Art | A Million Keys

Frieze Magazine | Archive | Dear Painter …

Mar 21, ’12 5:10 PM

Tomma Abts, Tauba Auerbach, Matt Connors, Charline von Heyl and Bernd Ribbeck talk about the role of abstraction in painting today.

What does the term ‘abstraction’ mean to non-figurative painters working today? I spoke to five artists, all of whom make work grounded in process and materiality. There is a dissonance between the directness of their work and the fuzzier set of interests and objectives – high-minded, metaphysical and historical – that ‘abstraction’ suggests. None of these painters seem interested in spirituality as a social idea or abstraction as a historical category, but they share a real belief in the metaphysical properties of work, materials, process and practice, a kind of secular faith in the possibilities of non-objective image-making. Their desire is not for transcendence through abstraction, but for a greater embeddedness in the world through materials and work.

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Remote Control | e-flux

Mar 21, ’12 12:45 PM

Remote Control includes a range of work by artists who explore the way television shapes contemporary culture, and also highlights a number of contemporaries who are responding to the mediums digital convergence. Coinciding with the digital switchover in the UK, the exhibition marks the end of analogue broadcasting—a milestone in the evolution of television.

The exhibition includes significant works that examine how television has changed the way artists engage with material and form, and how adopting techniques of television broadcasting has contributed to the deconstruction of traditional definitions of art. Exploring the role of television in the public sphere, many of the works presented in the exhibition challenge themes of gender, race, propaganda, identity, pop imagery and consumerism.

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Hito Steyerl, Art as Occupation: Claims for an Autonomy of Life / Journal / e-flux

Dec 12, ’11 12:49 AM

Lets start with a simple proposition: what used to be work has increasingly been turned into occupation.

This change in terminology may look trivial. In fact, almost everything changes on the way from work to occupation. The economic framework, but also its implications for space and temporality.

If we think of work as labor, it implies a beginning, a producer, and eventually a result. Work is primarily seen as a means to an end: a product, a reward, or a wage. It is an instrumental relation. It also produces a subject by means of alienation.

An occupation is the opposite. An occupation keeps people busy instead of giving them paid labor. An occupation is not hinged on any result; it has no necessary conclusion. As such, it knows no traditional alienation, nor any corresponding idea of subjectivity. An occupation doesn’t necessarily assume remuneration either, since the process is thought to contain its own gratification. It has no temporal framework except the passing of time itself. It is not centered on a producer/worker, but includes consumers, reproducers, even destroyers, time-wasters, and bystanders—in essence, anybody seeking distraction or engagement.

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Architecture of Fear – a conversation with Trevor Paglen – we make money not art

Nov 22, ’11 6:22 PM

I suspect that there are very few places left on this planet that haven’t been discovered by intrepid explorers. Yet, Trevor Paglen has found and investigated territories that still need to be documented and exposed to the world. If you’ve never seen his photographs, i suggest you swing by the Z33 House for Contemporary Art Center in Hasselt, Belgium. They are part of Architecture of Fear, an exhibition that examines how feelings of fear pervade our daily life.

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Lev Manovich | Essays : The Death of Computer Art

Nov 2, ’11 10:16 PM

Lots of people talk about the coming convergence of computers,
communication and television. This convergence will probably happen. In
fact, judging from the new models of personal computers which are clearly
being positioned as consumer electronic devices (incorporating answering
machine and TV cards in them), it is indeed well underway.

Those of us who work with digital art often debate another convergence -
- the convergence between art world and computer art world. I recently came
to the conclusion that this particular convergence will NOT happen. Below
are the reasons why.

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Frieze Magazine | Archive | Down the Line

Aug 23, ’11 10:21 PM

“The last 20 years have seen revolutions in technology that have transformed our lives. How have art and its institutions reacted?”

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Rhizome | Keeping it Online

Aug 5, ’11 7:56 PM

Today I am pleased to announce the publication of a paper that documents the past, present, and future preservation practices of Rhizome’s archive, the ArtBase. This paper is the synthesis of years of research conducted by Rhizome and other leaders of digital preservation, in and outside of art institutions. What follows is an attempt to summarize a few key points. The paper in its entirety is available here: Sustainable Preservation Practices and the Rhizome ArtBase

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Sad In Country

Sep 18, ’08 7:12 AM

I was excited to come across this short excerpt from the documentary Sad In Country which contains an interview with Danny Devos and Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven of Club Moral. I’ve mentioned the collective on the blog before as well as their podcast, which provides extensive audio and video documentation from their archives. The synopsis of Sad In Country (below) looks interesting, I wish the entire documentary was available online.

Belgium is a country well noted for its ‘vagueness’ and taking this into account, this Belgian film delves into the world of ‘quasi’ cultural forms. One of the vaguest notions in the cultural lexicon is that of the ‘collective’ and this film explores, through a non hierarchical system of montage, collective art actions in Belgium and their intersection with dominant and subcultural political and cultural ideologies that brushed against them.

The film is neither an obituary for cultural idealism nor a bittersweet tale of Utopian dreams of a ‘better way of life’ but a series of encounters raising questions about the collective archetypes which emerged during its research and shooting : ranging from micro-institution, family, enterprise, political party to the orgy. “Is it alive, or is it dead?” is what Alain Resnais stated was the only question worth asking in art and thus this film uses its medium as a tool of research to consider the worth and the worthlessness of history.

‘Sad In Country (Part 1)’ covers six Belgian collectives : Agency (Brussels, 1992). Building Underwood (Brussels / Caudiès, 1999-2001), VAGA, A379089 (Antwerp, 1968-1969), Rona Family (Brussels), Club Moral (Antwerp, 1981-2005).

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Lydia Moyer- Mountain Loop (remix) at East Village Radio July 2008

Aug 4, ’08 10:49 AM

For the month of July, I screened Mountain Loop (remix) by video artist Lydia Moyer at East Village Radio. See below for documentation. Mountain Loop (remix) is a response to the prevalence of strip mining in the Appalachian region of Virginia, an environmentally damaging practice in which mountains are leveled in order to access and remove resources. In the video, spectral blue lights overlay flickering silhouettes of mountains and surrounding clouds, suggesting their imminent destruction.

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Rua Studio

Apr 28, ’08 11:18 AM

Here are some photos I took over the weekend of Donna Huanca’s open studio from her LMCC residency. It included a sound installation I made. On Sunday, we played music and I recorded the performance on a handheld cassette player- it’s really rugged and messy sounding, I like it. The original was almost an hour long, so I edited it down to 20 minutes.

Listen to mi or and the pedestals rua minx + april 27