implicit art

art and ecology, fiction and geek stuff, culture and philosophy, parenting and life, etc

implicit art

youtube

Archives

05 September 2017 by nathaniel

implicit art… restart (on Mo Gawdat’s Solve for Happy)

With the pending release of my new book (Ecological Aesthetics: artful tactics for humans, nature, and politics) in June or July of next year, and all the goings-on of the last couple of years in my life / the world, I’ve decided it might be time to reboot the blog I began back in Johannesburg circa 2002, and which teetered off and eventually died after two continental moves. Whereas that site began with my writings on art and politics, moved into regional discussions of aesthetics and culture and back again, here…. um, well… yeh, it will similarly be on whatever I feel like posting about, that I think is interesting.

For now, the new tagline is “art and ecology, fiction and geek stuff, culture and philosophy, parenting and life, etc”.

Forthcoming: a bit on my new book, some interesting tidbits from students in the classes I am teaching this semester (two Digital Studio courses, and one in Mechanical Engineering, plus some extra-curriculars), and thoughts on some great new art and books I’ve seen and read this Summer. You can expect to hear from me about once per week from now.

For now, a briefiew (yeh, I just made that up, a “brief review” portmanteau.  Tho I’m sure someone else has used it before, and it may not have gone down well. I decided against googling it, and ruining it for myself….) on Mo Gawdat’s Solve for Happy.

There are some lovely, and funny, and sad moments in this book, about a Google engineer’s quest for contentment, where he found and lost and found happiness before and after the death of his son. Gawdat hopes to share, simply, how to live with ourselves, and others, in the moment. He has an actual equation and formula, with numbers and lists and drawings (I’m actually listening to the audiobook, so I just imagine them, tho it comes with a PDF; his voice is very soothing). Honestly, Gawdat’s outlook mostly feels like a contemporary (and geeky) take on Eckhart Tolle’s Power of Now (which my mom likes way more than I do).

In the end, overall, it’s worth your time (even if, like me, there are few self-help books you are into – non-fiction is, of course, much broader than this!). The author is likable, his stories moving, his personality generous and relatable. And I’d like to share my favorite bit, which more or less goes as follows: the voice in your head is not you.

That person, who you think is you, who criticizes the way you eat, or move, or work out? The one who replays conversations in your head (or in my case, out loud), or wonders why that person at work is being that way towards you? That voice, which questions you, or the world, or the ones you care about? Overall, your inner monologue… That person is not you. That’s a construct of a person, the one who got praise or punishment from parents and teachers, and followed suit; he or she is the one who performs for others. That is not the real you. YOU are the one observing that criticizer. And you do not have to listen to the voice.

I’ve named the voice in my head Ferdinand. He is a bit of a dick, and I like to roll my eyes at, and make fun of, him. It has seriously changed things around here. So… thanks for that, Mo Gawdat’s Solve for Happy.

Posted in art, art and tech, me, pop culture, youtube · Tagged aesthetics, art, culture, digital studio, ecology, engineering, google, mo gawdat, nathaniel stern, philosophy, TED, TEDx ·

Archives

20 March 2012 by nathaniel

Help Jessica and me make art!

13 Views of a Journey

Hi Everyone:

Jessica Meuninck-Ganger and I are trying to raise money for our next collaborative solo exhibition at GALLERY AOP in Johannesburg, South Africa, in January 2013, through crowd-funding site US Artists. Some of this work will also be shown in Milwaukee as part of SGCI next March. Please consider donating even the smallest amount to help us cover costs of materials and catalog printing (with an essay by renowned media theorist Richard Grusin)! Every little bit helps, it’s tax deductible, and donations at various levels will get limited edition art works to boot. Contributions can be made through Amazon payments. We’ve made a video explaining the work and what your money will go towards online with the campaign at: http://www.usaprojects.org/project/matter_mediate_material

Note: If your credit card is issued from a non-US bank, or you prefer not to use Amazon payments, please consider either making a donation through GALLERY AOP via Alet Vorster in South Africa <[email protected]>, or by printing and mailing or faxing this donation form.

tweet this Share this on Facebook

The Exhibition

In our ongoing series of collaborations, a traditional printmaker (Jessica Meuninck-Ganger) and digital artist (Nathaniel Stern) merge practices to create new forms. Matter Mediate Material is an upcoming solo exhibition in Johannesburg, South Africa (January 2013), where we will permanently mount translucent prints and drawings directly on top of video screens, to make “moving images on paper.” Several of these exciting new works will also be shown as part of Southern Graphics Conference International (March 2013, Milwaukee).

