2009 Forecast grantees Grace Davitt + Anna Metcalfe collaborated with Redeemer Lutheran Church + Redeemer Center for Life to host weekly outdoor dinners with one of a kind handmade ceramic tableware. At the last dinner participants were invited to take the dinnerware home with them to keep memories of the warm summer nights alive through the winter. Karis Thompson shares impressions of the event. “A perfect summer evening for a meal outdoors. Tables draped with linen and set with handmade ceramic dishware, each uniquely designed and glazed. A menu showcasing locally raised meats and the harvest of urban gardens prepared collaboratively by seasoned and emerging chefs. Music inspiring conversation and movement. Neighbors and friends from near and far eating together, talking together – the meal and conversation extending well past the typical 20-30 minutes usually allocated for dining and ending only when all the food has been eaten or the sun begins to set. How does this happen? And how did this happen in the Harrison neighborhood of North Minneapolis, a community whose median income and lack of whole foods offerings too often force a diet of affordable, accessible processed and fast foods? It happened through the power of people and their connections and collaboration. Through Grace and Anna who wanted to explore the synergies of community and art and slow food and invested much in the conceiving and realization of this Thursday Nights Out venture. Through the commitment of neighborhood community gardeners – organized by Harriet – who lent their particular gardening wisdom and hours of cultivation to produce a striking harvest from the garden in Redeemer’s backyard.  Through neighborhood and visiting chefs passionate about recipes and taste and nurturing family and friends. Through local farmers who raised meat and produce for our table. Through volunteers gathering to cook and set tables and host a meal and wash dishes and greet neighbors from early in the morning to late in the evening each Thursday. And through a community’s openness to new recipes, new ways of cooking and eating, new conversations and relationships, and collaborating through different ways of perceiving, communicating, interacting. Thursday Nights Out gave us a taste of being and becoming a community nurtured by inspired food and the power of relationships.” -Reflection by Karis Thompson 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 Germaine Koh’s Journal on mobile signs. Germaine Koh, Journal Steve Lambert’s equally funny mobile arrow sign. Steve Lambert Finally, straight from the horse’s mouth Robert Fleege, What makes outdoor so powerful Which is proved by the ban on public billboards in Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo, no billboards btw, Discenza is selling limited edition prints of his signs for a new project. Help support his habit. 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). 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. 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.” More installation views here. 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. https://northern.lights.mn/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. Monday, November 16, 2009 Good progress installing FEEDFORWARD – The Angel of History at LABoral. Lots of artists in town now. Crew doing a remarkable job. 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. 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 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. 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. 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: 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? 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 Nonny de la Pena and Peggy Weil, GONE GITMO, 2007 Hasan Elahi Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2006, 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 From the Limit Telephotography series: Morning Commute (Gold Coast Terminal) / Las Vegas, NV/ Distance ~ 1 mile/ 6:26 a.m., 2006 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 T+T (Tamiko Thiel & Teresa Reuter), Virtuelle Mauer/ReConstructing the Wall, 2009 Carey Young, Product Recall, 2007 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. or even than this miniature version by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, also at Munster: Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, "Daniel Buren," Munster. Photo: Stephen Vitiello From:    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 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. Monday, November 16, 2009 Go to https://northern.lights.mn/aov2/apply 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. 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 https://northern.lights.mn/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. 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: Participation in the fellowship programming is not optional and can only be done in person. 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 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. 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. Applicants must be: Artist proposals are sought through an open call. 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. Proposals will be evaluated primarily based on their excellence and applicability to the program (see “Project Criteriaâ€). In addition, each proposal should demonstrate and will be evaluated on: Selections will be announced by December 15, 2009. (Include all of the following. All files should be sent as .PDF files.) 