Karaoke Or Die
Have you already subscribed to the video feeds of ‘Karaoke Deathmatch 100’? If not, do it now, as you don’t know what you are missing. ‘Karaoke Deathmatch 100’ is perhaps the most significant project ever from MTAA (artists M. River and T. Whid). Well-regarded within the new media community for works such as ‘1 year performance video (aka Sam Hsieh Update),’ it is with ‘Karaoke Deathmatch 100’ that they reach an audience beyond this field. Unfolding over 50 days, the ‘Karaoke Deathmatch 100’ features both artists in an ‘alcohol-fueled blood feud […] 50 rounds of sing-along fury,’ to use their own words. Taped live over an 8-hour period, these sessions are screened everyday at midnight (New York time). One sees both artists—one singing, the other seated in the back of the studio—both in front of typically cheesy karaoke videos. Viewers can post comments on the performances and vote on the best performer. T. Whid won the first round (with 21 votes) after singing Guns N’ Roses’ Welcome To The Jungle. One reader commented, ‘It’s like American Idol, only different. I feel like my vote counts here.’ Another noted, ‘You suck and so does Guns N’ Roses.’ The current score is tied at M. River: 6/T. Whid: 6, but the contest is just beginning. The artists, themselves, beg the question,’Who will emerge victorious?,’ decrying, ‘Only YOU can decide.’ So don’t miss any other face-off. Log-on today and participate in ‘the most brutal performance art smack down of the new millennium.’

- Miguel Amado

I’ve organized a conference for my grad students, which is taking place this Saturday, in Williamsburg. These are some of the best students I’ve ever taught and this is certainly the best class ever. In a word, it’s been *legendary* and this conference will be a fun, provocative way to end the semester. It’s my hope that you can join us to participate in lively discussions, offer feedback on artists’ works in progress, and perhaps consume a few bagels and coffees.

TACTICAL MEDIA CONFERENCE
Saturday, April 28, 2007

Presentations on the theory & practice of tactical media and contemporary protest art, by graduate students in the ITP program at NYU’s Tisch School of the arts.

The presenters’ talks will be grouped into three panels, to be moderated by their Professor, Marisa Olson (Editor & Curator, Rhizome), on the topics of Play & Consumption; Fear, Spectacle, and the Media; and the Interfaces and Architecture of Control. These panels will consist of both artist talks and analytical essays and audience members will be invited to give feedback on a few works in progress.

Venue:
The Change You want to See Gallery
84 Havemeyer @ Metropolitan, Brooklyn, NY 11211
L to Bedford o Lorimer, G to Metropolitan, J/M/Z to Marcy
http://www.thechangeyouwanttosee.org

Hours: 12-5 pm, Saturday, April 28, 2007

The TS1000 sold for $99.95 in the US when it debuted, making it the cheapest home computer to date at the time of its launch. The black and white display showed 32 columns and 24 lines (22 of which were normally accessible for display and 2 reserved for data entry and error messages). The limited graphics were based on geometric shapes contained within the operating system’s non-ASCII character set. The only form of long-term storage was to plug into an often unreliable home tape cassette recorder.

What is apparent is that none of these artists are doing exact copies of the works they are referencing. They are however playing with the signature style and brand names in varying degrees. The discussion is not however a blatant crowbar tactic of prying out and smashing property rights. It is an understanding that intellectual property has different degrees of meaning and use. While Tribes’ Port Huron project seems to be a desire to get at the emotional heart of a signifier, Kulik’s re-staging of the Beuys work is an escalation. In Kulik’s piece the animal and the human combine. MTAA seems to be researching the banal in Conceptual Art, updating it and presenting it on the networks as a pointer to the earlier works and yet the meaning is lost in a language game. Paul McCarthy and Mike Kelley are doing what can only be called remixing by taking Acconci and porno and mixing them together.

From the bastard progeny of Marcel Duchamp & the Marx Brothers, the splendid & singular MTAA, comes Karaoke Death Match 100.

[…]

It’s great stuff & clearly one to follow closely — we’ll be returning to them here ‘ere close of play in 50 days. Just want to sneak in, though, that actually I found this quite ahem…er… moving: — the sheer effort invoked in the act of singing; T.Whid’s strange shambling captive bear dance & M River’s weird but somehow totally appropriate sudden & violent changes of dynamics. A bit like Bas Jan Ader falling over, there’s something more here than originally meets the eye & ear, & it’s a lot human & a bit wonderful.

The audio works of TRACEPLACESPACE were formed loosely in response to ever-accelerating technological developments, passing time, urgent ecological issues, and remarkable events of our globally connected system in process long before but brought to the forefront since the latter part of the year 2001. The works of TRACEPLACESPACE are components of a digital, multi-media, network-infused performance of the same title.

I like to perform this work in small community venues, outdoor gatherings, art-spaces, and galleries where everyone is welcome and can sit on the floor, talk to one another, and drink green tea. However I will perform TRACEPLACESPACE approximately anywhere.

1. curse go back.mp3 - 5.4mb : a utopian template
2. uncanny situation.mp3 - 10.1mb : for Jean Baudrillard, 1929 - 2007
3. mary gone deep.mp3 - 6.4mb : because “we cannot fall out of the world”
4. unreasonable things.mp3 - 3.7mb : democracy containment
5. technics and time.mp3 - 7mb : let it take you as far as you can ride it
6. big.mp3 - 4.2mb : exciting times / exciting life
7. six years.mp3 - 7.8mb : …the dematerialization of… - Lucy Lippard

This open-source wiki book is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 License. It is based on the manuscript of New Media Art, a book written by Mark Tribe and Reena Jana and published by Taschen in 2006. The Taschen book is available in French, German, Italian and Spanish in addition to English. This wiki book is not intended as a substitute or replacement for the Taschen book, but rather as an expandable educational resource to which artists, curators, students and others may contribute.

April 12 - May 19, 2007 bitforms gallery nyc

bitforms gallery is pleased to announce a third solo exhibition with Mark Napier, April 12 – May 19. This exhibit marks the New York debut of his new software art and print work.

One of the select few artists whose Internet art has been collected and commissioned by prominent art institutions, Mark Napier is known for creating work that challenges traditional rules of ownership, authority, and permanence. Over the past decade he has developed custom software as an art medium, and this exhibition features virtual objects that hover between the material and immaterial.

“Increasingly we live and navigate in a world composed of energy: electrical, magnetic and light,” says Napier. “Digital media infuse our lives as never before. In this media environment, power is no longer associated with physical objects, but with the persistence of ideas in the collective consciousness of the media.”

[lots more at the gallerie’s web site]