taken from the popular series of films Scream, 1996, 1997, 2000, and Scary Movie, 2000, 2001, 2003, but originating in Edward Munch's painting, The Scream, 1893. Their conversation is indicated by two different text alerts - '1,2,3,4' and a musical sound, like a guitar or harp - whilst each text message appears as a series of subtitles. The conversations are fractured, featuring messages such as, 'the newest thing is now wearing the word'. Young people are part of a texting culture in which messages sometimes go astray, so spoken conversation would often be more efficient.
Please make a donation to Rhizome now during our annual Community
Campaign! Our goal is to raise $30,000 by 12/31/08, a figure that is
completely vital to sustain us this year.
Rhizome ($25 level): Rhizome Membership
Rhizome membership comes with full access to our archives, ability to use special site features and discounts to art merchandise online. See our individual membership page for a full list!
Sprout ($50 level): Rhizome Ringtones by YACHT, Rainbro, Taigaa and Ben Coonley In return for a donation of $50, you can choose one of four ringtones
by artist bands Rainbro (a.k.a. Ben
Fino-Radin), Taigaa, YACHT (Jona Bechtolt and Claire
Evans), or Ben
Coonley, who will record a dialogue with his internationally
beloved pony, just for your phone.
Seedling ($100): Nasty Nets DVD, Nasty Nets collective
Nasty Nets is an international ensemble representing some of the most
active artists working online today. Identifying themselves as a "web
surfing club," together the work they post on the nastynets.com blog
both celebrates and critiques the internet. Their collections of
animated gifs, YouTube hacks, html cheat codes, and other found and
edited material offer a poignant and humorous take on contemporary
digital visual culture. On a DVD player, the Nasty Nets DVD offers a
handful of funny, visually playful videos and remixes from the
treasure trove of internet pop culture. On a computer, users can also
access a multitude of file folders jam-packed with a collection
gif-mashups, videos, and other appropriated material that has made the
site so popular, online.
Shoot ($200): Floor Warp, Guthrie Lonergan, 2008
Members will get a screensaver (for Mac or PC) by Guthrie Lonergan. For
members only, Guthrie has converted his video loop Floor Warp
2 into a work of art for your computer. Veteran PC users will
remember the old Warp screensaver for Windows, which inspired this new
loop.
Bud ($300): Member, 2009, Steve Lambert, 2008, edition of five Steve Lambert is going to make a
brand-new business-card-sized drawing edition that simply states
"Member, 2009."
Stolon ($500): Rhizome Balaclava, Cat Mazza, 2008, edition of five
In a variation on her Stitch
For Senate project, Cat
Mazza will use her microRevolt knitPro application to create a
balaclava with the Rhizome logo to keep you warm in style.
Every year, Rhizome awards commissions to a group of international artists for the creation of new work. Read about the nine projects commissioned in our 2009 cycle!
ART & ABSINTHE
Art & Absinthe is a new blog following the ins and outs, hits and misses of the New York City contemporary art scene. Find Art & Absinthe at events in Manhattan and Williamsburg, and check out the website for insider info, details on upcoming events, party photos, and more.
In addition to art attractions open to the general public, Art & Absinthe has teamed up with select galleries and non-profit organizations like Deitch Projects, Rhizome, James Fuentes, Like the Spice, and Leo Kesting
Gallery through the website's sponsor, Pernod Absinthe. (Google readers can grab the RSS feed here: www.artandabsinthe.com/feed
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ICA for the HOLIDAYS
Now that's a gift! Fabulous exhibition catalogues, limited edition prints and posters, festively wrapped memberships and Cerealart editions make the perfect gift. 10% off Karen Kilimnik's edition of the sparkly splendid Lippazanner at the battle of Austerlitz, 2008. Signed catalogues by Lisa Yuskavage from her first museum survey exhibition at ICA. Other artist editions include works by Laurie Anderson, Christo, Rodney Graham, Justine Kurland, Mary Ellen Mark and Andres Serrano, among others.
Contact ICA for more information and to learn about other available prints, catalogues and signed editions.
In return for a donation of $50, you can choose one of four ringtones
by artist bands 
Nasty Nets is an international ensemble representing some of the most
active artists working online today. Identifying themselves as a "web
surfing club," together the work they post on the 
Members will get a screensaver (for Mac or PC) by 
In a variation on her 
