Northern Lights.mn announces the Spring Howl Telethon, a live televised variety show produced by Northern Lights.mn partner Minnesota Community Network Channel 6 (MCN6) to support Northern Spark and Northern Lights.mn programming.
Featuring:
John Gebretatose of HUGE Improv Theater and Blackout Improv as host!
26BATS! as house band!
Ifrah Mansour as Spring Howl poet!
Sami Pfeffer as the Telephone Operator!
A reprise of the 2013 Northern Spark Kazoo Band led by Scotty Reynolds!
Guest stars!
Spring Howl is free to attend and will be broadcast live on May 21, 2021, 7:30 – 9 pm on MCN6 and the Northern Lights.mn Facebook page.
Spring Howl Telethon
May 21, 2021, 7:30 – 9 pm
FREE to watch live!
Watch: Minnesota Community Network Channel 6
Watch: Spring Howl Event Facebook page
RSVP to our FaceBook event to get frequent updates on the line up!
Register now on Eventbrite and make an early donation to be eligible for door prizes drawn throughout the event.
Including:
- A cocktail kit from Crooked Waters distillery or Du Nord Craft Spirits
- A $100 gift certificate to Solo Vino Bottle Shop in St. Paul
- A year of beans from Big Watt Coffee
- A year of beer from Fulton Brewery
- More to come!
Spring Howl Telethon supports the artistic programming of Northern Lights.mn, the producers of the beloved Northern Spark festival, Illuminate the Lock and Art(ists) on the Verge fellowship among other projects.
Ben Moren, Watercourse
“. . . an immersive paradoxical scenario that explores human perception, simulation, time and scale shifts, preservation, and our relationship to the natural environment.”
Watercourse
Watercourse is a large-scale multi-screen sculptural projection which depicts a section of a river endlessly looping back into itself. As debris flows down the river, it continually loops around and around, locked in a constant state of motion. Watercourse recontextualizes a free flowing, summertime river scene into a frozen Minnesota winter site. In tandem with the projections, multichannel sound creates spatialized acoustic environment, which tracks and flows with the water and debris. The combination of the river loop, site specificity, and sound treatment create a displacement, where one environment is isolated and simulated within another. Watercourse creates an immersive paradoxical scenario that explores human perception, simulation, time and scale shifts, preservation, and our relationship to the natural environment.
Ben Moren
Ben Moren is a Minneapolis based media artist working at the intersection of filmmaking, performance, and creative coding. His projects investigate the disappearing separation between the digital and natural worlds.
Illuminate South Loop
Watercourse is part of Illuminate South Loop, a three-day event at Bloomington Central Park (8100 33rd Avenue South) in Bloomington’s South Loop District from February 1 – 3, 2018. This creative placemaking initiative focuses on leveraging the power of the arts, culture and creativity to engage the community.
Eric William Carroll and Wil Natzel, Empty Space
The Milky Way is 1,093,000,000,000,000,000,000 football stadiums wide.
Empty Space
Empty Space by Eric William Carroll, in collaboration with designer Wil Natzel, is a multimedia installation that bridges the scales of astronomical and minuscule space and time with objects on a human scale. The journey begins with a corridor that guides the audience into a planetarium-like dome. Built into the architecture of the walkway are a series of “equivalents”–text that compares galaxies with atoms and everything in between (e.g. “The Milky Way is 1,093,000,000,000,000,000,000 football stadiums wide.”). The dome itself is an 18 foot wide geodesic, which recalls both an historic Bubble Chamber as well as a planetarium which serves as a theater for Empty Space. From the outside the viewer will see the colors and rough shapes of a video being played outlined by the frame of the architectural structure. Entering the dome, viewers will sit along the perimeter and watch the video projected onto the ceiling and walls. Carroll’s renditions of the Big Bang and other scientific phenomena will play out over the course of a couple minutes, utilizing stop-motion animation and lo-fi effects from the 1970’s and 80’s, creating a psychedelic combination of science with science fiction.
