On September 5 from 7pm to 10pm, OTO kicks off our second season with EcoArtTech’s “Externalities: Wilderness and its Others”

EcoArtTech (Christine Nadir & Cary Peppermint) continue to rethink relations between humans, technics, technology, and the environment with “Externalities: Wilderness and its Others” a networked, video-based performance piece. The performance will examine the conditions of possibility for getting back to “nature”

Co-founded in 2005 by Christine Nadir and Cary Peppermint, EcoArtTech works with digital, networked, and sustainable technologies and contemporary environments to create art about the environmentality of modern life. Drawing on a wide range of literary, artistic, and theoretical fields, our aim is to imagine new, healthy, and sustainable relationships between animals, humans, and their environments and technologies.

ecoarttech.net

About OTO - Each month the artist collective MTAA convert their N6th St. Brooklyn studio into a venue for the presentation of time-based art.

map and directions

Next up on Sept. 19 - OTO’s 2nd September show with Mike Koller permanent link to this post

Back in 2004, MTAA launched the 1 year peformance video (1ypv). A few months ago the finish sequence became buggy (AKA stopped working) due to ‘undiagnosed server configuration issues’ (yeah, yeah MTAA — excuses, excuses). Although this has been a drag (mostly for T.Whid, all I do is ask Zoolander-like questions, “You mean the files are IN the computer?”) it has given me a chance to chat with a recent 1ypv Hall of Famer named Blake. Up until now, I’ve more or less avoided contact with 1ypv viewers. The silence is for no other reason than the fact that automation is an important part of the work. The wall came down when Blake and a few other recent Hall of Famers contacted us about the bug. It seemed like a good time to ask some basic questions of someone who felt the need to watch T.Whid and I sit around for a year. Following is a brief Q and A with an actual 1ypv survivor. Warning: 1ypv spoilers ahead!

M.River - So, how was the work?

Blake - Honestly, I found it amusing on a few levels: me actually looking at it for lengths of time (more on that with the next answer), the fact of timing it so one sees certain “time appropriate” sequences, (dark at night, etc), and the overall idea of someone (you folks) actually putting the “success” of the execution on the viewer.

MR - What made you decide to attempt a year with it?

B - I thought it was a fun idea; that seems so “unartistic” a response, but hey, that’s the truth of it. I liked the idea of committing myself to something like this (even if passively) for a year just to see if I’d remember to do it.

MR - How did you do it? I mean did you just turn on an old laptop, stick it on a shelf and check back in a year? I think that’s how I’d try it.

B - At first I turned it on everyday at work and let it run for the 8 hour day, checking here and there. off and on (probably for the first half of my viewing) I’d forget a day or two and come back to it. Then, when I decided to quit my job I started running it 24 hours a day in the background, and I was excited when the screens would “buffer” for hours because then I could listen to music without the sounds of the piece. The last 20 or so days were run almost nonstop on my laptop, but I’d take breaks for fear of overheating (I obviously wasn’t concerned with the work computer…ha!). When I realized I could time it to Marilyn’s death date, I started getting strict about keeping stuff running. Also, for the latter half, I’d sometimes watch for 15 or so minutes at specific intervals just to see what loops came up (tossing the wallet and toilet paper rolls were probably my favorites, why I don’t know…)

MR - Is your understanding of the work different after a year than what you expected? I mean, was doing the project different than understanding the project?

B - Well, I liked the ideas behind Tehching Hsieh’s year art, and I knew that since I was only seeing recorded loops (and not even “watching” the whole thing for an entire year) I wasn’t expecting some revelation at the end. I have thought more about time / duration and what delineates art from life (I know, gettin’ arty again), but overall, I am down with the idea of having gotten my name on the wall, as it were. Oh yeah, as a side note, I was kinda hoping that the last minute would have been yet another pre-determined / triggered loop so that no matter what time it was it switched to a sequence where you both approached the camera (breaking the 4th wall / 4th computer screen) to say “congratulations” and then blackout, but at the same time it was almost better that the time just kept rolling as if to say “it’s been a year; so what? think about ~that~, pal!” permanent link to this post

Foto di Achille Filipponi

James Powderly was detained by Chinese authorities in Beijing early Wednesday, according to a message received by Students for a Free Tibet around 5PM Beijing Standard Time, said an SFT spokesperson. The message, sent through the social networking site Twitter, read “held since 3AM”, said friend and SFT board member Nathan Dorjee. Powderly has not been heard from since-more than 24 hours later-and his whereabouts remain unknown, he said.

Photo - GRL in Rome (Enzimi 07)
Students For a Free Tibet (SFT)
Graffiti Research Lab (GRL)


Update According to BoingBoing it looks like Powderly and a few others are going to do 10 days in jail… permanent link to this post

I know that I promised to lay low for the rest of August, but this needs to be blogged!

