Movie flats set sculpture?

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Sculpture near "movie flats," on road to Mt. Whitney portal from Lone Pine, CA

Saw this sculpture along the road to Mt. Whitney, right next to “Movie Flats” in the Alabama Hills outside Lone Pine, CA.

“Since 1920 hundreds of movies and TV episodes, including Gunga Din, How the West Was Won, Kyhber Rifles, Bengal Lancers, and High Sierra along with the Lone Ranger and Bonanza with such stars as Tom Mix, Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers, Gary Cooper, Glenn Ford, Humphry Bogart, and John Wayne have been filmed in these rugged Alabama Hills with their majestic Sierra Nevada background.”

And some “street art” also in the same area.

"Street art," Movie Flats, Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, CA

Alabama Hills and Owens Lake (dry) from Mt. Whitney near Lone Pine Lake (2,900 m)

Minneapolis riverfront design competition

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RFQ submission deadline: 13 October 2010

Description: Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) and Minneapolis Parks Foundation, along with creative partners The University of Minnesota College of Design and Walker Art Center, are sponsoring a design competition addressing Minneapolis’ Upper Riverfront, the area extending from the Stone Arch Bridge to Minneapolis’ northern city limits, along both sides of the Mississippi River. This project builds on the MPRB award-winning 2000 master plan and is the first demonstration project of The Minneapolis Parks Foundation’s “Next Generation of Parks”—a design-driven vision for a 21st century park system.

The competition will investigate new opportunities for connectivity, sustainability, infrastructure and public space along the upper riverfront and extending into the surrounding neighborhoods.

The competition encourages a comprehensive, integrated approach to evaluating the larger river/park system, creating a vision that:

  • Establishes parks as the engine for economic development along the river;
  • Knits both sides of the riverfront together with their surrounding communities, thereby transforming the river from a barrier to a connector;
  • Re-focuses the city toward one of the three great rivers of the world—the Fourth Coast of the U.S.—an extraordinary environmental amenity that defines Minneapolis’ civic identity, past, present and future.

Awards: Four teams will be short-listed and awarded $30,000 for design and travel. Winning team will be awarded a commission.

Website: http://MinneapolisRiverfrontDesignCompetition.com

Contact:
Mary deLaittre, Project Manager
Minneapolis Riverfront Design Competition
http://minneapolisriverfrontdesigncompetition.com

Today’s question – What is your dream for the future?

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"Hello world, goodbye San Jose," from Christopher Baker, offscript, 300 Santana Row, San Jose, CA Today's question - What is your dream for the future? Commissioned by ZER01 for the 01SJ Biennial

I’m heading home after an amazing 01SJ Biennial. What should I see on the way?

What should I see on the way?

AOV2 artists featured at SPARK Festival

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Today, the SPARK Festival of Electronic Music and Arts, directed by Ali Momeni, announced the line up for its 2010, 8th annual edition.

“Minneapolis, MN (09/02/2010) — The University of Minnesota’s West Bank Arts Quarter will present the eighth annual SPARK Festival of Electronic Music & Arts, Wednesday, September 29 through Saturday, October 2, 2010. SPARK will present a significant portion of its programming in the historic and iconic “Love Power Church” building at 1407 Washington Avenue, in addition to numerous venues within the University’s West Bank Arts Quarter. A complete schedule can be found at www.sparkfestival.org.”

In addition to the extensive music programming, SPARK 2010 will present new commissioned works by grantees of the Art(ists) on the Verge 2 program by Northern Lights.mn: Arlene Birt, Kyle Phillips, Tyler Stefanich, and tectonic industries will premiere their new media installation works at the University of Minnesota’s Regis Center for Art.

SPARK will also host the URBAN CARAVAN Bicycle Tour; a mobile media project by Minneapolis Art on Wheels artists, Andrea Steudel – an AOV 1 grantee – and Luke Anderson. This work is distinguished as a Forecast Public Art’s Public Project.

“The SPARK Festival is a week-long celebration of the latest electronic music and arts, featuring fresh works created by artists from around the globe— The United States, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. SPARK brings internationally recognized scholars and performers of electronic music and arts to the West Bank Arts Quarter for lectures, performances, and master classes. Other festival highlights include presentations by artists on their works and ideas, video and sound installations, guerrilla-style events throughout the University’s West Bank Arts Quarter and expanding to other venues including the Love Power Church and the 1419 Artist Collective.