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 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. Email AOV[at]northern[dot]lights[dot]mn with any questions. Photo: Stephen Vitiello Northern Lights has commissioned renowned sound artist Stephen Vitiello to create a new multimedia work based on Very Low Frequency (VLF) recordings and filming of the aurora borealis. Last week, Stephen traveled with cinematographer Matt Flowers to Fort McMurray, in Alberta, Canada. From: Stephen Vitiello Stephen Vitiello. Photo: Matt Flowers Hi Steve, just thought I’d give you a report. So far, so good. No Aurora but lights from rainbows, oil refineries and cars approaching on a quiet road at night. As we left Calgary, a wolf was running along the side of the runway, just before the plane took off. It’s cold – generally about 20-30 degrees F. Yesterday it snowed some. We feel like we’re just getting a feel of the place. Today is Thanksgiving here so it’s very quiet. Fort McMurray is a strange town. When I told the customs agent where I was going, he sort of laughed. Maybe it’s like telling someone you’re going on vacation to New Jersey. The sky is supposed to clear up by tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll see something great. Photo: Stephen Vitiello Photo: Matt Flowers Martin Sobey curb art. via Good. Wooster Collective interviews Martin Sobey about what might be called his uplifting random acts of art. via Good This curb shot reminds me of Natalie Jeremijenko’s NoPark project, which returns “‘no parking zones’ — mostly those associated fire hydrant placement — to low growth mosses and grasses.” Natalie Jeremijenko, NoPark “These micro engineered green spaces prevent storm water run off, use foliage to stabilize the soil, and to provide a durable low maintenance surface cover. These microparks continue to provide emergency parking space for fire trucks and exasperated Fresh-direct delivery persons. But the other 99.9% of the time they now do something more. For all the same rationales that apply to green roofs, greening the no-standing zones is a good thing. Practically, noPARKS capture more water than green roofs (not being limited to carrying capacity of the 2â€, 4†or 6†of soil that roofs require). These no parking/standing zones are often situated where water collects, capturing the oily runoff from the road before it runs into the river. noPARKs recharge and replenish soil moisture on the block important to trees — even yards away — to help them dilute the gallons of uric acid poured on city trees plots each day by friendly neighborhood dogs. Less water puddling decreases pedestrian slipping hazards. Lastly, the noPark reduces the number of standing water pools that are left for days, which are the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. In this way, the noPark may reduce the need for widespread fumigation to combat West Nile virus in New York City.” via xClinic Are you an emerging artist? Do you work experimentally at the intersection of art, technology, and digital culture with a focus on network-based practices that are interactive and/or participatory Do you live in Minnesota? Would you like $5,000? I can help answer at least some of these questions. Come find out more about the new round of Art(ists) On the Verge grants. Information session – Influx, Regis Center, Univeristy of MN at 12 30 pm this Friday, October 9. Everyone welcome. “During their September 24, 2009, meeting, the Directors of Jerome Foundation awarded a one-year grant … to Northern Lights in support of the Art(ists) on the Verge Fellowship/Commissioning Program for emerging Minnesota artists working at the intersection of art, media, technology and social practice.” Thank you Jerome Foundation. A full call will be sent out in the next few days. A sneak peak is here. Past AOV grantees here.
Signs of the times
Cited – The Angel of History
AOV 2 info sessions
Art(ists) On the Verge 2
Application Deadline
Exciting!
Installing FEEDFORWARD
Different urban screens
FEEDFORWARD – Angel of History
Walter Benjamin, from On the Concept of History, 1940FEEDFORWARD – The Angel of History
Cleaning up after the 20th century. What is progress now?
Artists
Coming/Leaving, 2008
Liverpool animation, 2008
Blast-Off, 2008
Tracking Transience: A Month of Sundays, 2009
DMSP 5B/F4 from Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation (Military Meteorological Satellite; 1973-054A), 2009
Large Hangars and Fuel Storage / Tonopah Test Range, NV/ Distance ~ 18 miles/ 10:44 am, 2005
White Star Cluster, 2008-2009
Is and isn’t so Daniel Buren
Looking for aurora borealis.2
Subject: Â Â Â Re: financial update (so far)
Date: Â Â Â October 14, 2009 11:18:29 AM CDT
To: Â Â Â Steve Dietz
Cc: Â Â Â Matt Flowers
Announcing Art(ists) On the Verge 2
Deadline
Application Online
Informational Meetings
Art(ists) on the Verge Background
AOV2 Fellowship Program
“Exhibitionâ€
AOV2 Project Criteria
Eligibility
Selection Process
Jury
Evaluation
Notification
Checklist for AOV2 Application
Artist Statement
Project Proposal
Work Samples List
Bio + Résumé
Budget and Timeline
References
Contact
Support
Looking for aurora borealis
Subject: Â Â Â report so far
Date: Â Â Â October 12, 2009 12:33:32 PM CDT
To: Â Â Â Steve Dietz
Cracks in the matrix
Art(ists) On the Verge info session
https://northern.lights.mn/programs/aov2/
Thank you Jerome!
