Robert Adrian X shares Nam June Paik Art Center Prize

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Nam June Paik Art Center (under construction). Photo S. Dietz

Nam June Paik Art Center (under construction). Photo S. Dietz

As much as I complain about the non-intersection of the so-called contemporary art world and the art formerly known as new media world, recently a prestigious international jury consisting of Hank Bull, executive director of Center A in Vancouver; Doryun Chong, associate curator at The Museum of Modern Art in New York; Udo Kittelman, director of the National Galleries, Berlin; Tetsuo Kogawa, artist and professor at Keizai University, Tokyo; and Barbara Vanderlinden, Belgian curator and author,  selected media pioneer Robert Adrian X to split the $50,000 Nam June Paik Art Center  Award with Eun-me Ahn, Ceal Floyer and Seung-taek Lee.

Robert Adrian and Otto Mittmannsgruber coordinating fax and telephone exchange with Vienna. The World in 24 Hours.

Robert Adrian and Otto Mittmannsgruber coordinating fax and telephone exchange with Vienna. The World in 24 Hours.

Adrian participated in what was arguably the first telematic art conference, Artists’ Use of Telecom (1980) (as did Hank Bull), helped organize and support ARTEX (1980-90) the Artists’ Electronic Exchange Project, organized The World in 24 Hours at Ars Electronica (1982), helped organize and support Planetary Network, a telecommunications project for the Venice Biennale XLII (1986), among many, many other projects.

Congratulations to Robert! And the Nam June Pak Art Center.

Nam June Paik Art Center Prize

Nam June Paik Art Center Prize

Open Up workshop

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Medialab-Prados digital facade in Madrid (Spain)

Medialab-Prado's digital facade in Madrid (Spain)

Open Up

Medialab-Prado
Plaza de las Letras (Alameda, 15)
28014 Madrid, Spain
Phone: +34 914 202 754
Contact: Nerea Garcia
difusion@medialab-prado.es
http://www.medialab-prado.es/article/open_up

Call for projects

Open Up is a workshop for the development of projects for the digital facade in Medialab-Prado’s building. This call is addressed to the presentation of proposals to be developed during the workshop-seminar taking place in Madrid from February 9 through 23, 2010.

Deadline for projects

December 10, 2009

Dates of the workshop

February 9 through 23, 2010

Worskhop tutors

Jordi Claramonte, Chandler McWilliams, Casey Reas, and Víctor Viña. Directed and coordinated by Nerea Calvillo.

Description

Until now, urban screens and digital facades have been greatly developed technically, but its contents, which are usually produced by advertisement agencies and occasionally artists, have been created, in many cases, during closed processes.

Open Up suggests opening the processes of content production and explores collaborative systems of interaction and creation related to the digital facade (and therefore, public space). This production can move among its different levels of intensity and development and can vary between two working environments: the platform for collective creation and its collective activation.

Aiming to create a platform of expression through the screen, the first is oriented towards involving collectives in the elaboration of contents by creating working groups or other participation strategies. The second is centred in producing tools for the collective reception and activation of the contents that appear in the screen. We need to consider that in both cases the participation can be stable, but also instant, invisible, multiple or disperse.

Depending on the cases, chosen projects should include the creation of strategies for participation, the development of the platform, the format for its visualization in the screen and the protocols for its activation. Also, the projects will need to define the context: the Plaza de las Letras, the neighbourhood”s local environment or the city of Madrid. The physical and/or virtual participation will be identified considering all these factors.

Projects presented in this call will have to explore one of the following aspects:

  • Proposals referring to the development of strategies for public participation, during any of the project”s phases.
  • Proposals that encourage ways to activate urban space through the screen.
  • Proposals that favour a stronger public visibility of agents that normally have none.
  • Prosals that visualize public collectives.
  • Proposals that develop new ways to activate and interact with the screen among users and portable devices such as cell phones, videogames, lasers, etc.
  • Proposals that include emerging systems and processes that allows this project to evolve and change through time.

