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Attended a NY art blogger social event in Chelsea last night organized by Edward Winkleman. Paddy Johnson has a report (she did a better job meeting people than I did). The mood was pleasant and egalitarian, and people talked a fair amount about art, unlike so many art world soirees terminally marred by climbers, strivers, snubbers, and assorted other dysfunctional bad vibe inducers. (Yes, I was scarred by several years of writing criticism during the dot com era.) Learned about a few sites I hadn't heard of before. There's definitely an uptick in good blog activity since this page's last extended prognosis of the scene, and the scuttlebutt has it that galleries and museums are paying a tad more attention to these self-published vehicles. This matters not so much for getting perks and press credentials as getting out-of-favor ideas heard and mediocre-but-powerful gatekeepers righteously bypassed. Maybe that's all of a piece, don't know for sure. Thanks to Edward for organizing this, looking forward to more such events.
"Speed Too" [mp3 removed]. My remix of John Parker's remix of my Mac SE tune(s). Work in process--still editing this piece, but give it a listen!
The show we're in in Toronto, curated by Sally McKay, is called "Mods and Rockers" (opening May 12th at York Quay Centre, part of digifest). The work will be video displayed on two screens, separated by several feet in a public hallway, with a music soundtrack accessible through headphones hanging between the videos.
Don't know what the other invited artist teams are doing, but rather than have some kind of face-off, or rumble, we're merging sensibilities. The collective inner Mod is the high tech influence in the form of some sophisticated audio software and newish laptop used to edit and burn the video, and the inner Rocker is the low tech source material: 8-Bit-style tunes on an old Mac (some originally composed in the '80s) and animated GIFs based on MSPaint versions of John's flat work.
We're trying for some sort of parity between the audio and visual material. Pixels and square waves as both medium and subject.
This is just my dashed off statement, issued with John's more or less approval based on an earlier email. Like the music and video we've been posting, it could be Modified. Or I could be off my Rocker.
Oh, and did I mention "organic"?
| T | Trustworthy |
| O | Organic |
| M | Misunderstood |
| M | Mushy |
| O | Old |
| O | Organic |
| D | Desperate |
| Y | Young |
Name Acronym Generator
Big shakeup at the Village Voice since the yuppie New Times Corp. bought the paper. From the comments at Undernews:
"The Bush Blog" was shut down just as things got interesting in D.C. "Press Clips," whose writers over the years included [Alexander] Cockburn and Doug Ireland, has been discontinued. [James] Ridgeway was pulled from the print edition 2 months ago -- now he has been sent packing.This is depressing. Blogs are taking up some of the slack left by the demise of independent, ad-based print media, but bloggers don't have the resources to do sustained, high-profile reporting that requires face to face interviews, travel, etc. RIP Village Voice. I shudder that they'll start scrubbing the politics out of Jim Hoberman's film reviews, which are all about the politics.
Wonder how long it takes before the Voice becomes another pro-war/pro-Bush mouthpiece?