torolab

Torolab is a Tijuana-based collective of artists and architects that "explore the logistics of daily life in the twin borders of Tijuana and San Diego" as well as "the artistic potential of locative technologies." Participants of The Region of the Transborder Trousers wore clothing with GPS technology for five days to document their passage between Tijuana and San Diego.

This project is subversive in that it illustrates the ease with which one can pass between the two countries in spite of border control and security. However, Torolab focuses on this border as "an opportunity for aesthetic experience rather than overt political critique." Torolab seeks to create a huge billboard/pedestrian bridge on the border where people can enter text or image to be displayed on the face with a computer located at the foot of the bridge.

electronic disturbance theater

Electronic Disturbance Theater is a group of artists who seek to explore the intersection of art and politics with politically charged digital art. This group "initiated a series of online civil disobedience acts," including using code to disable websites so that they barely function or function very slowly.

The creator of EDT first worked as a member of ACTUP, an AIDS activist organization. This was interesting to me because ACTUP is known for the scale of its political protests and for its effect on AIDS policy in the US. Knowing that the creator of EDT first participated in this large scale political movement and then became the creator of an online-based political protest organization challenges that idea that digital protests are less effective than in-person ones.

jonah brucker-cohen and katherine moriwaki

In "Umbrella.net," Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Katherine Moriwaki explore "the aesthetics of mobile ad-hoc networks that form spontaneously between wireless devices." The umbrellas open when a wireless device is turned out and arches connect groups of people. I think that this is interesting because it depicts connectivity in an age where this is as simple as digital interaction.

Even in a world where we can be connected instantly with anyone via social networking sites, email, text messaging, and other things, people still feel alone. We're connected by wireless networks but that doesn't determine how disconnected we can feel sometimes because so much has turned into cold, digital interaction.

This work is notable because it was created by a team of artists and engineers, which is often a characteristic of new media art. Art isn't always just the concept and execution of one person, but rather a team effort.

natalie bookchin

Natalie Bookchin's web project "The Intruder" is based on the short story by Jorge Luis Borges of the same title. The story is about a pair of brothers who fall in love with the same woman and eventually sell her to a brothel. In the end, she dies and the brothers become friends again. Bookchin's work is created with ten short interactive sites modeled after early video games. In one segment, "the player is implicated in the narrative by the feminine 'ball' back and forth, symbolically taking the role of one of the brothers and enacting the cruel exchange of the woman as if she were an object with no agency."

On a larger scale, Bookchin's work also offers commentary on feminine identity in an art world dominated by male artists (digital media). Bookchin's other work is also overtly political. She has created a site critizing President George W. Bush, as well as a new project called "Metapet," where the viewer acts as a corporate executive controlling human beings.

ARTEVENT: Mary Stewart creativity lecture

Creativity (create!)

Mary Stewart lectured about creativity, but it was more of a workshop than a lecture. I was struck by a lot of the phrases that she used or ways she described things without stating them outright. She talked about creativity as a way of being "born" every day, of "piercing the mundane" or "having new eyes." She said that sometimes we focus on finding an answer to a question or problem that we don't realize that the question is more important, she urged us to "get rid of answers you already know."

She gave good advice like "try failing more" and "never hope more than you work." She also discussed Robert Frank's photography project, The Americans. Last year I saw this exhibit at the National gallery in DC and then again at the San francisco museum of modern art and it was especially inspiring to me. She made the point that Robert Frank took 27000 photographs for a book of 83 images. She also brought up several different ways of problem solving. She said, "The best ideas start at a place beyond conciousness."

During the lecture, I started remembering a lot of art that has been inspiring to me and scribbled a lot of artist names in the margins of my notebook. This came at a time when I was struggling with the vector self portrait project and it was really helpful in clearing up some of that frustration.

ARTEVENT: Amze Emmons artist talk

Interrupted Lives: Human Migration in War and Peace

Amze Emmons gave a talk about art, migration, and politics. When Dr Cain introduced Amze Emmons, he stated that there is a "mutual attraction" between art and political science, which was interesting to me because I am an art history and political science double major. I really enjoyed Amze Emmons' talk. He cited his main interests dealing with migration to be place and space, displacement by choice or force, tourist vs. refugee, things we carry and the things we leave behind, the politics of architecture, and images in visual culture. He took pictures of spaces that didn't really work or were odd to him. He also discussed the idea of global appropriation and how some things lose their meaning when put in a new context.

I was attracted to his work. Amze Emmons creates scenes of displacement without any people in them, which leaves you feeling sort of haunted when you're looking at it. His use of color and line were notable to me. Also, in the backgrounds of many of his pictures (an the one I have here), what's interesting is what isn't there rather than what is. For instance, the skylines are not colored in, but they're what you notice. Similarly, you notice the lack of human presence almost right away. Art is really successful when you are still thinking about it days later.

John Klima

John Klima is a new media artist with a background in photography as well as programming. He went to school at SUNY Purchase. His piece Glasbead, an interface that "exemplifies the convergent nature of new media art." Klima was inspired by Herman Hesse's novel "The Glass Bead Game"which has been described by some as a sort of "metaphor for the internet."

Klima's piece "enables up to 20 simealtanous participants to make music collaboratively." Users can pull the stems of this flower like orb to create sound.

I find this piece interesting because it combines visual and auditory tools to provide an interactive place where music can be created. Klima approaches his work from both an art as well as a technological background, which is true of many new media artists.