REVIEWS

LISA 2012.

| The 22 Magazine

By Cat Gilbert

The inaugural LISA 2012 (Leaders in Software and Art) brought together a mix of students, professionals  and artists at the Guggenheim this past October to discuss the opportunities and the pitfalls within the realm of software and electronic art. A one day conference that was packed to the gills that founder Isabel Walcott Draves, admitted “next year, we’re going to hold a 2 day conference.” Keynotes were given by Laurie Anderson and Scott Snibbe (creator of Bjork’s Biophila.)

The morning started with an introduction from Draves and the first panel “Collecting New Media Art” which mostly focused on galleries supporting new media artists. While there were interesting and valid variations on what artists sell in this genre, many of the gallery owners admitted collecting and selling new media art is difficult and often molded back into forms of traditional consumer engagement: limited run prints, books, videos etc. They also noted the unique problem of deprecation and works being unviewable once a technology becomes obsolete.

Following was a keynote from Laurie Anderson, whose credentials include NASA’s first (and last) artist-in-residence and well-known musical/artistic innovator. Laurie is an endearing speaker, talented technological artist, and her ability to “break-down” what is sometimes a complex art form is at the heart of why she was keynote at this conference. In speaking about her 2005 World Expo project “Hidden inside Mountains” Laurie zooms through slides, joking about her “hellish” interpretation of the landscape. She also made some mention of her conflict with encouraging young artists at college commencement speeches, in the face of increasingly tough economic conditions for artists.

After Laurie’s speech came the first round of lighting talks. Some of the most interesting insights and projects came from Martin Wittenburg, Philip Stearns, Sophie Kahn, Tristan Perich, Eric Sanner, Claudia Hart, and Jake Barton. Each had a unique perspective on how to utilize technology whether it be through sight, sound, or even emotional response. Some notable pieces include Perich’s well-known compositions using one bit sounds to distort our “reality” of hearing, (see Interval Studies) and Claudia Hart’s avatars plunge into the aspects of the uncanny valley and the idea of “reanimation” and “capture”  that is at once both disturbing and fascinating.

Following the first round of lighting talks, the 2nd keynote address was given by Scott Snibbe. Known as the creator of Bjorks’ interactive album Biophila and currently at work on an app for Philip Glass’s music, Snibbe’s speech was interesting not only in the demonstration of the projects themselves, but in his tough questions about distributing new media art. Snibbe concedes that apps pose the problem of being somewhat gimmicky and proposed creating new, smarter, more complete apps, and perhaps less of them. Certainly that coming out of the mouth of someone who has made a career creating apps must be taken with a grain of salt, but for that same reason, taken seriously. Biophilia is the work of someone with a great love and understanding of the inner working of virtual space.

The 2nd panel of the day focused on creative coding tool kits. Moderator Golan Levin begin with a “builder” apropos quote attributed to Abraham Maslow “To a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail…” In general, the discussion focused mostly on displays of what the programs can do as well as the community usage of the programs.  The evolution of programs like MAX  from Toni Dove to Luke Dubois’ “Hindsight is Always 20/20” is fascinating. Andrew Bell’s commentary on CINDER was also intriguing not only due to the intricacies of the program itself but also due to CINDER being mostly used for advertising purposes. With a palpable sense of duality Bell spoke of the potential but also the limitations to the mass public in comparison to Zach Liberman’s encouragement of something like Open Frameworks being all about community participation.

Following was the 2nd round of lighting talks which typically included more physically manifested ideas. There were notable talks from Kenji Williams, Golan Levin, Mark Shepard as well as Ann Spalter, Karolina Sobecka, Mary Huang, and Kurt Ralskie. The panel was interesting juxtaposition for later questions of how software and media art is producible and profitable within a consumer art world (a question that arose more specifically in the 1st panel “Collecting New Media Art” and most prominently in the last panel “Software Art and Art Establishment.”) Golan Levin, and Huang focused on, among other things, creating clothing and “spare parts” out of 3D printers, while musician Kenji Williams played a brief piece from his (hopefully) Broadway bound work, Bella Gaia, a love letter to the Earth, with a timely focus on the effects of climate change.

The 3rd Panel (Crowdsourced and New Media Art) included Scott Draves (creator of The Electric Sheep), Melissa Mongiat and Mouna Andraos (Daily Tous Les Jours), Jason Eppink (MOTMI) and Fernanda Viegas. Eppink’s projects focused on social trends and engagement from the physical to the screen, including meme based projects and the reanimator lab. Daily Tous Les Jours’ engagement in crowd participation (see swings) through physical manifestation of technology initiated the question, is crowd sourcing  for the “crowd” or about the “crowd?” Other main points included, monitoring trolling and software hacks on crowd sourced work, as well as the authenticity of data collected in crowd sourcing. Viegas’ collaborative project with Martin Wittenberg, Wind Map (left) was also seen this last week in lieu of Sandy and displayed effectively how aggregation can be put to use.

