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16 March 2005 by nathaniel

ketchup, soiree, franchise

So, it’s been hektik. I had a performance with the FATC (hoping to get some picks and press online soon-ish – the response was overwhelmingly positive!), have my solo at the KKNK coming up next week, have been working on some stuff for the Grahamstown Festival with Toni Olivier, and am way behind on my grading for teaching…. Did I also mention that at any given moment, I am working on, like, 80 proposals that will never see the light of day?

[insert over-exaggerated sigh that begs you to love me.] sigh. The artist’s life [insert big performative hand gestures that pretend to say something but actually say nothing at all]!

Anyhow, I’m emptying out my images from my camera today, and will get to my phone images sometime in the next few days (and we’ll just forget the shows I’ve seen that I didn’t have a camera for at all).

nicebots at wits

Here’s Daniel Hirschmann – Wits Fine Arts BA and Masters from ITP – presenting his collaborative nicebots, from, well, Nice (France). He showed some great documentation, and talked about his process and technology for making these cute little bots with a whack of personality.

Coincidentally, I’ll be giving a (as always, free!) presentation on the interactive video landscape at the Wits Digital Soiree this Friday, from 3-5 PM. That’s in the digital convent, across from the school of arts. Be there!

And, trying to stick with brevity here….

the art of production at franchise

Here’s one pic of a duo show at Franchise, the hot, no-so-new-anymore gallery over at 44 Stanley, Millpark. Admittedly, I didn’t give the show its entire due on my time. Some of the images were moving and exciting, but I was freaking out about other shit and so only did a quick squizz. I feel like I’ve seen the projected animation before, and I don’t mean that to be a nice reference to it being uncanny….

The shows I’d like to check out this week:

Steven Cohen: tonight and tomorrow at Wits (probably 50 bucks, but the galleries below are free)
Gallery Momo’s group show (7th ave, parktown north)
Group show at Drill Hall (downtown) – this opens tonight at 6:30 for 7:00

Chat soon!

Archives

14 March 2005 by nathaniel

still here: sundaytimes.co.za “must see”

Craig Morris, Greg Maqoma and Irene Stephanou

DANCING IN THE RAIN: Craig Morris, Greg Maqoma and Irene Stephanou at the Dance Factory
photo credit: THEMBINKOSI DWAYISA

from sundaytimes.co.za:

Dance Umbrella: Still Here
The Dance Factory, Newtown ’Äî Monday and Tuesday at 7.30pm (march 14/15)
Price: R50
Tel: (011) 482-4140 or 082-570-3083

WHAT does actor David Minnaar have in common with musician Jennifer Ferguson and choreographer Gregory Maqoma? They’re all performers in PJ Sabbagha’s new work, Still Here, which will be performed at the Dance Umbrella this week.

Still Here is a multimedia work that looks at 10 years of democracy and the issue of HIV/Aids. Sabbagha will take audiences on a non-narrative surreal journey that looks at the experiences of surviving love, loss, illness ’Äî and the rain.

It features original songs composed and performed by Ferguson. Sabbagha also collaborates with Nathaniel Stern (who won a Brett Kebble award for his digital-art installation piece, Step Inside). Stern brings to the work a video that sees Minnaar delivering a poetic monologue, as well as Sabbagha and longtime collaborator Athena Mazarakis dancing a love duet.

Along with Maqoma, up-and-coming choreographer, Nelisiwe Xaba, Craig Morris and Samantha Pienaar are just a few of the dancers.

Still Here is not Sabbagha’s first foray into HIV/Aids- inspired dance. The Double Room, and later There’s No Room In This Bed both explored the complex feelings and experiences that come to the fore when humans are faced with the reality of HIV/Aids.

Sabbagha’s integrity as a leading, innovative choreographer earned him the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for dance for
this year.

Archives

12 March 2005 by nathaniel

interactive video workshop next weekend @ Wits. sign up now!

