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Virtual Craft Project
Make a needlepoint of the paperback cover image for William Gibson's collection Burning Chrome. See explanatory notes under pics below.
The above "video cyborg" by Richard Berry is très 1987 (but kind of good)--check out those Max Headroom stripes in the background. This is just a scan of a paperback cover, but my idea would be to contract out the sewing so that a detail would look like the image below (assuming anyone has about a year):
Nintendo Ocean, 1994, by Bill Davenport. This Houston-based artist had a ten year jump on a lot of the lowtech Komputer Kraft stuff that's going on now, with the Providence collectives and whatnot. He did go to RISD, but in the '80s. This 8.5" X 12" needlepoint was stitched by Olga Vanucci. Note: the image is cropped at the top and more cyan than the original. More needlepoints from this series are here (click on thumbnails for enlarged views), and a 2002 exhibition of Davenport's faux-lumpen sculptures and crafts, which I prefer to his recent trompe l'oeil book cover paintings, is documented here.
A new piece of music I made: "Eine Zwei Drei" [1 min - 1.37MB - .mp3]. I find it kind of sinister. Coming this soon after talking about Monotrona, it might be compared to that, but I'd say it's closer to Laibach. That's it--a kind of abject, basement Laibach (Slovenian dirge-y synth stuff, but this is goofier.)
Joe McKay's preReview, where yrs truly occasionally moonlights with trenchantly uninformed coverage of Hollywood crapola, was named "Unfortunate Site of the Week" by Time Out NY this week. Here's what they said: "Everyone's a critic--only some people think they're so smart they can review a film based on previews alone. Encourage them to get a life by not going to homepage.mac.com/joester5/prereview for 'prereviews' of soon-to-be-released films." This is what's known in the preReviewing trade as an "inverted psych maneuver" or the less technical "stroke'n'slap." Tell'em not to go and then give'em the URL, ri-iii-ght. Yet beneath that passive aggressive unplug you can smell the stench of fear hovering over a trade that knows its day is about over. I mean, these people expect you to shell out at the box office for a product you know you'll hate, and then plunk down coin AGAIN to read what they say about it. preReview on the other hand saves you both payments and is actually entertaining. So by all means, don't pick up Time Out NY this week to read their plug of McKay's site.