Sunday, November 29, 2009

FUNDREDs

A few weeks ago, a friend and I settled into a lucky of evening contextualized by a warm apartment, plenty of art supplies, and the task of participating in the Fundred project. Please visit their site to learn more about the allusive objects below.
(http://www.fundred.org/)


by Julia Wagner

by Sarah Jensen

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Massazona: Part One

Post Run Art Autonomy Thoughts

Topic: Collaboration.

I was just discussing the concept of collaboration in current art culture with my running buddy. The conversation started when I described the good lecture presented by coordinator, curator, & theorist Nato Thompson last night at MIT. Afterwards, a group of us attendees went for drinks to continue the discourse of the night. While sitting on a local bar’s tuffet, I overheard a conversation stating the transition from a triangular art concept (artist, art theorist/ critic, art historian) to today’s rising standard of art concept autonomy in which artists are self publishing both theory and history, theorists are writing history, and historians are trying their hands more at art creation.

While listening in to that conversation, some associations came to mind:

1) That kind of autonomy is good because it encourages a level of intellectual engagement in the greater art world from individual artists.

2) That kind of autonomy can be dangerous because, instead of bunking down and really developing an idea in focused isolation, the creative time is divided among more attention-requiring tasks.

Which is how we get to collaboration. When the artists et.al. form teams and collaborate, than it is more possible to develop a strong idea while still participating in an autonomous process of presented object, idea, and context. Ideally that process of participation enriches the work and progress is made.

Another benefit to what I think is the modern concept of collaboration is that the name who produces the work is becoming less egotistical thus creating a team out of a hopefully less-aggressively hierarchal assistant structure.

So my buddy, a software programmer, pointed out that programmers are trained early and often in utilizing team structures to accomplish a greater goal. Less ego, more output. Each programmer has a skill set, and each knows that much less can be achieved alone than can be achieved collaboratively. I wonder whether this is ever taught in art programs. I wonder how that idea could work for artists. I wonder if other programmers have had similar positive experiences.

Discuss.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

SHOW: Empty the Fridge

In the nearly-epic summer of 2007, I lived in Portland, Maine and ALMOST went to an open life-model session at Alex Rheault's Drawing Room. Almost. But I ...
1) DID get on the mailing list,
2) DO receive the calls-for-art, and
3) HAVE two small drawings in the current un-juried show,

EMPTY THE FRIDGE @ Art House, Portland ME
November 6th - November 30th

The drawings are from a 2006 undergrad semester. They are in acrylic ink, and sad as I am to see them go, I am pleased that they are part of the Portland collective. Thanks Alex Rheault.

NOVEMBER: Looking Forward.

Although it is officially NOvember, I'd like to be more positive about this month of mind-warming events (think, YESvember)(mm-hmm - I went there), and advertise some thoughtful fieldtrip destinations:

Krzysztof Wodiczko: Porous City @ MIT VAP
November 16th
http://visualarts.mit.edu/about/lecture.html
(see also his show at the ICA)

Riders on the Train @ Axiom Gallery, Jamaica Plain.
November 10 - December 19th
http://www.axiomart.org/
(see also the artist talk on November 20th at 7:00 PM)

Bicycle Film Festival @ The Brattle Theater, Cambridge.
November 21st!
http://bicyclefilmfestival.com/?p=boston

More to be announced as the events come in!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Colorful Thoughts.

1: Why does the emergency text need to be in two orientations?


2. Color Friend! (Thanks, D.Joy.)


Monday, November 2, 2009

TONIGHT: Lecture @ MIT

MIT Visual Arts Program presents another lecture in the series, "City as Stage, City as Process."
Tonight's speakers are Ana Miljacki and Nomeda Urbonas. Their topic will be,
"Protest City " (see description from the emailing below):

Protest City
Ana Miljacki speaks about her project Classes, Masses, Crowds. This project was presented in Making Things Public, a 2005 exhibition curated by Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel at the ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany. Nomeda Urbonas talks about the concept, process, and outcome of the project Pro-test Lab, a multi-dimensional project to save a historical cinema in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Location:
Joan Jonas Performance Hall, MIT Visual Arts Program, Bldg N51-337, 3FL
265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139
(see directions below). Free and open to the public.

For more information:
http://imaginingcities.mit.edu