networked performance

Relational Art

" Leah DeVun: You were an early advocate of crowdsourcing in the area of fine art. How did you first get involved in crowdsourcing?

Andrea Grover: Part of my interest in this is related to creating non-commodity-based artwork. I have a lot of personal affection for work from the mid-1960s and early 1970s, happenings and actions such as Gordon Matta-Clark’s Food in New York, which was in a sense a crowdsourced work -- an artist-run establishment where everything, from the cooking to the eating, was a part of the artwork. I also have a lot of fondness for early video collectives like Top Value Television, Videofreex, and Raindance. Video cameras and editing equipment were so cost-prohibitive that the only way to make a work was to do it collectively. So my interests in what’s happening now are to some extent born out of the socially-driven, collaborative works from that period. I first found the term “crowdsourcing” in Jeff Howe’s article in Wired in 2006. I think it gave people language to talk about something that they were seeing but didn’t really have a word for. I think one of the original terms people were using was “relational art” – in other words, crowdsourcing is a new term to describe something that already existed before the term was in common use, but the word gave people something to organize around, and it gave some shape to newer trends." Read the full interview here.

Dual Reality Lab

"Dual reality" is the concept of maintaining two worlds, one virtual and one real, that reflect, influence, and merge into each other by means of deeply embedded sensor/actuator networks. Both the real and virtual components of a dual reality are complete unto themselves, but are enriched by their mutual interaction. The Dual Reality Media Lab is an example of such a dual reality, as enabled the Plug sensor / actuator network that links our actual lab space to a virtual lab space in the Second Life online virtual world. [MOV]

SLIDE 7: Virtual Worlds >> Many attempts, many failures >> Potential to be as revolutionary as the WWW >> Example: Second Life by Linden Lab >> Key attributes: – shared immersive experience – persistent state – market economy – creative medium.

SLIDE 8: Taxonomy of Reality >> Virtual Reality (all simulated) >> Mixed Reality (some real, some simulated) >> Reality (all real) >> Augmented Reality (all real, some simulated) = mono realities. ALL OF THE SLIDES [PDF]

Documenting Performance-Based Art

Evidence of Movement :: July 10-October 7, 2007 :: The Getty Center :: Getty Research Institute Exhibition Gallery.

In the collecting and display of art, performance has posed strong challenges to established notions of both the art collection and the archive. Unlike painting or sculpture, performance-based art exists without an original, tangible, and self-contained object. Because of this, archival material such as documentary photography, film and video, and artists' notes and sketches are often studied, collected, and exhibited as works of art. Nearly every medium imaginable has been used by artists to document performance work, including photographs, videos, audio recordings, notes, drawings, paintings, scores, posters, prints, books, objects, and sculptural remnants.

Drawn primarily from the collections of the Research Library at the Getty Research Institute, this exhibition surveys the great variety of creative means by which artists have used durable and traditional media to document performance-based art. These attempts to transpose the dynamic and experiential qualities of performance into documentary and archival media have influenced the field of art as a whole, and have opened vital avenues of exploration. Artists featured in the exhibition include John Baldessari, Gunther Brus, Allan Kaprow, Mike Kelley, Suzanne Lacy, Paul McCarthy, Hermann Nitsch, Robert Rauschenberg, Carolee Schneemann, Tony Oursler, Yvonne Rainer.

Christine Hill

"[...] Do you perform or role-play with Volksboutique? How do you differentiate one from the other?

