implicit art

Fantastic DATA on Tuesday with Alessandro Ludovico (Italy), Jaime Villarreal (Mexico), Ivan Twohig (Ireland).

Ivan showed several projects including his Falling Man, which turned free 3D graphics of a falling man into life-size paper sculptures throughout a gallery. Alessandro showed his Google Will Eat Itself and Amazon Noir, and Jaime did a live networked performance with junk and micro-controllers, making music in real-time with his friends in Mexico while here in Dublin.

Heaps of photos here. A few samples:

See more photos.

UPDATE Well, read the below and watch the interview, but I will admit that, to quote AmericaBlog, Wright “crossed over into cuckoo-land yesterday, saying that our government created AIDS, among other things.” It’s weird the juxtaposition between the Moyers interview and his self aggrandizing press conference yesterday. I don’t understand….

UPDATE II: Joe Conason argues about how I feel re: the NAACP and press conferences held by Wright earlier this week. You should also google or youtube some of the clips from those, especially the former. It’s amazing how differently Wright can perform there and on PBS. And it’s sad that such a wonderful man would behave so badly for reasons unknown….

UPDATE III: I should make clear that I think this is in no way reflective of Obama, and I’m utterly sick of all the coverage Wright gets, while important issues (and Clinton and more importantly McCain scandals) are ignored by the MSM (mainstream media). Look at the polls! People care more about the economy, about Hillary’s political opportunism, and funnily enough the McCain ties to GEORGE W BUSH (who is actually less popular than the Reverend Wright!), than they do about Obama’s ties to Wright. Whatever the news agents tell you, and they all say Wright is more important, these are the real numbers. Americans know what’s important - can we please try to keep our eyes on the ball?

Original post:

Honestly, what an amazing man. Given Obama and what I know of him from reading both his books and watching his speeches (and my obsessive political followings more generally), I knew Wright was being mischaracterized by the media, but, wow, I had no idea of his lifelong commitment to making a better world. And what unflinching care, forgiveness and pacifism… It’s just striking. I am now a Wright fan, and plan to go see one of his sermons in the midwest when I’m there in the Fall.

Reverend Jeremiah Wright interview, part one

Reverend Jeremiah Wright interview, part two

And Bill Moyers, too - they don’t make them (journalists) like that any more….

Haydn Shaughnessy gives a little teaser / preview of his Fragments project today and features my work. For some reason, he put up a tiny image, so here’s a close-up:

Window, 8×10 inches, lambda print on metallic paper, edition 100

Saving this for the web unfortunately managed to dull the colors a bit - the blues and reds are wonderfully startling with the real thing. I’m very happy with the project generally; it’s the first time I’ve produced “artist affordable” archival art (€40 / $65 each!). Haydn explains the project, in which he solicits artists to re-work larger projects at the lower-priced editions of 100:

Basically Fragments is a project where I’ve asked artists to go back to a work and select a fragment that in some way typifies the larger work or has special resonance. This fragment is called Window and it is from a street scan called Cathedral by Nathaniel. We have some interesting artists lined up for Fragments more of which later when I’ll also get round to posting Cathedral.

Beat ya to it, buddy! Here’s the original work: Cathedral, lambda print on metallic paper, 20 x 36 inches, edition 5 (also with colors slightly dulled when saved for web, sadly):

I really like how the “fragments,” can be details, screen grabs, refigured pieces or collages - Haydn has some really great artists and art works lined up, and I can imagine them flying off the web/wall a set at a time once he launches next month. Keep a look out!

Both Window and Cathedral are part of my ongoing Compressionism series of prints.

The Dublin Art and Technology Association is having a hot month!

8pm Tuesday 29 April
Science Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin
Guests: Alessandro Ludovico (Italia), Jaime Villarreal (Mexico), Ivan Twohig (Ireland)

See the flyer at full size.

DATA:EVENT:30 - * Special 30th Event Anniversary*

Alessandro Ludovico (Italia):
Alessandro Ludovico, 1969, lives and works in Bari, Italy. He is a media critic and the editor in chief of the magazine Neural from 1993 and was awarded with a “Honorary Mention” for Net.Vision at Prix Ars Electronica 2004. Alessandro Ludovico is one of the founding contributors of the Nettime community and one of the founders of the organization “Mag.Net (Electronic Cultural Publishers)”. www.neural.it

Jaime Villarreal (Mexico):
Jaime Villarreal is an artist, technologist and researcher whose work explores the use of emerging technologies and electronic media as tools for creative expression. He works at the Centro Multimedia of the National Center for Arts of Mexico where he researches and develops creative applications of computer graphics programming and electronics. He is 1/2 of the electropunk/hardcore band “555vs666″ and 1/3 of the audiovisual performance group “rrr”. Jaime will be performing with his collaborators Sonida RRR live from Mexico City using networked electronic instruments. Dublin heads will also be taking part using instruments they’ve built in local workshops at NCAD and the Science Gallery.