“This year’s featured composers/performers include multi-instrumentalist, composer and improviser FRED FRITH, London-based electronic duo FURT, Montreal-based composer/ performer group KLAXON GUEULE and Chicago-based trio FRICTION BROTHERS. This year’s Night Life programming includes DroidBehaivior, techno-master MOE ESPINOZA (DRUMCELL), Los Angeles-based electro-duo Vangelis and Vidal Vargas, Danish electronics recycler Mikkel Meyer and dub-step warrior Puzzleweasel.

“The opening reception, concert and exhibition event will take place on Thursday September 30 at 5pm in the Regis Center for Art’s Quarter Gallery. For an up-to-date schedule of SPARK events, visit www.sparkfestival.org. Photographs available upon request. E-mail photo requests to mbalhorn@macalester.edu.”

01SJ Biennial

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San Jose, California, is the 10th largest city in the United States. Surprisingly, it is not necessarily on everyone’s top 10 list of places to visit. If, however, you have even a passing interest in contemporary art, in particular the ways it intersects with contemporary (digital) culture and technology, San Jose is the place to be for the next two weeks.

Admittedly, as the current Artistic Director of the 01SJ Biennial I may not be an entirely unbiased voice in this matter, but let me share 10 reasons you should come to San Jose for 01SJ, September 16-19, and see at least some of 100 art installations, 46 commissioned works, 9 exhibitions, 20 workshops, 12 public artworks, 4 urban games, 1 drive-in movie theater, a nighttime street fair, a green prix of eco-locomotion, an epicurean multi-media dinner, a requiem mass for fossil fuels, audio ballerinas and robotic sitars, musical performances, operas, and more.

1. Largest DIY garage in the world

1. Largest DIY garage in the world

I don’t know if it really is the largest "garage" in the world, but Out of the Garage, Into the World takes place in the 80,000 sqaure feet (7,432 square meters) South Hall of the San Jose Convention Center. Essentially a domed parking lot, for two weeks, beginning September 4, 01sj.org/art/out-of-the-garage/ will publicly build their projects in and around a scaffolding structure designed by Madrid-based architect Angel Borrego Cubero. The projects run the gamut from a book-making workshop by Guggenheim fellow Monica Haller for war veterans the Eyebeam Roadshow to a contemporary hurache workshop by Pilar Aguero-Esparza and Hector Dionicio Mendoza to mobile archipelagos by Nova Jiang to a zipline "xAirport" wearing innovative wing designs over an artificial marsh "ark" for endangered frogs by Natalie Jeremijenko to public orchards, DIY solar sculptures , gift horses, i-weather, pirate radio, and much more . The entire "garage" is serviced by a full tech shop with laser cutters, CNC mills, shop bots, and industrial sewing machines.

Come often to see these works-in-progress September 4-14, admission is free, and only $5 for multiple visits September 16-19.

2. “Drive in” trip out

2. “Drive in“ trip out

As part of Out of the Garage, Into the World, artists Todd Chandler and Jeff Stark and cohorts will be constructing Empire Drive-In, a full-scale drive in theater using salvaged materials, including the cars for seating. There will be a daily film program and nightly live cinema performances such as Chandler and Dark Dark Dark’s Flood Tide Remixed, Graham Weinbren’s 50 Letters, Stephanie Rothenberg’s Second Life talk show Best Practices in Banana Time, Zoe Keating’s remarkable cello in collaboration with Robert Hodgin’s visuals on Into the Trees, the California premiere of Rick Prelinger’s latest archive mash up The Lives of Energy, Sheepwoman by SUE-C & Laetitia Sonami, and a series of telematic performances, Domain, curated by Rhizome’s John Michael Boling, by Jeremy Bailey, Petra Cortright, Constant Dullaart, and JODI.

3. Art in the streets

3. Art in the streets

Art is not just in the garage and theaters and galleries at 01SJ, it is also in the streets, everywhere. Luke Jerram’s acclaimed Play Me I’m Yours has 20 pianos throughout San Jose, which anyone can play – and decorate. Rigo 23 is producing a newly commissioned video projection, Oglala Oyate: Sister City for a Better Future. Chris Baker’s interactive projection, 01sj.org/2010/artworks/offscript/, will play nightly at Santana Row . Yung-ta Chang’s Signal Flow, in a nod to San Jose’s radio history, will greet visitors to South Hall along with Sabrina Raaf’s Meandering RIver. A half dozen works have been commissioned by the San Jose Public Art Program for 01SJ, and Chico MacMurtrie’s Inflatable Architectural Growth will expand on 1st Street during AbsoluteZER0 and the Green Prix.