Subtle Technologies

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13th Annual Sublte Technologies Festival

13th Annual Sublte Technologies Festival

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

13th Annual Subtle Technologies Festival -  Call for Submissions
Deadline January 9 2010
Festival Dates: June 3 – 6  2010
Submission via website by January 9 2010

For this year’s Subtle Technologies Festival, we wish to explore sustainability through a critical multidisciplinary lens. We invite investigations of the role that decentralization, diversity and societal power dynamics plays in our attempts at maintaining a sustainable future. Where does the death of languages, cultures and peoples fit into the sustainability discussion? We look forward to critical discussions that explore multiple meanings of sustainability in this state of ecological and global health. We will be discussing the science and technology behind sustainable practices and design as well as the science behind some of the events and circumstances that have driven us to seek sustainable solutions. What role does the artist play in bringing forth new layers of understandings in this discussion?

AOV alum

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Christopher Baker, Hello World! at Franklin Arts in Artcetera

Christopher Baker, Hello World! at Franklin Arts in Artcetera

via Artcetera

Chris was a recipient of one of the first round of Art(ists) On the Verge grants.

Related

Street art

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Claudia Ficca & Davide Luciano, A pothole becomes a beer cooler. via Toronto Star

Claudia Ficca & Davide Luciano, "A pothole becomes a beer cooler." via Toronto Star

Not unlike the United guitar guy, Davide Luciano and Claudia Ficca turned their run in with a pothole into an excuse for some guerrilla street art from flower gardens to  a baptism to deep fried donuts. Check out the slideshow.

via Toronto Star

Related

Signs of the times

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Anthony Discenza, Street Signs Project. via Open Space

Anthony Discenza, Street Signs Project. via Open Space

I love signs. My growing personal collection is here. There is a real joy in finding a sign like the tagged “Respect Signs and Signals” (Boston),  but many artists have mastered such interventions as a kind of physical meme. So I particularly enjoyed Joseph del Pesco’s interview on the excellent SFMOMA Open Space blog with Anthony Discenza about his Street Signs Project, “Coming Up: Greater Horrors.”

Other favorites include, of course, the amazing Rigo 23

Rigo 23, Innercity Home, San Francisco

Rigo 23, Innercity Home, San Francisco

Germaine Koh’s Journal on mobile signs.

Germaine Koh, Journal

Germaine Koh, Journal

Steve Lambert’s equally funny mobile arrow sign.

Steve Lambert

Steve Lambert

Finally, straight from the horse’s mouth

Robert Fleege, What makes outdoor so powerful

Robert Fleege, What makes outdoor so powerful

Which is proved by the ban on public billboards in Sao Paulo.

Sao Paulo, no billboards

Sao Paulo, no billboards

btw, Discenza is selling limited edition prints of his signs for a new project. Help support his habit.

Cited – The Angel of History

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We Make Money Not Art recently blogged about two projects from FEEDFORWARD – The Angel of History, which I co-curated with Christiane Paul at LABoral.

Hasan Elahi, Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad 1798-2006 (2009).

Hasan Elahi, Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad 1798-2006 (2009).

Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad is a transparent map that documents the use of U.S. Armed Forces by means of 22LR caliber bullets. Shooter from the Olympic Society of Shooting in Gijón shot from a distance of 25 meters (the Spanish law wouldn’t allow for a closer shot) into the polycarbonate map at the precise location where each incursion has occurred since 1798.

via We Make Money Not Art

Ali Momeni and Robin Mandel, Smoke and Hot Air (2008)

Ali Momeni and Robin Mandel, Smoke and Hot Air (2008)

Reflecting on the perception of countries as they are shaped by the news and media landscape, Smoke and Hot Air reverses the general view of Iran, which is frequently depicted as aggressor. The recent global support for the uprising after the 2009 Iranian election showed how quickly the general attitude towards a country can shift. Translating the news into old-fashioned smoke signals, Momeni’s and Mandel’s project illustrates how the complexities of national and political identity can get reduced to false impressions, deceit, and posturing.

Régine Debatty commented about Smoke and Hot Air –

“I found the artwork particularly moving. Is simplicity can only be equaled by its efficiency and its peacefulness by the distressing political situation in the Middle East. The quiet and smoky atmosphere incites you to make a pause and reflect on the issue at stake.”

via We Make Money Not Art

More installation views here.

AOV 2 info sessions

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Informational meetings (optional) about Art(ists) on the Verge will be held Monday, October 26 at 12:00 pm in the small auditorium at MCAD, and Tuesday, October 27 at 1:00 pm at Common Roots in the Common Room.

Art(ists) On the Verge 2

http://tylerstefanich.com/clients/northernlights/programs/aov2/

Northern Lights announces a second round of Art(ists) on the Verge commissions (AOV2). 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. AOV2 is generously supported by the Jerome Foundation.