Artists
Eric William Carroll’s work on photography, science, and nature has been exhibited widely, including the New Orleans Museum of Art, Aperture Foundation, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Born and raised in the Midwest, Carroll currently teaches at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Wil Natzel straddles the line between art and architecture with his interventions that resuscitate the brutal boxes contemporary cultural has scraped of all embellishment. His studio uses contemporary digital tools in unexpected ways with unusual materials to manifest new realities to spectacular effect. A graduate of the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Wil has designed and created large public projects for The Soap Factory, Northern Spark, and SooVAC. His work has been featured in Wired, MN Original and numerous design blogs.
Illuminate South Loop
Empty Space is part of Illuminate South Loop, a three-day event at Bloomington Central Park (8100 33rd Avenue South) in Bloomington’s South Loop District from February 1 – 3, 2018. This creative placemaking initiative focuses on leveraging the power of the arts, culture and creativity to engage the community.
Neighborhood Climate Change
… capture climate change and the struggle to control it at the local level, as it appears as part of everyday life…
The world often equates climate change with distant, dire circumstances: polar bears in the Arctic, penguins in the Antarctic, deforestation in the Amazon, the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef. While these are indeed worthy concerns, we are interested in our – and your – “neighborhood.”
What are the signs of climate change that you notice when you are riding your bike to the grocery store or walking your dog in the evening or in your garden out your back door or that place you’ve always visited for the last decade? What are the steps your friends are taking to limit their carbon footprint? What are some of the actions you see neighborhood organizations taking to mitigate climate change?
We asked photographers from around the world to document such occurrences; to capture climate change and the struggle to control it at the local level, as it appears as part of everyday life.
On the night of Northern Spark, the entire collection was projected at Golden’s Lowertown.
You can also view the collection online at: Neighborhood Climate Change tumblr, and other social media channels:
https://www.facebook.com/NorthernSparkMN/
https://www.instagram.com/northernlights.mn/
Neighborhood Climate Change is part of the programming for Northern Spark and Climate Rising | Climate Chaos.
Water Bar & Public Studios, Anthropocene Water Stations
Water Bar & Public Studio is a bar that serves free local tap water.
Thirsty? Fill up your water bottle at one of three Anthropocene Water Stations created by Water Bar & Public Studio. These stations are spread throughout the festival, each one featuring a drinking water selected to illuminate connections between land, water, and society in the anthropocene epoch. Pick up a free publication created by Water Bar artists and scientists.
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Water Bar & Public Studio is a bar that serves free local tap water. It’s also an art space and incubator of collaborative projects on water, place, and environment. Led by artists Shanai Matteson and Colin Kloecker of Works Progress Studio, Water Bar works with a diverse network of partners, including other artists, science researchers, environmental advocates, and our neighbors in Northeast Minneapolis and across the state of Minnesota.
In addition to our storefront taproom and public studio, we bring our pop-up Water Bar to other places and communities, working with local organizations to create projects that build relationships with and in place.
Water Bar & Public Studio is an artist-led Public Benefit Corporation. We sustain our storefront space and community programs by providing creative services to other businesses and organizations, through strategic partnerships with nonprofit organizations and government agencies, and investment from others who value what we’re building together.
Links
Christine Baeumler, Backyard Phenology: Tracking Nature’s Cycles in a Changing Climate
Backyard Phenology, focuses on place-based observation and study of seasons and cycles of the natural world.
Backyard Phenology: Tracking Nature’s Cycles in a Changing Climate demonstrates how art, science, and place-based observations can come together to catalyze awareness of and action on climate change.
Artist Christine Baeumler teams up with scientists Rebecca Montgomery (forest ecologist and head of MN Phenology Network), Nicholas Jordan (agricultural ecologist), Kate Flick (Natural Resource Science student) and Beth Mercer Taylor (sustainability educator).
Phenology involves observation of the timing of phenomena such as leaf expansion and flowering of plants, and of weather events such as frosts and extreme storms. It is simple to practice and well suited to citizen science: participants are invited to monitor local effects of climate change through the use of an issued calendar.
Backyard Phenology’s Climate Chaser Mobile Lab made its debut at Northern Spark to record people’s observations and perceptions about our changing climate as well as a place to share their theories of change. Phenology “Passports” were issued with the schedule of monthly phenology workshops in the Twin Cities. Participants get their passports stamped when they attend an event. Over the next year, the project will host a series of seasonal workshops, which will feature experts in topics such as bird language such as animal track recognition. Participants will record observations of phenology data in the lab on the Nature’s Notebook online and will be invited to share their images and audio recordings for inclusion in a multi media artwork.
