Northern Spark Channel
More than 20 videos of your favorite venues and projects.
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Contributed by participants. Add new links in the comments section.
Written by mediachef
More than 20 videos of your favorite venues and projects.
Contributed by participants. Add new links in the comments section.
Written by mediachef
More than 20 videos of your favorite venues and projects.
Contributed by participants. Add new links in the comments section.
Written by mediachef
Walker Art Center, Northern Spark 2012 from Northern Spark on Vimeo.
mnartists.org, Drawing NIGHTclub
Acoustic Campfire + Bedtime Stories, Brian Laidlaw
Scott Sayre and Vanessa Voskuil, Midnight Padhandling
Videographers: Nolan Morice, Tricia Towey
Editor: Brennan Vance
Written by mediachef
Ben and Elizabeth Johnson, PixelTron 150, Northern Spark 2012 from Northern Spark on Vimeo.
Ben Johnson and Elizabeth Johnson, PixelTron150
Videographers: Allison Osberg, Nolan Morice, Brennan Vance
Editor: Brennan Vance
Written by mediachef
Jackie Beckey, Psychedelic Art Parade, Northern Spark 2012 from Northern Spark on Vimeo.
Jackie Beckey, Psychedelic Art Parade
Videographers: Allison Osberg, Tricia Towey, Tom Johnson, Nolan Morice, Gus Ganley, Brennan Vance
Editor: Brennan Vance
Written by mediachef
Annicha Arts, In Habit: Living Patterns, Northern Spark 2012 from Northern Spark on Vimeo.
Aniccha Arts, In Habit: Living Patterns
Videographers: Allsion Osberg, Tricia Towey, Brennan Vance
Editor: Brennan Vance
Written by mediachef
Michael Murnane, Under Ice, Northern Spark 2012 from Northern Spark on Vimeo.
Michael Murnane, Under Ice
Videographers: Allison Osberg, Tricia Towey, Tom Johnson, Nolan Morice, Gus Ganley, Brennan Vance
Editor: Brennan Vance
Written by mediachef
Rosemary Williams, Mom’s Cookies, Northern Spark 2012 from Northern Spark on Vimeo.
Rosemary Williams, Mom’s Cookies
Videographers: Allison Osberg, Tricia Towey, Tom Johnson, Nolan Morice, Gus Ganley, Brennan Vance
Editor: Brennan Vance
Written by mediachef
The Foshay and Target South Tower, Northern Spark 2012 from Northern Spark on Vimeo.
Eunsu Kang and Diana Garcia-Snyder, Shin’m Pinata
Jim Campbell, Material World
Caly McMorrow, Observation Tape Deck
Videographers: Nolan Morice, Brennan Vance
Editor: Brennan Vance
Written by mediachef
Weisman Art Museum, Northern Spark 2012 from Northern Spark on Vimeo.
Tetsuaya Yamada and Clive Murphy, Pizza/Calliope
Diane Willow, Tuning the Sky
Bell Museum, Capturing the Night
Raptor Center, All About Owls
Weisman Art Museum, Night Vision Tours: All Will Be Illuminated
Jenny Schmid, Drew Anderson and MAW, nightdemons
Videographer:: Tom Johnson
Editor:: Brennan Vance
Written by mediachef
Stone Arch Bridge and Mill Ruins Park, Northern Spark 2012 from Northern Spark on Vimeo.
Robin Schwartzman, THINK AND WONDER, WONDER AND THINK
David Rueter, The Kuramoto Model (1,000 Fireflies)
Wil Natzel, Night Blooms
Lauren McCarthy and David Wicks, Bumps in the Night
Videographers:
Allison Osberg, Tricia Towey, Tom Johnson, Nolan Morice, Gus Ganley, Brennan Vance
Editor:
Brennan Vance
Written by mediachef
Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak kicked off Northern Spark with a rousing call to the night and the virtues of Minneapolis.
Written by Steve Dietz
Saturday I had the opportunity to see a work-in-progress performance of Aniccha Arts’ In Habit: Living Patterns, which will be performed at Northern Spark. Pramila Vasudevan, the founder and artistic director of Aniccha Arts, was an early Art(ists) On the Verge fellow, and I have seen many of her performances over the years. For In Habit, Pramila brought in Piotr Szyhalski in an accustomed but nevertheless new role for him as director for another artist’s work. Jon Keston returns for another tour-de-force sound composition, and the entire crew and all the performers are amazing. The program is stellar and should be a highlight of Northern Spark.
Check out Pramila and Piotr on this video trailer by our new intern Tricia Towey, who will be doing regular progress reports on artists’ work for the next 59 days. And speaking of just days to go, support Aniccha Arts’ Kickstarter project.
Written by mediachef
One of the highlights of the symposium “Discourse and Discord: Architecture of Agonism from the Kitchen Table to the City Street” is the chance to experience some of my favorite artist-theorist-architect-programmer-activist friends engage in agonistic embrace on stage at the Walker. Here is the opening salvo (not to be confused with Di-Salvo).
