Main

May 25, 2006

Karaoke Ice

by Nancy Nowacek, Katie Salen, Marina Zurkow

http://01sj.org/content/view/334/49/
http://www.o-matic.com/isea

Karaoke Ice is a delicious pop culture mash-up, an ice cream truck-turned-mobilekaraoke-unit, deployed to unite people in a collective quest to transform the streets of San Jose into a space of community interaction. Participants karaoke for an audience while sitting in the transformed front cab of the vehicle, and use a customized karaoke engine to select, sing, and record a song for later broadcast, as the truck makes it way to a variety of festival locations. Free frozen treats lure prospective performers to participate, distributed by Remedios the Squirrel Cub, who drives the truck and choreographs enigmatic rituals of his own to the tunes emanating from the citizen performers. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Superstition. Heart of Glass. The streets of San Jose transformed through flavor and song.

Karaoke Ice is a commissioned residency proejct by ZeroOne San Jose, San Jose State University, and the Lucas Artists Program at Montalvo.
Overview

Imagine an ice cream truck transformed into a mobile karaoke unit, driven by a squirrel cub with a penchant for cheap magic, deployed to spark spontaneous interaction between festival-goers, locals, and tourists in Cesar Chavez Plaza and surrounding neighborhoods. Customized with karaoke mics, disco ball, and speakers, and aesthetically "dressed" in a language of local vernacular (think lowrider neon, mariachi fringe, Chinese lanterns, and California cool), this "mobile magnet" not only serves as an information node within the festival network, but represents a "metanomad" who wanders the festival grounds, seeking and sharing information, catalyzing play among the Cesar Chavez populous, and delivering cool treats amidst the rays of the bright August sun.

The truck, or Lucci as she is known, is a tasty pop culture hybrid, one that brings two familiar expressions of "network culture" - ice cream trucks and karaoke bars--into conversation with one another. Dressed in song and shimmer, Lucci broadcasts tinny pop songs in endless, repetitive loops as she weaves her way through the zone of the Festival. This then, is her magic. The resulting mix is one that celebrates the power of song to entice and inflame, as well as the sense of community that can be fostered among strangers trapped in a terrestrial network.


Tinged with the themes of deception and illusion, of costume, character, water, and ice, Lucci and her pal Remedios draw participants in through sight, sound, and taste. Unable to resist the temptation to editorialize the festival goings on, she doles out festival news, providing her own sharp brand of observation and opinion on things seen and (over) heard. Patrons can read these printed missives as they are dispatched daily through a slit in Lucci's side. At nighttime, once their work for the day is done, it's time to let loose. They find a party to join, hustle some more karaoke, and enjoy the festival entertainment.

Nhan Nguyen: "Calling for Ba Ba (Mrs. Ba)"

http://01sj.org/content/view/181/49/

I hope to collect and compare anecdotes of Mrs. Ba from the Vietnamese diaspora in Vancouver and San Jose and transcribe these oral tales to one cohesive history in Vietnamese and English. This record will be a part of the shrines/installations to be installed in Vietnamese noodle restaurants in San Jose.
Ba Ba is a woman who sells noodle soup at Bai Sau Beach in Qui Nhon, the town in Vietnam where I was born. Many tragedies befell Ba Ba including the suicide drowning in 1971 of her son who had refused to enlist. In 1972 she was gunned down when Bai Sau Beach became a battlefield; while operating on her wounds, the surgeon notes that she was shot by an AK 47, the Soviet-made gun of the advancing North Vietnamese Army - and as well as by an M-16 supplied to the retreating South Vietnamese Armies by the Americans. Betrayed by her two daughters, who had married American soldiers, she was left outside the American embassy in Saigon on that fateful day in June of 1975. Ba Ba returned to Bai Sau Beach and amid accusations from her friends and neighbours of working for the enemy she planned her escape and left Vietnam by boat in the fall of 1976 in search of her daughters. She was never seen again. These tales of Ba Ba's indomitable spirit were invoked by many Vietnamese boat people during the exodus by sea throughout the eighties and early nineties.