The Climate Chaser Mobile Phenology Lab returned to Northern Spark 2017, alternating between a space to listen to recorded climate change stories gathered over the past year as well as share stories of environmental observations.
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Artist: Christine Baeumler
Science collaborators:
Rebecca A. Montgomery, Nick Jordan, Kate Flick, Beth Mercer-Taylor
Team Credits:
Fabrication of mobile phenology unit:
Troy Gallas and Patrick McKennan, ThreeSeven
Graphic Design: Holly Robins, This is Folly
Additional phenology team members:
Mae Davenport, Francis Bettelyoun, Chris Buyarsk
This project has been funded in part by the University of Minnesota Faculty Imagine Fund and The Institute for Advanced Studies Research and Creative Collaborative.
Links
Northern Spark at B-Lectric festival
“. . . winter [is] a defining key to our cultural imagination, one that must be cherished even as its existence is threatened by global climate change.”
B-Lectric
Northern Lights.mn and Uptown’s French bistro, Barbette, are teaming up to host B-Lectric, a winter celebration of art and light this January. B-Lectric is proudly a part ofThe Great Northern festival, 10 days of signature events and new programming in the Twin Cities. Showcasing the North at its wintry best, this collaborative festival aims to give residents and visitors a reason to get outside, get active, and enjoy the incredible winter season.
Northern Lights.mn sees winter as a defining key to our cultural imagination, one that must be cherished even as its existence is threatened by global climate change. For B-Lectric, Northern Lights will construct custom ice walls that at sunset will become projection screens for a variety of light-based projects. Highlights include Joshua McGarvey’s Ice Fall-Feel the Change, which allows audiences to feel glaciers calving as they lean back into sound beds, and a documentary compilation by local curator Graci Horne, which will showcase new footage from the ongoing pipeline resistance at Standing Rock, North Dakota. In addition, Art Shanty Projects will transform surfaces into creative community spaces that are part art gallery and part social experiment. For B-Lectric, they will aim to engage participants in story writing with Sesa-station Story Shanty, encourage free-spirited dancing with The Dance Shanty, and connect writers and readers of literature to share performances with the Vehicle of Expression.
To round out the afternoon, DJ sets from Jake Rudh, performances from Infiammati Fire Circus, and mini obstacle courses designed by Sloppy Loppet will keep guests entertained. Barbette will provide a menu of oysters and kafta, along with a full bar featuring hot cocktails and Shotskis available for purchase. Fire pits and a yeti will be scattered throughout the event, keeping guests warm.
Joshua McGarvey
Ice Fall – Feel the Change, 2016
Video projection and sound beds
When glaciers calve, hundred thousand ton icebergs fall hundreds of feet into the sea while tourists watch from their boats. Ice Fall – Feel The Change is a sensory experience that allows you to feel the process of calving lying against a bed of sound.
Joshua McGarvey is an artist living and working in Minneapolis. He holds an MFA from the University of Minnesota and was a 2016 Art(ists)s On The Verge fellow.
NASA Climate Change Data Visualizations
Some of the most important research on the state of the planet is performed by NASA. [At least it used to be.] This is a selection of videos and animations different NASA entities have created over the past several years. For more information see https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Record-Breaking Climate Trends 2016. Rising Temperatures and Shrinking Sea Ice.
Aqua/AIRS Carbon Dioxide with Mauna Loa Carbon Dioxide Overlaid. A NASA/university study of the first-ever global satellite maps of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere has revealed new information on how this key greenhouse gas linked to climate change is distributed and moves around our world.
A Year In The Life Of Earth’s CO2. An ultra-high-resolution NASA computer model has given scientists a stunning new look at how carbon dioxide in the atmosphere travels around the globe.
Carbon Dioxide Sources From a High-Resolution Climate Model. Animation of carbon dioxide released from two different sources: fires (biomass burning) and massive urban centers known as megacities. The model is based on real emission data and is then set to run so that scientists can observe how the greenhouse gas behaves once it has been emitted.
