Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Events this Week of October

Gumball Gallery


You are invited to the Grand Opening of the Gumball Gallery this Thursday, October 2nd at 5pm in the front of the Studio Arts Building. This an interactive gallery housed in a toy capsule vending machine. Artists are invited to create work for the capsules and art enthusiasts are able to purchase work from the show by inserting 4 quarters into the machine. This Grand Opening Graduate Show features work by: Andy Moeller, Kristen Necessary, Theresa Moralez, Alison Filley, Lindsey Beal, Angela Dieffenbach, and Hannah Weinman. The show will be up in the gallery for the next few weeks if you miss the opening. Also if any of you or anyone you know wants to have a show in the gallery please let me know! It will be up all year with rotating exhibitions.
thanks,
Alison



Jennifer Montgomery, "Deliver," Friday October 3 8 PM

Please join the Department of Cinema & Comparative Literature in welcoming Chicago-based filmmaker Jennifer Montgomery this coming Friday, October 3rd at 8pm in 101 Becker Communication Studies Bldg. as she screens for the first time her film DELIVER, a remake of the 1972 classic film "Deliverance," featuring an all women cast on an extreme canoe trip down the Beaverkill River in the Catskill Mountains. DELIVER has its official world premiere later this month at the Brooklyn Arts Museum, so seeing it here for the first time will be a real treat, and Jennifer will answer questions about the film following our screening.

DELIVER
Like a generation of viewers, I was profoundly affected by Deliverance. But I have always been troubled by the hegemonic structures of gender proposed by Boorman and Dickey. Hence, my version is played by women: myself, Peggy Ahwesh, Jackie Goss, Su Friedrich, and Meredith Root, all experimental filmmakers who work as academics. While faithful to our respective male characters, we also play ourselves. Provocative questions arise through these filters of similarity and difference. My film’s title, Deliver, refers to the re-birthing experience of surviving extreme physical challenges, the product-obsessed nature of the film industry, and, of course, the fact that it is only women who can, biologically, truly deliver. Unlike the Deep South setting of Deliverance, Deliver takes place in the Catskill Mountains. The group goes canoeing down a river, which is, believe it or not, called the Beaverkill. We are confronted by two local women armed with a shotgun, and one of us is sodomized. This is the moment when a seemingly simple exercise in gender inversion becomes complicated. In the original, the iconic male hillbillies’ hostility toward bourgeois men is based largely on land entitlement. Few women can claim that history of entitlement, and the Catskills are not hillbilly country. Most importantly, there is the false notion that women do not pose a sexual threat to one another. What, then, motivates this rape? At what point do we read it as an unconvincing imitation of a “real” rape? The lines between bathos and pathos become dangerously blurred. It is the aim of this film to pose critical questions about the gendering of nature, homosocial sexual violence, and the act of filmmaking itself.

Film and video artist Jennifer Montgomery has been making independent, often highly personal work for the last two decades. Her work has been featured in festivals, galleries, and biennials around the world and also has received wider theatrical release. Widely respected in both the art world and the world of experimental cinema, Montgomery’s works vary in theme and format, from formal explorations of Super-8 to experimental features in HD. She is an Assistant Professor of the Moving Image at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Reading Review

I was looking at different art blogs and found this one where someone is posting things they find and consider "new art". It really encompasses anything current going on and it quite interesting. He also has a great extensive list of books and websites to check out. 

Anyways, it was on his blog that I found this Realtime Art Manifesto. I found it interesting as I haven't really considered digital 3-d programs as a medium for artwork, instead my mind immediately goes to video games. But here they are calling at creatives to consider the technology in new ways and also reciting their own ideas about how the programs should be used creatively. To respond to this, I'll break it all down just as they have in the Manifesto. 

1. Realtime 3-D as a medium for artistic expression. 

I enjoy the idea of taking this medium that is so often used by people to get rich, and make it something creative and expressive. Especially this technology, its a completely new idea to me, perhaps I was just to ignorant to think past it's use for video games, which I have no interest in. However the statement, "the most stunning art to grace this planet so far" is a bit forward. My major is graphic design and I love working with computers to create DESIGN. But I don't always consider my design "art" because I can be trying to communicate the most simple of messages such as "sign up for this contest". Although the work can be beautiful, I think art lies more in the meaning, reflection, and analysis of things. I think digital 3-d rendering can be hard to define as art because its usually the look of things that is stunning rather than the ideas behind them. 