Vietnamese altars and shrines are dedicated to many contemporary personages whose stories and deeds are often passed on as shining examples of the human spirit and as well as what to do in such situations. These stories of Ba Ba resonate with many Vietnamese restaurant workers whose struggles mirror her own. Although it is an important and relevant tale, it is gradually fading. The last known shrine to Ba Ba in Vancouver was at Little Saigon Restaurant, which closed in 2003.

My work has always drawn inspiration and clarity from Vietnamese stories and rituals. Many of my works are anchored by personal stories from my mother and her friends, such as recent installations highlighting Lao Noi Kieu (Ancient Citizen) a spirit whose influence includes matters of nation and citizenship. Lao shrines were installed at Banff Centre in 2004 and at the Glenbow Museum in Alberta in 2005. Calling for Ba Ba is an important and necessary extension of my particular interest in creating installations to figures whose deeds inspired and galvanized the Vietnamese community in Canada during its early struggle.

The Breadboard Band Comes Alive

http://01sj.org/content/view/182/49/
http://www.breadboardband.org/
Shosei Oishi, Masayuki Akamatsu, Kazuki Saita, Yosuke Hayashi, and Katsuhiko Harada


[Live at IAMAS (10.18.2005)]

The Breadboard Band is a performing band that uses breadboards made of freely constructed electronic circuits to play music. We produce audio and visual expression through the most minimal, fundamental elements in the form of showing the electronic components of an instrument while directly touching and forming the electronic circuit by hand. The electric signals released from hand-made electronic circuits releases extremely rough and ferocious wave patterns. This performance is based on improvisational interplay, and we pull powerful music into shape through each member's operation, while discovering new sounds by hand.

The Breadboard Band is one that uses a breadboard to perform music. A breadboard is a board that is perforated with connector holes into a grid-shape, to which electronic components are inserted in order to build a prototype of an electronic circuit. The electronic components can be inserted or removed with ease, making it simple to change the wiring with jumper cables. Utilizing the features of the breadboard, The Breadboard Band creates audio and visual circuits on the board, and modifies them during performance.

Today, 100 years from the public performance in 1906 of the Telharmonium, the first electronic musical instrument, The Breadboard Band raises objections toward black-box electronic musical instruments and computers. This objection is raised in the form of showing the electronic components of an instrument, directly touching and forming the electric circuit by hand, and producing audio and visual expression through the most minimal, fundamental elements. This can be considered the hardware version of software programming. The circuit change during a performance is called "On-the-fly Wiring".

The performance of the circuits on the breadboard is less than 0.1% of that of electronic audio and video devices offered commercially. The electric signals released from hand-made electronic circuits releases extremely rough and ferocious wave patterns that might destroy a commercial instrument. However, the primal screams of ecstasy released from the electric circuits surge from the depths of modern society that is surrounded by sophisticated information technology, and stirs us with emotion.

The Breadboard Band's performances based on improvisational interplay, and we pull powerful music into shape through each member's operation, while discovering new sounds by hand. Various elements blend together, becoming one from beats made through analog oscillation circuits, riffs made through programmable chips, noises made through magnetic head, scratches made through a hacked iPod, and the videos of changing audio signals. It may be quite humorous to see the serious expressions of the performers as they grapple with small electronic components, but they match any band in vigor and potency.

Kok-Chian Leong: Corporate Sabotage

shown in conjunction with ISEA festival, San Jose, 2006

The project examines the private politics behind the corporate world, an environment where competitiveness turns into deceit. It focuses on the covert act of sabotaging office communications and equipment to reduce its efficiency in daily operations. This act creates a suspense in the strange imperfections, the unnerving fault finding performed on the equipment and the growing frustrations by the co-workers.

Weapons for the corporate armoury investigates the possibility of designing a weapon that inflicts trauma on your co-worker in a non-lethal manner, thereby allowing you to get ahead in business. The project examines the private politics behind the corporate world, an environment where competitiveness turns into deceit. It focuses on the covert act of sabotaging office communications and equipment to reduce its efficiency in daily operations. This act creates a suspense in the strange imperfections, the unnerving fault finding performed on the equipment and the growing frustrations by the co-workers.

