Cimatics – Brussels International Festival for Live Audiovisual Art & VJing – invites all artists, creatives and producers to send their submissions for the next Cimatics festival.
Cimatics festival takes place from 20th – 29th November 2009 at various locations in the centre of Brussels.
The 7th festival edition will again bring an extensive overview of what’s currently taking place at the crossroads of media, art, music and technology.
To submit your project fill in the online submission form. For further information, contact us at info@cimaticsfestival.com
Later in the evening, Andrea Steudel and some students from the Ali Momeni’s class at the U of M projected on the outside of the building. Pramila and a colleague did a preview in the projection of Aniccha Art’s preview of Cloud Turn today.
Northern Lights and Forecast Public Art at Art-a-Whirl
Friday, May 15, 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Saturday, May 16, noon – 8:00 pm
Sunday, May 17, noon – 5:00 pm
Join Northern Lights and Forecast Public Art for the annual Art-a-Whirl event. We will be presenting previews of the Art(ists) on the Verge commissions and umbrella artwork for Forecast’s 2009 auction, along with other special events and programs.
Visit us at the Thorp
Northern Lights and Forecast will be exhibiting in the historic Thorp building and Central Business Center at 1618-1620 Central Ave NE, Minneapolis MN. Map to the Thorp Building. Download a map of the dozens of studios and artist installations at the Thorp [pdf].
Andrea Steudel will present her Mobile Shadow Projection Theater, and members of the internationally-acclaimed Minneapolis Art on Wheels will present a special set of projection performances on the side of the Thorp Building. This will be one of the premier events of opening night.
Saturday, May 16, between 4:00 pm and 6:00 pm
Members of Aniccha Arts will perform around Mark Fox’s interactive sound sculpture excerpts of their dance Cloud Turn prior to their ticketed performance at the Pillsbury House Theater, June 5-7.
Sunday, May 17, 1:00 pm
Krista Kelley Walsh and friends will be performing webcam action on Northrop Mall at the University of Minnesota, part of her Public Eye Action, which will be streamed live to the Thorp Building.
Be a beta tester
Friday, May 15, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Saturday, May 16, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Sunday, May 17, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Northern Lights and mnartists.org recently commmissioned Michael and Abigail Mouw to create a public art iPhone app to be launched by the summer of 2010. Come by and find out more about it, including how you can sign up to be a beta tester.
Art-a-Whirl
Art-A-Whirl is one of the largest open studio and gallery tours in the Midwest, with more than 400 participating artists drawing in more than 35,000 visitors to Northeast Minneapolis each year. The Thorp Building and the Central Business Center are in the heart of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District, and with over 65 artists and several group shows, it is a must for your Art-A-Whirl tour.
Art-A-Whirl is organized by the Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association (NEMAA) and each year it publishes an artist directory which is distributed through out the metro area in the weeks leading up to Art-A-Whirl.
“Just after the opening of my solo show at Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles we loaded up a rented pick-up truck with the arrow sign I included in the show. When I came across various locations in the city, we untied the sign, carried it over and snapped some shots – each time improvising a message for the face.”
I’m not sure today’s NYT article, In Los Angeles, Art That’s Worth a Detour is a trend or even particularly new, but it is a nice slide show. Isn’t the effect of the automobile on architecture and messaging one of the central themes of Venturi, Scott and Izenor’s 1977 Learning from Las Vegas? And Margaret Crane, Dale MacDonald, Scott Minneman, and Jon Winet’s 1997 Sunset Boulevard (pictured above) allowed drivers-by to advance a dual-screen narrative using their garage remotes. Electroland’sHollywood Shadow Project used billboards silhouette of clasic movie scenes to cast shadows on nearby buildings approximately 90 minutes from sunset (get it?).
“Following the success of last year’s inaugural ‘Everyday Poems for City Sidewalks’ project, the city and Public Art St. Paul once again are seeking poetry submissions from residents.
“People turned in more than 2,000 poems last year, and 20 winners were chosen. Their verses are sprinkled throughout the city’s nearly 1,000 miles of sidewalks.
“‘Our sidewalk poetry effort brings art to the outdoors where it can surprise, inspire, and make us laugh, smile, and think,’ said Mayor Chris Coleman.”
Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk is a project initiated by Marcus Young and friends, Saint Paul Public Works, and Public Art Saint Paul with Contributions from thirty-four Saint Paul Poets. Young is the City of Saint Paul Artist-in-Residence or “city artist.” Read his introduction to the project and the poems selected last year here.
“Edgar Müller – a Master of 3d Pavement Art – needed 5 days to the completion of this huge picture. Together with up to five assistant he painted all day long from sun rise to set. The enormous illusion is reached by applying the anamorphic technique to a huge pavement painting. Around 250 square meter large this picture is part of Edgar’s newest project. He paints over urban areas to give them a different look and thereby challenge the audience’s perception.”