Heating Up. The temperature changes shown here are relative to the average temperatures observed from 1971-2000.
Megadrought. Megadroughts have more than an 80 percent likelihood of occurring by the end of the century under the high emissions scenario.
The Ocean – a driving force for Weather and Climate. Without the ocean, our planet would be uninhabitable. This animation helps to convey the importance of Earth’s oceanic processes as one component of Earth’s interrelated systems.
Arctic Sea Ice from January 1, 2013 to September 10, 2016. Every summer the Arctic ice cap melts down to what scientists call its “minimum” before colder weather begins to cause ice cover to increase. The first six months of 2016 have been the warmest first half of any year in our recorded history of surface temperature (which go back to 1880).
Annual Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 1979-2015 with Area Graph. An animation of the annual Arctic sea ice minimum with a graph overlay showing the area of the minimum sea ice in millions of square kilometers.
Does What Happens in the Arctic Stay in the Arctic?. Ice albedo feedback.
How Climate Warming Stacks Up. Skeptics of manmade climate change offer various natural causes to explain why the Earth has warmed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880. But can these account for the planet’s rising temperature? Watch to see how much different factors, both natural and industrial, contribute to global warming, based on findings from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
No Dakota Access Pipeline, No Pipelines Period
Curated by Graci Horne, No Dakota Access Pipeline, No Pipelines Period is a collection of images and videos from indigenous artists: Michelle Latimer, Ben-Alex Dupris, Nikila Badua, Myron Dewey, and Graci Horne of the Oceti Sakowin (Oh-Cheti Shock-oh-wee) Camp and frontlines on the Standing Rock Dakota, Lakota, Nakota reservation.
Graci Horne, Black Elk’s Vision, 2016
Black Elk’s Vision of the sacred hoop broken was to show his people when it broke and how it could be mended. The stills and poem are imagery of how we are mending as a Nation.
Poem by He Sapa Win/ Black Hills Woman/ Paula Horne (Mother)
Photos by Mato Hezi Win/ Yellow Hair Bear Woman/ Graci Horne (Daughter)
Michelle Latimer, Nimmikaage, 2016
Images of the natural world alternate with archival footage of Indigenous women asked to perform in traditional roles for an audience.
Ben-Alex Dupris
Nikila Badua
Myron Dewey
Grace Horne is a curator who was born and raised in Minnesota. Her bands are the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota people and Hunkpapa Lakota/Dakota people.
Miko Simmons
Atavism II, 2017
Single channel video
Ancestral voices guide us through the mists of time to reflect a deeper understanding of our relationship to Earth’s life sustaining interconnection between water, spirit, and self evident truths, thereby exposing our celestial amnesia of the exchange of natural beauty for disconnected progress. An atavistic journey that calls us to inner reflection, contemplation, and ultimately healing the planet.
Miko Simmons is an international award-winning multimedia artist,animator, and composer educated in physics and art, who has been blurring the lines between art and technology, theater and cinema, music and visuals, media and medium, for more than 15 years.
Wapikoni Mobile
Mobile studios fully equipped with cutting-edge technology that “travels to” First Nations communities and works with Aboriginal youth to make films that reflect their reality and culture. 32 communities from 10 different nations visited in Canada. 25 communities from 10 different nations visited in the rest of the world.
Inuk Hunter (Le Chasseur Inuk), 2016
Film directed by George Annanack
4 min 5 sec
Kuujjuaq, 2016
Film directed by Sammy Gadbois
4 min 54 sec
A video essay about the perspective of a teenager on his hometown.
Kupanishkueu, 2016
Film by Mélodie Jourdain-Michel
4 min 37 sec
By drawing a parallel between the life of her great-grandmother and hers, the director says in this documentary essay how she is inspired by the strength and courage of her ancestor Kupanishkueu.
Eshi Mishkutshipanit (Lifestyle Changes), 2013
Film by Nemnemiss McKenzie
5 min 9 sec
Through images of traditional snowshoes Gregory Ambroise shows life as it was long ago, in contrast to the contemporary way of living.
