Written by mediachef
Northern Lights and our partners are sponsoring more than 20 calls for participation in the Northern Spark nuit blanche twin cities. Some are based on specific locations, some on specific media, and others are free form. The deadline for submitting proposals is March 7, 2011. Any artist – or in the case of some of the calls, curator or organization or business – may submit a proposal, but all projects must take place within one of the 6 Festival Zones. More information here.
Written by mediachef
Northern Spark homepage
For one night only, more than 60 regional and national artists together with the Twin Cities’ arts community will display new art installations at public places and unexpected locations throughout the city. Directed and produced by Northern Lights.mn, Northern Spark takes place this summer from sunset on June 4 (8:55 p.m.) until the morning of June 5, 2011 (sunrise 5:28 a.m.).
The Northern Spark event will include a wide diversity of art forms and projects including multi-story projections, audio environments with vistas, installations traveling down the Mississippi on barges, houseboats and paddleboats, headphone concerts, and the use of everything from bioluminescent algae and sewer pipes for organs to more traditional media such as banjos and puppets.
The event is a collaboration of more than 40 partners, each of which will sponsor one or more projects for the duration of the night. The goal is to showcase the urban splendor of the Twin Cities in a unique way, introducing a broad and diverse audience to innovative local and national talent in an inspiring journey through the night.
Participating artists involved in the nuit blanche include Christopher Baker, Phillip Blackburn, The BodyCartography Project, Bart Buch, Jim Campbell, Barbara Claussen, Wing Young Huie, John Kim, Suzanne Kosmalski, Debora Miller, MAW, Ali Momeni, Janaki Ranpura, Red76, Rigo 23, rolu, Jenny Schmid, Andrea Stanislav, Piotr Szyhalski, Roman Verostko, Diane Willow, Works Progress, Marcus Young, and others.
Northern Spark participating organizations include: 1419 Artists in Residence, All My Relations Art, American Composer’s Forum, The Art Institutes International Minnesota, Art Shanty Projects, Beijing Film Academy, Black Dog Cafe + Wine Bar, Burnet Gallery at Le Meridien Chambers Minneapolis, College of Visual Arts, The Film Society Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Forecast Public Art, Franklin Art Works, The Friends of Saint Paul Public Library, Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Intermedia Arts, Kulture Klub Collaborative, Landmark Center, Macalester College, MAW, McNally Smith College of Music, Le Meridien Chambers Minneapolis, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota Museum of American Art, mn original, mnartists.org, Mpls Photo Center, Northern Lights.mn, Northrop Concerts and Lectures, Public Art Saint Paul, Rain Taxi Review of Books, Regis Center for Art, Saint Paul Public Library, Schubert Club, Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory, Science Museum of Minnesota, Soap Factory, SooVac, W Minneapolis-The Foshay, Walker Art Center
Northern Spark is made possible in part by a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature from the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.
Written by mediachef
Thomas Heatherwick, Seed Cathedral, British Pavillion, 2010 World Expo, Shanghai
Time magazine’s annual “50 Best Inventions” of the year list includes Thomas Heatherwick’s Seed Cathedral for the Shanghai Expo. via Archinect
“A house of worship for biodiversity, the British pavilion for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai is constructed of 60,000 light-funneling fiber-optic rods, each with one or more seeds implanted at its tip. British designer Thomas Heatherwick worked with the Kew Gardens and the Millennium Seed Bank project, whose mission is to collect seeds from 25% of the world’s plant species by 2020. The result was a living structure that embodied the Expo’s theme of “Better City, Better Life” and rooted digital dreams in the soil from which all life springs. That combination helped make the Seed Cathedral one of the most popular national pavilions at the Shanghai Expo, where Chinese visitors nicknamed it pu gong ying, the dandelion.”–Time
At the opposite end of the scale, see Amy Franceschini’s Victory Garden Seed Library, exhibited as part of Small Wonders (top center) at the 2010 01SJ Biennial.
Small Wonders, San Jose International Airport, 2010 01SJ Biennial. Amy Franceschini (b. 1970) Victory Garden Seed Library, 2007 (top center)
Written by Steve Dietz
Sorry I couldn't Be there, Project VII, via @Platea
“‘Sorry I Couldn’t Be There‘ is a crowd-created video series. Developed by members of @Platea, the social media art collective directed by An Xiao, the series features artists from around the world explaining briefly why they couldn’t attend #rank and swing by Miami. Ultimately, the video would highlight concerns around geographic access and about who’s left out during large art fairs. For too long, the influential art centers have been located in major metropolitan regions such as New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Paris, London, Beijing and Seoul. We want to highlight the parts of the world where artists are working.”–William Powhida via Hashtag Class.