Ivan Twohig (Ireland):
Ivan Twohig is an artist and student of the Ncad (2nd year MA, Art in the Digital World) His work operates at the convergence between fine art, architectural design and pop culture.� He works across a range of media including electronic art, video, sculpture, installation, net art, drawing and text based work.

All D.A.T.A. events are FREE and open to the public!

GalleryICA launches a new project in the coming weeks…

Funny derivative below the fold… (more…)

I had to post this beautifully understated new video work by Doron Golan.

Till Joseph flies to hide the biting tears (2008, 48MB, 5.20 min.)

Michael Szpakowski, also of DVblog, says (via rhizome):

…this is great & quite the strangest thing you’ve ever made. The tone is quite disturbing, made me quite nervous, but it’s also beautiful. In particular there’s one moment near to the end with lots of effects when there’s just some of the most beautiful shades of green *ever* on the screen.

Also I had an epiphany whilst watching - I realised one particular move I love in your editing ( and it lends it so much of its personal quality and power) -it’s like a sort of “half-jump-cut” - we move from one position of a person to another, sometimes with a slight zoom in or out or a slight change of angle but the continuity is both manifestly broken and somehow retained. It *is* a jump cut but in your hands it
doesn’t have the brashness that one might associate with that term. It’s amazingly potent.

Do you shoot with that sort of thing in mind, zooming in and out with a mind to removing some of the intervening footage?

I like the performance too, understated but effective…

The effects are the thing I find strangest - they are so in-your-face and contrast so markedly with that lovely B&W look you achieve. The little buzzing objects ( for want of a better description) put me in mind of the helicopter in the Tell Aviv portraits..

The symbolism (again for want of a better word) is so intensely personal, or at least hermetic that at this end of your work there’s a flavour of Blake. I couldn’t exactly logically justify that assertion but it *feels* true to me…

in two minds, Marcus Neustetter
a chat with the artist on Thursday 17 April 2008 at 18:00 - 20:00

Art on Paper Gallery, 44 Stanley Avenue Braamfontein Werf (Milpark), Johannesburg South Africa

Marcus Neustetter: in two minds, site-specific installation, 2008

Although Marcus Neustetter’s latest exhibition at Art on Paper Gallery invokes processes of mapmaking - representing space by drawing it in two dimensions on a map - it is not about conventional cartography. Rather, he introduces the element of motion into the mapmaking process, intimating the aspect of time in the exploration of geographical space. In fact, Neustetter’s art is about finding a method of referring to our experience of the coalescence of space and time.

On the last evening of Neustetter’s ascent of Kilimanjaro in December 2006 the night was so clear that the lights of the city of Moshi at the foot of the mountain seemed to be reflected in the stars of the sky. The sky above could as well have been a map of the landscape below. Neustetter generated digital maps of these reflections exploring the structural similarities of various spaces at specific times.

Marcus Neustetter considers his solo exhibition as an opportunity to articulate his ideas and concepts about dealing with a profound personal experience, and searching for the relationship between seemingly random occurrences in his life and subsequent visual ‘translations’. The exhibition includes an installation, digital traces, drypoint prints, drawings, photographs and images presented on SANSUI LCD screen.

Marcus Neustetter was born in Johannesburg on 14 November 1976 and attended the Deutsche Schule zu Johannesburg. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, and his Masters Degree in 2001. During this time he launched sanman (Southern African New Media Art Network).

He has been a professional artist since 2001 and, in partnership with Stephen Hobbs, has been developing The Gallery Premises, The Trinity Session and their artistic collaboration, Hobbs/Neustetter, as documented in www.onair.co.za.

Marcus Neustetter lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.
www.marcusneustetter.net

The exhibition closes on 26 April 2008

My hard drive died last week, which sucked. I didn’t lose anything important like art or my PhD (thank goodness), but it’s taken days just to get back to running, due to file and email jumbles on various drives, etc (still not quite there, and will have some crazy organizing to do in my spare time - files everywhere! - over the next few months…).

Anyhow, lost somewhere in the gambit was this 2-page feature on David Krut projects - featuring li’l ole me! - in Printmaking Today magazine…

Read it.

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.