The narrative
The relationship between the co-workers deteriorate as a result.. The consequences became so drastic that the victim's performance drops and eventually loses his job.

The tools/design
The Firefly tool intercepts the scanning job through the use of intermittent bright flashing lights in the scanner. The frequency of activation causes disturbances to the output. The result is random imperfect quality on the final scanned document.

The Woodpecker tool produces irregular stamping action in the printer. This action is synchronised with the mechanical movement of the print head to create an array of patches in the final printout, rendering it useless.

The Cateye tool is basically the eye of the saboteur. It is a spy camera that [provides a visual overview of the victim's actions and intentions. It has to be strategically placed within the operations area.

April 12, 2006

Fine Cell Work

http://www.finecellwork.co.uk/ix/home

Fine Cell Work is a Registered Charity that teaches needlework to prison inmates and sells their products. The prisoners do the work when they are locked in their cells, and the earnings give them hope, skills and independence.

Savings reduce the likelihood of offenders returning to crime. Prisoners often send the money they earn from Fine Cell Work to their children and families, or use it to pay debts or for accommodation upon release.

The inmates are all taught by volunteers from the Embroiderers Guild, the Royal School of Needlework and the world of professional design. Once trained, they can be responsible for difficult commissions done to deadlines, and support other inmates who are still learning.

April 07, 2006

Prisoners' Inventions

http://www.temporaryservices.org/pi_overview.html
Prisoners' Inventions by Angelo and Temporary Services


chess set


salt and pepper shaker

This project was a collaboration with Angelo, an incarcerated artist. He illustrated many incredible inventions made by prisoners to fill needs that the restrictive environment of the prison tries to supress. The inventions cover everything from homemade sex dolls, condoms, salt and peper shakers to chess sets. We collaborated on this project with Angelo for over two years. We had many additional collaborators who made a book, exhibition of re-created inventions and a prison cell possible. This page offers an overview of the project thus far.

"When first approached with the idea of illustrating examples of inmate inventiveness, I was skeptical, thinking that there would be little of real interest to depict. When I set my mind to the task, though, I recognized the surprising range of inventions and innovations that I had witnessed. I had just become so used to it all that the uniqueness no longer registered."

Temporary Services

http://www.temporaryservices.org/

As we live, so we work

Temporary Services is a group of three persons: Brett Bloom, Marc Fischer, and Salem Collo-Julin. We draw on our varied backgrounds and interests to incorporate our aesthetic practice within our lived experiences. The need to create change within our daily lives translates directly to our public projects.

The distinction between art practice and other creative human endeavors is irrelevant to us. We embed the creative work we present within thoughtful and imaginative social contexts and strive to create participatory situations.

We champion public projects that are temporary, ephemeral, or that operate outside of conventional or officially sanctioned categories of public expression. We appreciate such diverse activities as makeshift roadside memorials to accident victims, temporary housing encampments designed by homeless people, tree houses fabricated by children, and idiosyncratic public notices that get stuffed inside the display windows of free newspaper boxes. We like outdoor projects that are encountered by surprise rather than sought out with deliberation like exhibitions and special events. We especially appreciate those projects that do not have permission and challenge expected usages.

Exhibition: Black Panther Rank and File

http://www.ybca.org
Center for the Arts, Yerba Buena, San Francisco
First Floor Galleries: Mar 18 - Jul 2, 2006


Pirkle Jones, Women, Free Huey Rally, Oakland, 1968

We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.

So begins the ten-point political platform of the Black Panther Party. Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Party, Black Panther Rank and File offers a multifaceted look at one of the 20th century's most controversial and inspirational organizations.

The exhibition pairs rare artifacts--never-before-released documents, recordings, film clips and archival photos, including seminal historical photography--with artworks inspired by the movement and reflecting its liberating ideals. A range of photography, film and artworks from leading contemporary artists will reflect upon the Party's lasting legacy. Also on view will be works by artists who were creating during the rise of the Party. This complex and powerful exhibition uses the Black Panther Party as a lens through which we can explore the role artists play in inspiring social change, and in remembering and reflecting on human struggle and achievement.