2. Be an Author

I really enjoy this section. I feel that they are communicating what I just tried to say about design as art. It's typically not! It often is driven by marketers and shaped in board room meetings, there's no getting around it, its a business.  But I also feel they are making an argument that for all these mediums that are so heavily driven by business, there is an artistic aspect that can be reached through a "singular vision" and "personal passion". I apply this myself once again as I think about graphic design projects in class/in the business world vs. my own projects that I choose to take on. One is sterile and driven by many outside forces, the other is driven by a personal vision and love for design. 

"ignore the critics and fanboys. make work for you audience instead". I think this is a really defining statement of their overall message. They want this medium to be taken out of the field thats trying to appeal to a group that determines success, and put in a field that appeals to a group that interprets, interacts, and appreciates. "stop making games, be an author" or in other words...stop using the medium for its typical use and create something unique, original, and thoughtful. 

Im glad they make a point of giving current video games for having artistic moments, because honestly the way they are using the technology can sometimes be absolutely incredible. 

3. Create a Total Experience

I find this section interesting in that I'm surprised there hasn't been a game that hasn't already aimed to do this...I feel like there may have been and they aren't giving credit. Maybe not in the exact same sense they are speaking, but Im sure there are video games that do their best to stimulate multiple senses and immerse the user in a new world. I guess they major departure point for video games is that there is the one element, the one goal that stands out. As opposed to what they are arguing as having every element be equally impressive and important. 

4. Embed the User in the Environment. 

" It has to feel real, not necessarily look real" ... what a challenge! It amazes me that such a medium exists. 

The idea to imitate life, not photography, games, and to aim for realism in a multi-sensory way seems so obvious for such a medium, but then again I can't think of a video game that doesn't simply strive for photo-realism...

They discuss interaction here as well. Funny that not once did this come to mind while discussing our participation reading. After all, it is participating. Although it's not in our real social sphere, it can easily be viewed as a constructed social sphere that aims for similar goals. I see a similarity in the article and this manifesto when they say "reject the body-mind duality". I felt that "Participation" addressed interaction through critical awareness, but more so encourage physical interaction, which is emphasized here as well. 

5. Reject Dehumanization: Tell Stories

This is another departure from simply using the medium as a "game". They encourage users to reject plots and embrace non-linearity. Why not? If you are using a medium where you want to create environments that resemble reality, you have to. Reality has no set plot, all of our lives are non-linear. That is why games are in fact games! They have a goal, they have set levels and a set course. I never thought of this medium having ambiguity until this manifesto. Before my mind was stuck to the idea that it was only used for games, but here its intriguing to think that it can go so many places/directions based off of a users interaction. 

Their three additional elements of drama are interesting, in that without them, the idea of having somebody participate would be de-emphasized. Not only does the creator/artist determine how things look/work within Realtime, the user/participants role is crucial to how its effective and how its interpreted. 

6. Interactivity wants to be Free

Perhaps the most interesting and intriguing aspect of this medium, according to me. It's choices and its limitlessness. There's no boundaries unless the author sets them. 

7. Don't Make Modern Art

This section is quite the statement, a bit presumptuous, and a bit too general. They completely downplay the museum, and to me, it feels like they are saying this art can save the world! People are starving for the experiences and the best way to give them these experiences is through a digitally rendered medium! You can share your vision without the use of a computer. You can connect and communicate just as well on the street as you can in a digital world. I believe there is a lot of thought involved in some artists "modern art" and to discredit that is slightly irrational and arrogant. 

8. Reject Conceptualism

Im biased here because I really enjoy conceptual things. here we go. Conceptualism is so much more than simple documentation and ideas to read about. Its often therapy or a search for something more within the artist himself. I feel they are limiting the definition of art here and ignoring the fact that sometimes its ok to allow your art to simply be something that soothes your soul rather than changes the world. 

"Go over their heads! Dominate them! Show them how its done!" .....Yikes. This scares me. 

I enjoy ideas and like making people read about them rather than saying it all in a work. It's a way of showing who you are and letting people in. 

9. Embrace Technology 

A relation to intermedia lies here as it encourages artist to use whats available. However intermedia doesn't discredit the more subtle and overlooked mediums, where as I feel these people would look at somebody who considers their creative writing art and laugh in their face. 

