implicit art

Had a great email exchange with Brian Sherwin of myartspace.com over the last few days, which culminated as an interview published on the myartspace blog. There’re bits on my work,  dissertation, inspirations, even a question on Creative Commons and a few other little tidbits not published anywhere else to date. Check it out.

snip / teaser:

Art Space Talk: Nathaniel Stern

“… Brian Sherwin [myartspace.com]: Nathaniel, I’ve read that you are inspired by the Interactive art of David Rokeby and Myron Kruger. Can you tell us about these influences? What else inspires you?

NS: I believe Kruger’s core contribution to understanding interactivity was a concentration on action rather than perception - ’seeing’ in particular. He had little concern for illusion-based and simulated VR that replicated reality, and was more interested in stimulation - with a ‘t’ - and how people moved / getting them to move. I think Rokeby is brilliant in many ways, and his work, Very Nervous System (1986-1990), was one of the first and most important pieces to accomplish an affective intervention in embodiment through this kind of inter-activity. But what inspires me most about him is his contrariness. He almost always tries ’something else,’ never really accepting the limits or taken for granted in any given medium.

The Odys Series: The Storyteller, archival print on watercolor paper, 1189 x 841, edition 3, 2004
(screenshot from video)

My other influences are fairly idiosyncratic: from Hiroshige, the Impressionists and Homer’s epic tales to Liam Gillick or Camille Utterback and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. I often turn to contemporary fiction, theory and philosophy in my thinking and making. I should also say that my wife, Nicole Ridgway, is the most wonderful muse and crit I’ve ever met: my biggest fan and supporter precisely because she is also my harshest critic before a work is done….”

read more (2500 word interview)

Had a fairly productive week working on my dissertation, and am now off to Belfast for a self-proclaimed long weekend - to celebrate Sid’s 2nd birthday, Nicole and my 6-year wedding anniversary, and my own birthday (all of these in the span of 2 weeks)! We’ve never been up to Northern Ireland, and I have no idea what my better 2/3rds has planned, but it should be just grand. Will try to post some photos of that, and my folks’ recent visit to Dublin for Sid’s b-day (on her blog), when we’re back.

In the meanwhile… a proposal I’ve written with California-based artist and friend Scott Kildall (if you don’t know his work, you should definitely check it out; he’s an innovative and generous voice in the digi-arts community, and much of his work is not only smart but also beautiful) has been voted into the final round for a rhizome commission: Wikipedia Art. If you’re a member of rhizome, please take the time to rank the top 25 - and by all means, if you like ours (I’m biased, but I think you will), we’d really appreciate your rating it tops! Vote here (you need to log in first).

The rumors have already started to float, so I might as well confirm: I’ve accepted a full-time, tenure-track post as Assistant Professor of Digital Studio Practice in the Visual Arts Department, Peck School of the Arts, at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). My contract starts this August.

It’s a great department / school / university and, honestly, I think a perfect fit. I’ll be teaching graduate and undergraduate artists ways to think about and make work that uses new media (and helping to design this new stream within the department), am also part of their interdisciplinary and cross-department DIVAS (Digital Imaging Visualization Animation & Sound) program in Inter-arts, and will be part of their Global Studies faculty, lecturing one course per year on issues surrounding art and discourse that affect and are affected by globalization. I’ve been chatting to my chair about other upcoming possible projects, emailing some grad students about work and readings, and doing research on Milwaukee and its surrounds; despite the cold (yikes!), it all looks and sounds just great.

I’m admittedly a little sad to leave Dublin just as I was getting settled, and I miss South Africa more than I can say (and part of me dreamed we’d wind up back in New York at some point!). But more and more, this new life is looking exciting and rewarding and like a great fit for my family, and I hope to carry on and strengthen my ties to my other homes now that I’ll be more centered and connected (and, hopefully, not working on my PhD dissertation for too much longer).

Congratulations are in order! And if you are ever in the ‘hood, please drop a line – after our trip back to SA for a few weeks, we’ll be in Milwaukee from mid-August.

I’m presenting a bit from my dissertation (some writing and works from chapters 1, 2 and mostly 4 - not that it’s done) at this conference at the University College of Dublin in a few weeks. If last year’s graduate student conference on philosophy and embodiment was any indication, this year’s should be grand.

