Man, I am FEELING IT!
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ashdenizen: is “junk” a celebration or a critique of waste?
‘Junkitecture’ is a clever term, combining design and ‘waste’. But what if the materials used for buildings, for sets, for props, for puppets, for the vehicles and floats of parades, were thought of simply as ‘materials’? Of course, they would have a special value or feel if they had been used for something else. But to call them ‘junk’ is to share the attitude that separates the ‘new’ from what we think of as ‘waste’. What is happening with the use of materials in the arts that have a history can often be more of  a valorisation of consumerism and excess, a celebration of trash as ‘trash’ or salvage, than a critique of waste or an affirmation of recycling.
What if no special claims could be made for using reclaimed or recycled materials because it was commonplace? Then, what would be remarked on would be the design, the space or object itself, and the qualities that the materials brought to it.
The Jellyfish Theatre building was enchanting for its design and for its transiency, a theatre space in a symbolic shape, assembled from what was to hand, played in, and then dispersed, the theatre becoming again the material that it was, maybe to be used again, having acquired another layer of history.
via ashdenizen: is “junk” a celebration or a critique of waste?.
Modern Art
Although many would consider art that has been composed within the last few years as modern, that is incorrect. Art that is being or has been created since 1960-1970 is considered Contemporary Art. Modern Art is art that was created from around the late 1860’s until the 1960’s or 1970’s.
Dubbed “Modern Art” due to the experimentation with paints and other mediums, Modern Art did away with the past reflections and considerations as to what constituted Art. One major characteristic of Modern Art was the use of abstraction. Although their works are not considered Modern Art, the Romantic and Impressionist artists of the earlier 1800’s are thought to be the pioneers of Modern Art. Although Modern Art is considered to have started in the late 1860’s, the term was not used until 1939, when American art critic Clement Greenburg coined the phrase while referring to a piece of art by Jackson Pollack.
Modern Art is also referred to as the art of the -isms. Examples include cubism made popular by Pablo Picasso, Fauvism, created by the young, hedonistic artists in Paris, such as Matisse, and Surrealism, the art that scared and surprised, by such artists as Munch.
Modern Art is not simply exemplified in paintings, but was also shown in free formed abstract sculptures, papier mache, and steel workings. Popular in Europe at the end of the 19th century, the United States did not become a center for Modern Art until after artists moved to America after World War l.
Situation: a review.
I read “Situtation†as I read most books these days: sitting on the Bay Area Rapid Transit, traveling between jobs. It’s the 6-10 jobs that keep my volunteer blogging to a minimum (no regular wifi on BART just yet). Still, I wanted to read– and write about– this book. Because how I read it is also how it’s structured: in small digestible chapters. Because Situation is a compilation of excerpts from primary sources, the words of artists and scholars, here and gone, about context and place in artmaking.
The cited authors range from Lucy Lippard to Hannah Arendt to Robert Smithson (yes, THAT Robert Smithson) to Krzysztof Wodiczko. The excerpts are organized into four parts: “The Limits of Site,†“Fieldwork,†“Action and Public Space,†“Place and Locality,†and “The Curatorial Imperative.†Editor Claire Doherty does an excellent job of chaining seemingly unrelated sources together. And though there’s a lot of complaint about how media and television are affecting literature, that it read like a documentary was pleasant.
On one page I’d be reviewing Smithson’s work with sites and non-sites: on the next I’d be reading Giorgio Agamben’s thoughts on witnessing. The experience was an ever-evolving collage of thought on place. Like a kaleidescope with some of the best thinkers of the last 75 years or so in it. Good for introducing yourself to new thoughts on space. Good for mental niblets between trains. Good for discovering new incredible people.
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Virtual Public Art Project
The Virtual Public Art Project is an Augmented Reality platform for the public display of digital works of art. VPAP is the first mobile AR outdoor art experience ever, and maximizes public reception of AR art through compatibility with both iPhone 3GS and Android phones!
Unlike current AR smart phone utilities that enable users to view a location with an additional layer of information about that location – i.e. information about a restaurant, VPAP creates site-specific sculptures at a location that invite viewers in for close observation from all sides and from multiple perspectives.
Augmented Reality and Public Art
Augmented reality is a view of the physical real-world environment merged with virtual computer-generated imagery in real-time. VPAP merges the real-world physical environment of public spaces around the world with site-specific virtual sculptures that can only be viewed in-the-round using the iPhone 3GS and Android phones when one is at the sculpture’s real-world location.
Geologic City
New Yorkers co-exist intimately with the traces of powerful geo forces. Apartments made of red sandstone from the Triassic (245-208 million years ago) both shelter us and populate our visual space. Rockefeller Center elevates and displays limestone from the Mississippian Period. The iron of the Manhattan Bridge stands as a message from Pre-Cambrian times.
Geologic City: a field guide to the GeoArchitecture of New York will visualize the reality that modern life and geologic time are deeply intertwined. With the field guide in hand, residents and visitors will be able to interact with familiar, even iconic New York architecture and infrastructure in an unexpected way: by sensing for themselves the forces of deep time that give form and materiality to the built environment of the City.
During 2010-11, we will research geologic materials of New York’s architecture and infrastructure and design the printed field guide and a supporting website. The project will illustrate several themes: geologic time is neither inert nor inaccessible; geologic time has composed—and continues to compose—the materials that make New York City; through design, humans enculturate those materials as the city’s architecture and infrastructure.