Artist list:
Radcliffe Bailey
John Bankston
Ruth-Marion Baruch
Joseph Beuys
Margaret Bourke-White
Nick Cave
Emory Douglas
Ducho Dennis
Sam Durant
Coco Fusco
Ellen Gallagher
Leon Golub
Tony Gray
David Hammons
Ilka Hartmann
Barkley L. Hendricks
Lonnie Bradley Holley
Jeff Hull
It's About Time
Arthur Jafa
Paa Joe
Pirkle Jones
Kerry James Marshall
Daniel J. Martinez
Chris McNair
Zwelethu Mthethwa
Refa 1, Steve Jones and Toons
Paul Sequeira
Stephen Shames
Gail Shaw
Jeff Sonhouse
Carlos Vega
Roberto Visani
Andy Warhol
Carrie Mae Weems
and others

Yinka Shonibare

Yinka Shonibare


"DRESSING DOWN"
Wax Print Cotton Textile

From an early stage in his work, Shonibare has employed the ambiguous materials and motifs of West African textiles. These fabrics seem to symbolise the rich complexity of post-colonial cultures in that, while the patterns and colours are thought to be authentically African, they actually originate from Indonesian Batik work,a technique which was industrialised by Dutch traders. The British adopted these processes, setting up factories in the North of England where Asian workers printed English designs for the West African market. So as Kobena Mercer notes the fabric has a mixed identity In Africa it has the allure of imported goods, in Europe it evokes exotica. More recently these cloths have been styled and worn by Black British and African American people as a visual signifier for a connection with and pride in their African roots.

Shonibare`s work examines the contradictions of both contemporary and historical portrayals of Africans living in Britain, a country built on hierarchies of class and race. He has made a series of sculptural pieces, using his trademark African textiles, which take the form of Victorian crinolines and bodices, transforming these usually staid and confining structures into bright, flamboyant sculptures. Many of his pieces have a highly crafted and decorative appearance but at the same time through their translation of materials or juxtaposition of references, provide a critical commentary on the way the orthodox history of art has judged, categorised or completely overlooked other histories, artists and works.

April 06, 2006

Situationists Online Library

http://www.nothingness.org/SI/

Texts by and pertaining to the Situationist International have been entered into a database, and are available at the Text Library by clicking the link on the left. The library is fully searchable, and features more texts than ever before. Information on related articles are linked from each text, and biographical blurbs about the authors are just a click away.

Situationist images and related graphics are available from the Images link, which currently offers a selection of graphics, and a picturebook of posters from May 1968 in Paris.

Links to other Situationist and prositu websites are available through Links.

The Independent School of Art

http://www.independentschoolofart.org/

The Independent School of Art is a nomadic experimental art school. Without institutional affiliations, degrees, or public funding, the school exists solely through the labor and efforts of it's participants, and thus fosters a proactive approach to college-level arts education, a real-world model where students are challenged to determine and create their own artistic realities. The school's barter-based tuition system makes explicit and direct the social contract between students and teachers and honors their collective labor as a vital form of cultural production. By existing without a site and locating nomadically, the school prioritizes social over physical architecture, and challenges students and teachers alike to imagine how their practice might intersect and respond to a larger set of physical situations and cultural possibilities. Since the ISA is not driven by tuition payments, employee payrolls, facility maintenance, fundraising quotas, degree granting and accreditation requirements it can be fluid and experimental, changing each semester to reflect the ambitions, personalities, and abilities of those in its community.

