Glowlab

Glowlab's "Following" project this weekend

- participate in the project by signing up to receive text messages
- for additional info and to follow the project online, visit: glowlab.blogs.com/following/
- to learn more about Spectropolis, visit: www.spectropolis.info

========================
'Following "The Man of the Crowd"'
A co-located 24-hour following piece
Conducted by Glowlab's Christina Ray and Lee Walton in conjunction with Spectropolis: Mobile Media, Art and the City, a three-day event [October 1-3, 2004] in Lower Manhattan that highlights the diverse ways artists, technical innovators and activists are using communication technologies to generate urban experiences and public voice.

Date: October 2 - 3, 2004
Time: 10am - 10am
Location: starting at Doma Café, 17 Perry Street at 7th Avenue; end location unknown

This project is a 24-hour walk in which two participants, linked by text messaging, drift separately through the city in an alternating pattern according to the movements of strangers. Based loosely on Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Man of the Crowd" and inspired by Vito Acconci's 1969 "Following Piece," Christina Ray and Lee Walton have developed a collaborative performance that involves following strangers over a 24-hour period. The two participants, Ray and Walton, will enact an alternating following cycle throughout the 24-hour period. While "on" they'll maintain an intense awareness of a single stranger and his or her unknown destination. While "off," they'll rest and experience their present location. The switch from one participant to the other will be determined by the actions of the strangers, and may be exhaustingly rapid or frustratingly slow.

Spectropolis visitors and the public are invited to participate in the project by signing up to receive text messages, sent once per hour, broadcasting Ray and Walton's locations as they execute the project. From this information, spectators will be able to follow their progress and – if they are in the right place at the right time – possibly even become involved as strangers to be followed. Live text and photo updates may also be viewed at: glowlab.blogs.com/following/

Surveillance Camera Mapping: Training

Sunday, September 26th New York City Bill of Rights Defense Campaign will launch the Surveillance Camera Project, a multifaceted effort to raise awareness about the extensive proliferation of powerful video surveillance technology in New York City, particularly since 9/11; encourage public discussion about the concerns raised by the growth in and lack of regulation of video surveillance in New York City; and advocate for legislation to create uniform standards for the use of surveillance cameras to protect privacy and First Amendment rights.

Learn more about how you can get involved with the Surveillance Camera Project and to receive a comprehensive training on spotting and mapping the thousands of video surveillance cameras found all over New York City.

Then, hit the streets with other volunteers for a more hands-on lesson and map the cameras you see in a yet-to-be-determined city neighborhood. Our goal is to develop a complete map of New York City, indicating the locations of all video surveillance cameras that look out into public spaces. We can't do it without your help, though!

NYCLU Offices
125 Broad Street, 17th floor, Manhattan
2-5p; $free
Please e-mail your questions to [email protected].
New York Bill of Rights Defense Campaign

The Morning News - Paper Faces, Paper Cities

Pitchaya Sudbanthad talks to Swoon.

Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture AND Free Basin

The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco is showing Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture AND Free Basin until October 3rd, 2004. The show is an eclecticism of street culture in New York City and California. The museum describes the projects as “one of the most exciting creative areas to emerge in recent years (1). ”

Walking through the exhibit the works strike me as remnants of a subculture that created parts of New York and California, not a new wave of art. Signs warning of explicit imagery and content mark the exhibit, yet the content and imagery are mixtures of youths finding themselves through skating, accidents, sex, drugs, yet all are merely innuendos. Context is assumed by the viewer through the relationship of adjacent imagery or sculpture. This contextualizing of the work’s dialogue is not simply the photography, though. All medias of expression including graphic design, video, installations, web-based work are shown by young and established artists as evidence of the paths they have taken. It seems as though all the facets of the subculture are exposed and many of the forms of creativity are on display for scrutiny.

Yet, ironically the art forms are hardly a subculture when they are part of a huge traveling museum exhibition.