Public Ad Campaign acts on the assumption that public space and the public’s interaction with that space is a vital component of our city’s health. By visually altering and physically interacting with the public environment, residents become psychologically invested in their community.
According to reporter Barbara Celis, the Public Ad Campaign recently found out that a number of NYC billboards are illegal, telling Celis:
“the agency that owns the ‘attacked’ billboards operates on an illegal basis. “NPA outdoor operates over 500 street level billboards in NYC ranging in size from about 4’x4′ to 50’x12′. All of these advertising structures are illegal. I found this out by talking to the NYC Department of Buildings which has no permits for the NPA outdoor structures but has its hands full dealing with the rampant illegal billboard situation. I have also spoken directly with NPA outdoor employees who have told me that the NYPD will jail them from time to time at which point NPA lawyers bail them out and they are compensated 500 dollars for the nuisance of spending the night in jail”.
On April 25, Public Ad Campaign organized the New York Street Advertising Takeover. Over 80 artists – and others “including an architect, a bio-physicist, a sports writer, a software developer, and countless others” – whitewashed 128 of the illegal signs and painted their own artful messages. Celis’s video is below and more information about the action is here and here, with lots of images on flickr.
They’re different but the NY Street Advertising Takeover reminds me of these remarkable photographs from Sao Paulo, when in 1997 city officials banned billboards, neon signs and electronic panels.
Art(ists) On the Verge, Northern Lights’ Jerome-funded commissioning program, will be exhibiting at the Weisman Art Museum July 5 – August 23, 2009. More about this soon. In the meantime, one of the commissions, The Weather Vein Project led by Pramila Vasudevan, and driven by Mark Fox, Jennifer Jurgens, and Mike Westerlund has launched a blog and website, which will feed into the performance of “Cloud Turn” at the Pillsbury House Theater June 5-7.
Buy tickets for the world premiere of “Cloud Turn”
an interactive dance performance, which is a reflection of humans playing God with regard to weather. Renowned for their originality, Aniccha Arts bring detailed, sinuous, and percussive Indian based dance movement integrated with their rich, colorful and highly manipulated media style. This performance is constructed with content from workshops conducted at various facilities throughout the Twin Cities as well as from the We Can Change the Weather blog.
“Cloud Turn” will be previewed at Northern Lights’ installation with Forecast Public Art at Art-a-Whirl and an exceprt performed at the Weisman exhibition reception on July 9.
Jackrabbit Homestead is a web-based multimedia presentation featuring a downloadable car audio tour exploring the cultural legacy of the Small Tract Act in Southern California’s Morongo Basin region near Joshua Tree National Park. Stories from this underrepresented regional history are told through the voices of local residents, historians, and area artists—many of whom reside in reclaimed historic cabins and use the structures as inspiration for their creative work.
Funding for this project is made possible, in part, by a grant from the California Council for the Humanities as part of the Council’s statewide California Stories Initiative. The Council is an independent non-profit organization and a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. For more information on the Council and the California Stories Initiative, visit http://www.californiastories.org.
“The new Ars Electronica Center is a one-of-a-kind facility. Its uniqueness is betokened by its external form. This bold architectural statement is an instant highlight within the Linz cityscape’s ensemble, yet it still sets itself apart at first—none of its edges run parallel, everything appears skewed, elements simultaneously pulling apart and merging together. A structure that’s constantly assuming new forms depending on the perspective from which it’s viewed. And one that withholds revelation of its scope and dimensions until the moment of direct physical encounter.
“More than 5000m2 of glass facade covering the new Ars Electronica Center was assembled with 1,100 LED light strips (RGBW – Red, Green, Blue and White High Power LED`s) . Each of the approximately 4,400 channels (depending 4 Channel light bar) is individually adressable and adjustable between 0-100%. Imagery from patterns to homogeneous color surfaces are possible.”
The whole project was initiated and directed by Le Corbusier, who also created and/or selected the images for the audiovisual show, with the organized sound composed by Edgar Varèse, and the stunning surfaces of the building designed by Iannis Xenakis. The result was a ground breaking immersive environment, since the space of the Pavilion hosted the audio and the visual materials as integral parts of the architectural design.
“Here’s hoping Milwaukee has finally found a public art project that it can embrace. Janet Zweig’s proposal for E. Wisconsin Ave., which goes before the Common Council’s Public Works Committee this morning at 9 a.m. is a quiet, poetic work that will delight and surprise pedestrians.
“Zweig defines the term ‘public’ in ‘public art’ in entirely new and truly meaningful ways. Instead of creating committees that get nominal community “input”, that have token artists offer opinions before commissioning static works of forgettable art, as has been done repeatedly here, Zweig’s art engages Milwaukee in a thoughtful and genuine way.”