They also say that distribution of software is unique as it can be done over the internet ( a non -elite medium ). However there are still plenty of people who either dont have the financial abilities to access the internet or dont have the training/knowledge to know how it works. Id say it can be pretty damn elite. 

10. Develop a Punk Economy

I think it goes without saying that much of todays art has to go unfunded by government/industry funding. The amount of art that goes unwitnessed/unrecognized far outnumber the art that is being created through grants and outside financial sources. 

Cutting out the middle man is a nice thought as it leads to direct communication, but in most art forms I feel it may be impossible. 

"Do not allow institutional or economical control of your intellectual property, ideas, technology , and inventions." I think this also goes without saying. Most art would be discredited once it came to this point.



Interesting, frustrating, and eye opening article. Not quite sure how I feel yet. Sorry for writing so much. 


Monday, September 29, 2008

REMEMBER TO MEET AT MENARDS ON WEDNESDAY!!!!

Marina Abramovic and Ulay

Related to Whitney's critique, Art Torrents has a post and download of performance work by Marina Abramovic and Ulay while they were together in the 70's.

David Shrigley



















Related to Will's work that we saw tonight, these are 2 examples of David Shrigley's quiet public works. They are categorized as photographs on his website, where you can find many more wonderful examples of his work.

The Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia, PA

This is a website dedicated to a year long workshop where artists use new or unexpected materials to construct works their projects. It's also a great option if anybodies looking for continuing education opportunities.  

Damien Hirst

the artist Damien Hirst has an appearance in my first individual presentation project that you will hear tonight in class. Here are some things about him if you dont already know.

http://www.whitecube.com/artists/hirst/


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Entertainment/International_Buzz/Hirst_buys_Paris_porn_portrait/articleshow/3541728.cms

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Paco Rosic

Check out the Sistine Chapel Project located in Waterloo by Paco Rosic. Paco also has a lot of other public graffiti in the Waterloo and Cedar Rapids area.

Participatory? / Godspeed you black emperor!

I feel like it may seem that participatory/interactive art means to some that there must be an active audience performing actions set forth by the author or artist.

Is a beautiful painting not interactive? It grabs your attention and activates you, demands that you come up close, stare at it from the side, squint at a distance, bringing you into its diegesis. A film that makes you ponder its meaning for weeks later is in full interaction with your life and mind, your mind changing the movie and vice-versa. 

These are sort of abstract examples of how far away i think interaction can stray from performance.

having said this, it starts to seem that the internet is a nexus of communication, reference, and interaction and that art can be separated from its original author to be stretched, mashed, and chopped by an anonymous stranger five thousand miles away or right next door.

Thanks to the internet and its fracturing of real space, creativity is not limited to source material and there are no boundaries for exhibition, which is where I come to youtube.

I've been recently trying to find fan created video's for the band Godspeed You! Black Emperor (who are worthy of their own post.) I found this video extremely interesting and exemplary of this odd sort of interaction or involuntary collaboration, as you might call it: Godspeed You! Apocalypse Now!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Sol Lewitt

http://www.ubu.com/papers/lewitt_sentences.html

Roles: Author vs. Spectator vs. Viveur

The duty of a participatory/intermedia artist is to blur these roles together, to make them proximal and even indiscernible. When does the artist cease to be the author, and become a spectator, or do they at all? What is the difference between the two and between the viveur? Is the role of the viveur chosen or forced? How radically have these roles changed from the past?

I definitely see the bluring of these roles as the marxist revolution of art. Making it egalitarian, taking it out of the white space or financial plaza, and putting it in the hands of the people, sharing the role of viveur with the artist.

Bishop reading discussion questions

How is community participation in an artwork like starting or running a business? I was particularly interested in the three principles of activation, authorship, and community.

This is a link to Barbara Kruger's photograph's. I think her work says a lot about the spectator, who they are and how the artist can get them involved. 





Article Response

I found the whole introduction quite interesting, with beginning of Dada and performance art, introducing the idea of the public being a work of art.  They used one example of getting hundreds of people, or "actors" as they might call them, to gather and sing songs that the artists composed and directed from rooftops.