UCD Intercorporeality and Intersubjectivity Conference
Quinn School of Business
June 6-7, 2008

This conference will provide a forum for the exchange of ideas on the theme of the body and society. The renowned academic Professor Gail Weiss from George Washington University will present a paper entitled “Intertwined Identities: The Challenges to Bodily Autonomy”. Professor Stephen Mennell has written extensively on the work of Norbert Elias and will give a paper entitled “Against Dualism: Bodies in Light of Norbert Elias’ Post-Philosophical Sociology”. In addition to these keynote speakers we have sixteen confirmed international and Irish speakers who will present on a diverse range of topics. Panels include Embodied Ethics, Gender and Feminism, Body Politics, Embodied Aesthetics, and Embodied Relations.

Full programme and registration details are available online at www.ucd.ie/philosophy/iiconference

My own abstract below the fold. (more…)

Fantastic interview here. Snippet:

Two years ago Caitlin Jones observed in NYFA Current that net artists working in multiple formats were increasingly finding venues to show. Today, the art world is still figuring out how to manage the practicalities of dealer and artist relationships. I spoke with Aron Namenwirth, of artMovingProjects, in an effort to better understand the challenges, and solutions, digital media presents to contemporary galleries with a focus on New Media. - Paddy Johnson

One topic that’s come up on Rhizome’s blog is the rematerialization of art (the idea, according to Ed Halter, “that innovations such as the flat-screen monitor, the digital print, and the editioned DVD, have helped transform immaterial forms like video and net.art into a new generation of physical, sellable objects”), so I wanted to talk to you about this a little. Is it critical to display new media art in the gallery?

I think new media art, like old media, needs a physical place for critical and social discourse. On the computer screen in the privacy of your home, you can do research, and email other professionals on the merits of a piece, but it’s not the same as looking at it in a real space, walking around it, and experiencing it. A lot of new media work requires interaction, and that interaction is mediated by the spectator and the user together.

Tom Moody, OptiDisc, 2007 (Installation at artMovingProjects)

It seems to me that there’s a lot to be said for going into a space, and experiencing that work with someone else too. A dialog can occur, that, as you mention, is more spontaneous. Which I think can be important for new media, particularly because the bias of the medium is “cold.”

Of course, the beauty of some new media art projects is that you can view it anytime you want online.

Right, which presumably has its pluses and minuses for dealers. I know you have been working on a contract between the artist and gallery. I thought maybe we could discuss some of these details a little, because I imagine they’re really important to both artists and dealers.

Sure. The contract I’ve drawn up is an agreement between the artist and artMovingProjects. It’s binding for the life of the working relationship between artist and the gallery, and that’s actually how the document starts. The stipulation is for one piece of the artist’s oeuvre — and that’s what’s so different about it than other gallery contracts. Typically, the contract between the artist and the gallery represents all the artist’s work, and ties the artist to the gallery. In this case, the artist is free to work for many different venues simultaneously, which is a real plus.

Well, there are examples of independently working artists in traditional mediums that seem to do okay, but it is very rare.

Yes, and this is very specifically tied to the intellectual content. It stipulates that the artwork will only be sold with permission of the gallery at the agreed piece in perpetuity….With editions, and video, the dealers typically increase the price of the edition as it is sold, and I feel that that’s not such a great idea in the short term because it creates undue pressure on the collector. Also, part of the contract stipulates that any deals the artist makes outside the agreement involving others will not be supported by the gallery without authorization in writing. Further, should the artwork be sold without permission in writing this will end the relationship between the artist and the gallery.

To read the full piece click here.

If you haven’t noticed, my main site has had a massive overhaul, with which the royal ‘we’ are very pleased.

Besides the new design, some new work and texts have been added in the upgrade process, most notably the digital and traditional prints I did at the Frans Masereel Centre in Belgium this summer, the Johannesburg-based public intervention from a few weeks ago (a continuation from my Wireframe Series started in Croatia), and new writings on my research and artistic inquiry.

For non-geeks:

The new site is driven by categories, so as to showcase interesting through-lines and trajectories in my pieces. Artworks are each listed across all the concepts and media they might fit into, and are then organized by date. A hidden system of keywords also helps to show related pieces, and there are other goodies such as lightbox slideshows, youtube videos, RSS feeds, and more, throughout the site. Feedback welcome!

