Cultures of complaint

Written by

Former Texas senator Phil Gramm famously complained that “we have sort of become a nation of whiners,” but 2008 Bush Fellow Matthew Bakkom, whose tabloid-size booklet “The New York City Museum of Complaint” was published in 2006, has argued

“The point of complaining is not necessarily that it’s going to change things. . . . It’s more kind of an existential act that is essential to democracy.” via NYT

At the 2006 01SJ Biennial, Tad Hirsch’s Tripwire hid custom-built noise sensors in coconuts hung in a public park near the San Jose airport. Detection of excessive noise levels triggered automated telephone calls to the airport’s complaint line on behalf of the city’s residents and wildlife.

Tad Hirsch, Tripwire, 2006 01SJ Biennial

Public art as public amenity

Written by

Caley J. Coney, "Bad Day," Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk. via Public Art Saint Paul

Caley J. Coney, "Bad Day," Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk. via Public Art Saint Paul

via Public Art Saint Paul

Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk is a project created by Saint Paul’s Public Artist in Residence Marcus Young and friends, Saint Paul Public Works, and Public Art Saint Paul with contributions from Saint Paul poets, which began in 2008. Every year residents can submit poems to be selected for imprinting in the new and newly repaired sidewalks of the city. The deadline for submissions is March 28, 2010. Guidelines here.

As “just” participatory, civic art Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk is an exemplary project, both whimsical and impactful. As Young writes in his brief introduction,

“Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk is inspired by the universal, childish desire to draw a finger through tempting wet cement. The project also has higher-minded aspiration. Our public realm, crowded with commercial and regulatory text, could use more poetry. On our modest sidewalks, we hope to create delightful moments of open-air reading, and make public and common the beauty in our hearts as expressed by our poets. Beautiful poetry can be as present and plain as sidewalk, as grass and sky.”

What is particularly interesting – even revolutionary – about Everyday Poems, I think, is the way the program is integrated into the everyday business of the city of Saint Paul. Young is in an almost unique situation in the United States. He is not just an outsider artist-in-residence, he is a “city artist,” and as such he often sits alongside the engineers, public safety, marketing and other public works staff in evaluating new projects.  Like the renowned Mierle Laderman Ukeles, who has been artist in residence (unsalaried) at the New York City Department of Sanitation since 1977, Young is part of a team and Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk is as much a public amenity as the sidewalks themselves.

Add your voice to your city.

Ryan Ross, "Steal It," Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk.

Ryan Ross, "Steal It," Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk.

Engaging public art

Written by

Crown Fountain, Jaume Plensa, Millennium Park. via Chicago Now

Crown Fountain, Jaume Plensa, Millennium Park. via Chicago Now

“[P]ublic art that truly engages and creates a real relationship with the public and creates a social common ground is rarer. Plensa’s fountain does that and effectively blurs completely the line between art and public. This is urban planning in the service of both art and the city’s populace.” – Dawoud Bey

via Chicago Now

Photographer Dawoud Bey writes a perceptive and thoughtful article about Chicago’s Millennium Park and implicitly – and respectfully – challenges the Burnham Pavilion projects by architects Zaha Hadid and Ben van Berkel‘s UNStudio to live up to the success of James Plesna‘s Crown Fountain. This is not just a question of numbers but how public art might create a public for itself, so to speak, without simply replicating its commonest preferences – or deigning to engage them. As Bey writes about the Crown Fountain:

“From bathing suit and Pamper clad small children splashing and laying in the shallow reflecting pool, to groups of teenagers lounging nonchalantly and parents sitting on the side or splashing with their children, Jaume Plensa’s fountain is a fantastical high tech urban concoction. It appears to be an urban black granite clad beach plopped right smack in the middle of downtown.”

One thing I particularly like about Bey’s writing is the way he approaches the public art experience. It isn’t just his pleasurable familiarity with a favorite venue – “As I so often do when the weather gets warm I took a stroll over to the Crown Fountain while I was downtown on other business.” It is also his sense of the art as an activation, not merely a destination.

“The periodic spouting of water from the mouths of the subjects brings everyone rushing to the spout in a mass of soaking wet multifarious humanity, reminding us that there are indeed moments, even in “the most segregated large city in America,” when we are more alike than different in our common citizenship.”

Not surprisingly, the notion of art that  “creates a real relationship with the public and creates a social common ground”; that “literally reflects the very public [it is] meant to engage, thereby allowing everyone to see themselves in it”; that reflects “that there are indeed moments . . . when we are more alike than different in our common citizenship” is equally applicable to Bey’s own remarkable photographic work over the past 35 years.

Dawoud Bey, "Brian and Paul," 1993, Polaroid. via Walker Art Center. Copyright the artist.

Dawoud Bey, "Brian and Paul," 1993, Polaroid. via Walker Art Center. Copyright the artist.

via Walker Art Center

Strange Fruit

Written by

Labor Camp Orchestra album: Songs From The Labor Camp. via NPR

Labor Camp Orchestra album: Songs From The Labor Camp. via NPR

It’s “old news” at this point, but still worth pointing out – and listening to.

