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Data Sweep: David Bowen

The Esther Klein Gallery at Breadboard is pleased to announce its newest exhibit Data Sweep: David Bowen. An Art in America review described Bowen as taking an “absurdist approach to the translation of scientific technology into art.” Bowen’s work creates a strange symbiosis between technology and the natural world. Mircocontrollers translate the activity of natural agents, like a swarm of flies or live data from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data buoy stations around the globe, into mechanical motion that animates his art.

Data Sweep will be on view at the Esther Klein Gallery (EKG) from January 14th through March 20th, 2011 in Esther Klein Gallery at 3600 Market Street.

Growth Rendering Device, David Bowen

About the Exhibition:

Data Sweep features works by artist David Bowen. Bowen’s work focuses on outcomes that occur when machines interact with the natural world. He produces complex devices and situations that are set in motion to create drawings, movements, compositions, sounds and objects based on their interaction with the space and time they occupy. The devices he constructs often play both the roles of observer and creator, providing limited and mechanical perspectives of dynamic situations and living objects.

Included in the exhibition will be Growth Rendering Device (see image), a system that provides light and food in the form of hydroponic solution for the plant. The plant reacts to the device by growing. The device in-turn reacts to the plant by producing a rasterized inkjet drawing of the plant every twenty-four hours. This system is allowed to run indefinitely and the final outcome is not predetermined.

Data Sweep – List of Works

About the Artist:

David Bowen is an artist and educator. His work has been featured in numerous group and solo exhibitions including: Brainwave at Exit Art, New York; The Japan Media Arts Festival at The National Art Center, Tokyo; Artbots at Eyebeam, New York and Data + Art at The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. His work has been featured in publications such as: Art in America, Leonardo and Sculpture Magazine. He was recently awarded Grand Prize in the Art Division in The Japan Media Art Festival and Third Prize in the Vida 12.0 Art and Artificial Life International Awards. He received his BFA from Herron School of Art in 1999 and his MFA from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis in 2004. He is currently an Associate Professor of Sculpture and Physical Computing at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.

For more information, please visit dwbowen.com

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CalArts Alumnus Stephen Nowlin’s ENERGY Show Extended Through January 23, 2011

Director of the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and CalArts alumnus, Stephen Nowlin (BFA Design 71) has curated a beautiful and multifaceted exhibition, simply titled ENERGY, which is currently on view at Art Center through Jan. 23, 2011.

Nowlin has long been a significant voice in the contemporary discourse between art and science. In his 18 years as director of the Willamson Gallery he has curated a number of exhibitions exploring this relationship, often partnering with colleagues at Caltech, and featuring artists who work at the intersection of art and science.

The exhibition includes two large-scale video and sculpture installations by L.A. artist Rebeca Méndez; a series of works by New York photographer Richard Barnes; small-scale archival videos documenting post-war growth in energy consumption and Cold War fears driving the development of atomic weapons; and artifacts from scientific exploration at the beginning of the modern industrial era.

Finally, to directly connect ENERGY to Art Center’s students, Nowlin invited a class called “Design for Sustainability” to install its solutions to energy-based assignments on a wall in the exhibit. As it unfolds over the course of the semester, the wall continually changes, becoming “like a performance piece”–pedagogy on display. Assignments revolve around a designed product’s extended life-cycle analysis. Working within the context of the exhibition, says Nowlin, “reminds students that if they want to be enlightened designers for the 21st century, they need to understand issues relating humans to their environment. And to do that, they must factor science into their design equations.”

In June 2011 The Institute for Figuring, founded by Chair of CalArts’ Writing Program in the School of Critical Studies, Christine Wertheim, and her sister Margaret Wertheim, will bring their Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef to the Williamson Gallery. Currently on view at the Smithsonian Institution’s Sant Ocean Hall in Washington, D.C. through April 24, 2011, The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef, weaves together strands of art, science, mathematics, and conservation.

More information about the current exhibition can be found on the Williamson Gallery’s website or on its Facebook page.

ENERGY

Willamson Gallery

Art Center College of Design

1700 Lida St., Pasadena

through Jan. 23, 2011

via 24700 » Blog Archive » CalArts Alumnus Stephen Nowlin’s ENERGY Show Extended Through January 23, 2011.

A breath of life by Fraser Ross

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_05vlfm_gTs

A breath of life 2010 [Laboratory Report]

This is an expedition involving the artificial study of plant life.

Materials – Flexinol (shape changing wire), recycled electronic components, specimen jars.

Ten propagated flowers from a living plant. Each flower has a ‘death state’, until human interaction triggers its ‘life state’ and just for a brief moment, you may recapture the flowers in full bloom. When the viewer blows into the specimen jars, each flower begins a shape change. Blowing is the appropriate interaction as trees and plants grow on carbon dioxide.

Every living thing needs a home, plants change themselves to survive in their habitat.

www.fraser-ross.com

YouTube – A breath of life by Fraser Ross.

eco-art course

The 1st International Eco-Artists’ Residency

Call for artists

We are happy to announce the opening of the first international artist residency which specializes in ecological art, in the world.

The Photography & Eco-art Centre, includes a charming and relaxing artist residency which allows the artist to create, explore or fill batteries, in a homely environment.

To apply for the residency please send us information about you and your artistic achievements:

  1. Full name, country, state, address, phones and e mails, website.
  2. Short CV, including a list of solo exhibitions, locations and issues addressed. Short list of group exhibitions.
  3. Abstract of at least two of your main projects ( short description, not more than 300 words each)
  4. Five-ten Photos of your artwork ( JPG, 70DPI), preferred those which are related
  5. to environmental issues and captions/descriptions in a net quality.

Please indicate, what would you like to do while you are here according to priority?