It is good that the the word "performative" has entered the general art vocabulary, because it rescues work like mine from being labeled as Performance Art. I am extremely averse to theater, because I don't want to see a simulation of life. I want life. I want things real and in real time. And there is always going to be that unfortunate leap the mind makes when hearing the phrase "performance art" that conjures the stage whisper, or someone setting themself on fire. So I don't consider myself to be performing in the sense that we understand "acting" or staging. But I DO find that the entire thing is about performance, in terms of what in German is the word Leistung. And I do have a certain public persona that is in the work (and probably in my teaching as well). It is a part of my own personality, not something that is assumed, but it is also specific to certain projects that contain an extroverted element. Initially, my labors in the Volksboutique were specifically about pointing directly to the fact that this was an occupation. Something all-consuming, that required a sweat to be broken. And about clarifying that my own person/a was the guide through this set of ideas. This is also a way of addressing accountability and responsibility. Projects of mine require participation of various levels by viewers. How much they can access has in part to do with how they approach me as the representative of any given work. I feel this is a fair exchange, similar to any in a shop transaction..." From Régine Debatty's Interview with Christine Hill , we-make-money-not art.

Carnival | Conference

July 12-15, 2007 :: Providence, RI :: Part carnival and part conference, ProvFlux brings together artists, theorists, urban adventurers and the general public to share their visions of what the city can be, and to take action to make it a reality. The simple premise behind ProvFlux is to create an environment of positive activity, and to continue expanding upon the ideas of what one can do in their city. It exists to invite people from all walks of life to meet on the common ground that is our city streets, in an unjuried, completely free and 100% participatory environment.

One event amongst many is An Atlas, a traveling exhibition of artists working with “radical cartography”—a practice that uses maps and mapping to promote social change. The 11 participating artists, architects, and collectives take on issues from globalization to garbage and explore the map’s role as a political agent. Works include Ashley Hunt’s intricate diagram of the social effects of the global prison-industrial complex; the Center for Urban Pedagogy’s mapping of the people who make and manage the “garbage machine” in New York City; Trevor Paglen and John Emerson’s route map of CIA rendition flights; and Invisible 5’s audio tour of the “toxic landscape” along Interstate 5 in California. Other participating artists include: An Architektur, Institute for Applied Autonomy, Pedro Lasch, Lize Mogel, Brooke Singer, Jane Tsong, and Unayyan.

"One of the Best Places for Artists, Curators and Dealers to Meet"

With over 7m registered users, Second Life—an online virtual world complete with land, residents and a growing ­economy—is developing one of the largest art communities on the internet. The site’s money-making and marketing potential to reach a new, younger audience is already being tapped by major corporations such as BMW, Adidas and Sony, which all have a presence there. Entire countries have also established virtual outposts. The Maldives was the first nation to open an embassy on Second Life’s “Diplomacy Island”, where visitors can consult an ambassador about visas, trade and other consular issues. It was quickly followed by Sweden, while online embassies for the Philippines and Macedonia are under development.

Museums, universities and non-profit ­organisations are ­getting involved as well. In the art world, the Andy Warhol Foundation has helped fund ­exhibitions and projects in Second Life, such as “ Mixed Realities”, an annual juried ­competition set up in 2004 with Turbulence.org, a group that has ­supported art on the internet since 1996, to ­commission five new online art works. Each winning ­proposal receives $5,000." Continue reading Art makes a scene on Second Life : The online virtual world is becoming one of the best places for artists, curators and dealers to meet, by Helen Stoilas, July 4, 2007, The Art Newspaper.

"...Michael Jackson-watching, with Entertaining Results"

"The White Glove Tracking project was created by Evan Roth and Ben Engebreth, with the backing of the art-and-technology groups Rhizome and Eyebeam. Web-surfing volunteers were invited to view frames of Michael Jackson's legendary performance of "Billie Jean" on a 1983 television special and pinpoint the location of Mr. Jackson's white glove.

The glove trackers tackled the job just for fun, finishing the job in 72 hours back in May thanks to a surge of traffic from Digg and other sites. The data they produced is now available online and has already been put to some highly creative uses. My favorite is this clip by Zach Lieberman, in which the "Billie Jean" video has been automatically cropped to focus obsessively on the glove. The result is something like watching "The Glove, Live on Stage, Wearing Michael Jackson." (Frames with no glove, like those at the beginning, are black.)" From Tracking Michael Jackson's Glove Online : A research project roped thousands of volunteers into some Michael Jackson-watching, with entertaining results, by David F. Gallagher, Bits (NY Times blog)