We really appreciate your patronage and support. Matter Mediate Material will combine hand craftsmanship with high tech, and so requires LCD screens and media players, hours of shooting, animating and drawing, paper, ink, silk screens, wood, copper plates, frames, glass, and so much more. Your funding will assist with materials and production for the new work, as well as catalog printing. Remember that we must reach our minimum goal to get funding (it’s all or nothing!), but any moneys over and above that goal will help further: towards shipping costs, framing, travel, design, PR and public programming. Every bit helps – so please donate, and tell your friends, too. Thank you for your help!

Thanks in advance for your support! Best,

nathaniel and jessica

Distill Life: undertoe

Perks

$30
Bi-weekly updates, and a small, signed, letterpress print

$60
Bi-weekly updates, a signed letterpress print, and a signed catalog

$175
Updates, signed letterpress print and catalog, and a signed silk screen print

$400
Everything above, and a very limited edition signed digital print

$1,300
Everything above and a signed, very limited edition, 2-layer digital and traditional print

$2,400
Everything above and a signed, limited edition print+video piece -this includes a video screen + media player to make “moving images on paper”

Posted in art, art and tech, exhibition, me, milwaukee art, printmaking, south african art, stimulus, technology, uncategorical, youtube ·

Archives

12 July 2010 by nathaniel

compressionism site updated

compressionism.net

Just finished an overhaul of compressionism.net, and uploaded content, including works, press, documentaiton, etc. Look out for upcoming books and shows that feature the new work!

In this ongoing series of prints, I strap a desktop scanner, laptop and custom battery pack to my body, and perform images into existence. I might scan in straight, long lines across tables, tie the scanner around my neck and swing over flowers, do pogo-like gestures over bricks, or just follow the wind over water lilies in a pond.

Read more…

Posted in art, art and tech, Compressionism, exhibition, Links, me, milwaukee art, printmaking, re-blog tidbits, reviews, south african art, stimulus, technology, youtube ·

Archives

11 July 2010 by nathaniel

RSA Animate – Crises of Capitalism

Nearly a week after BoingBoing posted it, but this is great!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0]
Posted in inbox, news and politics, pop culture, re-blog tidbits, youtube ·

Archives

22 January 2010 by nathaniel

Passing Between: Nathaniel Stern and Jessica Meuninck-Ganger at Gallery AOP, Johannesburg

Kinnickinnic, 2009, lithograph + LCD with video, 255 x 355 x 50mm

Kinnickinnic, 2009, lithograph + LCD with video, 255 x 355 x 50mm

GALLERY AOP (Art on Paper) presents

Passing Between
A collaboration incorporating traditional printmaking and contemporary digital, video and networked art
by Nathaniel Stern and Jessica Meuninck-Ganger

30 January – 27 February 2010
Opening Saturday 30 January from 12:00 to 16:00
Opening address by Prof. Christo Doherty, Wits Digital Arts, at 12:30
The artists will be in attendance at the opening

Walkabout on Saturday 6 February at 12:00
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue and DVD

Nathaniel Stern and Jessica Meuninck-Ganger approach both old and new media as form. They permanently mount translucent prints and drawings directly on top of video screens, creating moving images on paper. They incorporate technologies and aesthetics from traditional printmaking – including woodblock, silk screen, etching, lithography, photogravure, etc – with the technologies and aesthetics of contemporary digital, video and networked art, to explore images as multidimensional. Their juxtaposition of anachronistic and disparate methods, materials and content – print and video, paper and electronics, real and virtual – enables novel approaches to understanding each. The artists work with subject matter ranging from historical portraiture to current events, from artificial landscapes to socially awkward moments.