Piotr Szyhalski’s Labor Camp Orchestra is an ongoing work that has been the site for much of his public artwork over the past several years, including two installations in at LABoral in Gijon, Spain for the exhibition FEEDFORWARD – Angel of History, which I co-curated with Christiane Paul.

As the website states, Labor Camp Orchestra is

“the Aural Branch of the Labor Camp. Since it’s gradual inception between 1998-1999 Labor Camp Orchestra remains committed to construction of auditory experiences, which follow no singular philosophy, process or idea.”

Back in June, the Labor Camp Orchestra was featured in an NPR story by Lara Pellegrinelli, “Evolution of a Song: Strange Fruit.” The words of the song were originally penned in 1936 under the name Lewis Allan by Bronx schoolteacher Abel Meeropol in reaction to a photograph of the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana.

Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, August 7, 1930. via Wikipedia

Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, August 7, 1930. via Wikipedia

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to listen to Billie Holiday’s memorable rendition of Strange Fruit the same again after viewing this photograph, which is part of the point of Szyhalski’s “cover” of it via Labor Camp Orchestra – to make visceral the Iraq war. To take us beyond the blaring headlines, patriotic jingoism, and national security fervor to a place that is literally unforgettable. According to Pellegrinelli,

“The group’s version of “Strange Fruit” passes for perky, tidy electronica on first listen. In reality, it emerged from a conceptual thread on events in Iraq and specifically addresses the execution of Saddam Hussein. Based solely on Meeropol’s poem, it juxtaposes his words with a woman reciting the names of fruits in Arabic. An archival recording from the Hussein execution and Koranic recitation plays in the background.”

Listen here.

01SJ Biennial open calls

Written by

For the 2010 01SJ Biennial ZER01 is collaborating with SF Shorts: San Francisco International Festival of Short Films to issue an open call for 5-minute shorts interpreting the theme Build Your Own World that were shot using a cell phone, flip video camcorder, or other mobile media device. You can interpret this theme literally or figuratively, seriously or humorously to envision how mobile technology can contribute to positive social change. Selected films will be featured at both SF Shorts and the 2010 01SJ Biennial and cash prize is available for top selection.

Proposals for the workshops and micro-grants are starting to roll in. The workshop call ends on February 15th, and the micro-grants on March 8th, so you still have time to send in proposals. New calls will be posted soon. See here for more information on  the current 01SJ Biennial open calls.

Now available!

Written by

Rethinking Curating - Art After New Media.

Rethinking Curating

Art after New Media
Beryl Graham and Sarah Cook
Foreword by Steve Dietz

“Rethinking Curating: Art after New Media . . .clearly articulates an often obfuscating set of issues, including the internecine debates that too easily divide what Lev Manovich refers to as Turing- land (so- called new media art) and Duchampland (so- called contemporary art). Beryl Graham and Sarah Cook rigorously differentiate and compellingly reintegrate the competing claims of these two camps so that we can focus on what really matters: the art.”

From the Foreword, available for download here.

See also The Art Formerly Known As New Media, which Sarah and I co-curated at the Walter Phillips Gallery in Banff.

Mercado Negro

Written by

“LA-based cross-media visual designer Ramón Coronado has built a swing, lounge chair, table and a lamp out of shopping carts: Mercado Negro meaning Black Market in Spanish is a 12 week project that deals with reclaiming an ordinary, everyday object and transforming it into a whole new object. At the same time hinting at the lack of parks and recreational functions in Los Angeles.”

via Archinect

Support “the largest concentration of technology-based public artwork in the country”

Written by

San Jose Airport Art Program – Consulting Art Technician “ (aka ArtGeek)”

“The ArtGeek oversees the largest concentration of technology-based public artwork in the country. Located in the San Jose International Airport’s brand new terminal, the collection includes a giant propeller-driven robotic sculpture, streaming networked cameras, a massive cloud of flickering glass, liquid-cooled projectors, twitter feeds, and a school of live fish with underwater surveillance cameras. Working from an underground Art+Tech workshop with electronics bench and state-of-the-art sound system, the ArtGeek keeps it all humming.” More info.

via City of San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs

Support “the largest concentration of technology-based public artwork in the country”

Written by

San Jose Airport Art Program – Consulting Art Technician “ (aka ArtGeek)”

“The ArtGeek oversees the largest concentration of technology-based public artwork in the country. Located in the San Jose International Airport’s brand new terminal, the collection includes a giant propeller-driven robotic sculpture, streaming networked cameras, a massive cloud of flickering glass, liquid-cooled projectors, twitter feeds, and a school of live fish with underwater surveillance cameras. Working from an underground Art+Tech workshop with electronics bench and state-of-the-art sound system, the ArtGeek keeps it all humming.” More info.

via City of San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs

Riding modern art in public places

Written by

raphael zarka, riding modern art. via DesignBoom

raphael zarka, "riding modern art. via DesignBoom

It comes as no surprise that skaters and others use public art in many different ways. Just as public art itself can be a more and less  genteel territorialization of space. The suite of photographs, “Riding Modern Art,” by Raphael Zarka at designboom based on an upcoming exhibition at the French Cultural Center in Milan, however, is particularly enjoyable for “decisive moment-ness,” which is at once frozen and viscerally vertiginous.

