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The Occupy with Art blog provides updates on projects in progress, opinion articles about art-related issues and OWS, useful tools built by artists for the movement, new features on the website, and requests for assistance. To submit a post, contact us at occupationalartschool(at)gmail(dot)com .

Entries by admin (551)

Wednesday
Sep122012

Telling Stories [Novadic poem-image exchange]

This is my response to Kerry, but more fittingly a response to [Paul's] sending those photos. So a slideshow, of a sort, in return. Thanks for sending me back to Boston and the Cape. - Chris

 

​[Poem by Chris Moylan. Photos by Paul McLean (ca. 1984).]

Telling Stories

 

The coast was late in arriving

For that sudden sunset,

so we invented a new far away,

beautiful, well preserved,

like a bible newly translated

from a long winter’s sleep.

 

Last Breaths

 

What did we expect? a paper

airplane gliding like a gloved

finger over dust…a conclusion

comforting, almost inaudible

amidst the date palms

And ghosts in the varnish…

 

Anticipation

 

Sadness so evening kitchen,

so dirty dishes and ice chips,

so twist-off  bottle of Ginger Ale…

clouds gathering kindling

from what’s left of the treeline

to burn what’s left of sleep…

 

Regrets and disappointments…

Everything addled, a bit

Off kilter, too bright, and

too dark at the same time…

All the windows thrown open,

Flocks of heron, egrets come through.

 

Crosswords

 

Pills and crumpled napkins,

breakfast crumbs, newspapers

Baking in the oven… Pat telling

stories that don’t fit together;

words come first, then the puzzle,

then the empty spaces.

 

Last Day

 

On television an old man

Talking to an empty chair, other

Old men bobbing like cut bait

For Leviathan to clear the air…

This is Florida. I can’t wait

To get out of here…

 

A few families on Bonita Beach

Paralyzed by the sun. Stillness

Everywhere. Within the stillness,

A slight rise and fall on the bay

That pulls freighters into the haze

Does God read my mind?

 

Maybe, maybe not.

Pat has only a few days

and I am content to sit here,

mind empty, more or less,

no memories, no lists, no tasks,

just stillness and sand,

mind read, contents emptied...

Wednesday
Sep122012

Occupy by Art

[Submitted to OwA by Susan Chandel via OwA contact form]:

Hi... The bank told me as long as I was trying to sell which I am, and the house had equity (which everyone except the bank says it does)... ( having lost my partner, son, mother and 5 jobs in as many years)... I came up with this joyful notion.

Currently, local artists are Occupying my home slated for foreclosure in October 2012 . I have had events and have more coming. here is an Italian blog article linking to the you tube video. Thanks for your consideration.

I am hoping this may be an Occupy strategy in the toolkit of eradicating foreclosures. 

[LINK]

 

Wednesday
Sep122012

CO-OP at b.j. spoke Gallery [Opening Reception, 9/8 report-back]

Photo Credit: Katherine Criss

Saturday, September 8 marked the opening of CO-OP in Huntington, Long Island at the venerable b.j. spoke gallery. CO-OP is the Occupy with Art experimental collective project to integrate the 99% art economy with the cooperative food economy. Many of the bj spoke artists in the front and back galleries displayed powerful political artworks for the exhibit. True to Occupy form, we started the evening with street protest, thanks to Occupy Huntington. The good people of Occupy Storefront contributed a couple of last minute entries to our exhibition component, which added a lot of color to the array. The food spread and beverages were terrific, shared by the bj spoke artist community, the OwA participants (Chris baked a great pie and tarts) and our generous sponsors, Blind Bat Brewery. We had a terrific crowd for the reception, starting before the door opened at 6pm and continuing well into the evening. At 7pm, I made a performance art, throwing darts at my portrait of Mayor Bloomberg. It was a hit (actually all of them were)! Then, Chris and I gave brief talks about the project and Occupy with Art. Thank you to all who contributed to what was a wonderful evening of sharing art, convivials + passionate resistance and/or creative insistence. Special thanks goes to Marilyn Lavi, bj spoke director, Katherine Criss, and the bjs crews and committees who were vital in the actualization of this worthy collaborative project. Artist-owned and operated co-operative businesses are essential in a healthy arts ecology, and bj spoke is a great example and demonstration of that fact! - PJM

Wednesday
Sep122012

OAS Node #1 [9/14]: Audrey Snyder + Joe Riley - Parallel Cases

During the summer of 2012 Audrey Snyder and Joe Riley traveled through landscapes of abandoned railroads in California and Oregon atop bicycles adapted to run on railroad tracks. The railbikes were devised as a way to re-activate the railroads now lying in disuse in both rural and metropolitan areas of these western states. On Friday, September 14 from 7-9, Occupational Art School Node 1 at Bat Haus will host Audrey and Joe to share their amazing story.