The Independent School of Art includes students of all ages, levels of experience, and disciplines in a one-room schoolhouse environment of shared learning and mentorship. The ISA prioritizes an action-based approach to arts education and cultural discourse and complements it's curricular offerings with student and faculty designed exhibitions, lectures, grants and publications. These multi-disciplinary public actions are a central part of the school's pedagogy, and serve a vital function by engaging the students in the direct creation of public culture.

founded by artist Jon Rubin http://www.jonrubin.net

Big Box Reuse/Julia Christensen

http://www.bigboxreuse.com/


The Sugar Creek Charter Elementary School
Charlotte, NC
Renovated K-Mart

As superstores abandon buildings in order to move into bigger stores, what will become of the walls that they leave behind? It is within the answer to this question that we are seeing the resourcefulness and creativity of communities dealing with a situation that is happening all over the country: the empty big box. Through travel and the study of buildings, Julia is researching the way people build their towns, creating the context for their own lives.

Julia Christensen began investigating How Communities are Re-Using the Big Box in January of 2004. Since then, she has been traveling around the country in her car, visiting the sites and meeting the people who are making these transformations possible. She has been collecting a growing collection of photographs, interviews, stories, and documents relating to the renovations, and has been giving presentations in these communities about how other towns are dealing with this common situation. While exhibiting photographs and installing video and sound work generated from her travels, she is currently working on a book documenting her research. Julia continues to develop her traveling exhibit of artifacts exploring How Communities are Re-Using the Big Box.

The term "big box" refers to a large, free-standing building with one major room. This model was made very popular by the corporations that created stores with minimal storage space, the stock items simply coming in off the truck and on to the shelves. Because "big box" is a fairly new term, and since there are variations on the concept, there have been several occasions upon which Julia has arrived at a site and the "big box" was not quite what she thought it was going to be. Nevertheless, there has been something important to be learned at each of this locations. Her research has led her down many side streets, as she has learned about the choices people make in order to shape their town in order to accommodate their community.

Recycled Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap

Recycled Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap
by Charlene Cerny

From Library Journal
The focus of this volume (and the associated traveling exhibition) is the increasing tendency of the world's folk artists to utilize the discards of our industrial and postindustrial consumer world as materials for their creations. In 11 essays, various scholars discuss topics ranging from the renowned history of the development of steel drum bands in the Caribbean to lesser-known examples of "recycled" art from India, Africa, Latin America, and the United States. The whimsical nature and surprising practicality of many of the objects depicted make the accompanying photos a visual delight. Highly recommended for academic collections, but the charm of the objects should make this appealing to the general audience served by public libraries as well.?Eugene C. Burt, Art Inst. of Seattle Lib.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

review

Imbenge Telephone Wire Baskets


Imbenge Telephone Wire Baskets
For centuries South Africa's Zulu people have been famous for the sturdy and beautiful baskets they weave from grasses and palm leaf. The weaving was so tight that the best ukhamba baskets were actually used to store beer! Today these baskets are still woven in the countryside, but the Zulus living in urban area have invented a new kind of basket, the imbenge basket woven entirely of recycled telephone wire. The baskets are as bright and colorful as the telephone wire, and very sturdy. They are also completely washable! In recent years people in craft cooperatives in the the neighboring nation of Zimbabwe have developed their own distinct style of telephone wire basket,



Detail of Jaheni Mkhize at work on a"soft basket".


Woven Telephone Wire-covered Bottle
Unknown artist - Zulu people, South Africa
Recycled telephone wire on glass bottle
(11 1/2" h. x 3 1/2" w.)

Knitta

http://www.myspace.com/knittaplease
bombing the neighborhood with fresh, aerosol-free knit graff!
Music: juice newton, knitta!
Movies colors
Television: who has time with all the tagging?
Books: new york subway cozies for the soul
Groups: Graffiti Artists , Rebel Art Grrrlz , Purl and Hurl , Stitchin' Bitches , Rubber Coin Purse Group , buy adrian landon brooks art , MARFA or BUST ! , Revolution Grrrl Style Now

article in the Houston Press, 12/15/05

Knit Bricks

knit bricks




hosted by supernaturale.com

FutureFarmers/Amy Franceschini

http://www.futurefarmers.com
http://www.futurefarmers.com/survey


Photosynthesis Robot is a three-dimensional sketch of a possible perpetual motion machine driven by phototropism- the movement of plants towards the direction of the sun. The motion of the plants upon this four wheeled vehicle would propel slowly over a period of time.


