I just got word from Javier Fadul of Culture Pilot that Houston is hosting a TEDx event on June 12, 2010. TEDx is the newly launched mini-me of the TED Conference (which started in 1984 to bring together the “greatest minds” in Technology, Entertainment and Design). The “TED Talks” videos are positively addictive (see “Confessions of a TED Addict,” Victoria Heffernan, NY Times), featuring eggheads who are at the forefront of everything from brain science to open-source architecture to spaghetti sauce (or rather the nature of happiness through spaghetti sauce as a metaphor, according to author Malcolm Gladwell). Drop tab, sit back, and watch the world unfold as a slightly better place. Read the rest of this post on my Glasstire blog, We Have The Technology.
Andy gets a haircut (1972)
Thinking of Doug Michels made me think of Andy Mann, the person who introduced me to Doug, and the whole history of video art, for that matter. Andy, an early video pioneer, left his entire video collection to Aurora Picture Show, the organization I founded. We were close friends from the time we met (circa 1996) till his death from pancreatic cancer in 2001. This winter, the Andy Mann Video Tree was lovingly recreated by friends at Discovery Green Park.
There is no question that Andy Mann was one of the seminal figures in the early video scene, in particular for his remarkable “street tapes” which continued and amplified a tradition in film history marked by such works as Helen Leavitt’s In the Street.–Gene Youngblood, author Expanded Cinema
Andy Mann’s videotapes are classic examples of the “street tape” genre-a video equivalent of “cinema verite,” drawn directly from life, with a minimum of staging, acting or editing. The direct, candid style of Mann’s tapes reflects the enthusiasm sparked by the new equipment amongst a whole generation of first-time video users; the possibility of capturing subjective experiences and details of the world in which one lived was tremendously exciting at that time, and was reason enough to go out and shoot a video.–Video Data Bank, Chicago
The late media artist Andy Mann (1947-2001) was born in Manhattan, grew up in Yonkers, and, as an alternative to completing a high school term paper on Ayn Rand, joined the Navy in 1965. During his time in the Navy, he worked on several submarines as a sonar technician, which introduced him to electronics and a different way of looking at video. Mann described the images as being “like watching a kind of abstract television,” and credits his technical training as his introduction to good camerawork.
In 1969 Mann moved to Manhattan and began attending NYU, where he quickly became associated with several historic video collectives such as Global Village, Raindance, Perception, Videofreex, and TVTV (Top Value Television), as well as a contributor to the video art magazine Radical Software, founded in 1970. Mann also acted as video documentarian for performances by artists Hannah Wilke and Chris Burden, and interviewed subjects such as Phil Ochs, Mark Lombardi, and Fennie Shakur.
Recognized for his groundbreaking camerawork, Mann was one of the earlier artists in the US to receive grant funds from the National Endowment for the Arts to produce video art (1975 and 1978). His videos were included in the 1973 and 1975 Whitney Biennials at The Whitney Museum of American Art; the 1973 Sao Paulo Bienal; the 1977 Documenta VI, Kassell, Germany; as well as exhibitions at the Walker Art Center; Los Angeles County Museum of Modern Art; and Leo Castelli Gallery. Mann moved to Houston in the 1980s and began working in video installation and public sculpture. He was a producer for Access Houston cable since its 1987 inception, hosting a hybrid live video art program/talk show. Mann continued to produce videotapes until a few weeks before his death in 2001.
There is an excellent interview with Andy on Davidson Gigliotti’s site “The Early Video Project.”
Doug Michels communing with dolphins
The late artist Doug Michels often got sideways looks when he brought up his idea for a dolphin/human space colony, which he called “Bluestar.” Earlier in his career as a member of Ant Farm, he had embarked on establishing a “Dolphin Embassy” in Australia (partially funded by Rockefeller Foundation). Michels believed that dolphins had superior animal intelligence, and were capable of much more inter-species communication than was currently being explored. Doug would have been happy to see the January 3, 2010 edition of The Times with an article titled “Scientists say dolphins should be treated as ‘non-human’ persons.”
“Dolphins have long been recognised as among the most intelligent of animals but many researchers had placed them below chimps, which some studies have found can reach the intelligence levels of three-year-old children. Recently, however, a series of behavioural studies has suggested that dolphins, especially species such as the bottlenose, could be the brighter of the two. The studies show how dolphins have distinct personalities, a strong sense of self and can think about the future.”
See you in the future, Doug!
