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04 November 2005 by nathaniel

the goldberg strikes again

Had a fanfab dinner with Nicole’s dear old friend, Nancy, and her boyfriend, Glenn, last night. We only met him for the first time, but he gets major approval ratings. Afterwards, headed to Josh Goldberg’s of “don’t call me a VJ, I’m a live visualist” — first digital artist in residence in South Africa; he would hate how pretentious I am making him sound, which he is not; but he does not read my blog, so there — fame. Of course we geeked out over various patches, technologies and other oddities, and now that I don’t have a cap and have decent speed with his internet (like, 1MBPS or something), I’m finally getting a taste of Bittorrent. Wow. So cool. Not as fast as I expected, nor exactly ‘on demand,’ given how it works, but I love the idea of the technology in general, and not too bad. For those who don’t know, it’s kind of like a combo between peer-to-peer and http, and when you file share, you are rewarded for how much you can and do share with others, with your own increasing speed of the download. Melikes catching up on TV shows!!!!

Still up with a bit of the ole jet-lag, but getting better — nearly made it to 6:30 today. Gonna go to brunch later with Joshy and Rachel (his awesome wife), and maybe finally hit some galleries and/or museums.

w00+

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03 November 2005 by nathaniel

while in New York…

…do as the New Yorkers do.

Ironic that the city most affected by September 11th voted less than 15% for George W. Bush. For those of you don’t know (as I have a lot of readership in South Africa and Amsterdam), Democrats closed congress yesterday, seeing an opportunity (after the Libby indictment) to finally hold some people in this administration accountable for various, shall we call them, ‘inconsistencies’…. Here’s some more:

What Judy forgot: Your right to know – Los Angeles Times — if the indictment and research could have happened when it was supposed to, over a year ago (and was not obstructed by members of the White House and Republican party), George W Bush would not be president today.

Rove’s Future Role Is Debated — that in mind, what is up with this Rove character.?

CBS News | Poll: Approval Ratings Compared | November 2, 2005 22:00:08 — the polls say that Bush is way less popular than anyone ‘cept Nixon, and that way more people want him impeached than did want Clinton (who, tho people tend to forget, was impeached; I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I prefer a president who gets BJs and lies, to one who goes to war based on lies….).

Here’s a closer look at the most important numbers from the above poll. When on earth will the mainstream media catch up? I understand that Fox news is fair and balanced and so I cannot expect them to say anything that would ever harm their candidate, but where is everyone else?

Carter on a morning show. President Carter once had an administration who lied – he asked his entire cabinet to resign. I guess Bush has trouble firing people loyal to him. Cover up + loyal to president = not so honest president?

I’m not sure why it is that, just because of the divisiveness of this nation, Dems and Reps think their candidate is always right; we have to follow blindly. No matter what world you live in, these guys committed treason, lied, went to war on lies, covered it up, and, as is becoming more clear to the general public, have the majority of the media in their pocket. My friend Jane says that I simply buy into too much liberal media, like CNN and the NY times — I just laughed and asked where this liberal media was, cuz I’d like to see it. Compared to her news station (Fox), George Bush is liberal media, so I guess I could see where she is confused about the other two.

I think I’m going to run for president in 2008. Even if it don’t work, might be a neat art project. The first thing I’d like to do is go to war with Fox. They are a much bigger threat to the American way of life than Iraq was.

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28 October 2005 by nathaniel

durban downloaded

Just looking over the vast amounts of photos over the last few days, but have chosen to reminisce in text (remember: we’re in Africa; I like to keep file sizes down!)….

Wednesday morning began with a whole lot of gushing over Colleen Alborough’s amazing work. The production of Night Journey was a journey itself – Colleen has been working on the piece for about 3 years. But it is only with that time that the piece has come to be so amazingly well rendered, so obviously considered. The interactive elements are far superior to her last attempt (now moving to alarm motion sensors instead of motion tracking cameras), but rather than turning the piece into something playful, they push the piece towards an unrepeatable eeriness. Her felt (the material, not the action) walls and animated videos are a scary yet comfortable claustrophobia, and the lights and bodies in the space paradoxically make me feel safe, and make my skin crawl.

The next part of the morning was slightly different. We went to catch a rehearsal of Bombay Crush. You heard me right: Jay Pather, avant-garde choreographer extraordinaire, is producing a full-on Bollywood Musical. OMG it was super duper fun to watch its beginnings. Opens 1 Dec, and if time and money allow, I’m hoping to take my second-ever trip to Durban in order to see it.