I thought this was great, but the only part I do not understand is the fact that they keep stressing trying to narrow the gap between the participants and the spectators.  Obviously everyone is not going to fall head over heels for performance art, and may even feel uncomfortable doing it.  If it's more participants they want, not spectators, then they should advertise their event more effectively.

Why do they care so much about the spectators activity level?

Participation reading response

The text mentions "on a technical level, most contemporary art is collectively produced." Do you agree with this statement?

The text mentions there are three concerns: activation, authorship, and community, which "are the most frequently cited motivations for almost all artistic attempts to encourage participation in art since the 1960s." What do you think could be a forth concern?

Here's something less about the actual reading: What do you think about the cover? What does it say to you, and how do you think it relates to the introduction?

Stealing Free Beer

Here's a really cool documentary that was featured in the IC Experimental Documentary Film Festival last semester. I think it's really interesting not only as a documentary, but also as a concept about art.


Here's the website



article response

I was baffled by the 3 concerns of artists who want to encourage particapation... activation, authorship, community. It seems stiff and controlled for such and uncontrollable medium. How is this restricted work being created with a free flowing happening vibe? I found the article a bit boring and constricted.

Article questions...

Whats the difference between simply raising a critical consciousness and having physically respond. I mean besides the obvious, ones mental, ones an actual action. If the goal is reveal social relationships/new social realities, wouldn't thought be just as powerful to one man, than action is to the other? 
(I feel like people's responses are much to subjective to say that art that actually makes people participate is any more effective...)

What does bishop mean that art created as a group has the "aesthetic benefit of greater risk"
Risk to affect people? Risk of actually creating change? Risk of getting attacked? Risk of being blamed for actions? Risk of...? 

Monday, September 22, 2008

The West Memphis Three

-This is a justice system travesty that I follow closely. Like the documentary we watched, this is an atrocity that more people need to be aware of.

My work

Well if other people are posting some of their works I guess I should include some of mine too.  It's just a thread I have going on in a forum of some of my stuff.  The site includes a lot of comic art, which is what I really like to do.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

My Blog

Okay I said i would post the link to my blog on what is going on with me right now. Take a chance and look at if you want. Here it is http://ddfbipolar.blogspot.com/

Una Love

Michael Una has technical tallent. A friend of mine introduced me to her friend Michael Una's website when I was interested in building a Theramin. Check out his man powered bicycle drum machine. He is tallented with sound and is a great circuit bending artist.

http://una-love.com/muna.html

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Sophie Calle

This weekend Ive been reading up on Sophie Calle looking for some inspiration on how Id like to present my next project. I found this article that I really enjoyed. I found it really interesting how she makes artistic. intelligent projects from traumatic situations as a way to take of herself or deal with her suffering. 

Cardboard creations

www.chrisgilmour.com

This man makes amazing things out of cardboard. I'm interested in how he uses "waste" to create something new and beautiful.

installation/drawing

-Here's a cool artist that does some amazing installation using chalk art.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Background on Critical Art Ensemble for Monday's screening

On Monday, we will be watching Lynn Hershman's documentary film, Strange Culture, which re-enacts

"the surreal nightmare of internationally-acclaimed artist and professor Steve Kurtz" "when his wife Hope died in her sleep of heart failure. Police who responded to Kurtz�s 911 call deemed Kurtz�s art suspicious and called the FBI. Within hours the artist was detained as a suspected "bioterrorist" as dozens of federal agents in Hazmat suits sifted through his work and impounded his computers, manuscripts, books, his cat, and even his wife�s body. Today Kurtz and his long-time collaborator Dr. Robert Ferrell, Professor of Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, await a trial date."

Kurtz is a founding member of Critical Art Ensemble.
For more information about this case and others like it see The Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund


Especially for those of you who mention Hunter S. Thompson

You all know about this Bijou film screening this weekend right?

GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON
Directed by Alex Gibney
USA, 2008, 118 min | English

Few journalists have become veritable legends like Hunter S. Thompson. With his outrageous "gonzo" journalism, his unrelenting search for truth, and a universe of drugs, Thompson has blazed a very bright trail through American culture. This documentary explores the life of a man whose daring voice challenged the establishment, while often repelling some of the people closest to him. Johnny Depp (FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS), an actor forging his own unusual legacy, reads some of Thompson's work aloud with a sense of understanding and irony so deep, one wonders if Thompson's spirit will ever really die.