Application Deadline

Monday, November 16, 2009

Exciting!

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Barbara Fluxa's "Car project, excavating XX century´s end," at the entrance to the exhibition, overlooking the lower floor, Chris Baker's "Hello World! ! or: How I Learned to Stop Listening and Love the Noise"
Jeff Crouse working on programming for "Invisible Threads" with Stephanie Rothenberg.
System77 Consortium, "ALL THAT IS SOLID MELTS INTO AIR!" (3 drones)
Overlooking Carlos Motta's "The Good Life" and Chris Baker's "Hello World!" fromthe first floor.
Piotr Szyhalski's audio work "White Star Cluster" is in the interstitial space between floors.
Hang scrim for Margot Lovejoy's "Storm Over Paradise."
"Walls" of doubled scrim materials divide the space at LABoral but allow for a more synoptic gaze of the exhibition.
Through scrims, looking at a projection of Hasan Elahi's "Tracking Transience - A Month of Sundays."
Another view of System77 Consortium's "ALL THAT IS SOLID MELTS INTO AIR!"
Hasan Elahi plugged in.
Stephanie Rothenberg and Jeff Crouse, "Invisible Threads."
AES+F, "Last Riot"
Looking from the back of the gallery past "Invisible Threads" toward "Tracking Transience"
Piotr Szyhalski's "Labor Camp Study Room D" (far wall)
Looking past "be prepared! tiger!" by Knowbotic Research + Peter Sandbichler
Hasan Elahi's "Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2006" with Fluxa's "Car project, excavating XX century´s end"
Detail of bullets impacted in plexi for "Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2006"
Harwood, Wright and Yokokoji, Tantalum Memorial - Residue
Naeem Mohaiemen, "Live True Life or Die Trying"

Good progress installing FEEDFORWARD – The Angel of History at LABoral. Lots of artists in town now. Crew doing a remarkable job.

Installing FEEDFORWARD

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Nancy Davenport (monitors, center), Hasan Elahi (right). Photo courtesy LABoral.
Photo courtesy LABoral.
Photo courtesy LABoral.
Photo courtesy LABoral.
Nancy Davenport, far wall. Photo courtesy LABoral.
Photo courtesy LABoral.
Photo courtesy LABoral.
Hasan Elahi (projection). Photo courtesy LABoral.
Photo courtesy LABoral.
Photo courtesy LABoral.
Photo courtesy LABoral.
Hasan Elahi (projection). Photo courtesy LABoral.
Stephannie Rothenberg + Jeff Crouse ("furniture"). Photo courtesy LABoral.
Stephannie Rothenberg + Jeff Crouse ("furniture"). Photo courtesy LABoral.
Daniel Garcia Andujar (tower). Photo courtesy LABoral.

The architecture of LABoral, or more fully LABoral Art and Industrial Creation Centre, was originally designed by Luis Moya as an orphanage for miners’ children, although subsequently altered and expanded to house a series of vocational training centers in concrete braced vaults, which were inspired by the Caracalla Baths in Rome. The resulting 6 exhibition spaces, in the North-East end of the old workshops and the ball court, have over 4,000 square meters with the two  being used for FEEDFORWARD each in excess of 1,000 square meters.

We are working with Angel Borrego of the Office for Strategic Spaces for the exhibition design. The space will be divided by a series of translucent scrims, with projection screens embedded in them as necessary. In the exhibition catalog, Angel writes, in part:

“The schizophrenia inherent in the function of museum architecture and, to a lesser extent, of an exhibition design is predicated on the fact that exploring the spatial and conceptual potential proffered by an exhibition seems to actually increase the distance between the beholder and the exhibited work. If the quantity, and depth, of the design creates a proportional distance between the spectator and a direct experience and reading of the work, how then can we address this commission? How can an exhibition be designed to do away with the undesirable imposition of design? In other words, how can one design the disappearance of design itself?

“Feedforward – The Angel of History has given us a second chance to address this critical problem and, most importantly, it proportions a glimpse of a solution. The curators . . . and ourselves at OSS, were opposed to any radical division of the pieces into isolated thematic groups and yet at once refused to entirely relinquish the possibility of providing an organised reading of the issues. We wanted it all, an order imposed on the works but also the coexistence of all the works in a single landscape. Walter Benjamin’s The Angel of History, the source inspiration for the show, offers one of the most physical and intense translations of the advance of time in space. We wanted any visit to the exhibition, any movement of the public, to operate as a representation of the Angel of History, in short, an overall view of the past strewn at his feet.”