Free Basin by Simparch was shown at Deitch Projects last year as well as Documenta XI and the Wexner Center for the Arts in Ohio. This work actually allows participation by skaters, and utilizes them as sound creators for regular museum visitors who must stand beneath the basin. Unfortunately, visitors and skaters cannot stand side by side on top of the bowl. Visitors are segregated to the underside and skaters to the top. Visitors underneath watch a live-feed TV as they listen to the skater above them ride the bowl. Being spoiled by skate videos for a number of years now, watching a still cam shot of skating was painful. I wanted to see the rigid style of the skaters because of the museum confines reminded me of 1960s skateboarding rather than the contemporary Tony Hawk inspired styles.

The placement of the exhibits next to each other is perfect timing. Not because the basin is a sculpture, or because Losers reveals subculture, but because of the skateboarders wandering between the exhibits and through the museum give the entire place a lively, performative aspect. The images and sculptures are understood as slices of a true culture by museum visitors not part of the subcultures depicted. Looking at a bloody wound in a photo, seeing video of skaters or seeing images of graffiti doesn’t really register for Yerba visitors until they see the skaters. It’s true; I watched expressions change on people’s faces from blank to understanding when they saw some kids in the Beautiful Losers exhibit.

Stickers and graffiti murals and tags were on the short side. OBEY was of coarse shown, as were a few train murals, though I think there is far more depth represented at Art Crimes. There was a great selection of skateboard decks, however. In short, the subculture spontaneous edge was overshadowed by established graphic designs for the skaters. There is a nice Neckface a few blocks away, though.

The overall show is a slice of life that not everyone gets to see. It’s the slice of life to which art school kids, skaters and surfers are privy. Putting this imagery in the museum for all to see seems too public for the divertive people depicted in this show. The work is not as alive as it is in the streets, seeming stiff. The asset of the skaters wandering though from Free Basin lends for authenticity in the white wall atmosphere. It is, however, wonderful how the very different styles of expression stemming from similar influences of culture can be brought together under one roof. It is also wonderful how legends of the skate world have works that play with and show the roots of the younger artists. I’m not so sure these people are Losers, but they are definitely living a culture that is colorful, alive and emotionally charged. I think others would be envious.

{Specific artists are not mentioned beyond what is printed in the press release because I did not buy the expensive catalogue. I was not expecting to find this show, but I got as much info as I could from the museum utilizing my “press”.}

(1): Yerba Buena Center for the Arts August 16th, 2004 Press Release.

National Dinner Tour

Conflux artist Marc Horowitz has used Crate & Barrel catalogues to his advantage. While shooting the Fall 2004 catalogue, a blank section of the shot wasn't working. Marc went on a whim and wrote "dinner w/marc, 510-xxx-7326". The entire number was written, but I abbreviated to alleviate the calls Marc has been receiving. You see, Marc ended up with hundreds of calls asking to go to dinner, so Marc is doing just that. Beginning in a few short weeks, Marc will embark upon the The National Dinner Tour, a month (or more) trip to meet a few of the hundreds that called him. If you have the Fall 2004 catalogue around, check it out, but don't call for dinner, since he's already booked.

{The image was edited by the author to display where the artist marked}

Download, Peel and Stick, and All the World's a Gallery

Download, Peel and Stick, and All the World's a Gallery. The New York Times [which requires login to read this article] agrees...stickering "could be visually addictive." Careful.

Big Wi-Fi Project for Philadelphia

An article in the New York Times reports a Big Wi-Fi Project for Philadelphia within the next two years. Sections of New York are this way, but having an entire city is the next step. Critics of the plan say that there is not enough demand for wireless in Philly. I say, built it and they will come.

Glowlab asks questions

...and you get answers, to "What is Burning Man?" in featured projects, "How can a visual footprint of a network exist in public space?" in glowlounge, and "What is your dream of LA?" in neuroscape.

Firstop

Give your derive a little direction on October 2nd and 3rd, 2004. firstop is "an open-studios and exhibitions event featuring the latest in fashion, architecture, graphics, interior, furniture and industrial design" from Brooklyn, namely Williamsburg. Its from noon to 8pm both days, so you'll have time to check out everything you want and still have time to get some coffee along the way.

2004 schedules are here, but it has not been graphically designed like 2003.

creating a biography of the city by SMS

STADSchromosomen (CityChromosomes) asked inhabitants and visitors of Antwerp to text in their impressions on several locations throughout the city. The results are published on the website and in a book (released under a creative commons license).

read more on Boing Boing