SAsrtsEmerging is featured on liquidfridge this month. Given that they asked me for an image, my guess is that it’ll be on Artthrob this month, too…. I like the unambiguous interplay of the pretense and pretence on the post – bloody Americans; why can’t they speak English?
still from Kingfisher 0.9MB 10 sec loop
Michael Szpakowski, the brilliant artist, writer and personality behind alot of the JoyWar backing a couple of years ago (and a big supporter of Steve Kurtz) – as well as one of the core producers of DVblog – has started Scenes of Provincial Life, a new vlog of his own provocative QuickTime shorts:
A couple of years ago, I started making tiny QuickTime movies, as a kind of moving image dream diary. They quickly became a major focus of my work & I have made two or three at least every month since…
One of the things that excite me about the digital is that it makes possible a new sort of collaboration with both other artists and with non-professionals. Digitization makes the simple juxtaposition of different kinds of work straightforward, or enables a kind of framing process that, done sympathetically, enriches the work of both parties.
(Read more from the artist.) The videos, so far, range from Kentridge-like, sorrowful beauty, to quirky and experimental fluxus framing. Szpakowski’s mastery of re-mixing pop and historical culture/imagery feels like techno-poietic counsel for an ever-opening future-present, a sad co-celebration of the banal, and the possible. I want to collect them all…. Visit Scenes of Provincial Life.
The Sunday Times just covered Kaganof’s new project – a film shot entirely with cell phones:
‘Action!’ says the director for at least the 20th time in as many minutes, prompting the two female leads to start doing their thing at the pool table. As the girls hit the balls, chat and flirt, their movements are recorded by the cameras embedded in two of Sony Ericsson’s slick new W900i cellphones. That’s right: once this film, SMS Sugar Man, is completed, it will be the first feature film in the world to be shot entirely on cellphone cameras.
There’s another great art / curatorial project coming up from Cape Town-based Ralph Borland, and this one is calling for work for him to bring to a big ole festival in Australia:
I am a South African artist looking to document or exhibit your work – artwork, design and technology projects, tools, appliances, activist campaigns, sampled objects, as well as music, games, publications and other media – for my contribution to the Next Wave Festival in Melbourne, Australia, in March 2006. The Next Wave Festival this year is part of the cultural program of the 2006 Commonwealth Games, and it takes as its provocative theme the old name for the games – ‘Empire Games’.
I am acting as artist and curator, producing an exhibition and social space called ‘Sideshow’ within and around a shipping container, one of over 30 in a large warehouse space. My focus is on creative tactics for resistance and subversion.
For more information and images around the project, examples of the kind of projects I’m looking for, and information about myself and my work, please consult this link:
http://ralphborland.net/art/nextwave.html
For practical reasons, most projects will be represented through printed and digital documentation, except where the work does not need to be returned – there aren’t sufficient funds available for the transportation of work.
Please contact me at the email address below with information about your work. No large attachments to start with please. I look forward to hearing from you! I would also appreciate you passing this email on to appropriate forums and individuals.
Please contact me as soon as possible, and before the 20 February 2006.
His sideshow call for work uses has keywords:
progressive technology. appropriate technology. subversive technology. illegal technology/ political art. resistance art. subversive art. illegal art. brand art/ hacking. modding. sampling. remaking. satirising/ politricks. tricknology/ gallery. workshop. museum. carnival. clubhouse. shebeen. sideshow
My friend Amy sent me this great email about how the Jewish conversational style (especially those from, ahem, New York and of, ahem I say again, Eastern European descent) is about engaging through emotional story-telling, interrupting, and changing topics. See, I am listening and I do love you. Check it:
WASHINGTON — The next time someone accuses you of interrupting, you might want to explain that you are not being rude: You’re actually engaging in "high-involvement cooperative overlapping."
Cooperative overlapping — talking as another person continues to speak — is typical of Jewish conversational style, according to linguist Deborah Tannen, and can be a way of showing interest and appreciation.
Tannen had a standing-room-only crowd of more than 200 nodding and laughing with recognition as she delineated typically Jewish patterns of conversation during a recent lecture on Jewish conversational style at Georgetown University.
Tannen, 54, is a professor of linguistics at Georgetown and author of many scholarly and popular works, including the best-selling "You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation" and "That’s Not What I Meant!: How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships."
Jewish conversational style is not a precise term. Not all Jews exhibit its characteristic features and not all people who exhibit them are Jewish, according to Tannen. But the pattern of conversation found among many Jews from New York and its environs, especially those of Eastern European origin, differs in significant ways from that of most non-Jewish Americans from the South, Midwest and West.
In an interview prior to her talk, Tannen discussed her analysis of Jewish-style conversation. Along with cooperative overlap, she said Jewish-style conversational patterns include a "fast rate of speech, the avoidance of inter-turn pauses and faster turn-taking among speakers."
In a conversation among Jews, participants find the simultaneous talk and quick turn-taking unremarkable; they interpret silences and pauses as evidence of lack of rapport and/or interest.
But those not accustomed to that style, according to Tannen, may see such active listening behaviors as rudeness, verbal hogging and lack of interest in the speaker. The very characteristics that promote good conversation among the in-group can create discomfort or hostility among mixed groups.
Beyond that, people make judgments about the personality of individuals based on conversational style. According to Tannen, negative stereotypes of New York Jews as pushy may be the result of clashing linguistic patterns rather than character flaws.
Different conversational styles of couples, where one person is Jewish and the other is not, may contribute to the initial attraction, Tannen said. Someone quieter may seem mysterious and wise, while somebody more talkative can seem articulate and smart. But over time, the differences in style, particularly in close relationships, can be difficult. "You think you had good intentions, and they think you had bad ones," she said.
Other features of Jewish conversational style include a preference for personal topics, abrupt shifts of topics, unhesitating introduction of new topics and persistence in reintroducing a topic if others don’t immediately pick up on it.
Jews also tend to tell more stories in their conversations, often in rounds; dramatize the point of a story instead of putting it into words; and focus on the emotional experience of it.
People whose regional and ethnic background promotes a different way of conversing may not "get the point" of these rounds of story-sharing with no real plot, she said. They also may find the expectation of personal revelation unnervingly intrusive.
Tannen believes the sound of Jewish-style talk — pitch shifts, changes in loudness, exaggerated voice quality and accent — can signal concern and empathy as well as reinforcing a shared ethnic background among Jews. Or they may put off people more used to a restrained, less expressive way of speaking.
As participants milled around or were leaving following the talk, clusters of people analyzed their own talk.
"There were four of us chatting together and we started laughing," said Julie Epstein, the coordinator for Jewish graduate student programming at Georgetown. "We suddenly saw just how much we were using Jewish conversational style."
Who loves you and who do you love?
A great number of sculptors rocked up, looking at the new site for the DST building. Thanks to everyone. If you could not make it and want to stay in the loop, just leave me a message on the comments page, and i will get back to you!