How should I explain the idea of agonism to my neighbor across the street?
Warren Sack: “Agonism” is the ancient Greek word for a contest with a prize. In the sense we are using it, is a way of understanding life and politics as a game or contest.
Marisa Jahn: My neighbors do in fact ask me what agonism is. But then I like to throw it back on them. I say, “ok, let’s play a game. When I say agonism, you say…” I’ve gotten all sorts of answers. One person said, “Paradise Lost.” Lucifer wrestling the angels. A physiologist responded that the agonist is a contracting muscle; the antagonist is the muscle that returns the limb to its natural state. A techie person was reminded of the symbiotic relationship between the fig wasp and the sycamore tree. A musician likened agonism to noise. As in, harmony is control, order. Noise is the sum of sounds; it fluctuates between harmony and cacaphony. Noise is difference, polyphony, epistemological and political pluralism.
Mark Shepard: I don’t think you should explain agonism to your neighbor – better to enact it through engaging her – with empathy and respect – on an issue you disagree.
Carl Skelton: There is a variant of agonism, which most people think of as how open-source software happens: an idea gets proposed in an initial form to the widest possible group. Of the many who find fault with it, a small minority will actually propose an improvement, which is then subjected to the same process, except that the original proponent gets to weigh in as a critic. Anybody who cares enough to keep the idea moving owns it. Over time, competing variants and improvements are adopted and discarded by ad hoc groups which themselves persist, peter out or mutate over time.
Carl DiSalvo: Agonism is the truth that your neighbor already knows – legislation doesn’t *solve* anything, the conflicts continue regardless, it’s just the nature of politics.
How does agonism express itself in your practice as an artist?
Marisa: If agonism merely describes a condition in the world, then expressing agonism through artwork in fact paints reality more aptly and with greater complexity. Agon makes things fun! Agonistic art practices “work” by coming in through the backdoor to solve problems and intrigue using a different kind of logic.
Carl D: My practice is about creating spaces for an agonistic pluralism to flourish, for creating spaces where we can participate in conflicting values and practices towards the composition of new social conditions and structures.
Mark: As an artist I maintain an agonistic relationship to the discipline of architecture. My work exploits the tensions between architecture and media art with respect to how space is conceived, constructed, organized and interpreted within technologically mediated environments.
Warren: Much of my work as an artist is concerned with politics and publics, and I consider what would it mean to make political metaphors material. For example, we talk about debates as though they are scored like boxing or wrestling contests, but of course they are not. What would happen if we devised a scoring system for debates?
Carl S: Nothing ever gets finished, but you never run out of room for improvement.
We’re clearly living in a fractious time. How can agonism help us?
Carl D: Like any theory, agonism is a tool to think with. So it gives us a way to understand what we mean when we use terms like democracy and politics. From this, we might begin not just “think about” but also “do” democracy differently.
Marisa: Paying attention to agonism helps us reframe how we see struggle. Instead of regarding it as a symptom of a bad or messy or contentious situation, we can instead see agonism as a symptom of an environment that is strong enough to withstand difference and adversity.
Warren: As many theorists have pointed out, our culture is increasingly “gamified.” People tend to think of many everyday actions as moves in a game. For instance, what does it mean “to make a move,” “to make a play,” “to play around,” “to call someone a loser”? If indeed, all the world’s a game and all the men and women merely players, then what is this game we are playing and how could it be otherwise?
Mark: One would hope that agonism offers a way to come to terms with extreme ideological differences – not resolving them, but at least making the debate more tolerable.
How do we foster a space for dissensus, critical dialogue, and debate?
Marisa: Promote and commit to diversity! This may mean doing the work to figure out how you are going to outreach to people from a different point of view or ilk, subjecting ourselves to uncomfortable situations; and building conditions to foster a sense of tolerance and difference. Listen to who’s not speaking and see why not; create a space where this differential is foregrounded. Understand that you can hold difference; understand when compromise sacrifices particular points of view and when compromise strengthens alliances.
What are you most looking forward to about the Discourse and Discord symposium?
Carl D: The opportunity to have these conversations in public, and to disagree about them.
Mark: The opportunity to encounter and test different ideas on agonism through the various formats planned.
Carl S: The chance to try a few things I’ve been working on, and to find out what might be possible in re-making Hennepin avenue, which seems to have a lot in common with a lot of other urban environments that need some love in North America and Europe.
An Introduction to Agonism: Volume 1
An Introduction to Agonism: Volume 2
Discourse and Discord: Architecture of Agonism from the Kitchen Table to the City Street
Pro+agonist: The Art of Opposition (download)
Written by mediachef
Check out this Kickstarter campaign for a film by Rosemary Williams about Rosemary Williams starring Rosemary Williams.
Rosemary Williams is also cooking up a storm with her Mom’s Cookies projection for Northern Spark.