On Saturday, March 22nd from 7pm to 10 pm, OTO is pleased present the debut live performance of Masolit, a new music project featuring vocalist/producer Margaret Jameson (also known as tinydiva), mix master/producer Phil Painson, and guitarist/melodist extraordinaire Tom Jameson. Before forming Masolit, Phil and Margaret performed together at many New York City venues including Bowery Ballroom, Galapagos, Brownie’s, CBGB’s and Fez as members of the downtown ensemble Market. Influenced by a wide spectrum of musical styles embracing hip-hop, funk, old-ass blues, French Impressionism and electro, Masolit seeks to create an innovative original music culture for the masses.

Opening for Masolit will be the Creationists, consisting of Abe Maneri (keyboards) and Tom Jameson (guitar). They will present a set of eclectic preludes comprising both unpremeditated and intelligently designed phases.

Saturday, March 22nd (7pm to 10pm)

7pm The Creationists

8pm Masolit

To hear Masolit’s latest recording “NSA” go to www.myspace.com/masolit or www.masolit.net

OTO is located at 60 North 6th Street (2nd floor) Brooklyn, NY, 11211
L train to Bedford Avenue
3 Blocks west on North 6th - just shy of Kent
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Want @ Beall Apr 3, ‘08

We’re very happy to announce that in our first major collaboration with RSG, we’ll premier a new multiple channel algorithmic video installation entitled “Want” as part of the exhibition “Live” opening April 3rd, 2008 at the Beall Center for Art & Technology.

Watch the ‘teaser’ trailer above. And there’s more here: http://mtaa.net/want/…

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People want what they want NOW. Instinct tells us to get as much as we can as fast as we can – and the Internet obliges. Instant gratification meets infinite opportunity – be it information, commerce, employment, acceptance or love. And yet the majority of bandwidth is dedicated to base human behavior, i.e. celebrity gossip and pornography.

Nobody needs poorly Photoshopped pictures of naked Britney Spears – but hey! If they’re out there, why not look? The Internet gives our less-seemly desires space to grow, allowing us to anonymously indulge curiosities, perversions and fetishes that most would never pursue in a public space. And yet “virtual reality” has ceased to exist. What we think of as the “real world” now encompasses the Internet. We download movie clips and call our co-workers to watch. We shop online and have goods delivered to our home. We meet through matchmaking web sites. No more virtual vs. real. It’s all real now.

“Want” explores the current climate of society over-stimulated by the bombardment of technological instant gratification, and the very definite, yet-to-be-revealed implications and issues of accountability and responsibility surrounding virtuality. Here, the Internet’s underbelly is exposed; pushing the quiet, anonymous behavior that flourishes in cyberspace into public space, forcing us to reevaluate this behavior if it were to take place in the physical community.

The life-sized six-screen video display uses custom software to monitor real time Internet searches. When the software finds a programmed keyword, it triggers a video clip of one of several actors/avatars who translates the virtual request to reality.

A soccer mom says, “I want French.”
A rocker dude says, “I want Star Trek Enterprise.”
A nondescript middle-aged guy says, “I want Little Girl.”
A girl says, “I want Forever.”

The six video screens are triggered almost concurrently, causing the voiced requests to overlap. The result is an audio-visual cacophony of desire; an online echo chamber of warped reality.

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“Want” is funded by a grant from the Creative Capital Foundation. permanent link to this post