The Temporary Space opens Jan 15
I just received word from a former student, Keijiro Suzuki, that he and others are launching a new artist-run space in Houston called “The Temporary Space.” According to the website, every six months a new group of artists-in-residence will develop projects and exhibitions for the space. “The Temporary Space aims to create and share critically engaging experiences such as contemporary art exhibitions, experimental music performances, critical visual critiques and publicly engaging projects as basic components. In addition to this, focusing on interdisciplinary practices, the temporary space explores different topics and subjects by research and experiment, as well as by dialogues and discussions.”
Visit The Temporary Space, 1320 Nance, Houston, TX, 77002 by appointment.
Contact Keijiro Suzuki, cell: 832-867-9207, manager@thetemporaryspace.com
Kia Neill in her Grotto at Lawndale
With the Climate Change Summit wrapping-up in Copenhagen, and it not looking so pretty for the future of this blue planet, I recently made tentative “end of the world” plans with my husband (we probably have spent too much time discussing Cormac McCarthy’s The Road). My husband (being at a physical disadvantage) assumed that he and our asthmatic daughter would become sacrificial lambs in the fight against barbarism, while my fit daughter and I would retreat to a well-stocked, ammo-supplied remote cave dwelling (yet to be located). While a morbid scenario, we are not alone in entertaining fantasies of retreating into the hollow earth. Read the rest of this post on my Glasstire blog, We Have The Technology.
Rob Pruitt & friends
What to make of The First Annual Rob Pruitt Art Awards which took place on October 29, 2009 at The Guggenheim Museum in association with White Columns and Calvin Klein Collection? Art prizes with designer names attached have been around since the 1990s, but this was the first “awards show” styled event that mimicked the celebrity-watching antics of the Academy Awards. Part performance art, part Guggenheim benefit, and part droll commentary on awards ceremonies, the event was produced by conceptual artist Rob Pruitt, who doubled as the evening’s MC. Attendance was by invitation only (likely relative to patron size and/or art world status), and the process for selecting awardees was left largely to the imagination. As Rhonda Lieberman points out in her ArtForum diary, “it was the cool lunch table of the art world celebrating itself.” Read the rest of this post on my blog We Have The Technology, on glasstire.com.
The Yes Men, Chamber of Commerce Press Conference Hoax
On October 19, 2009, performance artists, The Yes Men, held a fake US Chamber of Commerce press conference at The National Press Club. A small assembly of journalists listened attentively as “Hingo Sembra,” posing as a Chamber official, announced that the behemoth business federation had revised its stance on Climate Change, and would discontinue lobbying against the Kerry-Boxer bill (which calls for significant reductions in U.S. carbon dioxide emissions). Moments later the real Chamber Spokesperson, Eric Wohlschlegel, burst through the doors of the conference room, breathlessly proclaiming the speaker to be a fraud! After a few dramatic seconds of Will the Real Chamber of Commerce Official Please Stand Up Game, Mr. Wohlschlegel made a strategic error by suggesting that the press direct questions to him, not the imposter. “Is the position of The Chamber of Commerce that Climate Change does not exist?” one journalist demanded. Mr. Wohlschlegel opted to ignore the question. He realized too late that any reaction would draw even more attention to the ne’er-do-well policies being exposed, and therein lies the brilliant quandary, which has become a winning tactic of The Yes Men. Read the rest of my top ten list on Glasstire.org.
The Independent School of Art, Courtesy Jon Rubin
In the September 13, 2009 edition of The New York Times, art critic Roberta Smith lamented the “academicization of the art world” (see Artists Without Mortarboards) and, went as far as to write that the growing interest among art schools in offering Ph.D.s in art “makes the blood run cold.” However, what warmed Smith’s cockles was the Bruce High Quality Foundation University, a newly launched insurgent, artist-run school that “is being made up as it goes along.” Read the rest of this post on my new blog, We Have The Technology on Glasstire.org.
Listen to me! Podcast interview of Andrea Grover (curator of 29 Chains to the Moon) and Astria Suparak (director of Miller Gallery) conducted by Eric Sloss (LabA6, College of Fine Arts, Carnegie Mellon University). Find out more about the artists currently on view and their visionary schemes for the future.
Miller Gallery has posted some nice photos from the mega opening reception of 29 Chains to the Moon, and the “flavor tripping” reception, 2009: A Taste Odyssey.
I also have some très casual photos from our weekend in Pittsburgh on my flickr site. Big thanks to Astria Suparak, Brett Kashmere, Hiromi Ozaki, Cesar Harada, Jon Rubin, Carol, Lilah, Margaret Cox, Erin Pische, Michael Johnson, Greg Pierce, Alisa Dix, Lowry Burgess, Bill Daniel, Mark O’Connor, and all those who tasted the Kool Aid with us.