SHOWTIMES
Friday, September 19: 5:00, 7:15, 9:30
Saturday, September 20: 1:00, 3:15, 5:25, 7:35, 9:45
Sunday, September 21: 1:00, 3:15, 5:25, 7:35, 9:45

Right now the Bijou is only screening films on the weekends. Check their site for their temporary location (it can be found in our Links list).

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Umm yeah...

Most of you have probably figured out that I haven't been attending class, I am sorry but I have been ill and I had to take a medical leave of absence. Sorry to my sound project buddies. I am working on a blog about what is going on with me and about my illnesses. I will post a link within a couple days for it.

As for my post, this group isn't about sound so much but about performance and activist work/art. The group is Food Not Bombs. It's more of a movement than a group because each group is autonomous and independent. But the philosophy is take waste (food that is unsellable[like food that has cosmetic issues] but is still fine to consume.) With the food, a group takes it and cooks it for people that are hungry (not poor but to anyone who is hungry). It's kind of like a anarchist soup kitchen. The most famous group is San Francisco Food Not Bombs because that is were this all started. I have been a part of Twin Cities (I help them restart a couple years ago), Des Moines, and Omaha Food Not Bombs. Actually Food Not Bombs is one of the few activist movements that I still support from my activist days. Visit the webpage, they can explain is more than I can. www.foodnotbombs.net/

music video for LIARS

this is a music video by a favorite band of mine. Its just a cool viedo, nothing more. The band is composed of three men, two of whom LA art school photography drop uots. With the release of the LP for this album each member directed one video for one of their songs. Here is the first track of the alum, video directed by the singer Angus Andrews.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbFXb_qNgCU

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Intermedia 2 sound project

Sorry i missed class the other day guys. Anyway, i am working solo on this sound project. I have always been fascinated by sensory memory. The sounds, tastes, textures, sights and smells that instantly trigger embedded memories and feelings. I am going to use a very violent sound looped for my project. Breaking glass. The sound makes a multitude of memories jump out of my head. The disconfiguration and distruction of a fragile and elegant material can sometimes be violent or visciral. I want to create almost a wind chime effect. we shal see.

Also, i think everyone should check out thomas campbel's work online. He is an instalation artist, a musician and a label executive, but i am most interested in his little studio worlds. Just check him out through google.

Filmmakers + Musicians + Local = HOME MOVIES


HOME MOVIES brings local filmmakers and musicians together for a mind-bending evening of collaborative sight and sound.

We’re pleased to announce the return of HOME MOVIES to the Picador, in anticipation of the 2008 Iowa City Experimental Film Festival.

Local Filmmakers, you provide the IMAGES: Bring a roll or two of 8mm or 16mm film, or 5 – 10 minutes of silent video to the event and have it scored live, on-the-spot by the areas best musicians.

Local Musicians and Artists, you provide the stunning SOUNDS!

When: Tuesday - October 7, 2008 at 10 PM

Where: The Picador (Washington & Gilbert)

Event is free and open to the public.
Donations at the door support the Iowa City Experimental Film Festival.

If you’re interested in participating, contact ICE at info@icefilmfest.org or chris@thepicador.com

Let's Paint TV

think you can juggle multiple tasks together. This is what Lets Paint TV. I found out about Lets Paint TV when I heard about a former friend who now lives in L.A. performing on the show. It is a blend of all kinds of fun. check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvbL_5rH1QQ

Monday, September 15, 2008

FUKT

FUKT is a magazine. FUKT collects contemporary drawing artists.
enjoy!

http://www.fukt.de/

Burning Man

Im sure some of you have heard of Burning Man, but I thought I would mention it.

It's a huge gathering of people in the desert of Nevada around massive art installations, situational art, and the burning of those art installations. I'm planning on submitting a proposal for a piece for next year's burn.

Burning Man wiki-entry


Burning Man on youTube

Amateur and Professional Artists

DeviantArt is an incredible website full of talent with numerous categories of art.  I'm more of a 'traditional art' kind of guy, but it also includes photography, digital art, films, crafts and other stuff, both from beginners, professionals and everyone in between.