Zarka writes about his subjects –

“What strikes me, is that skaters prioritize a relationship with the work rather than a mechanical relationship aesthetic. for them, all the interest of a sculpture is the variety of movements that it recommends.”

Camille Utterback, Abundance, 2007, San Jose City Hall Rotunda. Commissioned by ZER01.

Camille Utterback, "Abundance," 2007, San Jose City Hall Rotunda. Commissioned by ZER01.

When the skaters and bikers showed up in the San Jose City Hall Plaza, as they often do in the early morning hours when some of the “Do Not” signage is hard to read, perhaps, it was precisely an example of the kind of relationship that artist Camille Utterback had envisioned with her interactive projection, Abundance –

“By providing a way for participants to temporarily inscribe their movements on the facade of City Hall, Abundance personalizes the site, altering participants’ sense of ownership and belonging to a place that is already theirs as a public civic space.”

Shaun Gladwell Storm Sequence 2000 digital video edition of 4 Videoraphy: Techa Noble Original Soundtrack: Kazumuchi Grime Courtesy the artist and Sherman Galleries, Sydney. via Experimenta.

Shaun Gladwell Storm Sequence 2000 digital video edition of 4 Videoraphy: Techa Noble Original Soundtrack: Kazumuchi Grime Courtesy the artist and Sherman Galleries, Sydney. via Experimenta.

Australian artist Shaun Gladwell often features his own skateboarding, such as his 2000 video Storm Sequence, shot on Bondi Beach near Sydney, about which critic Penny Craswell suggests yet another level of interaction based on Gladwell’s personal philosophy of the “isolated figure moving and struggling through the panoramas of nature (urban and ‘real’) in a possible engagement with the sublime”

Links for 2009-12-19 [del.icio.us]

Written by

Minnnnnnesoooowta…

Written by

via ___like I give a damn.

I know that Andy Samberg is the only white boy who can really do dork rap, but you gotta love that Minnesota state of mind after enduring years of the following conversation openers:

“I’ve been to the Minneapolis airport.”

“Where’s Fargo in Minneosta?”

“Is that near the Mall of America.”

“Have you been to Lake Woebegone?”

“What’s Milwaukee like?”

“It gets cold there, right?”

“I saw a t-shirt that said the state bird is the mosquito.”

“I’ve never actually been to the Walker”

“Prince!”

… Ok, Andy Samberg and Stephen Colbert …

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

Street Garden of Babylon

Written by

“Urban intervention idealized by Felipe Morozini, directed by Jeorge Simas around Elevado Costa e Silva in São Paulo City, to make a little bit less rough. One dweller and 21 friends painting one of the most crowded avenue in the biggest city in South America.”

Runner Up in the Street Art Award category of the Metropolis Art Prize 2009.

via Inspire Collective

AOV2 fellows selected!

Written by

Art(ists) On the Verge (AOV2)  is an intensive, mentor-based fellowship program for 5 Minnesota-based, emerging artists or artist groups working experimentally at the intersection of art, technology, and digital culture with a focus on network-based practices that are interactive and/or participatory.

For 2010, 5  fellows and their proposed projects have been selected:

More information about the AOV2 program guidelines is  here.

Congratulations to each of the artists and thanks to the AOV2 jurors, Darsie Alexander, Chief Curator, Walker Art Center, and Kathleen Forde, Curator for Time-Based Arts at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) in Troy, NY.

AOV2 is generously supported by the Jerome Foundation.

Edit this entry.

Franconia Sculpture Park call for proposals

Written by

Franconia Sculpture Park is now accepting sculpture/installation proposals for 2010.

http://www.residencyunlimited.org/kiosk/opportunites/2009/12/franconia-sculpture-park-deadline-february-13/

Franconia Sculpture Park is an innovative arts organization that provides living and work space to emerging and established artists. A lively schedule of programs and events for art lovers of all ages includes Kids Make Sculpture, Hot Metal Pour, artist-led tours and the Fall Arts Festival. The 20-acre park, with a rotating collection of over 75 contemporary sculptures, reflects the creative talents of local, national, and international artists and is free and open to the public 365 days a year. Franconia Sculpture Park is located 45 minutes northeast of the Twin Cities at the intersection of I-8 & I-95

Franconia Sculpture Park is an innovative arts organization that provides living and work space to emerging and established artists. A lively schedule of programs and events for art lovers of all ages includes Kids Make Sculpture, Hot Metal Pour, artist-led tours and the Fall Arts Festival. The 20-acre park, with a rotating collection of over 75 contemporary sculptures, reflects the creative talents of local, national, and international artists and is free and open to the public 365 days a year. Franconia Sculpture Park is located 45 minutes northeast of the Twin Cities at the intersection of I-8 & I-95