Later that same day, Schumacher blogged: “Janet Zweig’s public art project in trouble.” In detailing what happened at the meeting of the Public Works Committee of the Common Council, Schumacher quoted some of the responses at the meeting.
“Ald. Robert G. Donovan left the room, saying, ‘I refuse to have my name attached to something as ridiculous as that.’
“Aldermen Joe Dudzik and Willie C. Wade also objected to the ‘old school’ technology, signs similar to those used in train stations until a few decades ago, which would be used to make animations.”
Prototype of Zweig’s proposed project.
Dudzik and Wade said, according to Schumacher in a related article:
“‘We are taking about a design that holds us back or indicates that we are stuck in the past,’ said vice chairman Ald. Joe Dudzik, referring to the old-fashioned signs that Zweig uses to create short animations.
“‘I am just not feeling it,’ said Ald. Willie Wade. ‘But then I wouldn’t pay 50 cents for the Mona Lisa.'”
I’m not familiar with the situation on the ground, and it’s hard to imagine why a 3-year, $300,000 project appears to have caught the Council by suprise with only one speaker in support of the proposal. Nevertheless, I’m a fan of both Zweig’s work and the “old-fashioned” technology she proposes to use – wonderfully, I think.
When I first saw Zweig’s Impersonator – not in person, unfortunately – I was captivated. The flip technology is best known for its use in transportation hubs, such as train stations and airports, and it is this association that makes it like a sign post for the imagination. What if I was going to Lille today? Where exactly is Strasbourg? How long would it take to get out of town to Chicago?
In Milwaukee, Zweig is proposing a series of animations using the flip signs, as in the example above. I think it’s interesting that the council members apparently complained about the low tech nature of this proposal. For me, it is evocative of the invention of cinema with devices such as the zoetrope and conjures an entire cinema paradiso of imaginative pleasure. When ZER01 presented Peter Hudson’sHomouroboros zoetrope at the 2nd 01SJ Biennial, no one complained about how low tech it was. It was a magical experience.
The geneaology of Zweig’s Milwaukee proposal is from Impersonator (2002), through Carrying On (2004), a 1200 foot frieze at the Prince Street station of the New York subway, which celebrates the significance and individuality of the citizens of New York. In Milwaukee, she proposes to marry the graphic style of Carrying On, with the technology of Impersonator in a kind of homespun, so to speak, cel animation, similar to this unrealized proposal for an airport baggage claim area. Of course, I’d much rather be reading sponsored advertising on a “high tech” screen while I’m waiting for my luggage to not appear after a long flight home from Lille or Strausbourg. . . .
By the way, Zweig’s Impersonator made the top 5 “high tech” public artworks on CNET along with some other amazing projects.
And the internationally renowned artist duo, Thomson + Craighead use the same vendor – one of the few, if not the only remaining manufacturer of this technology anywhere in the world – to create a highly-praised work, Beacon, which has been shown at London’s prestigious British Film Institute and FACT: the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology.
But apparently it’s too low tech for Milwaukee. Or not?
There has been a slew of radical textile projects of late, it seems, although there is always a longer history than we realize: Germaine Koh’sKnitwork, which she describes as a lifeling project, began in 1992. Periodically, Germaine makes an appointment with the registrar at the Art Gallery of Ontario to knit one purl two, adding to her work. More recently, see Cat Mazza’smicroRevolt; Rachel Beth Egenhoefer’sKNiiTTiiNG – knitting for the Ninetendo Wii and virtual knitting; which reminds me of Stephanie Rothenberg and Jeff Crouse’sInvisible Threads.
And there are many, many other projects, but spurred by Forecaster2’s Overview of Nouveau Graffiti, I want to call attention to the blog on Etsy about Magda Sayeg’sKnitta. The intro about “tomasons” is worth quoting:
“‘The apartment I moved into has a tomason,’ said Rachel, my friend Tom’s girlfriend. ‘A what?’ I asked, thinking it was some sort of poltergeist. ‘It’s this old, weird metal thing sticking out of the wall,’ Rachel explained. ‘I’m not sure, but I think it used to be a fixture when there were gas lights.’ ‘A tomason,’ my friend Tom, a book editor, followed up, ‘is a word coined by a Japanese artist Genpei Akasegawa. It’s in this book I’m publishing in June called Portrait with Keys by Ivan Vladislavić.’ According to Wikipedia, Genpei Akasegawa used this word to refer to useless street objects that happen to look like conceptual art.
Tomasons are a little more banal that ghosts, and I’ve found them much easier to spot, now that this unlikely word is in my head. Tomasons now appear before me on my daily walk to work. Before I hadn’t noticed them; they’d flowed together in the continuous stream of my peripheral vision. It occurred to me that they are part of what makes up our general experience of grit and urban decay. An army of tomasons stands silently at attention, arming the city with strong stuff like metal poles and concrete abutments. And then one day, out of the blue, a steel door handle is decked out in a brightly colored knit cozy.
