Part 2: The Monitor Show

posted by on 2010.12.10, under art, exhibition, video

The first four videos in my project “i dream in your language” will be included in Part 2 of TBA: A Group Video Show in 7 Parts at Kristi Engle Gallery, in Highland Park (North East LA). The opening is this Saturday Dec. 11, 7-10 pm, and the show is open everyday 12-6 pm through Dec. 18. View full schedule of this 7 part show here. For those of you out of town, you can watch the videos here.

Vivarium Documentation

posted by on 2010.11.29, under architecture, art, exhibition, Sound Design, video

I finally edited the video footage I shot of this past year’s Vivarium installation at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. The Vivarium is an installation by Matter Management exploring biology, technology and mythology in a complex architectural and multi-media environment. I developed the sound design for the project, which involved inventing a system to monitor the biology in the black pyramid and to use that data to both generate and modify audio signals. The sound included audio amplified from the biology itself, sounds I had previously recorded, and sounds generated by software using the data captured. I developed the data system using Max/MSP.

For more information on my sound design process, see my previous post Sound from Diagrams and The Vivarium.

Really, really, really loud in Los Angeles

posted by on 2010.11.16, under art, exhibition, music, performance

When the official flyer from MOCA cautions that the use of earplugs is strongly recommended, you know something other than a bit of classical music in the park will be going on. This was the situation last weekend down in Los Angeles’ State Historic Park (screw that, I am still calling it The Cornfields) when MOCA organized a re-creation of Iannis Xenakis’ Persepolis, a multi-track experimental music/space/sound composition.
I rolled up late, because I did actually turn back to pick up my earplugs (musicians gotta protect the ears you know), but couldn’t find them. The place was pretty crowded when I got there, and the sun had recently set, so light was fading fast. Walking toward the park, you could hear a low thrum, and I followed the rest of the stragglers into the park. As luck, and most likely insurance riders, would have it, ear plugs were being handed out at a MOCA info table. I plugged em in, and walked into a landscape made of noise, grass, and crowd.
I am not sure I have fully digested this thing yet, but I can say for now that it was an experience, a physical, visual and audio experience on a pretty intense level. I tested pulling the earplugs out from time to time, as I was worried I was missing the highs of the sound. And it was loud, so very very loud. Sometimes bearable and OK, but without warning, a super high pitch would drift in and threaten permanent damage.
I wandered around, as the work sprawls over the park, with speakers on posts set up regularly spaced around the area. There were searchlights and fog machines, at first seemingly doing their own thing, but later working in concert with the sound to create a frenzy of stimuli.
Later there were pillars of fire. There was subtle sound in the giant noise, lots to keep you interested, and enough change to hold me there through the entire duration. It evolved, peaking with the sweeping searchlights, then backing off just a bit to hold for a while before it all simply stopped.
These videos are nothing like it, of course. But, they give you a glimpse into the idea. Sadly, I didn’t catch a shot of the Gold Line train cutting across the edge of the field right behind the huge crowd – which was very surreal.
Well, this is a very disjointed post, but like I say, I have not digested it yet. May write more on it later when I have thought about what exactly made this so spectacular. Or maybe I will keep that to myself.

That Ship Has Sailed

posted by on 2010.10.29, under art, culture, exhibition

Early last month I stopped by Machine Project in Echo Park to check out the ship that was rumored to have been built inside (and through) their small storefront space. The opening was packed, with crowds spilling out onto the street, and as soon as I strolled in I could see why – there was in fact a rather large ship taking up most of the space inside.

The ship, an installation by Josh Beckman called Sea Nymph, served as the site for seven weeks of maritime themed programs. Events ran the gamut from crocheting jellyfish, to lectures on navigation or pirates (the hacking kind though I believe), to a puppet show about Moby Dick. Unfortunately, that ship has now sailed, as it was taken apart last weekend. So – if you have not yet seen Machine Project’s majestic sailing ship, you will have to be satisfied with these here photos and videos.

As per their usual mode, Machine managed to cram art/craft/academics/tech and pure joy into an ambitions project, and then stretch it out over a couple of months of interesting programming. Take this as a lesson – if you can get to the next seemingly crazy thing they put on in there, you be sure not to miss it this time.