Written by mediachef
This is an open call for Pixelache Helsinki 2011
“By the mere fact of living an ordinary modern urban life, we produce a huge amount of information about ourselves that we are hardly aware of, nor we usually see or make use of. Through this data we become traceable, accessible, predictable — and clearly enough — ideal clients of information-based capitalism. So if we cannot prevent the production and the corporate or governmental use of this data without changing our lifestyle completely, how can we at least benefit from it ourselves? How can we share this information with the society at large or the community we live in to our common advantage? And how could we even build systems ourselves that collect data for our own purposes?”
The deadline for proposals is Monday 8 November 2010. The application form can be found here.
“Concurrently, the complexity of human actions and interactions increases with the accumulation and growing capacity of the digital tools we are using. We may therefore better understand what’s going on around us if we find ways to visualise and interpret the data which we produce. How can our processes and the correlations of our actions be represented in meaningful and inspiring ways? Are there inventive ways to visualise/represent data that go beyond the pure digital and turn abstract data into concrete entities/objects?”
“map me if you will” is a programme devised by guest curator Susanne Jaschko. Susanne is a Berlin based independent curator of contemporary art with a focus on public and experimental art and digital culture. Her most recent project was the Process as Paradigm exhibition in Laboral Centro del Arte in Gijon, curated in collaboration with Lucas Evers. In addition to her independent work, she has previously worked at the Netherlands Media Art Institute in Amsterdam and as a curator/deputy director of transmediale festival for art and digital culture in Berlin.
Written by mediachef
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.”
Written by mediachef
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Written by mediachef
The deadline for Conflux is now past, but I will be part of the Skillsharing & Conversation Series at Conflux HQ and hope to see you there. I’m really looking forward to finally being able to participate in this stellar event Oct. 8-10.
“Conflux participants will transform New York’s East Village into a laboratory for creative experimentation and civic action. Through public interventions, artist-facilitated walks and tours, interactive performances and installations, bike and subway expeditions, and more, Conflux artists will confront and rewrite the rules of urban public space.”
Written by mediachef
Manchester England
12-15 May
The Lever Prize winning FutureEverything 2010 global festival of art, music and ideas features world premieres of astonishing artworks, an explosive citywide music programme, visionary thinkers from around the world, and awards for outstanding global innovators.
From a Roman feast in a luxury hotel lobby to a revolutionary new way of connecting globally, FutureEverything 2010 brings together some of the world’s most visionary thinkers and artists to celebrate outstanding creativity and innovation in the digital age. The internationally acclaimed FutureEverything Conference features astonishing talks and visionary people in a global conversation on bringing the future into the present.
Download festival brochure here http://futureeverything.org/assets/files/FE10_Brochure.pdf
GloNet
Witness the launch of GloNet, a new way to interact globally, extends the festival via live events in five cities in different time zones, and was developed to respond to needs for festivals to find new ways to be globally connected
Conference
Exploring the interface between technology, society and culture, the internationally acclaimed FutureEverything Conference is the crucible that allows artists, technologists and future-thinkers to share, innovate and interact
Serendipity City
Our main art exhibition, Serendipity City, features architecture-inspired art by leading figures in visual culture, a curated selection of city-drifting mobile apps, jaw-dropping data visualisations and a selection of Award nominees
Agents of Change
Agents of Change transform a secret urban location using spray-cans and perception altering art, streamed live across the city as clues gradually reveal their location, culminating in a public opening on the last day of the festival
Ryoji Ikeda & Konono No.1
One of the world’s leading sound artists, Ryoji Ikeda shows us the pure beauty of data in his stunning audio-visual performance, plus legendary Konono No.1’s distinctive, raw sounds taken from traditional Bazombo trance.
FutureEverything Award
Winner of the debut £10,000 FutureEverything Award is The Eyewriter, a pair of low-cost eye-tracking glasses that allow artists and graffiti writers with paralysis to draw using only their eyes.
The Full Festival Pass is the gateway to the FutureEverything Festival & Conference. With the Festival Pass you have access to all festival events including art, music, conference, opening and gala events.*
Pre-booking Rate — Available till 11 May — ¬£135
Walk Up Rate — Available 12-15 May — ¬£150
Day Pass — No deadline — ¬£100
* Some music and gala events have restricted capacity and will be open to a limited number of Festival Pass holders. An event ticket may be required
Written by mediachef
Spark invites submissions of art, dance, theater, and music works incorporating new media, including electroacoustic concert music, experimental electronica, theatrical and dance works, installations, kinetic sculpture, artbots, video, and other non-traditional genres.
All submissions must be received by May 1, 2010 at 11:59PM Minneapolis Time (CST).