I’m excited – and nervous – to see how this looks on Monday, but in the meantime, LABoral sent some pictures of the installation progress.

Different urban screens

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Workshop, HelloWorld!: Contemporary stage creation and new technologies

Workshop, HelloWorld!: Contemporary stage creation and new technologies

Yesterday, I had to the opportunity to drop in on Medialab-Prado, the innovative organization in Madrid behind Interactivos?, among many other outstanding programs, which the 01SJ Biennial will collaborate with in September.

The Medialab was in the midst of a two-weekend workshop program, HelloWorld!: Contemporary stage creation and new technologies, and the energy in the room when I walked in was contagious. This kind of open lab program is a hallmark of Medialab-Prado’s programming, and the 60 or so people packed in for a series of evening performances and talks only highlighted their community-based strength.

One thing I was suprised to see was a new 40,000 pixel LED screen at Medialab-Prado.

New urban screen, Medialab-Prado

New urban screen, Medialab-Prado

The screen is not yet functional, and you can see that it is in a very close-quarters situation. It will be interesting to see how Medialab-Prado uses this new “venue” with its commitment to open platforms and process.

Medialab-Prado is on a quiet street between the Prado and Reina Sofia museums, around the corner from a new and quite beautiful Caixa Forum center, which includes a different kind of urban screen, what zelen.bg, the “portal site for gardening in Bulgaria,” calls the “last vertical garden of Patrick Blanc.” It’s stunning and forms a fascinating bookend with the new Medialab-Prado screen.

Vertical garden by Patrick Blanc outside Caixa Forum Madrid.

Vertical garden by Patrick Blanc outside Caixa Forum Madrid.

FEEDFORWARD – Angel of History

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Title page, FEEDFORWARD catalog

Title page, FEEDFORWARD catalog

FEEDFORWARD – The Angel of History, the exhibition Christiane Paul and I have been working on for  a couple of years opens Thursday!

There is a painting by Klee called Angelus Novus. An angel is depicted there who looks as though he were about to distance himself from something which he is staring at. His eyes are opened wide, his mouth stands open and his wings are outstretched. The Angel of History must look just so. His face is turned towards the past. Where we see the appearance of a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe, which unceasingly piles rubble on top of rubble and hurls it before his feet. He would like to pause for a moment so fair, to awaken the dead and to piece together what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise, it has caught itself up in his wings and is so strong that the Angel can no longer close them. The storm drives him irresistibly into the future, to which his back is turned, while the rubble-heap before him grows sky-high. That which we call progress, is this storm.
Walter Benjamin, from On the Concept of History, 1940

FEEDFORWARD – The Angel of History

Cleaning up after the 20th century. What is progress now?

FEEDFORWARD – The Angel of History addresses the current moment in history where the wreckage of political conflict and economic inequality is piling up, while globalized forces—largely enabled by the “progress” of digital information technologies—inexorably feed us forward. The exhibition title references Paul Klee’s painting “Angelus Novus,” which Walter Benjamin famously interpreted as an “angel of history” transfixed by the wreckage of the past that is piling up in front of him while being propelled backwards into the uncertain future by a storm from paradise (progress).

The exhibition, curated by Steve Dietz (Artistic Director of the 01SJ Biennial and Northern Lights.mn) and Christiane Paul (Director of Media Studies Graduate Prgram, New School, and Adjunct Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art), features 31 artworks by 29 artists and artist teams. The projects are presented, as if in the rear view mirror of progress, in sections relating to five themes:

  • the “wreckage” of the 20th century created by wars and conflict
  • the countermeasures of surveillance and repression that the state as well as global capital set up in an to attempt to maintain control
  • the aesthetics and symbolic language of the media of our times
  • the forces of economic globalization such as outsourcing and migration
  • the possibilities of reconstruction and agency.

Together, the projects featured in FEEDFORWARD create a complex picture of the global political and social forces that drive us forward. The exhibition features both the problematic aspects of the present and future, and the potential for collectivity and responsible action. At the nadir of the current global economic crisis, FEEDFORWARD is in effect about cleaning up after the 20th century and asks the question, what is progress now?