The City’s architecture and infrastructure depends upon extractions of geologic materials that took millennia to form. Yet, we have virtually no cultural awareness of this reality. Some people argue that this is because humans are cognitively incapable of imagining deep time. We disagree. With this field guide to New York’s geoarchitecture, we offer a speculative tool that humans can use to project their imaginations into deep time as they move through the City. We believe that as works made in response to geologic time become more common, human capacities to design, imagine, and live in relation to deep time will expand.
Geologic City is funded in part by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, Architecture Planning & Design Program, 2011.
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Geologic City: a field guide to the GeoArchitecture of New York is a project of Friends of the Pleistocene (FOP). An illustrated project description can be viewed here.
Project updatese will be posted at fopnews.wordpress.com
For more information contact: Jamie Kruse and Elizabeth Ellsworth at smudgestudio@gmail.com
Life is Living 2010 — A Success in the Making « Josh Healey – Hammertime for your Mind
Great post from Josh Healey on Life is Living 2010
So what sustains life in Oakland? In addition to live performances by local legends The Coup, Los Rakas, and The Getback, in addition to the face-painting and the hip-hop petting zoo (no lie), in addition to thousands of people from across the Bay Area diaspora enjoying a beautiful day at the park, here’s some photos I got that highlight some of the answers we find here in The Town.
Life is Living 2010 — A Success in the Making « Josh Healey – Hammertime for your Mind.
MAS Summit for New York City
This October, the Municipal Art Society will convene its first conference devoted to New York’s livability, examining the challenges the city faces in its seemingly contradictory roles as a growing global capital and as a city of unique neighborhoods.  More than 400 civic-minded New Yorkers and leaders in the fields of urban planning and design, housing, economics, and research and development will gather to discuss whether the many diverse corners of New York can retain a small town feel while facing significant increases in population.
Day One – Thursday, October 21
The Summit will begin by examining who lives in New York, what New Yorkers feel makes our diverse communities livable and where they think New York falls short. Then, the focus will shift to learning how real change is created on a grassroots level with civic participation. Finally, we will explore new media and how its proliferation is transforming the city’s development and growth in surprising ways.
Keynote:           The Big Idea – Livability
Panel:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Release of and Reaction to the MAS Survey on Livability
Panel:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Demographics in a Changing New York
Panel: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Civic Activism in the Spirit of Jane Jacobs
Panel: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Art Works
Panel:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â People Behind the Screens: Social Media and New York City Bloggers
Presentation: Â New Tools for Civic Engagement: Betaville
Evening Program
MASterworks Design Awards, sponsored by Helaba Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen – 6:00 p.m.
Day Two – Friday, October 22
Day Two of the Summit will examine new ideas on how leveraging private investment with public policy is driving the future of New York. Summit panels will address specific issues that are of vital importance to all New Yorkers including access to sustainable housing, preservation of manufacturing neighborhoods, recreation of transportation hubs, and access to public spaces and the arts.
Tours:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Morning Walk or Bike to the Summit (guided)
Keynote: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Public and Private Investment in a Livable City
Panel: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Moynihan Station and the Far West Side
Panel: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Garment District
Panel: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Sustainable Housing
Tours:               James A. Farley Post Office and “Ugly†Streets
Presentation: Â Â Yolanda Garcia Community Planner Award
Keynote: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Reclaiming the Public Realm
Panel:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Vibrant Neighborhoods
Keynote:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Closing Keynote
Art, Justice & Global Aesthetics: The Equity and Diversity Lecture Series
Sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Diversity Committee at CalArts, this lecture series was established to bring renowned artists and speakers to campus to address issues of equity and diversity and their intersections with aesthetics and art making practices.
Chris Abani: Art as Witness
October 20th, 2010, 6pm in the Coffeehouse Theatre
Chris Abani’s prose includes Song For Night (Akashic, 2007), The Virgin of Flames (Penguin, 2007), Becoming Abigail (Akashic, 2006) GraceLand (FSG, 2004), and Masters of the Board (Delta, 1985). His poetry collections are Sanctificum (Copper Canyon Press, 2010), There Are No Names for Red (Red Hen Press, 2010), Feed Me The Sun: Collected Long Poems (Peepal Tree Press, 2010) Hands Washing Water (Copper Canyon, 2006), Dog Woman (Red Hen, 2004), Daphne’s Lot (Red Hen, 2003), and Kalakuta Republic (Saqi, 2001). He holds a BA in English (Nigeria), an MA in Gender and Culture (Birkbeck College, University of London), an MA in English and a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing (University of Southern California). He is a Professor at the University of California, Riverside and the recipient of the PEN USA
Freedom-to-Write Award, the Prince Claus Award, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a California Book Award, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, a PEN Beyond the Margins Award, the PEN Hemingway Book Prize & a Guggenheim Award.
For more information, contact:Â Matthew Shenoda, Assistant Provost for Equity and Diversity/Â shenoda@calarts.edu/661.222.2785Â http://calarts.edu/about/diversity/lecture-series
via Art, Justice & Global Aesthetics: The Equity and Diversity Lecture Series | School of Theater.
Tate Modern closes sunflower seed exhibit to the public – Telegraph
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei carpeted the floor of the Turbine Hall with 100 million porcelain seeds and invited the public to walk across them.
But within days of the work’s grand unveiling, staff reported a fine dust rising from the seeds as people crunched them underfoot. According to health and safety experts, prolonged exposure to the dust could exacerbate conditions such as as asthma.
Read More:Â Tate Modern closes sunflower seed exhibit to the public – Telegraph.