Written by mediachef
Make a wish from your heart, have fun flying a kite, honor Earth Day, and celebrate the arrival of spring. Wishes for the Sky is a free public art event that celebrates inner harmony and community peace. Be a part of this annual day of collective wishing!
11 am to 5 pm, Sunday, April 25, Harriet Island, St. Paul. Directions.
Wishes for the Sky, 2008
Via Kathleen’s album
We make wishes when we blow out our birthday candles. We make wishes in houses of worship. On Earth Day what wish will you make?
Written by mediachef
Marie-Jeanne Gauthé - Fabrice Chouiller, Let’s Play with Time and the Weather. Production : Light Motif. An allegory of passing time and changing weather, this fantasy-filled scenography plays along the façades of Place des Terreaux using combined audiovisual effects. One after another, the buildings are covered with ice, submerged in water, twist out of shape and melt under the heat… In the courtyards of City Hall, a metronome beats to the rhythm of time by weaving a canvas above the heads of the audience.
4 million visitors • 80 light projects • 8 million small candles sold in Greater Lyon • 3.5 million public transport users • 400 000 programmes broadcast on 14 television stations • more than 250 newspaper articles • 11 radio stations • the city hotels full for the 4 days of the Festival • 3 times the turnover for the city bars and restaurants compared to normal periods • 47 public and private partners – Lyons Fête des Lumières
Conception and production : TILT. My Public Garden.
“Place Louis-Pradel becomes a botanical garden with surprising plants made of light and metal. New species appear, like Echinodermus luminis, Carbonium or Ombrellum, and invade the area to build a futuristic décor. This poetic promenade is composed of 21 groups of plant creations, including some that reach eleven meters.” link
Gilbert Moity. The Garden of Flowering Lights.
“The slope of Grande-Côte is home to an extraordinary garden, inviting visitors to daydream and meditate. A fairy-tale promenade that starts at the bottom of the stairs with a green carpet of soft, suspended lights and continues all the way to the esplanade through a field of 44 giant, twinkling flowers in vivid colors, creating a warm, playful atmosphere like the one in a story for children. From the esplanade, you will have a magnificent view of this luminous garden and the entire festive city.” link
Robert Nortik. Sound design: Robert Clerc. La Dolce Vita.
“Inspired by the famous scene from Fellini’s film at the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Dolce Vita plunges the Place des Jacobins and its fountain into the atmosphere of Italian cinema in the sixties. All-around lighting of the site, projections of moving images and original décors will pull you into a whirlpool of joyous, delightful comedy, full of emotion and surprises.” link
4 Horizons - Damien Fontaine. Saint-Jean Cathedral.
“A tribute to the builders who, starting in the 12th century, would take over three hundred years to build the Saint-Jean Cathedral. Two gigantic hands, the leitmotif of this audiovisual scenography, mold the cathedral façade. From the original outline to the final sketch, spectacular effects and breathtaking realism will present the wealth of this cultural heritage.” link
Jacques Rival. 24- 365 Stars.
“365 anchor buoys floating on the Rhône. 365 intensely lighted navigation signals that bob with the continuous movement of the water. The surface of the river is constellated with sparkling white light, like a carpet of stars.” link
Written by mediachef
13th Annual Sublte Technologies Festival
13th Annual Subtle Technologies Festival -Â 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?
Written by mediachef
Sabrina Raaf, "Translator II: Grower, 2004-06" curated by Eduardo Navas for Transitio_MX. "It consists of an interactive robot that responds to the level of carbon dioxide in the room. Quite a popular piece in the exhibit; some visitors, upon learning about the work, exhale in front of the sensor to make the lines as long as possible."
via Remix Theory
Check out more work from the 3rd biennial Transitio_MX.
I will be curating a show of Sabrina Raaf’s work, Experiments in Sustainability, at the Gallery @ CALIT2, including Translator II: Grower as well as some new work she produced this fall during a residency in Denmark working with
industrial robot manufacturer Gibotech A/S, based in Odense to create an installation, where one of Gibotech’s robots is reprogrammed to cut corrugated plastic in large patterns. Over time, the patterns will transform into a sculptural installation spilling out on the floor or the exhibition space, evolving through the exhibition period.
via e-flux
Industrial robot by Danish manufacturer Gibotech A/S cutting patterns for "Meandering River" by Sabrina Raaf.
Sabrina Raaf, Meandering River, 2009.
Written by mediachef
Camera Rosetum, an animated projection by Sean Capone. Photo Juozas Cernius, Caslon Photography, via Art Fag City
Nice photo round up of Dumbo Arts Center, Art Under The Bridge Festival.
Including a performer for Andrea Stanislav’s Reflect, a wandering, multi-part, interactive performance.
Photo Juozas Cernius, Caslon Photography, via Art Fag City
via Art Fag City