DIY Algae/Hydrogen Kit was a first time collaboration between Amy Franceschini and Jonathan Meuser. Currently scientists are testing and generating strains of algae to determine which one most efficiently produces hydrogen in a process called "biophotolysis". This is an exciting sector of research, but most of the activity takes place under highly controlled environments in laboratories within universities. Amy was interested in creating a "backyard/DIY" model which would allow people (not only scientists) to produce hydrogen. The notion of people producing their own power is exciting. Researcher, Jonathan Meuser used this opportunity to exhibit a model of "biophotolysis" to test a system in his backyard. His test was a success, in that it produced hydrogen and could demonstrate the process using off the shelf and found supplies.

Steal This Sweater

http://www.stealthissweater.com

1. Is this site advocating sweater theft?
No. For those of you born yesterday (or anytime during or after the Reagan years), StealThisSweater refers to Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book, a survival guide and manifesto for those who fantasize about (or pursue) anarchy. The whole book has been stolen and posted online here, so be sure to take a look to see if you've got what it takes. Chris Buck suggested the website name after John Kerry lost the 2004 election and my previous site, KnittersForKerry.com became yesterday's news. Thank you, Chris. Abbie Hoffman was a radical with a sense of humor and a hatred of The Man. At StealThisSweater, we are not fond of The Man either.


"What's all this talk of dying for revolution? Live for it."
Not sure exactly who said it first, but it's in a poem dedicated to Diana Oughton, the Weatherwoman who died in a bomb blast in NYC in 1970. The bottom edge of the sweater says "Bring the War home" on the front and "All power to the people" on the back.

Joseph del Pesco

http://www.delpesco.com


Horwinski Poster Show
Nelson Gallery, UC Davis

This exhibition of fifty-five letter-press posters is just a small selection of the social and political event bills printed by Horwinski Press. Pulled from large stacks in the warehouse in Oakland, California, this accidental archive of popular history from the last fifty years is being exhibited for the first time.

The uncertainty of aesthetic authorship is notable as the clients of Horwinski often surrendered artistic control to the printers (mainly due to the technical limitations of the medium). The current proprietor, James Lang, and his father before him, are therefore largely responsible for the design of most of the material you see on view.

Several of the posters in this installation are considered "work-ups," samples for client preview, and were kept as a library of possibilities for future business. Upon close inspection you'll find the occasional inky fingerprint, hand-written note or spelling error which reveals changes and corrections in the printing process. Also in this mix are posters made for contemporary artists Jeremy Deller and Dave Muller. (James is also working on one for Richard Prince)

While letter-press printing has quickly become a nostalgic media form, pushed toward extinction by the flexibility of the full-color offset press, it's specific aesthetic and longevity are akin to the perseverance of black and white photography despite the invention of various forms of color imaging.

The events and images captured in this collection of material culture can retrieve fragments of vernacular memory, informing our idea of what it means to live in California.

(wall text from exhibition - Joseph del Pesco)

Saviour Scraps

http://www.saviourscraps.org

MicroRevolt

http://www.microrevolt.org
microRevolt projects investigate the dawn of sweatshops in early industrial capitalism to inform the current crisis of global expansion and the feminization of labor.


Knitting program: KnitPro
knitPro is a web application that translates digital images into knit, crochet, needlepoint and cross-stitch patterns. Just upload jpeg, gif or png images of whatever you wish -- portraits, landscapes, logos... and it will generate the image pattern on a grid sizable for any fiber project.

ReBlog

Extreme Craft Blog

http://www.extremecraft.com/
Garth Johnson

"A compendium of craft masquerading as art, art masquerading as craft, and craft extending its middle finger."

Obsessive Consumption

www.obsessiveconsumption.com
Kate Bingaman

Packard Jennings

http://centennialsociety.com/durham.html

"A Day at the Mall"

"Bible Sticker"

Craftivism

http://www.craftivism.com
Betsy Greer
*wee, yet mighty