Artists

AES+F, Last Riot, 2007

Daniel Garcia Andújar, Postcapital Archive (1989-2001), 2009

Christopher Baker, Hello World! or: How I Learned to Stop Listening and Love the Noise, 2008

Stella Brennan, South Pacific, 2007

Paul Chan, Baghdad In No Particular Order, 2003

Nancy Davenport,

Workers (leaving the factory), 2008
Coming/Leaving, 2008
Liverpool animation, 2008
Blast-Off, 2008

Nonny de la Pena and Peggy Weil, GONE GITMO, 2007

Hasan Elahi

Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2006, 2009
Tracking Transience: A Month of Sundays, 2009

Cao Fei, Whose Utopia, 2006

Barbara Fluxa, Car project, excavating XX century´s end, 2009

Fernando Garcia-Dory, Museum’s Pastoral – A Meeting of the Federation of Shepherds, 2009

Goldin+Senneby, “In Search of a Story,” 8-part journal by K.D., 2008-2009

Harwood, Wright, Yokokoji, Tantalum Memorial – Residue, 2008

Knowbotic Research (Yvonne Wilhelm, Christian Huebler, Alexander Tuchacek) + Peter Sandbichler, be prepared! tiger!, 2006

Langlands + Bell, The House of Osama bin Laden, 2003

Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Big Box, 2007

Margot Lovejoy, Storm from Paradise, 1999

Naeem Mohaiemen, Live True Life or Die Trying, 2009

Ali Momeni + Robin Mandel, Smoke and Hot Air, 2008

Carlos Motta. The Good Life, 2005-2008

Trevor Paglen

From The Other Night Sky series:

LACROSSE/ONYX II Passing Through Draco (USA 69), 2007
DMSP 5B/F4 from Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation (Military Meteorological Satellite; 1973-054A), 2009

From the Limit Telephotography series:

Morning Commute (Gold Coast Terminal) / Las Vegas, NV/ Distance ~ 1 mile/ 6:26 a.m., 2006
Large Hangars and Fuel Storage / Tonopah Test Range, NV/ Distance ~ 18 miles/ 10:44 am, 2005

Rachael Rakena, Fez Fa’anana, and Brian Fuata, Pacific Washup, 2003

Stephanie Rothenberg + Jeff Crouse, Invisible Threads, 2008

System77 Consortium, ALL THAT IS SOLID MELTS INTO AIR!, 2009

Piotr Szyhalski

Labor Camp Study Room: D, 2008-2009
White Star Cluster, 2008-2009

T+T (Tamiko Thiel & Teresa Reuter), Virtuelle Mauer/ReConstructing the Wall, 2009

Carey Young, Product Recall, 2007

Is and isn’t so Daniel Buren

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Blick in den Ausstellungssaal, Foto: Ralph Stenzel (www.zonebattler.net) © VG BildKunst 09

Daniel Buren, MODULATON: Arbeiten in situ. Blick in den Ausstellungssaal, Foto: Ralph Stenzel (www.zonebattler.net) © VG BildKunst 09

“The French-born international artist Daniel Buren is considered one of the fiercest critics of contemporary art. It is particularly towards the museum, its circumstances and conditions, that he likes to turn his critical attention. For the “museum is the place, with regard to which and for which works are created.”

“In Nuremberg Daniel Buren encounters the striking architecture of Volker Staab, whose symbiosis of different architectural traditions represents a milestone in the history of modern museum architecture. In the exhibition “MODULATION Works in situ” conceived exclusively for the Neues Museum, Daniel Buren explores certain distinctive elements of the museum’s design. Making specific reference to the façade, to the foyer and its staircase, and to the exhibition hall, Buren has evolved works of his own that combine light and movement to create singular and exceptional situations.”

via e-flux

Not sure exactly where the fierce criticism of the museum is in this work is, but I do like it, even though it seems more “candy” than these stripes at Munster:

Daniel Buren, Munster.

Daniel Buren, Munster.

or even than this miniature version by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, also at Munster:

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Daniel Buren, Munster.

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, "Daniel Buren," Munster.