Finding the Light, 2013
Film by Emilio Wawatie, Raymond Caplin, Shaynah Decontie Thusky
4 min 1 sec
Three indigenous teenagers from Québec journey to Scandinavia and discover many similarities between their culture and the Sami culture of Finland.
I’m Beginning to Miss You, 2013
Film by Sakay Ottawa
3 min 23 sec
Sakay shares through a poetic and sensitive testimony, the sudden disappearance of his brother.
Marina Zurkow
Slurb, 2009
Single-channel HD animation, color, sound)
17 min 42 sec
The animated, carnivalesque tailgate party of Slurb loops and stutters like a vinyl record stuck in a groove. Slurb––a word that collapses “slum” and “suburb”––encapsulates a dreamy ode to the rise of slime, a watery future in which jellyfish have dominion.
Hydrocarbons, 2012
Single-channel animation, color, sound
2 min 32 sec
Extracting and manipulating a clip from “The Inside Story of Modern Gasoline” an industrial film (1949), endless chains of anthropomorphized hydrocarbon molecules dance until they blot out the screen. Hydrocarbon chains are the base material for all plastics. They know not what they become, they simply proliferate.
The Poster Children, 2007
Single-channel version of 4-channel video animation, color, silent
9 min
Part of a series of animated paintings whose themes circulate around apocalyptic fantasies of the deluge and climate change, of water, ice, animals, and people.
The Thirsty Bird, 2012
Animation, black and white, silent
5 min 12 sec
The movement of a pump jack (known colloquially as a “thirsty bird”), and a public water fountain are synchronized in a delicate dance. As the pump pulls oil upward, the water fountain spurts water. An array of archetypal individuals emerge in endless succession to drink from the fountain.
Marina Zurkow is a media artist focused on near-impossible nature and culture intersections. She uses life science, materials, and technologies—including food, software, clay, animation, mycelium, and petrochemicals—to foster intimate connections between people and non-human agents.
WHERE: Outside at Barbette 1600 W Lake Street Minneapolis, MN
DATE: Sunday, January 29
TIME: 4:30 – 9:30pm (Projections begin at 5:30pm)
COST: Free
Click here for Facebook event
Living Banners and Words for Winter on Nicollet Mall
“Winter ahead.”
Words by local artists and poets take over Nicollet Mall January 30 – February 5 as part of The Great Northern. Presented by Northern Lights.mn, Living Banners by Piotr Szyhalski, and Words for Winter by 17 local poets make us think about this defining season of the bold North.
Living Banners
According to artist Piotr Szyhalski, this sweeping, poetry-inspired art installation “wrapping” Nicollet Mall between 5th and 12th streets.
“is simply about language. The malleability of it, the organic, living, evolving nature of words and meanings; of ideas occupying spaces between words. With regard to Nicollet Mall, I immediately thought of the construction site as a kind of grand metaphor for how we “work things out” in our heads when we attempt to express something complex, nuanced, or important. There is a kind of struggle that is taking place in constructing an idea.”
Click here to read more in Living Banners: A Conversation Between Piotr Szyhalski and Steve Dietz.
Piotr Szyhalski is the Polish-born, U.S.-based multimedia artist who established the Labor Camp—an ongoing art project that includes interactive components (digital and physical), original music, performances, videos, printed ephemera, texts, a blog, and an archive of online resources.
Words for Winter
Words for Winter, is collection of short poems by 17 local writers displayed on electronic road construction signs, all responding to the prompt, “what does winter mean to you?”
Brave Crow is a two-spirit Lakota poet enrolled on Standing Rock.
Heid E. Erdrich is a writer and interdisciplinary artist (Ojibwe enrolled at Turtle Mountain) who teaches in the Augsburg MFA program.
Sarah Fox is the author of Because Why and The First Flag, both from Coffee House Press.
Hassan Hussein is a writer, assistant professor, and business development director was born and raised in a rural village in Oromia, Ethiopia. He writes to gain a better understanding of himself and his surroundings.
Sarah Myers is a playwright from Chicago who teaches at Augsburg College.
Miss Brit is a Twin Cities based poet, TV/radio personality, actress, entrepreneur, creative consultant and community organizer.
Moheb Soliman is a poetry-based interdisciplinary artist whose work is oriented by issues of nature, modernity, identity, and belonging, recently culminating in projects about the Great Lakes borderland.
