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15 October 2005 by nathaniel

Ralph Borland in NYC: Suited for Subversion

South Africa’s own Ralph Borland is exhibiting on a group show in NYC at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), right now! Suited for Subversion is part of the exhibition SAFE: Design Takes on Risk, October 16, 2005 – January 2, 2006.

Here’s two pics he sent me from over in the states:

Ralph Borland and his Suited for Subversion at the MOMA, and in the streets of NYC. He wore that same suit as my date to the Kebbles in 2003; my wife thought he looked good. Pictures by Kim Silberman
Ralph Borland and his Suited for Subversion at the MOMA, and in the streets of NYC. He wore that same suit as my date to the Kebbles in 2003; my wife thought he looked good. Pictures by Kim Silberman

Suited for Subversion draws on Ralph Borland’s work as an activist involved in street demonstrations in New York. Made of vinyl stuffed with polyurethane foam, the suit protects the wearer from police batons at large-scale street protests, and monitors the wearer’s pulse. In the centre of the suit’s chest is a speaker that projects this amplified heartbeat. It can also be used to play music and chant slogans.

As much as my suit is armour, it is also disarming; as much provocation as protection.

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14 October 2005 by nathaniel

odys for your iPod @ odys.org

odys for your iPod and iTunes at odys.org

the odys series was always intended for intimate viewings; even when it premiered at the Johannesburg Art Museum as an installation, I had six separate screens, each with headphones. Viewers were encouraged to re-visit and jump over juxtaposed media, and create a shifting collage.

Now you can get very personal, and re-visit all you like — all six videos have been optimized for the new iPod and iTunes.
odys for your iPod is now free at odys.org

note: I’ve not yet tested this on many Macs, or any PCs, so please let me know if you have any trouble… Hell, the new iPod ain’t even available in South Africa yet, but I thought this’d be fun. Also, if anyone knows how to make a link that imports directly into iTunes, I’m all ears….

It’s 1:35 AM in SA; I am going to bed. Will get to bugs, and add to Rhizome ArtBase, this weekend. Shout out to Marisa Olson and Francis Hwang, the only iPod artists I know. I hope we’ll see more soon.

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13 October 2005 by nathaniel

Apple does it again

OMG, Apple’s new iTunes let’s you download animations from Pixar, your favorite TV shows from the night before, etc… The new iMac has a remote control to download and play (and a built-in iSight to play with other goodies), and the new iPod lets you transfer any and all of the above to it.

At $1.99 per 1-hour TV show, and being the only place (other than P2P’s) you can get this stuff, it’s actually a great deal — even from SA. I want to see the new season of Lost, dude, but bandwidth on the P2P is too pricey from the third world; $2 is not!

Apple

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09 October 2005 by nathaniel

wireless in the wilderness

koji chiba at the studio for interactive sound, grahamstown
koji chiba at the studio for interactive sound, grahamstown

Friday afternoon, thanks to the Studio for Interactive Sound (Toni Olivier) and Rhodes’ Fine art Department (Brent Meistre), I gave a 3-hours (ish) public lecture on the history of interactive video (including some of my own work, cuz I can) and showed some tools one might use to make them — including jitter, which is great for getting started.

Altho we had plans to paint the town red, hang with Rhodents, see the sites(!), etc, everything admittedly went a bit haywire once we started drinking (that seems to happen a lot when I am out of Joburg. And when I am in Joburg.)

It was a great night.

Yesterday, a select few came out to Toni’s place, on a farm in the middle of nowhere, and we learned the basics of Max. W00t. Today we’ll be starting and playing with some art projects. There is no phone signal, but limited interweb – could not resist blogging the Koji; he is awesome and gave me cLoudDead mp3s.

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05 October 2005 by nathaniel

art in JHB and GHT

First off, big ups and big welcomes to AJ Venter, the newest guest blogger on this site. You can catch him, and the occasional post from me (from now on) over at silent coder.

So, this week/end I’m going to be missing a lot of great art and openings. I’ll catch them on the flip, but I thought I’d give y’all the heads up for JHB…

  • VANSA (Visual Arts Network of South Africa) show opened at The Premises last Saturday
  • Ian Waldeck opened at Gordart last Sunday
  • Angus Taylor opened at ArtSpace last Sunday
  • Tonight, new student piece choreographed by Athena Mazarakis opens at Wits. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Athena is probably the most underrated physical theatre director in South Africa
  • Thursday at WITS, Richard Kilpert will be conducting a talk and a slide show of his experience of this year’s IMPACT printmaking conference in Berlin and Poland. (thanks to Jill, over at David Krut, for this) — Appollonia room, Main WSOA, at 12 noon (thanks to Colleen Alborough for further details)
    note: latest word on the street is that this talk has been postponed until 20 Oct, 12:30 – will re-post then
  • Thursday 6 October, 18h00 at Gallery MOMO is a Marco Cianfanelli solo show; he is a beautiful sculptor and fellow major award winner at the Brett Kebble Art Awards, 2004.
  • Friday 7 October, 18h00 at Franchise Gallery, 44 Stanley, is SURFACE, a group show with works by Luan Nel, Virginia MacKenny, Moshekwa Langa, Dorothee Kreutzfeldt, Trasi Henen and Dineo Bopape; this is gonna be H-O-T

And why am I missing all of this? Because I’ll be in Grahamstown giving this talk on interactive video:

The Interactive Video Landscape
Three hour lecture/presentation
Fri: 7th Oct 2005. 2:00 – 5:00pm
Fine Art Dept Lecture Theatre (Painting & Sculpture Building, Upper Rhodes Campus)
ALL WELCOME

This lecture, discussion and demo will survey the interactive video landscape in 2005, and the pioneers who led up to it. We’Äôll take a look at the likes of David Rokeby, Camille Utterback, Golan Levin and others like them over the last 20 years – all artists working with technology and the body. During our time together, we’Äôll also see what kinds of tools are available for potential VJs, artists and musicians who want to produce interactive installations or multimedia performances. Finally, we’Äôll break down, conceptually, how someone might achieve body-tracking, motion tracking or proximity sensing with a simple web cam, and take a quick look at ’Äújitter’Äù (a very popular interactive video development environment for artists), and some projects made with it.

If in GHT, tell your friends. It’ll be followed by a two-day advanced workshop on interactive video (using Jitter), but I’m pretty sure that’s invite only – for members of the Studio for Interactive Sound (yay, Toni Olivier!) and the fine arts department staff (who will hopefully pass it on to students).

next blog (probably) from Grahamstown!

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