4. City Hall reacts

4. City Hall reacts

Each Biennial San Jose’s Richard Meier-designed City Hall has been the canvas for a major public art commission. On Thursdsay, September 16, duirng the 01SJ Opening Ceremonies, the Rockwell Group LAB will power up Plug-in-Play, an interactive projection, which suggests a new type of environment where social interactions, citizenship, and personal activities are more dynamically reflected. Inside the City Hall Rotunda, Ken Gregory will present his sound sculpture, wind coil sound flow . During opening ceremonies, Benoit Maubrey and Ballet San Jose will perform Audio Ballerinas.

5. AbsoluteZER0

5. AbsoluteZER0

Now an annual event, AbsoluteZER0 is a vibrant street festival where the public can engage with art, music, science, and technology in new and compelling ways outside on city streets. From an Art Ark to CITY/SPACE/SHARE, a pilot project out of CCA intended to revitalize vacant storefronts and transform urban activity in the City Center of San Jose to Marcus Young’s solo dance program Can’t You Feel It Too? to Steven White’s two-person Ferris Wheel, Over the Top, AbsoluteZER0 is an event not to be missed.

6. Play in the streets

6. Play in the streets

"Go play in the streets" is not just something your mean uncle said. At 01SJ it is a new strand of programming where artists use the city itself as a playground for "serious play." The world premiere of Blast Theory’s A Machine to See With is co-commissioned with the The Banff Centre, and Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Initiative. It mixes documentary material, stolen thriller cliches, and the films of Jean-Luc Godard and invites you to become someone else. Step inside a film as you walk through the city, receiving phone calls. Are you the protagonist or a bit part player? Start making decisions and you will find out. Participation slots are limited, and you can buy tickets ($12) here. You can also become a Zoropathian or participate in an EST-like seminar, LevelFive in commissioned projecs by Ken Eklund and Annette Mees and Brody Condon. And don’t forget to transform your favorite hoodie for an interactive game of zombie tag during AbsoluteZER0.

7. Artful eco-motion – the Green Prix

7. Artful eco-motion - the Green Prix

The Green Prix is a parade and all day festival of sustainable, ecological friendly, and fun modes of transportation—artful “eco-motion.” It will include and Aeolian Bike Ride, Art Bikes, a burlap 1964 Ford, a Gift Horse, Maria del Camino, a video game concept car , a mechanical elephant on wheels , solar cars and much more. And It is open for EVERYONE: artists, designers, families, schools, and anyone else who has or wants to create a new mode of sustainable transportation. It is your opportunity to create, participate in, and cheer on innovative projects related to eco-themed transportation. So break out your banana-bikes, self-propelled jet packs, soapboxes, and solar cars to come out and strut your stuff in front of a cheering audience. The Green Prix Parade will begin at 11:00 am on Saturday, September 18th. It’s not too late to register here . The Green Prix culminates in a special mass by O+A at St. Joseph’s Cathedral, Requiem for fossil fuels.

8. After midnight

8. After midnight

During 01SJ, San Jose will be a 24/7 city. Three midnight concerts by contemporary sound artists curatd by artist and musician Stephen Vitiello will take place on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night at midnight inside one of San Jose’s historic venues, Trinity Cathedral. untitled composition for piano, field recordings, sine waves by Olivia Block, Possible Landscape (for Donald Judd) by Steve Roden, and Untitled by Stephen Vitiello and Molly Berg . For other nighttime events check out the live cinema at Empire Drive-In, Randall Packer’s multimedia opera A Season in Hell , and KarmetIK’s symbiotic Robotic/Human Ensemble in collaboration with Abhinaya Dance Company.

9. Workshops and artist talks

At the heart of 01SJ is the artists, of course, and many of them will be participating in an artist talk series beginning Tuesday, September7, through Sunday, September 19. The full schedule is here. And you can do more than listen to many of the artists, as enlightening as that can be. Many are offering hands-on workshops open to the public from a barn raising to a biodiesel bus tour of San Jose’s urban orchards and farms to DIY solar sculptures to a youth workshop on future sounds to Imaginary Airforce Flight Attendant Training and much more. The complete listing of workshops is here.

10. Help 01SJ to continue

The 01SJ Biennial is one of very few similar events in North America. ZER01 receives very little support from government sources, unlike similar events in Europe, South America, and Asia. Help this important event to continue by chipping in whatever you can. Every $5 helps. Donate here.

Above all, come and visit. Tickets are online here.

See you in San Jose @01SJ.

Auctions speak louder than words

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Futurefarmers, Auctions speak Louder than words on Vimeo.

On Saturday (September 4), Futurefarmers will present (perform) Auctions Speak Louder Than Words, the culminating event of their month-long residency A People Without a Voice Cannot Be Heard. Bring your stories – and 3 objects.