Images from Rise Open Studio

posted by on 2010.08.25, under exhibition, rise info

Thanks to everyone who came out to our open studio last week, we had a lot of visitors and a great time in general. For all of you who somehow missed it (like, you must have missed your plane from Logan or something and we are sorry if that is the case but if so hopefully you spent the day at the Bunker Hill Monument and the USS Constitution or something and everything is cool) – here are some photos from late in the day, and some images of the little print demo we ended up doing. Metallic inks on green origami paper are super cool BTW.

Rosalyn Myles came by for the day, with her collage works, fabric dolls and various pillow items. Catherine Garrison also came by and ran the printing table, which continued all day. Rise member Mike Feldman stopped in for a while and did some printing as well.

Jeremy’s CDs, DVDs, photos and RV cards (those last coming soon to the Rise Online shop)

Jeremy studio with posters, Interlopers series and “Transference”, sound installation

Michele studio, The Storm video playing on her computer, passport project and family/identity based projects on wall.

Sitting around the printing table after the open studio.

Some of our prints:

This one may form the basis for a metal grille cover soon.

Had a tough time with the gold leafing..

Powder blue on kraft paper was a big hit.

Mike put some filth on our dental floss. Awesome.

Michele made a great border, suitable for diplomas and other such official paperworks.

Some of Rosalyn Myles’ collage work

Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof

posted by on 2010.08.21, under architecture, art, culture, exhibition

Bruce Nauman show at Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin

I’m in Berlin till the end of August, as part of the Takt artists residency.

I learned that the German idiom Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof which means I didn’t understand anything except for the word Bahnhof, (train station) amounts to the English idiom It’s all Greek to me. There are certainly many days when pretty much the only German word I understand all day is Bahnhof.

Hamburger (…er) Bahnhof, former train station and now major contemporary art museum, was such a pleasure to see. Something happens to me when I go out to see art in places like this in Berlin, and I have to be careful because I am easily swept up in the musuemy glitz of it all, but I get a good feeling. It’s a feeling that completely goes against my more suspicious media literacy instincts. I sometimes get the feeling that the museum cares a lot about the work they’re showing, and that the artist deserves such resplendent spaces to let the work shine. I get a feeling that the work is a precious thing, and not in a negative way. I feel like an art rock star fan, and it feels good to feel this way.

Zarina Bhimji Waiting 2007 still. From film installation in "Who knows tomorrow" at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin

But… as I saw more of the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection, even though I was pleasantly overwhelmed to see so many famous contemporary works presented together, many pieces I’ve only seen in books, I was a little miffed to see so few women artists. This collection, (even though this was only some of it, its being presented over 6 years) seemed limited in social and cultural scope. I also learned more about the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection and the controversy surrounding it. His grandfather Friedrich Flick’s steel company was a major weapons supplier to the Nazi Regime. This article by interesting blogger Ivar Hagendoorn covers the first show of his collection at Hamburger Banhof, in 2004, and goes into the controversy a little more . Honestly, as a baby to Berlin and German cultural understanding, all I can think is, at least the money used for evil is now being used for good. What a simplistic thought. Ich verstehe nur bahnhof.

My disappointment at the scope of Flick’s collection was healed a bit by the Who knows tomorrow piece Waiting, by Ugandan artist Zarina Bhimji. The work is a very large projection of 35mm film representing the workings of a sisal factory in Kenya. The piercing beauty of the images illuminate the inhumane history of the industry. Who knows tomorrow is a Berlin citywide exhibition of African artists taking place this summer.  Below is from the WKT website.