  • Receive eco-art workshops, and/ or an environmental photography workshop, and/or ceramic workshop, or work in a welding and wood studio* ( *only for experienced artists)?
  • Register for the Eco-art course
  • Walks and hikes, create new artwork  ( please describe )
  • Make your research for a new artwork based on the ecosystem near the residency?
  • Volunteer in studio office, in the garden?
  • Make contacts with local artists, ecologists?  Receive environmental consultant for a new artwork?
  • Studying at the eco-art studio, archive and professional library
  • Other?

Please indicate preferred dates and desired length for residency ( minimum a week-two monthes)

Costs: The artist is encouraged to apply for a grant in his/her own country/university/ community. A letter of invitation can be sent to selected artists. Please send request for costs of stay.

The Eco-art Residency is making a huge effort to find grants for needed guests, and is looking for funding.

To support the residency please call- 972-2-9912101

or write to eco.art.center@gmail.com

via eco-art course.

Hands off culture and media in Hungary! – Petitions24.com

Hands off culture and media in Hungary

Artistic freedom and freedom of the press are under threat in Hungary.

If one theatre director can be dismissed for political reasons, anybody can be dismissed for anything: for being liberal or conservative, for having blue or brown eyes, for being Catholic, Jewish, Roma or homosexual.

Art is a profession and evaluation of art is also a profession. Art should be evaluated by professionals, not politicians. If politicians can decide what is good or bad, what is contemporary art and what is not, what is moral and immoral, political control over the freedom of expression will break loose. We had enough of that in the 20th century.

If a politically biased committee other than the court can have legal control over the content of media, freedom of the press will be curbed.

We cannot accept political control in art and media.

(If you cannot sign this petition, try doing it with another browser)

For more infomation go to:

http://www.wan-press.org/article18748.html

http://www.enpa.be/en/news/hungarian-media-law-fuels-international-concern_50.aspx

via Hands off culture and media in Hungary! – Petitions24.com.

CicLAvia on Kickstarter

Earlier this year, Los Angeles hosted it’s first CicLAvia — an event which closed off 7.5 miles of city streets to cars for a full day allowing cyclists and pedestrians full use of the roadways. It was a huge success with over 100,000 residents showing up on 2 wheels rather than 4. Yes, this happened in Los Angeles, dare I say one of the most “car-positive” cities in the world. The organizers are working on plans for the next CicLAvia for 2011 and have teamed up with Kickstarter to help raise some funds. They are hoping to bring in $5K, and have a bit over $1K right now.

CicLAvia on Kickstarter – Boing Boing.

CSPA Supports has launched!

The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts is pleased to announce a new initiative: CSPA Supports.

“The CSPA Supports grant program is designed to support the projects of our members as they consider issues of sustainability (ecological, economic, or cultural) in their professional work,” comments Miranda Wright, co-founder of the CSPA.

“Since founding the CSPA, it has been our goal to offer grants or commissions by re-investing a large percentage of any profit we earn back into the arts.   We hope this initiative will enable artists to work on projects that are meaningful to them, and projects that could impact the public’s perception of what sustainability means.”

Artists from all genres (and cross genres) are encouraged to apply, including those working in public art, installation, live performance, or digital work. Applicants must be current members of the CSPA.  Members of the CSPA receive a variety of other benefits, including an annual book selection, subscriptions to the CSPA Quarterly and Mammut Magazine, monthly e-newsletters, and opportunities to submit articles, essays, and information to the CSPA’s multi-faceted knowledge network.

Grants will support materials, creative fees, documentation, travel, and communications related to a proposed project.  International applications are accepted, and projects may take place anywhere in the world.  The application consists of an online form, short essay questions, and a proposed budget. The deadline for round one of CSPA Supports is March 1, 2011.

To join the CSPA, visit www.sustainablepractice.org/join-the-cspa

To apply for a CSPA Supports grant, and for grant guidelines, visit www.sustainablepractice.org/cspasupports

Art in the Climate Change Village in Cancun | Inhabitat #COP16

A pop-top snake god? This alien creature was one of a number of interesting installations placed on show at this year’s COP16 Climate Change Village. Located between the UN Conference’s official venue and downtown Cancun, the bustling village hosted workshops, films, conferences and eye-catching art installations from all over the world. Never one to pass up the chance to take some art snaps, Inhabitat was on-site to document all of the excitement — jump ahead to see more of the fantastic creations!

Check it out here:  COP16: Art in the Climate Change Village in Cancun | Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World.

CSPA Quarterly: Calls for our next two issues

We are now accepting submissions for our next two issues:  The last of 2010 focusing on International Action, with a special section dedicated to COP16 Cancun, and the first issue of 2011 on art that makes the invisible visible.

International Action

Please share with us any work that creatively addresses global issues in sustainability.  We are particularly interested in projects happening outside of the United States that pay attention to global dilemmas including global warming, rising sea levels, disappearing cultures, and economic divides.  A special section will be dedicated to work at the UN’s Conference of the Parties, summit on climate change in Cancun in December.

International Action Deadline for Submission:  January 10, 2011

Invisible Visibility

For this issue, we are interested in art projects, installations, and performances that visualize invisible threats to our environmental, economic, or cultural sustainability.  How can our creative industries call public attention to major issues that are easy to ignore because they are ‘out of sight, out of mind?’

Invisible Visibility Deadline for Submission:  February 1, 2011.


The CSPA Quarterly explores sustainable arts practices in all genres, and views sustainability in the arts through environmentalism, economic stability, and cultural infrastructure.  The periodical provides a formal terrain for discussion, and seeks to elevate diverse points of view.

Please send your opinion articles, project case studies, researched essays, and photos to: Miranda@SustainablePractice.org.

To view past issues, along with our current issue on digital work, please visit:  http://www.magcloud.com/browse/Magazine/38626