Here is how it works:

Objects on Blankets

11 am–1 pm
Futurefarmers invite us to consider what our possessions say about us in this unusual auction. Bring a blanket and three objects from home and spread out on the Field prepared to share a story with others. Throughout the morning, Futurefarmers will collect these stories as special “vocal” guests roam the field.

Auction and Drawing

1–2 pm
An auction commences where you may be invited to have professional auctioneers Glen and Dale Fladeboe auction one of your objects by retelling your story in their own inimitable voice. Futurefarmers will be making interpretive drawings of the selected auctioned objects and the owner of the object can choose which to keep—drawing or object—and which one is awarded to the winning bidder.

Sign up for LARP “LevelFive”

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What

LevelFive is a live role-playing event organized by the artist Brody Condon, which is focused on critically exploring self-actualization seminars from the 1970s. The 3 day physically and psychologically participatory performance will loosely follow the structure of early Large Group Awareness Training sessions like Erhard Seminars Training, but it is not a re-enactment.

[clip from “Century of the Self” by Adam Curtis, LevelFive inspiration.]

This open-ended live role-playing environment with up to 75 players will provide a space in which players are free to explore self-actualization issues with varying degrees of personal intensity, but via an alibi or fabricated character. Players from the LARP, experimental theater, academic, and performance art communities are encouraged to participate.

When/Where

LevelFive will be organized twice: At the Hammer Museum of Art in Los Angeles on September 3-5, 2010 (50 spots); and at the San Jose Convention Center on September 16-18, 2010, during the 01SJ Biennial (75 spots).

Who

This performance is created and organized by the artist Brody Condon. The live game mechanics and management are being developed by the Scandinavian based progressive live game designer Bjarke Pedersen, along with character and workshop development by Tobius Wrigstad and Monica Traxl. The event has been commissioned by ZER01 for the 01SJ Biennial and Machine Project in conjunction with the Hammer Museum residency program in Los Angeles, along with special thanks to Southern Exposure in San Francisco.

More Information and Sign Up

WWW.LVL5.ORG

Post-institutional

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via Artworld Salon

One or more of everything

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(Some of) the fast company of 01SJ Biennial

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Michael Silverberg, "Creating Digital Worlds of the Future," Fast Company, September 2010

Michael Silverberg, "Creating Digital Worlds of the Future, Fast Company, September 2010

“Under the theme “Build Your Own World,” more than 100 artists are creating fanciful universes in the hopes of prompting civic engagement at this arts-and-tech biennial in San Jose. We peeked at six intriguing projects.”

via Fast Company

Nova Jiang, Archipelago
MTAA (Michael Sarff & Tim Whidden), All Raise this Barn, West
David Rockwell/Rockwell Group LAB, Plug-In-Play
Victoria Scott and Scott Kildall, Gift Horse


Scaffolding – backbone for and as art

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I’ll be writing a full preview of the upcoming 01SJ Biennial this week, but this “urban nest” (via Alias Arts) reminds me of the central role that Madrid-based architect Angel Borrego Cubero’s scaffolding design for Out of the Garage, Into the World sets the stage for a different way of thinking about the “exhibition.”

Luzinterruptus - "little birds inhabiting scaffolding'

Some images of Angel’s design from the 01SJ publication (designed by Matthew Rezac).

Angel Borrego Cubero, South Hall design, Out of the Garage, Into the World

He writes in the catalog.

Some Principles

Working Space

The architectural concept for Out of the Garage, Into the World should be as close as possible to that of the exhibition itself, to what the curators are trying to achieve, and to what the artists themselves are doing. We should achieve the transformation of the exhibition into a working space, in which the processes are transparent to the public. Its architecture should not rely on dividing and blocking parts of the space, but rather should help bring work and public together.

Public Space

The public should experience an atmosphere that involves them, that places them in the space of work and empowerment. This atmosphere should produce the fascination and anticipation of entering a good restaurant through the kitchen.

Exhibition Space

Agglomeration, juxtaposition, sharing, decking, groupings, and, in general, the renegotiation of the limits of the artwork should give way to a rethinking of what it is to organize an exhibition and offer a new paradigm of how these elements and actions can be understood. From schemes that suggest the master plans of suburbia, we would like to propose exhibitions that evaluate more dense, collaborative, and diverse urban and architectural strategies.

Of course, the urban nests are also reminiscent of Misako Inaoka’s Red Bird, which is included in the Small Wonders wundkerkammer curated by ZER01 for the amazing public art program at the San Jose airport. You gotta fly into there sometime.