Lara Mimosa Montes is the author of The Somnambulist (Horse Less Press, 2016).
LianiRey is an Afro Taina Latina living in MN by way of The Caribbean and Washington Heights, New York.
Lula Saleh is a writer, singer-songwriter, organizer and poet of Eritrean and Ethiopian background, and a third culture kid who was born and raised between Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Addis Ababa, and London.
Sagirah Shahid is a Minneapolis based poet. You will be able to find three more of her poems shaped into giant metal lanterns along Nicollet Mall later this year.
Sun Yung Shin is the editor of A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota, the author of poetry/essay collections Unbearable Splendor; Rough, and Savage; and Skirt Full of Black (all from Coffee House Press), a co-editor of Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption, and the author of bilingual illustrated book for children Cooper’s Lesson.
Mary Austin Speaker is a poet & book designer.
Elle Thoni is a Mississippi River watershed based playwright, performance-maker and feminist producer.
Joel Turnipseed is the author of “Baghdad Express: A Gulf War Memoir” and “Zen Arcade: A Novel.” He lives in Northeast Minneapolis, where he is curator of the Cultivate Northeast project.
Elisabeth Workman is the author of ULTRAMEGAPRAIRIELAND and ENDLESSNESS IS NO DESOLATION; she teaches creative writing at MCAD.
Ahmed Ismail Yusuf is a local writer, who was born and raised in Somalia. His collection of short stories is set for publication in August 2017.
ARTathlon
ARTathlon
January 9, 2016
Bdote / Fort Snelling State Park
Free including park entrance!
Grab your winter gear and join us for a play day outside. ARTathlon is NL’s contribution to Winter 4Play at Bdote / Fort Snelling State Park.
Join us for a chance to win medals in a competition of putts, texts, ping-pong, drumming and more on our artist-made course.
Featuring:
Alyssa Baguss, Text Me
Jess Hirsch and Emily Stover, Cultural Healing Exercise V1. V2.
Niko Kubota, Tree Taiko Challenge
Meena Mangalvedhekar, KhaChinga
Robin Schwartzman, Arctic Golf
Monica Sheets, Free Speech Machine
Moheb Soliman, Littering with Nature
Peter Haakon Thompson, WinTTer
Winter 4Play is a project of Make It. MSP. and is presented by Greater MSP, Mississippi Park Connection, National Park Service, Northern Lights.mn, REI, and Wilderness Inquiry, with the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Ruination: City of Dust
“Contemporary environmental science informs the sci-fi narrative, while elements of art intertwine with physical and mental challenges.”
Ruination: City of Dust
On October 18 and 19, 2014, nearly 400 people time traveled to the year 2314 to explore the ruins of Minneapolis, a city abandoned and covered in dust. Teams of explorers braved the harsh conditions to dig the ruins, searching for answers about which of six Deadly Problems brought the city to its final ruination.
Ruination: City of Dust is a multiplayer mystery game played on bicycles, using the landscape of Lake Nokomis and Minnehaha Creek as a game board. Contemporary environmental science informs the sci-fi narrative, while elements of art intertwine with physical and mental challenges.
Statistics from the game:
- Explorers who entered the dust-laden future terrain: 380, in 86 teams
- Minimum number of deadly problems: 6
- Boron particles (bouncy balls) retrieved and contained: 91,200
- Pounds of carp consumed: 12
- Plastic bags in the Nokodust Gyre: 312
- Precious water vials earned and spent by explorers: 1800+
- Dustbasin rovers lost to the quick dust: 0
- Old power plants set afire by flaming dungballs: 0
- Performers: 16
- Contributing artists and designers: 11
- Volunteers: 33
- Explorers who broke a limb before the event and played remotely: At least 1
- Bike tires used in installations: 70
- Watercolor postcards printed and mailed: 154
- Varieties of seeds vended: 12
- Types of garden herbs tasted: 4
- Number of bees harmed: 0
- Pounds of sand used in installations: 2,600
- New organizations to follow on social media: 2
You can visit the Ruination website at ruination.mn. Take a look at photos from the event on our Flickr page, and upload your own photos to our Flickr pool. Updates about the game are posted on our Facebook page. You can find out about future events like this by following Northern Lights and the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District on Facebook, or by subscribing to the NL and MCWD newsletters.