“Media Art and the Art Establishment” was the final event of the day and palpably the most anticipated. Panel members included Amanda McDonald Crowley, Christiane Paul, Barbara London, Marius Watz, with painter with critic Ken Johnson as moderator. Discussion focused on s/e artists struggle for acceptance and placement in an community that sometimes lacks resources to provide the proper staff, technology, and in rare cases, understanding of the work itself. Interesting points included, how shows are curated for anthologies and books. There was a larger discussion about documentation of new media shows and panelist, Marius Watz, lobbied for his show (Electra-Oslo, 96′) as a forgotten precursor to many of the larger scale media shows curated today. In contrast to this debate, one main point that unfortunately was not addressed was media art in relation to public accessibility  By nature there is some exclusion to those without access to certain tools. That being said, it would be wrong to shame this area of the art world for exclusion, as digital art has really only become viably “popular” within the last decade or so and is still evolving and working towards end goals of inclusion for all, or sometimes inclusion at all. More and more efforts are made for public dissemination within schools and it was good to see LISA offer scholarships to students to attend. It would be amazing to see future conferences offered in conjunction with public interactions and displays with the art. Both things that would raise public awareness of and increase understanding of this art form. As this was the first LISA conference the wealth of successful new media artists, information, and discussion it delivered was truly satisfying. The talent and minds going into creating digital terrains and interactions  is every bit as captivating as the strokes of a master painter, or the strikes of a master sculptor. Beyond that, there lie dimensions with media art, that are able to document and rethink the world unlike any other art form and if it is explained to and engages both artist and audience without exclusion, the possibilities for creation are endless.

How to Break at HERE.

| The 22 Magazine

Above: Dan Domingues as Aden and Amber Williams as Ana

         How to Break, HERE’s most recent production, centers on the revolving story of a doctor, 2 patients (one with leukemia, the other with sickle-cell anemia) and a well-meaning artist in residence at a hospital. The show, while focusing on hip-hop, freestyle culture, more complexly focuses on the decision facing a person, particularly a young person, with a fatal disease and a moment of “breaking” for both strength and freedoms sake.
         The show itself is incredibly well suited for adolescents (highly recommend for high school classes,) slightly dull at times for the older crowd, but Jafferis writing is fast paced, funny, if never completely emotionally raw. Part of this may be the nature of utilizing freestyle throughout the piece. While this is definitely a central component in understanding a big part of the “break” of the piece, at times it makes difficult moments funny or more lighthearted than necessary. For anyone who has had, or known someone with cancer, you can’t help but wonder when the true “break” is going to happen and think that when it does…it’s probably not going to rhyme. That being said, grain of salt included, we all cope in our own ways and Christopher V. Edwards says in the director’s note “Everyone involved in the initial collaborative process has been inspired by hip-hop. Some of us breathe it and eat it for breakfast….” so it’s hard to fault her for utilizing freestyle throughout the piece that is based on it. Likewise, the age of the patients also make the flirtatious insult on the playground behavior more realistic and the piece itself, written in part by actual hospital patients through the Mixing Texts Collective project, does speak to Jafferis claim to portray “breaking” as “inspiration, courage, and possibility.”
         The standout actors included Dan Domingues and Amber Williams who portray both the over involved doctor (a bit of a fantasy no doubt) and leukemia ridden Ana, popper, design student, and love interest of Joel played by Perdro Morillo, a professional break dancer who is admirably comfortable in his first acting role.
         The set, a series of medical curtains that range from translucent to opaque were used to highlight the beatboxer Yako 440, playing a nurse character who provided beatbox accompaniment (written by Adam Matta) and sometimes comic relief, as well as the canvas for graffitiesque sketches. Yako 440 definitely could have been utilized more fluidly with the other characters on stage. One of the most interesting moments comes at the start of the play when he tells Ana to “breathe” into the microphone and creates a series of loops from it. And while the setup was interesting and the cast navigated the curtains flawlessly, the opening and closing did at times get distracting. Likewise one wanted to see more physical moments to accompany the soundtrack which was often lost behind the curtains.
         Overall this piece feels like a very dynamic moment set within the context of a beautiful but sometimes misunderstood artistic culture, as well as the experience of facing mortality head on. What is lacking is visceral emotion, is often made up for in surprising moments of writing and acting, and it’s this combination that speaks to the strength of the creators and the cast.