Water in NYC

i don't want to bring back any bad memories of the flood with this post but i think it is a great idea, especially in such a large city!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

wonderful waves

YOUR SOUND ALTERNATIVE... KRUI has had a turn due to the flood of 2008, as we all have. The studio is up and running again in a new location in the Quad Dorm. As a DJ (8:00-10:00 sunday nights) I assure you all is happening at your University's student run radio. It constantly needs support from you the listeners, so just thought I would let you all know you should be a listener if you already aren't and keep rockin.

http://kruiradio.org/

we have a lot of great musical act hitting Iowa City near the month of October/November and KRUI is giving out tickets to listeners constantly, keep tuned!

to write love...

To Write Love On Her Arms
-this is an excellent(mostly online) organization that uses art to promote suicide awareness and prevention for teenagers and young adults

Friday, September 12, 2008

the art of noise

"the art of noise" is a book written by luigi russolo; a futurist artist and one of the first to propose a theory on sound art. if anyone knows anything about this artist let me know... i just came across him.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Always Sunny In Philadelphia

I'm sure some of you have heard of the show. This is the intro to the new season. Maybe not the most insanely creative thing, nonetheless its well put together and pretty entertaining. 

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Private Installations, Performances for one person

Will mentioned the concept of intimate settings for quiet projects or private performances.

Leslie Hill and Helen Paris, who call their work C U R I O U S, did a project called On The Scent about smell and memory, in which they invited small groups into an intimate setting.

Lee Walton's project Hillary Wiedemann:Living Record is a public performance witnessed only by one person.

Land of the Free

In addition to artists mentioned in the presentations who work with photography, Steve Schofield also does interesting socio-cultural work. Land of the Free is a humorous and eerie series of photographs.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

My first post

I'm a blogging under achiever, always have been. Hopefully I can overcome this problem with practice and persistent class probing.

Here are some of my favorite artist inspirations and things that I find to be interesting.

Martin Parr photographs the everyday in a particularly hilarious way.
http://www.martinparr.com/index1.html


This is a webpage from Tate Modren that explains Sophie Calles work.
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/artnow/sophiecalle/default.shtm

These are quotes from Alain de Botton, my favorite author.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/alain_de_botton.html

More to come.





Events this Week

Here are some events happening this week (and would be appropriate material for your required review). If you know of other art events going on, feel free to post.

Friday Sept. 12 Bill Viola at the Des Moines Art Center

and also in Des Moines on the same night ( I copied this from Van's blog and put it on ours):


Resident Artists are please to present Low Brow Elite, a new show featuring a collection of up and coming local artists working outside the realm of the inside art world. Low brow art is usually used to describe an underground movement. What starts out as a movement becomes a trend and then somehow loses its purity or becomes sold out. Resident artists beg the question: If this is art for the people, why are you trying to put it on a pedestal?

Resident Artists: Low Brow Elite
September 12, 2008 - 5:30-8:30 PM
Gateway Lofts -1719 Grand Ave. Des Moines, IA
Featuring The artwork of
Michelle Holley, Kyle Thye, Cat Rocketship, Alex Kuno, Patrick Cooney, Cool Aid, Chip
and collaboration work by Brent Houzenga and Van Holmgren
Sculpture by Annick Ibsen
Music by Scented Vinyl, Lindsay Donovan and The HoneyBees
FREE
Also Available to view by appointment.
Oxymoron Afterparty at Vaudeville Mews Featuring live painting all night by resident artists and musical performances by
Gaiden Gadema, Cleo’s Apartment, The HoneyBees, Lindsay Donovan and Hold For Swank
Doors at 9
$5
Come to the opening at the Gateway Lofts and learn how to get into the after party for free
Sponsored by Gateway Lofts and Gateway Market


Sunday Sept 14 59 second Video Festival 7pm in Schaffer Hall (highly recommended!!)

Monday, September 8, 2008

Installation

This is Tracy Emin's "The Bed", an installation piece that won her the 1999 Turner Prize. It is the actual bed, carpet, empty liquor bottles, dirty clothes, and used condoms from the period of time of her nervous breakdown where she spent several weeks in that bed. This piece, and most of Emin's pieces have the type of sometimes self-destructive honesty I hope to inject into my own work.

ARTIST INTRODUCTION//

CHECK VANHOLMGREN (ME) OUT

THANKS AND STUFF, I'LL SHOW THIS IN CLASS

Sunday, September 7, 2008

whoopsie doodles

hi all, sorry it took me awhile to get on here and post, Mediacom is the devil and we haven't had internet at my place for going on the 10th day, but that's besides point:

Alex Grey  - a visionary artist based out of New York. Most know him as a painter, but his performances and installations are NUTS.

