Structural Patterns

I’ve become a big fan of Duke Riley’s work. Riley combines historical research, public intervention and skilled craft to generate narratives that are immediately engaging and subtly layered and complex.

I Photoshopped the drawings pictured in this post in order to better see the detail that Riley executes in his graphic work; they are worth seeing in person whenever possible. Although the only work documented in this post is graphic representation, Riley works across media and he has gotten the most attention for his public interventions, such as “After the Battle of Broolyn” for which he built a replica of an 18th Century U.S. Revolutionary submarine “The Turtle” and set out on the Hudson to attack a ship, the Queen Mary 2 docked off Manhattan. The NYC Coast Guard hauled Riley and his submarine from the Hudson.

The latest exhibition presents two installations revolving around two separate historical narratives – the hobbo ballad “An Invitation to Lubberland” and Petty’s Island, a Citgo owned island in the Delaware River.

I didn’t have the patience to watch the videos portraying An Invitation to Lubberland which presented a late 19th century/ early 20th century dressed man running around underground tunnels. I was much more drawn to the second work presented “Reclaiming the Lost Kingdom of Laird” which consists of an intervention upon a Citgo fuel storage tank and a reclaiming of the island by the Laird Kingdom Liberation Army that published a letter to Hugo Chavez on the Huffington Post reclaiming Petty’s Island.

The project includes a giant portrait of Ralston Laird painted onto the top of a storage tank, interviews with the great great grandson of Ralston Laird, artifacts of the Laird family and beautiful drawings that re-imagine the island. (Ralston Laird was an Irish immigrant who once lived on Petty’s Island and claimed himself king of Petty’s Island.) Below are a few closeups of the large scale drawing pictured above.

Duke Riley goes all out with his work. He ventures across boundaries to realize work that must be taken seriously due to the earnestness of execution. My only point of critique is that his graphic work is consistently in line with hipster subculture aesthetics informed by past eras of Americana and I would much rather see Riley establish his own visual language. Although the visual styles are generally informed by the era of the topic that he tackles it seems to be the same early 19th century U.S. graphic style that he recreates. Perhaps what I enjoy the most is that Riley really seems to enjoy his work thus the research leading to dense narratives that are conceptually and visually engaging.

Scholar and writer recently published an essay titled “The Un-accounted Body in Performance: Who is the Subject of the Rights of the Illegal Alien?” in the current publication of the academic journal LLJournal in which she discusses the art projects VOTEMOS.US and Design for the Alien Within.

Following brief abstracts of the two projets, Sandez opens the essay with the following paragraph:

Both Votemos.us and Design for the Alien Within imagine treating the illegal alien as if he/she matters; Votemos.us considers their political substance through hypothetical voting rights, and Design for the Alien Within considers their safety. It is not my intent to provide an in-depth analysis of either Votemus.us or Design for the Alien Within, but to trace the specific phenomenon of the unaccounted body as it is articulated in each project2. These artistic interventions, which have the unaccounted body as their subject/theme, present a space that has yet to reach their subject—whether as audience or as a catalyst for a better life making their situation better—and the hypothetical situations they evoke. Giving voting rights to undocumented people could not occur when their civic being has not yet been accounted for, and designing furniture for the hiding of bodies cannot be functional if people do not feel a real need to hide undocumented immigrants.

Read the entire essay on the current volume of the LLJournal, Vol5, No 2

Walking around Chelsea yesterday, I stepped into David Zwirner that had a show titled 112 Greene Street: The Early Years (1970-1974) and was excited to discover Gordon Matta-Clark’s “Fresh-Air Cart” from 1974 (pictured below).

Last night, upon the invitation of Moritz von Rappard, I attended the performance of KLASSENTREFFEN by the Ballhaus Naunynstrasse theater company at PS122 and it was excellent. KLASSENTREFFEN is a documentary theater piece in which the performers retell their personal stories as Turkish immigrants living in Germany or first generation Germans of Turkish descent. The piece revolves around identity politics and the memories and emotional histories that are recounted touch upon cultural loss, the difficulties of being Turkish in Germany, and ultimately the construction of cross-cultural identity. I don’t feel that the stories told represent new discoveries or new perspectives regarding the “other,” rather the power of the piece lies in entering these people’s lives and listening to the accounts not from an actor, but from the individual who has lived the difficult experience of defining oneself between cultures. It is the unveiling of personal experience from the individual in real-time that establishes an emotional reaction in the audience.

