Sanja Ivekovic at MoMA

I had the pleasure of attending a press preview of Sanja Ivekovi's new exhibit, Sweet Violence, at the Museum of Modern Art this week.

Sanja's work involves a lot of manipulation of existing images (especially advertising and propaganda) to drive home messages about feminism, history, and media.

Some highlights for me included Tragedy of Venus, a collection of photographs which juxtaposed images of Marilyn Monroe with the artist's own photographs where tries to mimic the star's poses. Another was Double Life, in which the artist paired print advertisements of beautiful women wearing sunglasses with the personal stories of abused women.

Lady Rosa of Luxembourg is one of her most well-known and controversial works. We saw it in person, and got to hear the the museum director and the gallery curator discuss the work. Lady Rosa of Luxembourg came to be when Sanja's original idea for an art work was denied. She erected this monument as a critique of the original, incorporating ideas about the treatment of women.

We also got to experience the artist's performance piece, Practice Makes a Master. This piece featured a single female dancer wearing a plastic bag over her head, falling again and again as a cut from Marilyn Monroe's cover of the song "That Old Black Magic" played and a spotlight flashed on and off. At 18 minutes, the song played a couple times, slowing down gradually. By the end it was quite disturbing and reminded one of a torture chamber and a cabaret act all at once.

Class #12

1. Relational Aesthetics and Carsten Holler

Relational art or relational aesthetics is "a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space." French author Nicolas Bourriard makes the first attempt at understanding the artists who practiced relational aesthetics in the 1990s, among them Carsten Holler, who fits the definition quite well. As the NY Times said of his exhibit at the New Museum, Holler's art is directed at "the humans who consent to participate in his thoroughly subjective experiments, which stand science on its head, yielding results for the sake of the test subject rather than that of the tester."

2. Eric Rosenthal

Mr. Rosenthal is an adjunct professor at NYU who specializes in imaging technology. He worked for a long time at ABC, where he made sure the network was keeping up with the latest state-of-the-art facilities, engineering, lighting, etc. Today, he's working on a project with his company to develop a "full-spectrum imaging sensor and display."

3. Post-Digital

The basic premise of "post-digital" is that the digital "revolution" is over, and that now digital technology is no longer a novelty, but rather an inevitable and ordinary part of the human experience, particularly when it comes to artistic expression. Post-digital thinking does not contend that we are in a phase of life after digital, but rather it aims to explore what life is like now that we are fully integrated with it.

Breathtaking quote from this blog post by Russel Davies : "There are a lot of people around now who have thoroughly integrated 'digitalness' into their lives. To the extent that it makes as much sense to define them as digital as it does to define them as air-breathing." The point of the article is for Davies to outline points he made in a recent presentation with post-digital ideas at the center. His most interesting point for me were that people are no longer impressed by things on screens, and that instead people are looking to see technology integrated into everyday objects. An excellent example was a small chip in the back of a book, which, when activated, would allow you to hear the book read aloud.

The Guardian's Simon Jenkins argues that "live experience" is in and "digital" fetishism is out. He gives music, politics, and museums as examples. A possible explanation? "It is possible that people who spend all day online yearn to escape a screen at evenings and weekends" I think that's a very good idea. Also likely is this explanation: people are having trouble making money off online experiences. Finally, I think Jenkins very aptly summarizes post-digital this way: "Post-digital is not anti-digital. It extends digital into the beyond. "

The Journal of Media Practice Symposium 2011 was a "one-day symposium [that] explored how digital technologies have redefined creativity and media practice within the academy." Essentially it was a summit on "post-digital."

Most Influential

1. Ten Nelson and hypertext

Before this class, I had never imagined that the Internet could exist any other way than it exists now. Previously I knew that it was Tim Berners-Lee's brainchild, but I had no knowledge that the Internet had precursors or that there was controversy around the idea of the net (except for issues of net neutrality). Nelson's notion of hypertext is interesting because it envisions the web as something for academic use, made to enhance knowledge and organization. Today's Internet does that in a sense, but its multiple other uses make it indeed something different from what Nelson imagined. Though Nelson's Internet may never exist the way he intended, I think it is important to keep his goals of academic integrity and intellectual lineage in mind as the World Wide Web continues to evolve.

2. Science and math as art - Ken Perlin and Carsten Holler

You can't have digital art without math and science, and I think what I will take away from this class is that the art does not come despite the scientific nature of it but BECAUSE of that very nature. The beauty, as I learned from Ken Perlin and Carsten Holler, is in the very processes that go into making the digital art. In school we art taught that art and science/math are opposed, but in fact more and more they are connected in meaningful ways, to the benefit of both math/science and art. Math and science make digital art possible, and I think that is good, because it allows more people to get involved with art, both right brainers and left brainers. Those two types of people can even work together, and that is where the real magic happens.

3. Intellectual curiosity

There are certainly other big concepts that I will remember from this class including digital journalism (Michael Strickland), data visualization (THINK exhibit), and the future of technology in daily life (augmented reality), but there is something else that I will remember first and foremost: the virtue of constantly learning about the world around you — its past, its present, and its future. Whether it's music or fashion or art, Cynthia taught me, by example, that pursuing an interest in the constantly changing world is a fulfilling way to live life. Whether it was literature, or a museum, or a YouTube link, Cynthia was always excited about something and being with her made me feel inspired to pay more attention to things that are new and positive. This is a lesson whose importance transcends the classroom.