READ MORE ABOUT THE SHOW or BUY TICKETS.

Strange Tales of Liaozhai at HERE (Hanne Tierney.)

| The 22 Magazine

by Cat Gilbert

Strings break. They bend. They lead, and they follow (if prompted.) It was physical strings that brought me to Hanne Tierney’s most recent piece “Strange Tale of Liaozhai” at HERE arts center, (as it did many) and it was more metaphorical ones that lead me to learn her rich history as both puppeteer and person. Known for her elaborate puppet rig utilizing (this time) over 114 strings, even Tierney’s herself in an interview for her past work (My Life in a Nutshell) says “80 strings can tangle, can break, can slip out, it’s such a high risk business that I kind of say “Why am I doing this?” Knowing Tierney’s tragic history of losing her son in Sierra Leone and picking up his designated NY space to create a community art gallery (FiveMyles) that has won an Obie for its ability to energize a transition community, it’s easy to see there is very little that truly scares Hanne.

Whether the audience echos the sentiment of “why” or not, they certainly are aware of the elements of “danger” or at least the intricacy involved with watching three dedicated puppeteers manipulate the medieval mechanism (creaky as a ship but with no threat of storm) that Hanne has created. A self-professed “art performer,” who works in galleries as well as theaters, Tierney’s work, while sometimes autobiographical, is also the product of her love affair with Gertrude Stein’s ideal of theater without actors. “Strange Tales of Liaozhai” was aesthetically driven by Stein’s piece “A play called Not and Now,” which employed ball gowns and tuxedos to create a piece which deconstructed the foundations of theater.

“Strange Tales” uses 18th century folktales to tell the stories of a bad trade among a pigeon merchant, and the story of two lovers (one a fox spirit) who struggle for martial bliss. The pigeon piece does so through shadow screens and the hand drawn visual projections of Hannah Wasileski, while the lovers pieces utilizes the inanimate puppet players in the forms of scarves, bamboo, umbrellas and the like. Both pieces were joined by the complex, strange constructions of Jane Wang, who played a setup that rivaled the string mechanism of the puppeteers in its visual interest and sound. The stories though slow, are poignant and worth the patience of watching, however anyone who has seen (or heard) Hanne’s work, knows that a good portion of the engagement of the audience relies on her beautifully subtle, slightly accented narration, and on the puppeteer’s ghost within the machine movements. The genius behind creating something that resembles the interior of a grand piano, complete with string manipulators is almost enough to capture audience for the full hour in itself.

The “new” puppets in the piece (many of Tierney’s older “puppets”-bamboo poles, beaded curtains made appreciated cameo appearances), were mostly the silk scarves which made up the bulk of the cast. The stage itself was cloaked in purposefully laid cloth, and each main character was represented in choice colors, that changed pattern with movement and time across the stage and in the plotline; the overly doting mother in deep reds and pinks, the brash, fickle uncle in blacks and blues, the young lovers in pinks, sky blues and rainbows, and the fox spirit, a satiny silver.

Jane Wang’s setup included a variety of musical instruments (perquisite toy pianos included) but the most interesting moments came when she engaged the “space plates” (metal plates balanced on balloons, balanced in plastic containers), and more simply in her playing of the upright bass which she plucked to create beautiful movement and drama within the puppet pieces. Jamey McGilray and Shawn Lane helped manipulate the puppet strings and did so with a great amount of grace and ease.

“Strange Tales of Liaozhai” the book certainly relies on a great amount of history (with humans or no) to appreciate its tales and appropriately enough Hanne’s work is no different. Woven within the strings she pulls there are connections to both her past apprenticeship at a spinning wheel factory, her ability to see more than mundane in simple machinery, and her choice to move forward even and sometimes because of the great danger within.

Strange tales of Liaozhai runs through September 22nd at HERE Arts Center. Tickets are available here.