Pictured above sitting in a row are the performers: a taxi driver and owner of a taxi company, a publicist, a Green Party politician, a police woman (the first female police commissioner), a Turkish/German pop music producer, and a professional actress. The last man in the row is Moritz von Rappard, the production manager and I don’t recall the second to last man, sitting to the right of Moritz, I believe he may have been an artistic co-producer. Sitting behind the actors are artistic director Shermin Langhoff and director Lukas Langhoff

The Tea Party FYI, an information website about Tea Party sponsored candidates serves as a resource regarding how these candidates might vote as your representative. The site opens with a question “If you’re angry, scared and exhausted, would you hold a crying baby?” And then wonders why you would vote out of anger…

The site presents information in a concise manner and focuses on five legislative topics: What the representative might want to Abolish, Cut, Repeal, Amend or Oppose:

Click on a candidate and get concise information:

Most importantly vote today! And check out Tea Party FYI

Job Title: Assistant, Associate or Full Professor – Film and Media Studies

Job ID: 2389
Location: Hunter College
Full/Part Time: Full-Time
Regular/Temporary: Regular

GENERAL DUTIES
Performs teaching, research, and guidance duties in area(s) of expertise as noted below. Shares responsibility for committee and department assignments, performing administrative, supervisory, and other functions as may be assigned.

CAMPUS SPECIFIC INFORMATION
Hunter College’s Department of Film and Media Studies, which combines analytical and theoretical analysis with creative practice using an interdisciplinary approach to media, seeks applications for a scholar and practitioner of new media. The position calls for a candidate who has an understanding of the cultural effects of new media and Internet technologies.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
Ph.D. degree in area(s) of expertise, or equivalent as noted below. Also required are the ability to teach successfully, interest in productive scholarship or creative achievement, and ability to cooperate with others for the good of the institution.

OTHER QUALIFICATIONS
A record of publications related to computer and Internet technologies and a mix of theory and practice is desirable. Extensive teaching experience is essential. A PhD, M.F.A. or professional equivalent are required.

COMPENSATION
Commensurate with rank, education, accomplishments and experience.

BENEFITS
CUNY offers a comprehensive benefits package to employees and eligible dependents based on job title and classification. Employees are also offered pension and Tax-Deferred Savings Plans. Part-time employees must meet a weekly or semester work hour criteria to be eligible for health benefits. Health benefits are also extended to retirees who meet the eligibility criteria.

HOW TO APPLY
ALL APPLICATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY MAIL or E-MAIL. DO NOT APPLY ON LINE AT THIS JOB BOARD.
Include letter of application with teaching/artistic/professional philosophy, curriculum vitae, list of three references sent to:
digitalmediasearch@hunter.cuny.edu
-OR-
Professor
James Roman, Chair
Department of Film and Media Studies
Hunter College, CUNY
695 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10065

CLOSING DATE
Open until filled with review of resumes to begin November 15, 2010.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
The City University of New York is an Equal Opportunity Employer which complies with all applicable laws and regulations, and encourages inclusive excellence in its employment practices.

I plugged my camera into my computer to download a few recent images and found a ton of images from the past two months that I’ve ignored, so I’m putting them all up today, starting with a few from the Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science from September 26th.

I’m not sure who would ever want this thing, perhaps a corporate lobby or some entity that wants to make sure that you know you are being watched. This over the top giant mirror had embedded masks with robotic eyes that were being controlled by webcam vision software. Above is the back of the mirror on the left – a whole lot of servos and on the right is the front of the mirror with the masks and the reflection. They were advertising Mondomatrix.

Another cool but pointless interactive sculpture/display – designatum by Muhammad Hafiz. It’s more of a display, because it doesn’t have the creative framework to call it a sculpture. People can type into a keyboard that is wired up to a matrix of LCDs and see their message show up between the various LCDs. The project is titled I felt as if I was at a ITP open house.