Looking for aurora borealis.2

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Photo: Stephen Vitiello

Photo: Stephen Vitiello

From:     Stephen Vitiello
Subject:     Re: financial update (so far)
Date:     October 14, 2009 11:18:29 AM CDT
To:     Steve Dietz
Cc:     Matt Flowers

Photo: Stephen Vitiello

Photo: Stephen Vitiello

no NL to be seen. We went to visit this guy Stu Ross last night. We paid him $40 each for an evening at his cabin. Not to sleep but to have a sort of speed-education in the Northern Lights, as well as a slide show and then access to his lakefront view to the sky. He does these “Aurora Tours” which have produced incredible photographs. The tourism brochures and websites make it seem like you just come here and the sky is filled with color but that’s not always true at all. He said on a great year, you may see lights 20 nights out of the month on the ‘peak’ months. This was predicted to be a big year and season for the lights but the predictions haven’t come true. He’s barely seen anything and nothing in the last week at all. It sounds like 2012 is supposed to be the high-point on the 12-year cycle. We took lots of pictures. There was too much interference from phone lines to do VLF recordings but there’s one spot I can return to today to do those. Stu said that there’s a chance of NL activity tonight but it may be too cloudy to see – prediction is for snow today, rain and snow tomorrow. If it looks good, he’ll call us and we’ll jump in the car. Otherwise, we may go close to his place without paying him and just get our last shots tonight. Matt stays for one extra night. I can certainly make something but it’s more of a “waiting for the lights” piece. Sadly, Fort McMurray is not a pretty town at all but if you go 30 minutes out on the lake, where Stu lives is at least more rural, charming and dark at night. best, Stephen

See Looking for aurora borealis.

Announcing Art(ists) On the Verge 2

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Northern Lights announces a second round of Art(ists) on the Verge commissions (AOV2). 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. AOV2 is generously supported by the Jerome Foundation.

Deadline

Monday, November 16, 2009

Application Online

Go to http://tylerstefanich.com/clients/northernlights/aov2/apply

Informational Meetings

An informational session (optional) will be held Friday, October 9 at 12:30 pm in the Influx room at the Regis Center, U of M, Monday, October 26 at 12:00 pm in the small auditorium at MCAD, and Tuesday, October 27 at 1:00 pm at Common Roots in the Common Room.  Additional dates and times for informational meetings will be announced soon. Sign up for the Northern Lights newsletter or subscribe to the Public Address blog to ensure you are notified.

Art(ists) on the Verge Background

In 2008-2009, the Jerome Foundation partnered with Northern Lights to commission six new works by Minnesota-based emerging artists. For more information about the first AOV program, see http://tylerstefanich.com/clients/northernlights/programs/aov1/ and related pages. The AOV2 program is based on the experience of and lessons learned from the first Art(ists) On the Verge program, and its core goal remains to support network-based, experimental art practice by Minnesota-based emerging artists with the following key elements: critical support and evaluation, monetary and technical resources, audience development through presentation and exhibition, and institutional recognition.

AOV2 Fellowship Program

A total of five $5,000 commissions will be awarded with some additional support for technical development and public presentation available.  Each commissioned artist or artist group will participate in an intensive 9-month fellowship program from January 2010 to September 2010, culminating in programming and exhibition opportunities at the Spark Festival in October 5-10, 2010. The fellowship program will consist of several elements:

  • At least monthly meetings with individually selected mentor/advisors
  • Every other month meetings of all fellows with guest speakers covering specific topics such from determining your technical specifications to marketing and promotion to installation planning, as well as topics to be determined by the group
  • Every other month meetings of all fellows with Northern Lights’ Artistic Director and guest critics to be determined.
  • At least two formal critique sessions with outside evaluators
  • Participation in at least one public prototyping opportunity
  • Co-organizing bi-monthly programs open to the public

Participation in the fellowship programming is not optional and can only be done in person.

“Exhibition”

The AOV2 Fellowship is not a research grant per se. It is expected that all AOV2 Fellows will publicly exhibit or otherwise present a final project as part of the Spark Festival October 5-10, 2010. Other options are acceptable upon consultation. Limited funding is available for public exhibition or presentation.

AOV2 Project Criteria

AOV2 is for 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.

  • Experimental. How does your proposed project fall outside – or straddle – traditional and discipline-based notions of art practice? Note. This is not a research grant and personal experimentation with a practice that is new to you does not in itself constitute experimental practice.
  • Intersection of art, technology and digital culture. This grant is not for software development per se, and your practice should incorporate technology in a meaningful way. It does not have to be “new” technology, but if your technology is the pencil, it should be an innovative use. “Art” is broadly defined in relation to digital culture. For example, video games or Twitter can be your art, and/or you can eschew the term art for a broader concept of cultural production.
  • Network-based practices. Primarily, this means the Internet and any related or dependent platform or protocol from Second Life to Facebook to FTP. Your project does not have to be network exclusive, however, and we encourage hybridity, particularly in relation to physical public space.
  • Interactive and/or participatory. Your project should have some significant, dynamic component to it, which is not fixed.