Exploring the Poison Cauldron Poison Cauldron of Newtown Creek with Atlas Obscura.

| The 22 Magazine

By Cat Gilbert

This morning, I joined in on the walking tour held by Atlas Obscura titled “Exploring the Poison Cauldron of Newtown Creek,” the infamous polluted waterway separating Brooklyn from Queens. Starting with a good bit of history, tour guide, activist, and resident Newtown Creek “historian” Mitch Waxman, gave an in-depth look at oil companies in Brooklyn (often referring to John D. Rockefeller, the man behind Standard Oil, as “the monster,”) and traveling the gauntlet of the many spills, explosions, and fires that have ravaged the area. As history passed into present day, so we passed through the back alleys of the oil and waste transfer zone. It was clear, tours were not a normal thing here. In fact, people, in general were not a normal thing. Passing truck drivers leered and then quickly gunned passed. At several points, Mitch paused to give us instructions about what to do if someone started to come after us. Luckily, we passed through with little trouble, sometimes even hailed with a smile and a “Welcome!” The workers seemed friendly enough, even if the landscape itself, was hellish. Peering out from a clearing onto Newtown Creek, Mitch points out the homeless people living in the giant abandoned industrial structure across the river in Queens, and talks about the quantity of bodies littering this waterway. What’s funny, Mitch notes, is Newtown Creek used to be where people visiting Calvary cemetary would come to get out of the industrial hellscape of 1800’s Manhattan. This used to be the country.

Passing from the oil zone to the “recycling” zone seated directly under the Kosciuszko Bridge, was like entering a portal into a dystopian nightmare. Everything was metal, barren, sparks and flames flew out from behind recycled sheet metal walls, the smell was at times, unbearable, and the sound, a loud metallic pounding. This is 24/7 Mitch reminds us, it never stops. Once in a while you had to look out for things like dead cats littering the dirt pathways, already blanketed with trash. Mitch mentioned he had a beer with one of the waste workers the night before to prepare for the tour and when he asked what we can do to help in regards to recycling, the worker’s answer was simple and chilling, “It’s to late. All you can do now is keep recycling and try to make it better for your children.” As we continued towards the end of Meeker ave, Mitch pointed out the homeless camp that inhabited the stretch underneath the bridge, one of the largest in New York.

Entering the coolness of McGorlick park, surrounded by coffee shops and dog salons, we are reminded “This entire tour, even now, we haven’t been more than 8 blocks from Newtown Creek.” Beadel street, where a one bedroom is priced at around $1600, runs directly through the heart of Newtown Creek, and it’s tree-lined tranquility, is truly disturbing in the face of the hostility that surrounds it. Admittedly, it’s easy to forget what surrounds us only blocks away but after this tour, I don’t think there is any way to wipe the memory of what’s there or what exactly our children will be inheriting. It’s encouraging to know people like Mitch are taking the time to educate both residents and visitors to New York. His approach, tempered by a very clear understanding that these industries are important and vital to New York and the community, is to make changes that allow the industry to continue without poisoning the surrounding residents. As Mitch wrapped up the tour he reminded everyone that the Newtown Creek Alliance offers public meetings, to work towards raising money and taking action against things like illegal dumping in the river and much more. Riverkeeper also plays a vital role in this process, and will be having an upcoming beach cleanup in Red Hook. For more information visit. To see more of Obscura’s tours visit their website or sign up for the mailing list.

 

Review: The 5 Degrees of Laurie Amat.

| The 22 Magazine

Vocalist and performer Laurie Amat of San Francisco performed at The Super Coda at Vaudeville Park on April 5, 2012. The show was constructed so that Ms. Amat, along with a standard solo set, improvised with 5 different performers whom she had no previous knowledge of until directly before show.

The performance is described below in degrees.

Degree 1 “The Spark” : Laurie performs Bernd Klug with Prehistoric Horse

This is a quartet. Cello (Valerie Kuehne), guitar (Lucio Menegon), snare drum (David Grollman), and Laurie on vocals. She is jolly. Dressed in black, petite, with close-cropped hair she organizes the stage to her liking. Drums here, no, there, and performers enclosing here. It is the quintessential fire build. The sticks laid, not to many attendees yet but that will change as the fire grows. The show begins with a vocal pieces, somewhat randomly dedicated to the next performer Bernd Klug (an ideal name no doubt for Laurie’s often nonsensical phrasing) and is quickly developed into the in-depth story of THE BERND KLUG. After a few minutes of soft, warming experimentation’s on guitar, drum, and cello, Grollman strikes the match of BERND KLUG. First Bernd is a superhero with a beautiful cape-the flame jumps-now he is a demon, now a battleship steaming against the ecstatic fusion of guitar and cello. Laurie in the center vocally counterpoints Grollman’s tale. Most of her vocals sound like operatic exercises. Her words, though often simply gibberish, are gripping and always slightly on the edge of breaking from beauty to destruction. Now the fire is caught. Bernd Klug is coming, he’s going, he’s hurling fireballs, he’s sinking us all. BERND KLUG is HERE.