Jessica Meuninck-Ganger is a Milwaukee-based artist. Her prints, artist’s books and large-scale mixed media works have been exhibited in the USA and in the rest of the world. She received her MFA in Studio Arts from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2004 and is currently Head of Printmaking at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA.

Nathaniel Stern is an installation and video artist, net.artist, printmaker and writer. He has had solo exhibitions at various museums, academic institutions, and commercial and experimental galleries worldwide. He obtained his PhD in Art & Technology from Trinity College, Dublin in 2009 and is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Art, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA.

Jessica and Nathaniel met at their first University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee Visual Art Faculty Meeting in August 2008, became fast friends, and decided to begin collaborating whilst on a trip to the Milwaukee Zoo with their kids a few months later.

44 Stanley Avenue  Braamfontein Werf   Johannesburg
Tuesday – Friday 10:00 – 17:00  Saturday 10:00 – 15:00

Posted in art, art and tech, me, milwaukee art, pop culture, printmaking, south african art, stimulus, technology, uncategorical, youtube ·

Archives

02 June 2009 by nathaniel

Wikipedia Art in Venice: call for remixes

SEE THE CALL AND THE REMIXES SO FAR

Wikipedia Art – originally an editable encyclopedia entry as art work – applied for and was denied citizenship on Wikipedia. It now seeks refugee status in Venice through the establishment of The Wikipedia Art Embassy. Encyclopedic ambassadors, Scott Kildall and Nathaniel Stern, invite writings on, and creative remixes and alternative wiki postings of, the Wikipedia Art project itself. Each will be featured on their now infamous site, wikipediaart.org

Wikipedia Art , officially part of Venice Biennale, has been called “more Wikipedia than Wikipedia” by Miltos Manetas, curator of Padiglione Internet (the Internet Pavilion). It is an incorporation of not only the artists’ primary concept, but the debates, biases and power struggles behind how it continues to exist. Now, Kildall and Stern are re-releasing Wikipedia Art – the story, the concept, the logo, its texts and name – under a Creative Commons license (CC-by). They request public remixes, transformative art and derivative works. They offer the piece up to business and info Wikis, to songwriters, fellow artists and filmmakers, to journalists and storytellers. Despite its absence from the number one source of online information, it perseveres in its temporary yet virtual housing in Italy (and Everywhere Else).

Kildall and Stern continue their examination and intervention into how Wikipedia has reframed knowledge, by asking the public to re-look at and re-make Wikipedia’s mode of online knowledge production. Wikipedia is not open to any editor, not a democracy, and in a great position of power. While an amazing resource, as with any powerful institution, its users – the general public – should continuously question Wikipedia’s methodologies and the power brokers that control them. Wikipedia Art re-engages that general audience; it features any artist or writer who wishes to take part; it frames all public discourse and activity as an ongoing intervention into knowledge and authority – on Wikipedia, on the Internet, in Venice and beyond.

Download the call for remixes (pdf)
See the call and the remixes so far

Posted in art, art and tech, creative commons, exhibition, me, milwaukee art, stimulus, uncategorical, youtube ·
← Older posts
RSS feed
Email list
Amazon
Facebook
Facebook
Twitter
Visit Us
LinkedIn
Google+
Google+
Academia.edu
YouTube
YouTube
Instagram
Flickr
Wikipedia

about the author

nathaniel stern is an awkward artist, writer, and teacher, who likes awkward art, writing, and students.

blog feed | email me

nathaniel’s books

Facebook

Facebook
My Tweets

categories

archives

Tags

aesthetics alice wilds art artist feature avant-garde books briefiew coding comics concern culture digital studio drawing ecology engineering fantasy fiction goods for me google ilona andrews jon horvath kate daniels milwaukee mo gawdat nathaniel stern paduak philosophy public property reading review sean slemon self-enjoyment Steve Martin syllabus sharing teaching technology TED TEDx trees urban fantasy web-comics webcomics whitehead world after us writing
nathanielstern.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates. Additionally, third party vendors, including Google (the adsense bits), use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this website. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this sites and/or other sites on the Internet. You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Ads Settings and/or www.aboutads.info.

All content © 2025 by implicit art. Base WordPress Theme by Graph Paper Press