Credits
Ruination: City of Dust is produced and presented by Northern Lights.mn in collaboration with the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District and game designer Ken Eklund, in partnership with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. Support for Ruination: City of Dust comes from a Bush Foundation Community Innovation Grant.
Ken Eklund: Game Designer
Erin Lavelle: Art Director
Tim Cronin Hnilicka and Jeff Hnilicka: Graphic Design
Dusty Hoskovec: Photography
Hal Lovemelt and Hamil Griffin-Cassidy: Video Production
Digs and Challenges
Molly Balcom Raleigh:Invasive Species Edible Art
Tony Chapin: Echo Trace Markers and Stenciling Assistance
Neal Cuthbert: iPad Holsters
Understory
Jake Davis: Understory Sound Design
Michael Murnane: Understory Lighting Design
Rehm Design Team: Understory Well Design
Performers
Parker Anderson-Genne: Nokodust Gyre Challenger
Windy Bowlsby: Dungballs of Doom Challenger
Molly Budke: Understory Cyborg
Beverly Cottman: Video Narrator
Gaea Dill-D’Ascoli: “Zar,” Bushwhack Alley Challenger (Lake Nokomis)
Lauren Fechner: Reactor Pool Breach Challenger
Katherine Glover: Nokodust Gyre Challenger
Karin Haase: Understory Beekeeper
John Heimbuch: Understory Cyborg
Soozin Hirschmugl: Cryptoglyph Cafe Challenger
Damian Johnson: Video Narrator
Ted Klyce: Live Echo Trace Farmer
Thalia Bea Kostman: Dungballs of Doom Challenger
Emily Lund: Understory Gardener
Peter Rusk: Understory EcoHank
Breanna Schneidewent: “Raz,” Bushwhack Alley Challenger (Minnehaha Falls)
Natalie Wass: Understory Community Organizer/Survey Taker
Links
Jim Campbell, 8 1/2 x 11
This light sculpture features an array of LEDs hanging from the ceiling of the Union Depot Waiting Room, which display dynamic figures floating across the sculpture. Take some time to hang out and watch this mesmerizing work.
Robin Schwartzman, SubPar
“SubPar treats the building itself as a rube goldberg contraption for delivering golf balls from the second floor to the first floor.”
Like Molly Reichert and Sean Higgins’s Boolean View, Piotr Szyhalski’s Malignum Aditum Puncti, and Aaron Dysart’s Second Growth, Robin Schwartzman’s SubPar punctures Alma Lights to connect two spaces. What is different about untitled is that rather than revealing hidden aspects of the building’s architecture it obfuscates them, even creating a dummy ball run on the first floor. untitled is a site for activity not, necessarily, contemplation. It treats the building itself as a rube goldberg contraption for delivering golf balls from the second floor to the first floor. And as you avidly watch the ball’s route, in fact, your attention is drawn to different elements and artifacts of Alma Lights. What was that wall groove for? Where did that lampshade hole come from? Was there a gutter inside the building somewhere and if so, what for? To play SubPar is to puzzle the building. Enjoy.
Stephen Vitellio, aurora borealis
“No aurora but lights from rainbows, oil refineries and cars approaching on a quiet road at night.” – letter from the artist
aurora borealis
If the UnConvention (2008) became a template for many future Northern Lights.mn platforms, aurora borealis was an early object lesson in unlearning the meaning of “failure.” In 2009, NL’s first commissioned art project was for sound
artist Stephen Vitiello with cinematographer Matt Flowers to create a composition based on Very Low Frequency recordings of the aurora borealis (northern lights). They flew to Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada, in October, and this is an excerpt from Vitiello’s report from the field:
no NL to be seen. . . . I can certainly make something but it’s more of a ‘waiting for the lights’ piece.” In the end, the only presentation of the project was a couple of blog entries. Initially disappointed, we soon came to recognize this as not failure but a fundamental aspect of commissioning art. Not unlike a science experiment, a result different from what is hypothesized is still valuable if the process is well executed.