ArcAttack at Maker Faire, NYC 2010, pretty cool spectacle.

Amongst my favorite things that I cam across is the “mobile science laboratory” BioBus.

Studying biology inside and outside. The bus is geared up for lots of microscopic lessons.

DNA Extract Party!

And lastly, the cool roof top garden on top of the bus (you can just see the green tips), presents a proposal to the MTA to plant gardens on all NYC buses, or better on all buses world wide, to help the air quality.

If there is a revolution in public practice happening today it is not in a conference at a private art college. Revolutions in practice can not be captured and summarized at a conference. The very notion of Creative Time Summit conference runs against “revolution,” “public,” or “practice” and mutes anything powerful or inspring about these terms, simply because it is curated and caters to a particular audience. In many ways it is a closed session. And the term “Revolutions in Public Practice” reads as hyperbole in the context of an art elite conference.

I was at a round table discussion at Conflux today and afterwards headed to a Lower East Side Bar to meet a bunch of friends who had been at the Creative Time Summit. Once there, I asked people how the Summit had been and it was the usual conference response… what’s the point? why are we here? it was the usual conference scenario… The usual reactionary responses to a conference. And my response to people is do not be duped by the catch terms “revolutions,” “public,” and “practice” as well as “summit” and “creative time.” This is my problem with such a title, it is not revolutionary or public, so please don’t misuse these terms; these terms have already lost so much meaning or power. Most of the people I spoke with didn’t go the second day, rather they tuned in and out from home.

Creative Time Summit is however an exceptional moment to network and hear a summary of evocative creative ideas and briefly exchange perspectives with like-minded individuals.

Sadly people buy into “The Creative Time Summit” as if it is a revolutionary agent, but it’s just another conference, put on by another institution that is far removed from anything revolutionary – whatever meaning that term can carry in relation to contemporary art that is safely nested in Western networks of capital.

Last November I received an invitation from Ignacio Nieto to participate in an exhibition titled “portables” at the Museum of Fine Arts of Santiago. Last Friday I returned from Santiago, following two weeks of production.

Early this year, I contacted my old friend Kurt Olmstead to work with me on a project that I knew would be beyond the scope of anything that I could do alone within a period of several months. Kurt was on board and we started discussing the premise of the project – Chile as the laboratory for neoliberal economic philosophy of the Milton Friedman flavor. Kurt and I grew up in the midst of Reaganomics. In the 80s, Reagan and Thatcher embraced Friedman’s neoliberalism and Chile was framed as the example of what privatization, deregulation of the markets and cuts to social spending will do to control inflation and allow a nation’s economy to prosper. In 1981, Friedman declared the phrase “Miracle of Chile” to reflect the transformation of Chile’s economy through his neoliberal philosophy as implemented by the Chicago Boys, Chilean economists who studied under Friedman.

It is now 2010, we live in the midst of a global economic crisis and are now questioning the neoliberal economic formula. The art project consists of a workshop, public discussion, bus intervention and a virtual labyrinth. Each element asks participants in Chile to identify the Miracle of Chile in the scope of their city and personal lives. A documentation site is available at www.miracleofchile.com

Two workshops were held as part of the project, one with middle school kids and a second at Matucana100 Cultural Center asked participants to document the Miracle of Chile in their public space.

Street situations, an interactive sidewalk tile invites pedestrians to ask one another “What is the Miracle of Chile?”

As an example of privatization of public space, a small bus intervention was executed on bus rider handles sold for advertisement.

La apertura para la exposicion portables es el sabado, 14 de agosto a las 18:00 horas en Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mall Plaza Vespucio, Santiago, Chile y permanecera hasta el 19 de septiembre. Curada por Ignacio Nieto, el tema de la exposicion es artistas que usan y crean dispositivos como medio creativo. Portables presenta las obras de Michelle Teran, Chimbalab, Alejandra Perez, Carolina Pino, GraphTech, Otto Von Busch, Ricardo Miranda Zuniga and Kurt Olmstead (fotos abajo).

Yo estoy estrenando El Milagro de Chile, obra colaborativa con Kurt Olsmtead.