For geeks: 

There are now 2 WordPress installs on this site: the blog (what you are reading now, this is a standard install) and the main site, which is using WP as a Content Management System.

The idea was to have an artist portfolio that did not look like a blog, but that did use a similar database for cross-categoried posts and related works (through tags) in a way that could showcase interesting through-lines and trajectories in my pieces. After a lot of research - and not wanting to have to do any database coding on my own - I came to Wordpress as my best choice for a starting point; there are no changes to the wordpress core at all (just a very customized theme and a bunch of plugins) - I’m very pleased with the result:

http://nathanielstern.com

Feedback welcome! More geek tidbits below the fold… (more…)

Back in the office today, despite battling a cold. Re-reading Manovich and Paul to see what I can use in chapter 2 of my dissertation, rather than diving right back into the hard-core stuff, like Massumi and Hansen (most of which will go into chapter one, which will be an extended version of this paper). My new art site (have you noticed the color palette change here, to match the upcoming main site?) and the performance I did in Joburg should be live in the next week or so (will let y’all know), and the afore-promised notes on my dissertation should be flowing on the blog at least once per week starting then, too.

Missed me?

Howdy all. If you remember, early last year I developed a new WordPress theme as part of the launch of SAartsEmerging.org - promoting and critiquing emerging South African artists. That site is now maintained by Bronwyn Lace and Rat Western, and you should keep an eye out for upcoming changes.

Given the popularity of this theme, I’ve decided to release a new, widget-compatible version, and you can expect all future releases to be maintained from this site. I believe the most beneficial aspect of this 2-column design is its easy customization. The zip file includes:

• new design, with different sidebars for posts, pages and single posts - these are now customizable using WordPress’ built-in widgets
• header and footer images using a detail of Nathaniel Stern’s Compressionist work
• layered Photoshop file to put in your own image; includes gradient, curved edges and “pre-cut” slices (and instructions)

Download the zip file. (open source CC/GPL)

As you can see, this blog now also uses the new artsemerging theme (with a “widgetized” sidebar - note that all changes happened in the WP interface - I needed no code in any of the php files to customize this), and this coincides with the announcement of some upcoming changes around here — as I concentrate on my PhD research and writing over the next year, blogging will again pick up pace, mostly concentrating on thoughts and works related to my dissertation topic. You’ll see texts (rants?) that intersect between performance studies, art, embodiment and technology, and eventually a re-design of this whole site to match my thesis (this, over the next 4-5 months). In the meanwhile, note that “nathaniel and the non-aggressive” is no more, and this blog is henceforth to be known as “implicit art.” Enjoy the theme, and the blog, and please let me know if you encounter any problems, in the comments section.

More soon!

(PS Technorati Wordpress and Theme)

The extremely underrated Greg Shakar will have a (I think his first) solo exhibition opening at the new Greylock Arts gallery in Massachusetts - an endeavor by the wonderful and wondrous Marianne Petit and her partner Matthew Belanger. The former was my supervisor when I was at ITP; she is a total star many times over, and you should watch any and every thing she ever does.

Greg is a very smart, technically clued-up and thoughtful artist. I’m sure it’s gonna be a great show. The re-blog:

Gregory Shakar: MoodVectors

Greylock Arts is pleased to announce its first exhibit with Gregory Shakar’s MoodVectors.

Gregory Shakar creates interactive audio sculptures and immersive environments. As an artist and musician he is devoted to the creation of emotive and expressive electronic art. Viewers participating in his interactive installations encounter melodic bolts of lightning, giant sonorous metronomes, and enormous undulating pixels. His performance work includes audience participatory symphonies performed on hundreds of mobile phones and music for quasi-harmonic audio-visual environments.

Shakar’s work has been exhibited internationally including at Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria), Digital Arts Festival (Tokyo, Japan), Nagoya City Museum of Art (Nagoya, Japan), Sonar Festival (Barcelona, Spain), the London Institute for Contemporary Art (London, UK), the Smithsonian Museum of American History (Washington, D.C), Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall (New York) and The Kitchen (New York).

For more information about the artist visit his website at: moodvector.com.

We are pleased to present the first survey of the artist’s work in an exhibition entitled “MoodVectors”.

Exhibit Dates:

July 13th – August 18th

Opening Reception:

Friday July 13th, 5:30-8:30 p.m.

(more…)