Then we hit the Durban Art Gallery to see some of their permanent collection, some newly acquired works from the recent red-eye exhibition, and the positive: aids in 2005 show. The most interesting works for me were by Desmond Zeederberg, Clive van den Berg, Churchill Madikida and Wayne Barker.

Storm then took me for a bit of a tour – we hit ushaka for a walk on the pier, round the new and old architecture, through a few parks, and finally to the aquarium for a look at the fishies. There seems to be a new fascination with clown fish since the dawning of Finding Nemo, and I got to reference my / Josh Goldberg’s ‘clown joke’ far too frequently for the common man.

Day eased into night as I blogged a bit, did some personal admin online at the gallery, and prepped a small feast for our final night in Durbs. I’ll be back….

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24 October 2005 by nathaniel

in and out, durban and the blogosphere

Storm van Rensburg and Jay Pather - the second most famous gay couple in South Africa
Storm van Rensburg and Jay Pather – the second most famous gay couple in South Africa

So, having a fantastic time in Durban. We had an amazing dinner with Jay Pather (choreographer), Storm van Rensburg (curator, KZNSA), and a Bollywood star on Saturday night at Cafe 1999 – where we all got a little wasted, told jokes, and blew smoke up each others bums… It’s nice to hang with the talented peops.

Yesterday, we swam in the ocean about 3 times, had oysters, then a braai. Man, I should help my ex-students set up their shows more often…. Colleen is cracking the whip today, so I’m just doing some personal online admin as quickly as possible before helping her further with her installation – the software is all done and working with the hardware and micro-controller, and it’s set to be a fanfab show! The exhibit is eerily beautiful and evocative, and the interactive stuff is walking the fine line between a sensed reaction without being so playful that it takes away from the seriousness of the piece.

If in Durbs, you MUST come to the opening tomorrow!

Oh, and one more thing. Apparently, my blog is worth $30,485.16 – I’ll take it if anybody is buying, too… Thanks to crooks and liars for the link!

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22 October 2005 by nathaniel

Night Journey – An installation by Colleen Alborough (live from Durban!)

Night Journey - An installation by Colleen Alborough at KZNSA, KWAZULU NATAL SOCIETY OF ARTS
Night Journey – An installation by Colleen Alborough at KZNSA, KWAZULU NATAL SOCIETY OF ARTS

Arrived in Durban yesterday evening (to help above-mentioned install her show), and the sea is already wonderfully under my skin; it’s stunning. Can you believe I got up at about 5Am this morning and just listened to the ocean? Drinks tonight with Storm van Rensburg and Jay Pather – the second most famous gay couple in South Africa. Storm was just here watching Stephen Colbert with us; what a honey!

Colleen’s show opens on Tuesday eve, and here’s the sound byte:

Colleen Alborough is an artist living and working in Johannesburg. She completed her BA (Fine Arts) with distinction at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she is currently completing a MA (Fine Arts). Alborough also teaches part time at the same institution’Äôs digital arts department, focusing on digital stop frame animation and web design. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions in the past five years, which includes ’ÄúHoming In’Äù at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in 2003.

As an artist Alborough is interested in the intersection between traditional art media and new technologies. She has presented labour intensive environments and digital applications, which are combined into evocative and experiential spaces that foregrounds questions around identity, memory, social interactions and responsibilities and the exploration of self.

’ÄúNight Journey’Äù is an interactive environment that relies on viewer participation, and utilises technology that is highly experimental in the visual arts in South Africa. Inviting active engagement, the installation explores and interrogates the epic journeys we embark on when he nights shuts out our visible reality, and gives free reign to our hopes, fantasies, dreams, fears and nightmares.

ARTISTS’Äô STATEMENT:

’ÄúMy work attempts to unlock an ongoing dialogue between viewer and space ’Äì both real and imagined. It provokes a process of questioning and negotiation with the potential ambivalence we have to our physical and psychic worlds. The portrayed experiences in my installations are that of irreconcilable uncertainty, withheld desire, unspeakable fear. I explore this terrain in an attempt to disclose, release, acknowledge and share the ’Äúbetweens’Äù in these ranges of emotions.’Äù

The second instalment in the 2005/6 Young Artists Project (YAP), an ongoing initiative by the KZNSA to support new work. Funded by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund and the Royal Netherlands Embassy.

Gonna be a treat!

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