the goldberg is coming
hot sh!t VJ and digiart events over the next few weeks in Joburg, thanks to NYC and internationally acclaimed visiting artist, Josh Goldberg (landing tomorrow). watch this space for announcements, soon….
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blogging the commons
Howdy y’all. Am at the commons sense conference, and was just on a panel discussion with Megan Knight (PhD Wits), Vincent Maher (New Media Lab, Rhodes/Grahamstown) and Matthew Buckland (Mail & Guardian online).
It was a pretty cool panel, tho admittedly a lot was centered around the debate of “what gets to be journalism” (this, which often gets confused for value – like the old “what gets to be art” debate – doesn’t interest me much) – still, there was plenty of provocation around freedoms, positive connotations to the amateur, helping creative economies through the creative commons, and even a few jokes (gasp!). I have to say that everyone I saw and met at the whole conference was excitable, and exciting – some super interesting and smart people who want to add something to the world!
My own presentation was a re-mix of one I found here by our keynote, Larry Lessig. It was pretty much a hit, if I do say so myself, and I promised Lessig et al I’d put it online.
Download it (3.3 MB powerpoint presentation + quicktime movie that you may need to point to the first time you open it – slide no. 32)
Other links:
You can get the Mac and PC fonts here.
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Nat’s first guest blog…
So this morning (afternoon for Nat), he asked me if I wanted to be one of his first guest bloggers on here. Is this his first? I read back a little ways until I found him asking for guest bloggers, so maybe I am the first on this one. I thought that it made sense to write about what got him to ask me. See, I live in the states (I met Nat in college) and I just moved to a new city. Philadelphia. Birthplace of the Nation – or whatever.
As a wannabe artist myself, one of the things I’m really hoping to find here is a group I can work with artistically. I’m really jealous of this group of comic book artists out in St. Louis, Missouri called U.S.S. Catastrophe. They have this thing where they get together every Thursday for pizza and then go to Barnes & Nobel to draw together until they get kicked out. Pretty great, in my opinion. I’m ultra jealous and want to find something like that for myself. It’s managed to involve into more than that, too, but just the camaraderie and shared work alone is enough to send me into fits of envy.
The idea got cooked up when I first heard about Fort Thunder in Providence, Rhode Island. I don’t even know where to begin with talking about Fort Thunder, they were so awesome. Basically, this one guy rented a warehouse so he could live in it and use the big, open first floor as a music space, and his art school friends moved into them and they became one of the coolest groups of printers, costume makers, musicians and comix artists in the country (until the city let a developer tear the building they’d been renting down – of course).
So I got this idea in my head to try to figure out a way to get my hands on a building here in Philly and do the same thing. I don’t know how I’ll do it since I’m making snot moneywise here in Philly, but maybe I can figure out some community development angle? Eventually, I should be pretty plugged in politically in this town and I should know it pretty well, too. We’ll see.
I guess the exciting thing is that I recently learned that there already is a space somewhat like that here in Philly, called 1801 Howard. The artists there live together and have studio space and I guess they are looking into some group shows soon, too. Maybe even more of it is going on here? I don’t know yet. We’re at Day 10 in Philadelphia. But it makes me optimistic about the do’ability of it.
Collaboration is pretty damn exciting – that’s all I know. I could go on about other fun things I’ve heard about but I think you get my drift. The hard part is finding other artists are finding other artists who will actually follow through. This has been especially hard for me as non-professional. Any advice from others out there about where to look would be welcome.
And any other great stories about great group collaborations going on now would also be encouraging to hear.
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li’l larry lessig
Lawrence Lessig, digital copyright guru, Stanford Professor of Law, advocate of creativity, and chairman for creative commons, gave a talk to a bunch of artists and businesspeople over at Wits yesterday afternoon. It was really great. Most of the gist of his talk can be found here; it was about Exclusive Rights vs. non-Exclusive Rights economies, how we need both to foster creativity, and that there needs to be a space between the two, where the world can reside (and thanks to America, this is not happening… we are leaning too far to the "ER" economy). It was actually a pat on the back. Look at Joburg’s small community of bloggers (JoBlog, plankman for example) and anti-copyrighters (Christian Nerf, Aryan Kaganof for example) who both encourage re-mixing their work, and also sell their "big guns" to the likes of collectors/consumers. I, myself, have a CC blog (with loads of content – text and images – I’ve seen re-used), and also give away a lot of my software source code, video, images, etc, to any who ask… On the flipside, I use this popularity to sell works like step inside to the JAG (did I mention they bought it? First sale of a digital interactive installation in the country!) as an edition of 3, and promise NOT to copy it and distribute. It was cool to hear how cool we are. And he also said a lot of other stuff I hadn’t thought of that was pretty smart. Watch Lawrence Lessig for more – he says he posts all his content online, and for free. Oh, and also check out creative commons and ccmixter – the remix family tree. Creative commons, south africa launch party tonight, 17h30, Rosebank Hotel. Don’t miss it!
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ian waldeck, gallery @157
Aside from being a really nice guy, Ian has produced, constructed, destroyed (whatever you want to call it) a really fun and interesting show. He’s basically speaking back to the history of art in a performance of “violation and disruption,” tho I’d probably more closely relate it to a night out with friends. It feels like he’s kind of drinking wine with a few of his genius buddies, simultaneously poking fun at their processes, and borrowing from their rhythms, to ask us to look again at what we know about art theory and practice.
There was a great turn-out, an interesting performance, and a bit of the ole theory speak, too. Ian says that below is his finest creation…
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anyone at all interested in guest writing here? I’m TOTALLY into it!
There’s been so much great stuff going on in Joburg – from shows at the JAG and Muti, to Dance pieces with Robyn Orlin and viewings of work/films by Aryan Kaganof. Monna Mokoena (Gallery Momo) was even on the cover of Blink Magazine this month!
You haven’t heard from me cuz I’ve also been busy – making education-based sites, working with my students on their upcoming show, various freelance to pay the bills, and some upcoming project work with PJ Sabbagha (a dance piece – he was Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance this year) and William Kentridge (too difficult to explain, but will surely post any pictures I can as we progress).
But I hate to waste this space, and I’ve not nearly enough blogs lately! Anyone at all interested in guest blogging? I’d prefer people who are willing to write about South African art stuff, but rants and politics, whatever, even if they don’t gel with mine, are totally acceptable.
Blogging is as easy as using webmail, and posting images just like adding attachments. I can’t offer money (I have none), but it’s not that much work and can be kind of fun – my readership has averaged at about 1000 page visits per day over the last six months (more when I post more, less when I don’t)!
Any takers should contact me. I’ll carry on writing now and again, and give passwords to anyone who can promise about at least one blog / week (if I like them). No experience necessary, but opinions are a must. Obviously, whenever you post, you’ll get your name under the title, and I’ll also give you your own li’l page on my web site, with bio info, pictures, whatever you like (if you have your own site, we’ll link to that instead)….
Seriously. I’m into it.