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02 June 2006 by nathaniel

Compressionism WorldWide

I was at Outlet yesterday, discussing my Time and Seeing exhibition of Compressionist prints with Brenton Maart. Maart normally does the Gauteng art listings for the Mail & Guardian, but we met about this show for a small review he’s doing in the next Art South Africa magazine. I never get over how happy it makes me when people respond very positively to my work… Also look out for Franci Cronje’s review of the show in Die Beeld next week.

This chat, and Cronje’s review, are timed really well, given that South Africa finally has the May issue of MacFormat magazine in stock, which has a full-color back page feature on me and the Compressionist series – click here, or on the thumbnail below, to read their take, see the images.

Don’t miss the Time and Seeing closing party at Outlet on 10 June (next Saturday), 16h00 – 24 du Toit Street, Building 10, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria.

Time and Seeing exhibits selections from nathaniel stern’s Compressionism – a "digital performance and analog archive.” Stern traverses bodies, spaces and objects with his scanner face, while the head is in motion. After being Compressed into digital images the size of a small sheet of paper, the files are then stretched, cropped and colored by hand. Compressionism is an exploration of media and perception, a transfiguration in Time and Seeing.

Compressionism in MacFormat magazine

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26 May 2006 by nathaniel

DVblog feature » Passage to Ill

DVblog kicks it old school Stern by featuring the first ever hektor recording (1999) – hektor.net (2000) was recently archived by the Cornell Manuscripts library. Minor props for old school net.art?

Link: DVblog » Passage to Ill – Nathaniel Stern

“Passage to Ill was one of the first pieces I wrote as “hektor“, playing the cynical romantic and trying to get in bed with “Ill” (a punny nickname for a real person). After seeing me perform it at the Nuyorican poet’s café, fellow grad student Alisa Schwartz asked if I’d be keen to make a DV version (for one of our classes at ITP, 1999), and we storyboarded it out. It was thus the very first piece in a series that would later become hektor.net” – Nathaniel Stern.

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18 May 2006 by nathaniel

Humor and Materials

(Forgive the quality of this image – I broke my crap camera and will from now on be taking gallery pix on my even more crap phone…)

Spent much of Monday with Gordon Froud and Franci Cronje, both of whom will be writing pieces about my current show at Outlet gallery in Pretoria (Franci for Beeld, Gordon will see where he wants to publish after he writes it). After spending some time talking about my work with them, I head over to Gordon (the gallerist at Gordart)’s studio for the first time – it’s awesome. He’s got a collection of art, CDs, records and books that may just rival Warren Siebrits’, but Gordon mostly uses them to produce his own odd juxtapositional art. i think the most interesting thing in Gordon’s studio must be his collection of large pots and pans – the sourced / found objects he’ll be using to produce a huge 3D mobile for a recent CSIR (Science and Technology) commission. (Shown right, just half of one leg of this many-metered monstrosity.)

It was actually the first time I took a close look at Froud’s body of work (he took me through the books), and I have to say I’m a little humbled and awestruck by the scale, amount, and committment of/to his seriously/funny history.

Froud – where can we see more / online? The things you do with cups….

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17 May 2006 by nathaniel

Re-elect Al Gore

I’ve had my B. Obama fad; I like R Feingold; I could live with M Warner (I guess); NOT ANOTHER (H) CLINTON.

But why not give the man who actually won the 2000 election his seat at the White House?

No longer listening to pollsters and middle ground advisers, Gore interviews well, believes in something, opposes Iraq, illegal wiretapping and the Partiot Act, is funny, has name recognition and a hard-done-by history, and well, could emotionally erase the last 8 years for us by taking his rightful place as the leader of the free world.

Update: maybe it is possible. Read them all!

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16 May 2006 by nathaniel

free trip to Rio for a bag

You’ll be happy to know that we’ve extended the deadline for the iCommons Summit bag awards to this Thursday, 9pm South African time.

Please send an email to your great designer friends – someone gets to go to the iCommons Summit in Rio if they win! that’s an awesome prize – we’re really wanting to empower at least one wonderful creator through this, so please send this on!

Best,
Heather.
—
Heather Ford
Acting Executive Director: iCommons
www.icommons.org

iCommons and Creative Commons invite you to show off your design skills to the world.

We are hosting a contest to design the bag to used by delegates from around the world at the iCommons Summit to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from June 23-25, 2006.

If your design is selected as the winning design, you will be eligible to win a trip to Rio de Janeiro to attend the Summit.

To enter the contest, create an original design that reflects the theme of the Summit — “Towards a Global Digital Information Commons” – and its constituent workshops on open creativity, knowledge, science and innovation. You can learn more about the program here. …

learn more

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14 May 2006 by nathaniel

…gurgle…

Apologies for the lack of posts lately, everyone. I’ve been really snowed under with mostly boring freelance work as I try to save up for the imminent baby girl (< 2 weeks til her arrival!).

I did write what I think to a be a pretty good catalogue essay on Colleen Alborough’s YAP (Young Artist Project) installation at the KZNSA gallery this week, and am working on a short bio on Wim Botha for a local mag, too. Be on the lookout! Other than that, had a full week of teaching between the Digital Arts MA students and Creative Writing courses at Wits, and am working on a DVD and CD for iCommons (a Creative Commons thing) with Franci Cronje.

Hoping to go see art and write more for "this space" soon.

Not related: Scott Westerfeld and Justine Larbalestier books are now available in SA – super fun YA (Young Adult) fiction by a former science fiction novelist (winner of the Philip K Dick award) and sci-fi feminist academic… They are the contemporary YA power couple that lives between Sydney and NYC(!), and you must love them.

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