“At the exhibition Who knows tomorrow, Zarina Bhimji presents her film installation Waiting (2007), for which she studied the facts of this portion of colonial history at length. Although invisible in her film, it still accompanies it like a melodic theme. Zarina Bhimji visited sisal-processing factories near Mombassa, Kenya, some of which originate from colonial times. The beauty of the architecture, the bright, hot light and the simultaneously quasi-paralyzing atmosphere together with the minute movements and the sensitive details of the colors, the walls and the utensils focus the viewer’s gaze on the beauty of the material. Introduced by the Germans to the German colonies in East Africa in the 1890s and still grown on the plantations today, the material is used for ropes, cords, sacks, and carpets.The beauty of the sisal’s texture conjures up memories of hair, lending life to the material that takes on an abstract quality. The artist’s pictures and her sounds address the viewer in a highly emotional manner. The power of Zarina Bhimji’s works is based on their sensuous and seductive imagery, inseparably tied to the tragic and melancholic sadness and burdened by history.”

Open Studio August 14th

posted by on 2010.08.12, under culture, exhibition, rise info

Once again, Michele and I will be hosting an open studio at our lovely loft in the Arts District. This time, we will be surrounded by a festival-type atmosphere, as Bloomfest will be going on in the Arts District, and Nisei Week will be starting up in Little Tokyo – so there will be plenty to do when you get tired of perusing the local artist studios around the area. Though, it may make parking a sort of challenge.

I will have some sound installation/sculpture work I have been making lately on display, as well as some posters, CDs and cards (the RVs!) for sale. Michele’s recent work exploring language, translation, and family will be up and on some of our video monitors. We might even get down to some lino cut printing during the day, so maybe you can see us cut up and print some stuff in person.

On top of all that, our friend Rosalyn Myles will be there with some of her handcrafted fabric dolls and things for sale. So come on by, even if its just to chat and have a drink before exploring the festivals.

We are at:

837 Traction Ave. Suite 307. LA 90013 There is a call box outside to dial up on, and we will stick a sign on the sidewalk so you don’t miss us!

The open studio runs from 12-7 pm.

There is a handy map on the postcard as well.

Lenticularis at Sci-Arc gallery

posted by on 2010.08.02, under architecture, exhibition

We went over to Sci-Arc last week to check out the current project up in their gallery space, Lenticularis by Hitoshi Abe. The project is a large scale mock-up of a proposal for the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center plaza in Little Tokyo, originally designed by Isamu Noguchi.
Based on a particular type of cloud formation that sometimes appears over mountains (I have seen some great examples out in Anza-Borrego State park), the quasi-functional sculptural object will span over the plaza, providing some shade, some views of a curious object from the street, and reflecting both plaza and sky in the middle. Checking out the 1:7 scale version at Sci-Arc, we couldn’t help but see strong similarities to the work of sculptor Anish Kapoor, and wonder how it will serve to mitigate the summer heat of the plaza, or shelter it from winter rains (part of the brochure from Sci-Arc describes it as a ‘roof’ which responds to the plaza being “too exposed to the climate of Los Angeles”). I am pretty curious as to how it would come off at full scale, crouching over the plaza, and a bit skeptical of it all as anything but a beautiful sculptural object. This unveiling also served as a presentation to the clients, so it remains to be seen whether they are sold on it in this form – if so, I might be able to check it out there myself in a little over a years time.

LA Downtown Arts District Art Walk this Saturday

posted by on 2010.06.25, under art, culture, exhibition, rise info

Rise Industries (well, Jeremy and Michele at least) will be opening their studio for the Arts District Art Walk tomorrow from 2:00 pm – 6:30 pm. Stop by, have a drink or snack, and check out what we’ve been making. Prints, cards, CDs and DVDs will be for sale too. Download map here.

The Everyday Exchange at MEME

posted by on 2010.06.24, under art, exhibition, performance

The Everyday Exchange will be at MEME next week!

The Everyday Exchange is a celebration of our daily routines—such as commuting to work, shopping for groceries, doing laundry, making breakfast…

Participants in the Exchange talk to each other about their routines. One person then makes a small present for their friend about these routines, or to be used during these routines. These gifts can be anything from a small artwork, to a poem, to a sound recording.

Visitors to the Exchange’s show at Meme will be able to see examples of past presents. They are also welcome to sit down and talk to Tim Devin about their own routines—and get a small present out of it.

Gallery hours: June 27- July 3rd 1pm to 8pm.
Closing : Saturday July 3rd, 6pm to 10pm

MEME: 55 Norfolk St, Cambridge MA

MEME website here
Exchange website here

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