The goal of the AOV2 fellowships is not to be prescriptive but to support artists’ practice that often falls between the cracks of traditional programming opportunities. We’re convincible. However, AOV2 is not a program in which technology is used to expand upon, distribute or document work in other disciplines.

Eligibility

Applicants must be:

  • Minnesota residents at the time of application and during the fellowship program, January 2010 – September 2010.
  • Considered an emerging artist. An emerging artist shows significant potential, yet is under-recognized by peers, curators, producers, critics and administrators. Evidence of some professional achievement is expected, but not an extensive record of accomplishment. Full-time students are not eligible, with one exception. If an artist enrolls in an undergraduate or graduate degree program or takes classes while maintaining a current and active professional practice of creating and presenting work to the public, she/he is eligible. Artists may be supported as individuals or as equal collaborators.
  • Committed to participating fully and regularly in the fellowship program.

Selection Process

Artist proposals are sought through an open call.

Jury

A jury consisting of Darsie Alexander, Chief Curator, Walker Art Center, Steve Dietz, Artistic Director, Northern Lights, and Kathleen Forde, Curator for Time-Based Arts at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) in Troy, NY, will make the final selection. Five projects will be selected by the jury.

Evaluation

Proposals will be evaluated primarily based on their excellence and applicability to the program (see “Project Criteria”). In addition, each proposal should demonstrate and will be evaluated on:

  • Quality of past work as demonstrated through work samples. Note, this does not mean that the artist is required to be expert in all the technology or fields required to successfully complete the project.
  • Ability to artistically accomplish in a timely manner an artwork for public presentation as demonstrated in prior work
  • Articulated interest in participating in a creative and critical process with peers and mentors. Note, it is acceptable but not required to have a mentor in mind you would like to work with. Mentors receive a small honorarium for their participation.

Notification

Selections will be announced by December 15, 2009.

Checklist for AOV2 Application

(Include all of the following. All files should be sent as .PDF files.)

  • Artist Statement
  • Proposal
  • Work samples descriptions and URLs
  • Bio + Résumé
  • Budget and Timeline
  • References (optional but recommended)

Artist Statement

Your Artist Statement (2 pages max) should articulate both your interest in participating in an intensive fellowship program and how your artistic goals match the program criteria.

Project Proposal

Your project proposal (2 pages max) should discuss your project’s core concept, your approach to realizing it, the kind of support you think you will need, and what the public outcome will be. The project proposal should be as specific as possible about goals and outcomes. It is less critical to know exactly how these will be accomplished. In any case, the project proposal is considered a starting point, and we recognize that it may change radically over the course of the Fellowship.

Work Samples List

Provide a list of your work samples with title, date, medium, link, and a brief description for each sample.

All work samples should be accessible via the web. They can take any form, as long as they are accessible via the web. You may include up to 8 minutes of work samples. Note: more is not necessarily better, and you should include only work samples relevant to your proposal. If one of your work samples is a website, include specific pages to view and how to navigate to them, if there is no direct URL.

Bio + Résumé

Include a short narrative bio, 150 words max, as well as a complete resume of exhibitions and related work. If you are applying as a collaborative, include résumés of all involved equal collaborators, noting the role of each person’s involvement in this work (no more than 2 pages per person.) You do not need to but may include the names of supporting collaborators, such as a programmer or performer, for example. Note: In the case of collaboratives, the artist honorarium will be split amongst the collaborators, and all equal collaborators need to participate in the Fellowship programming.

Budget and Timeline

Include your best estimate of a production timeline and project budget, which can include your own fee. The budget is not determinative, and both it and the timeline can and probably will change, but the scope should roughly match the resources and timeline of the Fellowship program.

References

References are optional. Include up to three letters of reference. The references are most useful in relation your ability to work in a collaborative environment and follow through on commitments. Your works samples will be your primary indicators of artistic excellence. Ask your references to write about their experience with your process and their estimation of your ability to benefit from the AOV2 program. Actual letters should be provided.

Contact

Email AOV[at]northern[dot]lights[dot]mn with any questions.

Support

Jerome Fdn.