Small Wonders installation view, San Jose airport. Photo Jaime Austin

Small Wonders installation view, San Jose airport. Photo Jaime Austin

Small Wonders flickr set by Jaime Austin.

Discovering the potential of outdoor screens for urban society

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Paul Martin Lester, Urban Screens: the beginning of a universal visual culture
Scott MQuirce, The politics of public space in the media city
Lev Manovich, The poetics of urban media surfaces
Anthony Auerbach, Interpreting urban screens
Rekha Murthy, Story space: A theoretical grounding for the new urban annotation
Wael Salah Fahmi, The urban incubator: (De)constructive (re)presentation of heterotopian spatiality and virtual image(ries)
Tore Slaatta, Urban screens: Towards the convergence of architecture and audiovisual media
Ava Fatah gen. Schieck, Towards an integrated architectural media space
Julia Nevárez, Art and social displays in the branding of the city: Token screens or opportunities for difference?
Raina Kumra, Hijacking the urban screen: Trends in outdoor advertising and predictions for the use of video art and urban screens
Giselle Beiguelman, For an aesthetics of transmission
Vera Bühlmann, Intelligent skin: Real virtual
Kate Taylor, Programming video art for urban screens in public space

First Monday

This should be interestiing reading for  a panel I am chairing at the CAA conference in February.

The Responsive City – Fact or Fiction?

Steve Dietz, Artistic Director 01SJ Biennial and Northern Lights.mn
Cameron, McNall, Electroland
Ben Rubin, Ear Studio
Barbara Goldstein, City of San Jose Public Art Program
Mark Shepard, SUNY Buffalo

“This panel will examine the experience of artists and presenters with large-scale, long-term interactive art in the public sphere and the pragmatic, conceptual and philosophical issues such projects engender.

“There is a significant history of festival and exhibition-based public programming of interactive works but long-term and permanent installations are less common. The possibilities for large-scale, interactive art in the public sphere are increasing exponentially, however, and this panel will consist of at least two artists and a presenter, who will discuss their projects in relation to the pragmatics of production and the histories of public and new media art practices, as well as the intersection with civic and economic imperatives embodied in the notion of the creative city. A respondent will critique these projects in relation to issues of agency, free speech and spectacle.”

The sheer exuberant, excess of it

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Doug and Mike Starn, “Big Bambú: You Can’t, You Don’t, and You Won’t Stop,” at the Metropolitan Museum via Marcelo’s Art Vlog

Ecosomatics on the Open Field

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Olive Bieringa Gulf Oil meditation SEEDS|Earthdance

Olive Bieringa Gulf Oil meditation SEEDS|Earthdance. photo: Brune Castos

The BodyCartography Project will present a week-long collaborative classroom on “ecosomatics” in the Flat Pak House as part of Walker Art Center’s Open Field programming.

“This collaborative classroom will function to implicate our very cells/selves in how we interact with and understand the environment. It will create the conditions for a new model of transdisciplinary learning across systems and as a result imagine alternate futures in relationship to the issue of sustainability through behavioral re-patterning.

“We will begin each day with a simple movement practice to open up our awareness to ourselves, the group and our environment. A local scientist will facilitate daily sessions with different environmental foci.  Together we will pursue somatic research as a first person embodied science, utilizing ones own body as a tool for understanding emergent properties of whole systems, developing empathy and rewilding ourselves and those around us.

“The week will be facilitated by Olive Bieringa with scientists John Schade (Ecosystem Ecologist  St. Olaf College, Biology and Environmental Studies), Bonnie Ploger (Behavioral Ecologist, Department of Biology & Artist in Residence, Center for Global Environmental Education, Hamline University Environmental Education, Hamline University), Ben Jordan  (Biologist, Harvard University) and Bryce Beverlin II (Biophysicist, University of Minnesota Physics Department).”–BodyCartography Project.

ecosomatics schedule
What is ecosomatics?

Sign of desires

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“[F]or the next month our billboard will be used to list some of the big and small needs we have at the waffle shop. If you bring in one of the things we need, we will create a special display with your name next to the thing you bring in, and add a new item to the billboard list as we always seems to be in the need of something.”

“The Waffle Shop is a neighborhood restaurant that produces and broadcasts a live-streaming talk show with its customers, operates a changeable storytelling billboard on its roof, and runs a take-out window that sells food from countries engaged in conflict with the U.S. The shop is a public lab that brings together people from all walks of life to engage in dialogue, experimentation and the co-production of culture.”–The Waffle Shop

Jon Rubin, who initiated The Waffle Shop as part of his Storefront Project course at CMU,  is also the creator of one of my favorite sign projects, The Sky’s the Limit.