My friend and über-talented film director Sorrel Ahlfeld has launched a great new video series promoting Barak Obama’s candidacy. Via video interviews, normal American’s give their reasons for voting Obama this year.

It’s called The Reason Campaign.

From the site:

The Reason Campaign aims to encourage substantive and productive dialogue between Americans - red state or blue - concerned about the issues facing our country today.

Currently there’s QuickTime video on the site, but they’re planning on expanding to different formats and streams soon.

Check it out… permanent link to this post

We’ve got two (count ‘em 2) Over The Opening exhibitions happening in September! The first is the 5th with EcoArtTech (aka Christine Nadir and Cary Peppermint) and then on the 19th we’ll be showing Mike Koller (his 2nd show at OTO).

Stay tuned for more details coming soon.

Otherwise, MTAA is going to be laying low until after Labor Day. We encourage everyone to be as lazy as possible for the rest of August. permanent link to this post

And maybe you should too.

http://delicious.com/twhid/del.icio.us+stuff permanent link to this post

Dear anybody that cares,

My email was bouncing. It isn’t anymore. If you sent me email and it bounced. Send it again why don’t ya?

This annoying message was brought to you by T.Whid. permanent link to this post

Photo via T.Whid’s new iPhone

Photo via my old 3.2 Mega Pixel Pentax
…Blog post about the show by Diane Hatz

…background on Cory’s Glockenspiel Addendum
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LOL. Just kidding. But they did sell worldwide distro rights to Sony for what NewTeeVee is reporting as 7 figures. And I’ll bet those figures are numbers with some commas.

Get the lowdown from the horse’s mouth.

Congrats to everyone there. Especially our old Eyebeam buddy Kenyatta! permanent link to this post

An Attempt to Re-film Plan 9 from Outer Space (scenes 1-3) at Light Industry, Brooklyn, NY

Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future. You are interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable. That is why you are here.


An Attempt to Re-film Plan 9 from Outer Space (scene 1)

An Attempt to Re-film Plan 9 from Outer Space (scene 2)

An Attempt to Re-film Plan 9 from Outer Space (scene 3)

Staring
Ed Halter as CRISWELL
T.Whid as DANNY
Thomas Beard as JEFF
Cory Arcangel as OPERATOR
Hanne Mugaas as EDITH
Christopher Fahey as GRAVEDIGGER #1
T.Whid as GRAVEDIGGER #2
and Margaret (tinydiva) Jameson as VAMPIRA
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GRAPHICS INTERCHANGE FORMAT

67 artist-made animated GIFs
Curated by Laurel Ptak iheartphotograph.com
Part of the exhibition Young Curators, New Ideas
Bond Street Gallery
297 Bond Street, Brooklyn NY
Wednesday, August 13 – Saturday, September 6, 2008

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Curator’s Statement:

GIFs are a modest 8-bit-per-pixel bitmap image format introduced to the world by CompuServe in 1987. They have the distinction of being the very first color compression format widely used for images online (predating the JPEG by 7 years). One of the beauties of the GIF is that a single file can contain multiple images shown in a timed sequence, giving the effect of motion, known fondly as an animated GIF. In the ’90s these proliferated onscreen in the form of dancing babies and rotating globes, maladroitly articulating a kind of humanist optimism about the internet. Looking back at them now, animated GIFs seem at once gleefully lo-fi and ineffably poignant, almost desperate to communicate something beyond what the bounds of their humble technology could allow.

Curious how this lo-fi form might fare in a contemporary context, I commissioned 26 photographers, designers, and new media artists to embrace this more than 20-year-old technology. They were given only 3 days to work on their projects and were encouraged, though not required, to incorporate photographic materials. Some had never made an animated GIF before and some were notorious for it. The approaches, aesthetics, and meanings to be found in their GIFs really impressed me. Some use the form epically like a novelist or a film director; others are self-reflective about the limits of technology and representation; many challenge photography’s usual atemporal disposition; and then some just make me giggle.

Their full results are on view at Bond Street Gallery from August 13–September 6, 2008, shown on 44-inch flat screen in an infinite loop. Each GIF is sold in an unlimited edition for $20, accompanied by a personalized note from the artist.

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Featuring work by Victor Boullet, Tyler Coburn, Petra Cortright, C.Coy, Daniel Everett, Thobias Fäldt & Per Englund, Martin Fengel, Jason Fulford, Nicholas Grider, Pierre Hourquet, Konst & Teknik, Eke Kriek, Emily Larned, Matt MacFarland, Katja Mater, Kelci McIntosh, Ilia Ovechkin, Robert Overweg, M. River, Noel Rodo-Vankeulen, Asha Schechter, Trevor Shimizu, Jo-ey Tang, Anne De Vries, Karly Wildenhaus and Damon Zucconi.

I’ll be showing my vacation 08 gifs - vacationoitacav
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