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New Catalogue + Judd Greenstein. This is a Present from a Small Distant World, 2012; installation view. Courtesy of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale. Photo: Dorothy Santos.

The New Catalogue artist collective, composed of Mary Voorhees Meehan, Neil Donnelly, Jonathan Sadler, and Luke Batten, collaborated with composer Judd Greenstein to explore humanity, history, memory, space, and the unknown in their exhibition This is a Present from a Small Distant World: New Catalogue + Judd Greenstein, at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. When viewers first enter the exhibition space, the large-scale installation is enclosed by two parallel white walls covered with friendly messages written in black bold sans serif type. Multicolored light boxes illuminate printed words such as “coffee,” “vinyl cutter,” “advice from a family member,” “string cheese,” and “twenty books.” These are only a small fraction of the humorous, endearing, and poignant answers to questions about communication with extraterrestrial beings.

Walking through the red carpeted interior of the makeshift corridor, flat-screen monitors pose questions to the public. Classical music permeates the space. Between the exposed, unpainted, raw wooden beams, questions on newsprint paper invite viewers to participate in an analog discussion. Some of the questions include “What are ten things aliens would need to see/taste/touch/experience to understand life on earth?“; “Which five songs would you bring to space so alien life could understand us?”; and “What do you imagine aliens are like?” Answers to that last question included “Lady Gaga,” “Nikki Minaj,” and “Michael Jackson,” suggesting that some of the most colorful human beings in the public eye are the most foreign and otherworldly.

These human observations ask us to consider what would happen if we could transmit and receive communication with alien life. Based on the posted responses, possibilities range from humankind’s greatest accomplishments in the arts and sciences to the sharing of radical and pointed views about our political and social state. The responses also speak to something deeper and more existential. New Catalogue and Greenstein have created a work that reminds viewers of the qualities philosophers and scientists have posited separate humans from other species: the ability to introspect, activate memory, and create awareness.

Originally posted to Shotgun Reviews on Art Practical, please click here to view.

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Talk to Me: The Design and Communication between People and Objects

An incredible exhibition of new media and interactive art at the New York Museum of Modern Art. I took an insane amount of photos but wanted to share the pieces that stood out. All of the works were impressive but this would be a ridiculously long post. Please feel free to comment and/or ask questions start a dialogue. Enjoy!!!

SMSlingshot, 2009 ~ Team: Christian Zollner, Patrick Tobias Fischer, Thilo Hoffmann, Sebastian Piatza, and VR/Urban

SMSlingshot was made from the following: high-frequency radio, Arduino board, laser, batteries, plywood, and ash wood. The SMSlingshot marries a traditional weapon with text-messaging technology, projecting digital information onto building facades and other surfaces and turning them into public screens. The battery-powered device is a wooden slingshot with a display screen, keypad, and laser. Users type text messages and then release the slingshot to “blast” them onto nearby surfaces, where they appear within a splash of color and linger as long as the writers decide: at the same instant, the text is transmitted globally via Twitter. For the designers, the SMSlingshot is a tool for reclaiming and occupying increasingly commercialized urban space.

~ Text Source: New York MoMA Exhibition Plaque text

Engaging work by Jaakko Tuomivaara

Hide & See by artist, Jaakko Tuomivaara

A constantly ringing phone doesn’t delight anyone – especially when you have guests around. A discreet cue showing incoming calls and their relative importance gives you the chance to ignore anything that can wait and make your excuses when something can’t.

Every call shows up as a dot, with the red dots around the lips reserved for important numbers. This way the owner of the piece can quickly decode both the number and relative importance of the calls.

~ Text Source: Artist Site (Please click on the image above to learn more about Hide & See and other works by Tuomivaara)

Growing up Catholic, this piece absolutely intrigued me...

Prayer Companion (2010) is made from Photopolymer resin, dot-matrix, display, and printed circuit board. The piece was created by Interaction Research Studio at Goldsmiths – University of London.