THE PRESS RELEASE

This is an opportunity which should not be missed! ¬ÝThere are 6 places available on this ground-breaking workshop; so put your name down early so that you don’Äôt miss out.
Please also feel free to forward this invitation to anyone else who may be interested in the workshop.
¬Ý
Interactive Video workshop at Wits Digital Arts
Dates: 18 ’Äì 20 March ¬Ý(beginning Friday late afternoon, full day Saturday and Sunday)
Course Leader: Nathaniel Stern
Cost: ¬ÝR650
Who should attend: ¬Ývisual artists, VJs, performance artists video practitioners and anyone interested in real time interactions between images, sound and performance.
NB> Basic computer literacy and an interest in making things are the only requirements.
¬Ý
Venue: The interactive media design lab at WSOA Digital Arts
¬Ý
¬Ý
Leading New Media artist nathaniel stern ( http://nathanielstern.com ) was a ¬Ý2004 Kebble award winner with his ground-breaking interactive art installation called ’ÄúStep Inside’Äù.

Nathaniel, who is a graduate of the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University, and a lecturer on the Wits School of Arts’Äô Digital Arts MA programme, will be leading ¬Ýa ¬Ýtwo and a half day hands-on introductory workshop to Interactive Video.

This discipline combines the use of video cameras and computers in ¬Ýorder to ¬Ýtrack bodies, motion, proximity, light and color for use in ¬Ýinteractive installation, multimedia performance, and VJing. The ¬Ýworkshop will cover a basic intro to all of the above, as well as real-time video mixing, scrubbing and effects, and the use of sound to generate and/or interfere with video.
¬Ý
The workshop will utilize Max/MSP and Jitter as its development environment. ¬ÝThis application uses a simple, graphical interface (which looks very much like a flow chart) to accomplish the artist’Äôs goals. ¬ÝFor more information, ¬Ýsee http://cycling74.com
¬Ý
Amongst the various activities, the two and half day workshop will ¬Ýexplore examples of Interactive Video work by contemporary artists, suggest some of ¬Ýthe other possibilities for tracking information from the physical ¬Ýworld through cameras, and also look at other software and hardware available for tracking and manipulating audio and video.
¬Ý
For more information, or to sign up, contact ¬ÝMrs Natalia Fiandeiro, WSOA Digital Arts, (011) 7174663 or fiandeiron@artworks.wits.ac.za.

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27 February 2005 by nathaniel

new wordpress 2.0 theme: stuttering

stuttering 1.5 is completely compatible with wordpress 2.0! the new version (stuttering 2.0, dec 24, 2005) merely includes a thumbnail image for the new presentation area in wordpress

lots of bug fixes on latest version, updated 6 april 2005!

So, I’ve taken some advice and calls for help with the last theme I developed (for this blog), and went ahead and designed another one, loosely based on it. (procrastination….) Free as in beer! Hope you like it. Installation is super easy (standard drop-in theme), and I even put in instructions for graphic changes (top) and blog title size changes (or even how to make the whole top graphic a link, if you want to use a non web-safe font in your image).

The top is an include, so if savvy, you can go in and do as you see fit (menu, perhaps?). Any questions? Comment or contact.

stuttering theme for wordpress 2.0
click for larger image

Be sure your ftp application is set to “text” or “ascii” or “automatic” when you upload! Otherwise, it gets all weird looking in the admin panel….

stuttering zip file

Say you like me. Go on. Say it.

(PS Technorati and )

Archives

25 February 2005 by nathaniel

NAN upgrade

I apologize for the inconvenience to those of you who have already downloaded and/or made changes to my theme – note that these changes are only to the index.php file, so you may use your updated CSS files – and graphic.php and graphic.jpg files – as you see fit. It seems there was a minor bug in the index.php file, where it needed “next page” and “previous page” links in its categories and heavy months. I’ve also added this to the main index page, for the people who pop in and just want to keep reading back in time. While I was at it, I added a little feature that now lists the number of posts to any category next to its link in the menu. And finally, I added in support for if you use wordpress’ new feature to make pages! These should get listed just above the search bar in the menu.

Thanks to wordpress support for the help!

As always, download the theme from this post.

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