The Met, window watching, and the movies

At the MET Museum we saw Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Creche, an annual display there since 1957. Cynthia asked us to make up a story based on the figures beneath the tree. Mine was about a sultan named Raj who traveled to Italy on his elephant. He couldn't find anyone who would celebrate the holiday with him because they were all scared of his elephant. The exception was a man named Filipe, who was unafraid because he grew up in a circus. We also saw the exhibit, Infinite Jest, about the history of satire. I agree with the New York Times' observation that, "caricature has not undergone the kind of extreme transformations that the finer, higher arts of painting and sculpture have." Throughout history you see some of the same techniques used by many artists-- turning people into animals, exaggerating physical features, etc. I think this is a good thing; it makes satire an art with longevity. Though you could see the humor in every image, it was helpful to have context to better understand the circumstances that inspired each drawing.

The windows at Bergdorf Goodman were absolutely spectacular. I found this video produced by Bergdorf Goodman that explains more about the process of making the windows and their significance. David Hoey and Linda Fargo are the head designers who have been working on the windows for over a decade.

Finally, saw the movie HUGO in 3D at the spectacular Ziegfeld Theatre. I truly enjoyed the film. The scene design and filming were so innovative I felt at times I was watching something entirely animated (actors included). I'm not sure the movie made any particularly BOLD statements...messages about finding one's purpose, and coping with loss etc. were poignant but not necessarily original. I don't think that mattered much though because the sentiment was good and the style was so specific and imaginative. Also the film must get brownie points for re-visiting the legacy of George Melies.

My Time At The New Museum

Carsten Höller's goal is to inspire doubt and uncertainty in the people who experience his work. For me, he succeeded! But I still had a lot of fun along the way.


The carousel on the fourth floor left me wondering why we would ever find a carousel fun under any circumstances. Höller's ride stripped down the carousel to its most fundamental element-- circular motion. Without speed, and sound, and visual candy, the carousel seems useless and silly.

The slide had a similar effect. I keep thinking about Höller's quote in which he says going down a slide is like a barely controlled fall. I never quite felt that way until I went down Höller's slick, metallic slide. It's fast and you feel, at least toward the end, like you are losing control. The added effect of being seen through the tube as you go makes your mad descent a spectacle for others.

The upside down glasses were a perfect metaphor for Höller's entire exhibition. When you enter his world, your world is literally turned upside down. After falling down the slide, spinning on the carousel, this exercise was the thing that finally left me with a headache as I left the museum.

I've recommended it to all my friends.

Class #11

1. New York Times

Carsten Holler

Favorite quote: “It’s a very odd thing with a slide; it’s quite an efficient way to go from place to place, but it is also like a barely controlled fall. It’s a very specific kind of madness to go down one.”

Wikipedia

This nicely sums up the range of experience at the New Museum: "Höller creates situations which question familiar forms of perception and allow exhibition visitors to experiment on themselves, often inviting the public's active participation in so-called “influential environments."

New Museum

Höller was originally trained as a scientist, and now draws on "research and experiments from scientific history" in order to "alter the audience’s physical and psychological sensations, inspiring doubt and uncertainty about the world around them."

2. Elements of Style as Occupy Movement Evolves

NYTimes article describes how OWS became a global phenomenon. Using the hashtag symbol makes it optimal for spreading on social network sites. The "Occupy" part of OWS helps brand other satellites of the movement around the world. And "We are the 99%" helps communicate a message clearly, which can be easily translated and applied in other countries.

3. Interview with the man behind OWS' "Bat Signal" on its two-month anniversary.

Mark Read, 45, used a Sony 12K lumen projector that sells for around $10K to get the graphics on the wall. He used the apartment of a relative stranger in the building across the way from which to project. He wrote the words himself.

4. Saks Fifth Avenue Holiday Light Show Features 3D Projection Mapping

Creative agency Iris created a 3D projection called "The Snowflake and the Bubble" which plays every night for five hours. Customers can also scan a QR code in the windows of Saks in order to enjoy the show at home.

5.Hackers Give Rise To New Ideas For Microsoft Kinect

Kinect seems to be about more than just Microsoft. Coca Cola has created an interactive billboard, where people can appear to play inside a waterfall of soda. Appears to be using a technology similar to Microsoft Kinect.

Another video on the page by Kinect lays out a vision for the future of Kinect, in which the technology is a more integral part of peoples' lives. Applications are imagined in music, medicine, teaching, etc. Really cool.

6. Converting Music Blogs Into a Song Discovery Platform

Tim Heineke's Shuffler.fm aggregates music from music blogs into channels that focus on a genre. In an interview, Heineke says he says it as "a more human Pandora or a new version of rolling stone magazine or sort of MTV for music blogs." And it works with blogs/sites hosted on WordPress, Tumblr, Posterous, Typepad etc.

7. ITP Showcase

NYU exhibit of student work in the ITP graduate program in Tisch. The program's mission is " two-year graduate program located in the Tisch School of the Arts whose mission is to explore the imaginative use of communications technologies — how they might augment, improve, and bring delight and art into people's lives.

OWS

1. New York Times article talks about the genius behind OWS branding:

"By christening its first camp “#Occupy Wall Street,” Adbusters set a precedent whereby other groups could instantly invent their own versions of “Occupy” in different locations..."

"Occupy" is easily customizable and translatable into different languages. The hash tag helps people search for the movement on Twitter. Using a raised fist as a symbol places the movement historically.

The crux of this argument, which highlights the irony of this success, is here:

In short, “Occupy” is a stellar example of both what is known in marketing as an umbrella brand name and what the anti-corporatists in the movement could call beating them at their own game.

2. Interview with the man behind OWS' "Bat Signal" on its two-month anniversary.

Mark Read, 45, used a Sony 12K lumen projector that sells for around $10K to get the graphics on the wall. He used the apartment of a relative stranger in the building across the way from which to project. He wrote the words himself.