Prayer Companion alerts the nine Poor Clare nuns cloistered at a monastery in York, England, to issues that need their prayers. The nuns, whose everyday lives have changed little since medieval times, take vows of enclosure, and presently their connections to the outside world are occasional and limited. Designed to be understated and unobtrusive, the Prayer Companion – the nuns call it “Goldie” – sits on a table in a well-traveled hallway, scrolling a ticker tape of current issues sourced from RSS news feeds, social networking sites, and blog entries aggregated by the website We Feel Fine (which compiles the emotions of anonymous strangers who have posted the words “I feel” or “I am feeling”). The nuns report that Prayer Companion “has been valuable in keeping (our) prayers pertinent”.

~ Text Source: New York MoMA Exhibition Plaque

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Artists, Emmanuelle Namont Kouznetsov and Elyse Hochstadt certainly caught my attention when I read their request for participation in their latest work.

They are developing work around the current political climate. One piece is addressing the ever-changing status of women in culture and how the extreme right/religious right/Tea Party is changing not only legislation but undermining the overall perception of the role of women in society.

They are reaching out to friends and family and asking us to dig through our closets for those unused “work” pants.

Specifically, the artists are looking for the following:

  • Black, Grey, Dark Blue or Pin Stripe pants
  • Pants considered as proper office attire for a professional woman

Size doesn’t matter, but time does!! Please go check your closets and contact the artists with additional questions. The artists are also willing to arrange for a pick-up, if necessary.

Please contact Emmanuelle Namont Kouznetsov (Location: San Francisco) via e-mail at elle@emmanuellenamont.com

OR

Elyse Hochstadt (Location: East Bay) via e-mail at elyseh1@gmail.com

Donors will be acknowledged as a participants. The artists will keep everyone informed of the developments of the piece as well as where it will be exhibited. More to come…

Source: Original Artists’ Call for Participation 

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If you’re into storytelling, love reading, and writing, Mencher’s work will not disappoint.

Mencher has posted a new flash fiction competition on his blog for anyone interested. His plan involves creating a another Renovated Reputations show. The exhibition will be at Ohlone College’s Louie Meager Art Gallery in February 2012. The space will be converted into a 1930/40’s cabaret set in conjunction with students performing monologues based on the stories.

Please click here for more information!

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Frankenart Mart

 

GALLERY : ARTWORK

(A) Museum : Canonical Art
(B) Biennale : Artists
(C) Art school : Art Students
(D) Hot Dog Stand : Ideas
(E) Who gives : a sh*t?

 Art is to…ah, nevermind. Analogies probably should stay in the deep recesses of the mind never to be dug up again but I couldn’t resist. Did you know that the revised GRE General Test will no longer have antonyms or analogies? Art and hot dogs? Yes. There’s a point.

Some things go, albeit strangely, together. For example, Art and hot dogs probably don’t spark the synapses in your brain at this moment. For the true art snob, the synapses are probably misfiring. Then again, anything is possible and some things aren’t as strange as you think. Rather, a diversified perspective. Okay, so, maybe bitter melon and hot chocolate wouldn’t exactly make a great pair but there’s something for everyone. Being a huge proponent of bridging people and cultures, it’s always a treat to highlight organizations that foster community and participatory art. One of the places in San Francisco that has been around for a good number of years is Frankenart Mart.

From their Itinerant Poetry Librarian to their Free Hot Dog Days (yes, Vegetarians and Vegans, there is something for us as well), Frankenart Mart plays on the idea that, like a hot dog cart, art can be served up in tasty doses enticing the public to make frequent stops (even for a few minutes) and notice what they may have never noticed before (about themselves or their environment and all through an art lens). It’s all in the noticing. The space is small BUT the concept is huge (and successful). Nestled in the Richmond District of San Francisco, it’s a neighborhood gem. Yet, the location is a part of its charm. Everything in the Mart, requires the visitor/participant to redefine art simultaneously participating in the creative process. Conceptually, it’s a testament to San Francisco’s fertile art ground, which reminds me, I need to pay the Mart a visit. Maybe, even make something because Me : Art : Ideas : Me : You : Art : Ideas : You (ad infinitum).

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One day, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it’s worth watching.

~Unknown

Cutout placed against a building...I couldn't help but stop and look