Matthew Barney - a self-ascribed "sculptor" that works in just about every medium possible. he's made several extremely high budget experimental films in a series called "The Cremaster Cycle," which are extremely eerie, but also does a lot of work with movement drawings or having himself restrained as he tries to draw, resulting in the "sculpture."

Alejandro Jodorowsky - he is a director, playwright, actor, mime, tarot reader, comic-book writer, composer, and a psychotherapist. Check out El Topo or The Holy Mountain, you might not be able to sit through the later without either crying, walking out, or going insane.

James Turrell and Dan Flavin - these two inspire me from the same place, but in totally different scales. i really enjoying the utter-manipulating of space, especially white gallery space, by only a couple fluorescent lights or a window on the ceiling. minimalist approaches to turning one's perceptions upside down.


William Wegman
-Here's a video artist that I really like. He uses dogs...

Friday, September 5, 2008

some links

I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to be posting on this blog. Is it links?

Here you go then:

Gabriel Orozco's "Home Run" - Orozco placed objects on the windows of apartments across the street from NY's Museum of Modern Art.

No RNC Posters - For those that might dabble in politics, this seems appropriate since the RNC is going on.

Nam June Paik's Official Site - Korean video artist that passed away in 2006, worked with a lot of TV monitors.

Yukister.com - Regular people's art is what gives me the most inspiration. The link is to Yuki Nakano's website, not a "gallery artist" or anything, but she's cool regardless. Works with fotography & illustrations, often blending the two.

BUT, my favorite site for when I've got "artist block" or need ideas for projects is this: Learning To Love You More. I'm sure a lot of you have seen it before. It's neat, I highly recommend it.

I hope this is what I'm supposed to be posting. I don't know, I'm confused maybe. Have a good weekend, see you guys in class next week!

-Alina

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

intermedia intermedia, japanese intermedia

wow, a new artist.
Takagi Masakatsu is a japanese artist. he works in sound, mostly minimalism, and creates these amazing videos. Come check them out at his website; http://takagimasakatsu.com/

Ian

intermedia

There are many intermedia involved artists whom I admire. Here are just a few. As the semester goes on, and after I do my presentation some may see why they are important to me. Many of them are sound based, or musical.

Here is a link to a youtube video surveying a instillation by David Byrne (talking heads) in 2008 in New York.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1D30gS7Z8U

Here is a link for the French art collective SHOBOSHOBO. This is an interesting group and their visual work I enjoy, however it is hit or miss.

http://www.shoboshobo.com/

PAPER RAD. Like shoboshobo, a collection of artists linked visually. They put out interesting books of visual collections and the participants are also heavily involved in contemporary sound and noise.

http://www.paperrad.org/

The contemporary genre, "FUTURE SHOCK" can be found with these visual/audio artists. Wham City was the starting place for people like; Dan Deacon, VIDEOHIPPOS, Killer Whales, Ed Schrader, the Blue Leader, Jimmy Joe Roche, etc.

http://www.whamcity.com/

Last but not least. I love the group Lightning Bolt. I also love contemporary noise music, also to make noise, as you will see. Brian Chippendale is a favorite musician and visual artist of mine. As well John Dwyer, Leifgoldberg, many more.

here is the Fort thunder collective myspace page;
http://www.myspace.com/fortthunderprovidence

here is the Lightning Bolt Webpage;
http://laserbeast.com/

thanks peoples

p.s.
last thing, Dan Attoe who attended the University of Iowa is an amazing painter, and istillation artist. Here is the website for Western Exhibitions, a group he works with;

http://www.westernexhibitions.com/

thanks again

A lovely buffet of influence.

Here are some of my favorite intermedia artist of all time.
-Ray Johnson- Mail Art- "How to Draw a Bunny"
-Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin- http://www.ubu.com/film/hoffman.html
-Andy Warhol
-Oscar Wilde-
“One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.”
(http://thinkexist.com/quotation/one_should_either_be_a_work_of_art-or_wear_a_work/153890.html)

Most of these artist are performance based, which is what I prefer. But when one becomes a work of art, that is what i love.