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MICHAEL ALAN: The Art Of Life & The Life Of Art by Mark DeMaio.

| The 22 Magazine

Artist Michael Alan is as sincere an individual you’ll ever come across-which seems implausible being as he was born and raised in New York City. His lack of pretense and humble manor belies a quickly rising status. The only child of inventive, and supportive parents and raised in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and the city, Alan was encouraged to explore his creative nature from an early age. Not one to look for handouts, Michael is a self-made success. Having put himself through SVA nightschool (School Of Visual Arts) by working as a club promoter (anyone remember Michael Alan’s Playhouse?), the artist answers to no one. It is precisely this independent spirit that drives him to create, and further his goal to make the world a better place through art. The concept of a Utopia, though lovely, may not be realized in our lifetime and Alan, by making people feel a bit better, perhaps putting a smile on their face and forcing them think when viewing his dramatic, and wholly original work is what makes this selfless artist so unique amidst the clawing, cloying and at times unpleasant business of the art world.This isn’t to imply that Mr. Alan is giving his work away. In fact the last couple of years have seen his works move into the double-digit price range as galleries and museums around the world are quickly catching on, and he is represented by Gasser Grunert Gallery in the Chelsea art district.

In viewing Alan’s drawings and paintings, the elegant lines he puts to paper and canvas are deceptive in their complexity. The works are beautiful at a glance but deserve to be examined closely and at length to realize and appreciate the well thought out details hiding in every piece. Alongside these, Alan’s fully evolved experimental living art pieces known as Michael Alan’s Living Installation are carefully orchestrated and get bigger, and grander in scale with each and every new installment. If you have yet to witness the spectacle of The Living Installation then I suggest you do so as soon as possible. The first time I was watched it I left literally mesmerized. Beginning with a haunting and sometimes humorous soundtrack engulfing the performance space- usually composed by the artist-the first model is in place and Mr. Alan goes to work. It’s not enough for Michael to turn others into art. He methodically transforms a human into human art by applying layers of paint, tubing, fabric, plastic, copies of his works and other materials he needs to complete the transformation. Before the first model is complete he begins work on the second while continuing to work on the first, and then he introduces a third model and so on, simultaneously working on all of the models and the space. In talking about his work Alan says, “I work in five levels like a gray-scale or the variations of tempos on a music album. From a line drawing to a slightly muted drawing to a more colorful denser work, to a collaged, multi-media layered painting, I then bring the work to the public, construct it live on my friends, and finally, take this Living Installation, de-install it and drag it back to my studio and rework the scraps, the photos, the energy of it into the next piece. This is my full circle, there is no order to the circle, which leaves me constantly open. The work is about energy, and drawing from the world, on the world, on people, and then taking parts that had humans activating the work, and reworking them into a new piece. The work in one sense is continuous. A show goes up, comes down, a circle goes round and round.”

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NUIT BLANCHE, Paris, 2011 by Matt Mowatt.

| The 22 Magazine

Nuit Blanche, the tenth annual city-wide art exploration (“art walk” is a gross understatement when over 125 artists’ works are sprinkled all over the City of Light), was a personal success this year than the last (as I was stuck in an apartment with ex-pats waiting to leave for hours as they pre-gamed and played horrible music – see article: Waiting for Nuit Blanche). I took precautions not to invite too many friends and to plan an accurate itinerary of the exploration that began in northern Paris and ended in the center. The journey clocked in at about ten hours, shedding three or four people in the process, leaving me with three others at five in the morning.

Here’s a brief description of the pieces we encountered and where they were located:

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Please Stand By, Readymade777 and Stacia Yeapanis@Baang & Burne.

| The 22 Magazine


This past Tuesday, I met an artist. At an undisclosed location. Without knowing the artist’s name, what they looked like, or even what gender this artist was.

This was readymade777,

….I think.

Known as readymade, readymade777, readymade7777 or sometimes “Dani” (more about that later), readymade remains an anonymous artist in a sea of viral videos. YouTube is littered with these stars. Singers, dancers, exhibitionists and…otherwise…in the hopes of obtaining some amount of internet fame or “fandom”.

And it isn’t to say that readymade is all that different, but we should consider form before function, method before mode.

Readymade has channels everywhere, but you’ll never know it. Utilizing a system that thrives on mass interaction, the tactics readymade insists are the motive behind the work are a collective recognition and a pushing of the boundaries in acceptable “social media,” followed by a lobbing of content out into the world-sometimes just to see how far it will go. Readymade is a convert for Mcluhan’s “cool” media techniques and be it through nostalgia, psychological reaction, consumer recognition, or just pure pleasure, it makes perfect sense that readymade quickly found themselves unwilling to deal with the mainstream slog (via film school) and turned to manipulation and unrestricted input.

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