[PROJECT SUMMARY]:
The project first emerged about a year and a half ago when Joe and Audrey became interested in exploring the parallel histories of the American railroads and the demise of commercial printing, specifically its shift from handset type to mechanized linotype and eventually to digital printing. A nearly forgotten – perhaps even abandoned – point of convergence for the histories of the railroad and printing lies in the Tramp Printers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Tramp Printers were itinerant printers who hopped trains across America to set type in the publishing houses and newspapers that had sprung up alongside the railroads. Inspired by the legacy and tradition of the tramp printers they restored a 3” by 5” Kelsey Excelsior hand operated letterpress that they will use to publish a chronicle of their travel in the forgotten right-of-way. Through Parallel Cases, they endeavored to take up the methods and means of the tramp printers as a way to both collect and distribute their findings. 

PROJECT URL: http://parallelcases.tumblr.com/

FACEBOOK EVENT: http://www.facebook.com/events/414933371901352/415164485211574/

Click to read more ...

Monday
Sep102012

OAS Node #1 [9/12]: Liv Mette Larsen

The Occupational Art School Node 1 at Bat Haus is pleased to present an evening with Liv Mette Larsen, accomplished Norwegian-born painter based in Bushwick and Berlin. From 7-9PM on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, OASN1@BH will host a casual conversation with the artist and introduction to her Scrap Metal series, which is inspired by the scenes she has encountered during her recent stints working and living in Bushwick/Brooklyn/NYC. 

Painting by Liv Mette Larsen

Download a 2011 catalog of Liv Mette Larsen’s “Scrap Metal” series HERE.

Photo by Paul McLean

[Catalog Essay]:

 LIV METTE LARSEN: SCRAP METAL [NEW YORK PAINTINGS] 


In a career spanning more than thirty years, Larsen’s intuitive paintings, watercolors and drawings establish an energetic dialogue about perception and the transitory moments of life. Working primarily in monochrome silhouettes, she employs alternating scales to reconstruct the subjective realities of her narratives. Instead she proposes an inductive perspective, abstracting people and things from her daily encounters that reflect the circumstances of Larsen’s practice. Her paintings dissolve the boundaries between figuration and abstraction, with objects transforming fluidly into organic geometric forms. She paints with densely applied egg tempera to create the illusion of volume to allow isolated elements to become vivid archetypal forms and graphic signs. 

Throughout her recent works, urban space and the ways in which people engage with it have been a primary concern. Drawing inspiration from the fleeting moments of everyday life, figures are devoid of context, either standing alone or with blocks of color. In Big Men (2011), heavily bundled men isolated against the canvas appear to be engaged in a ritualistic dance, alternately moving closer and further away. Likewise in Berlin Blue Abstract Walking (2010), an unknown woman, identifiable only by her profile, poses in each canvas. Reduced to strictly physical cues, each stance ranges from contemplative to interrogative. This series takes its title from a specific blue that was discovered by eighteenth-century alchemists working in the Prussian capital.  

From anonymous figures to pared-down industrial environments, she seeks to integrate the identifying characteristics of her location with her works. Larsen approaches the subway as a linear system reminiscent of Mondrian’s urban grids while in Scrap Metal and Scrap Metal Heap (2011) Larsen records the scrap metal heaps that were immediately outside of the window of her Brooklyn studio. Reduced to abstract swathes of bright yellow, blue, orange, and green, the utility of each jagged piece dissolves into an amoeboid shape. In Smith Street (2011), the blurred relationship between figure and ground disorients perspective. Although Larsen makes reference to a specific location, her paintings examine the fundamental relationships between people and their surroundings, preserving initial observations and glimpses to allow for prolonged reflection.
    
Liv Mette Larsen was born in Oslo, Norway in 1952 and attended the Oslo SHKS School of Art and Crafts. From 1978-84 she studied at the Berlin Hochschule für Künste (UDK). In 1992 she won Berlin’s Senate Cultural Affairs Department Grant and Norway’s Vederlagsfondet Grant in 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2006. She received additional grants from the Norwegian Cultural Council in 2000, 2004 and 2006. Recent solo exhibitions include Literaturhaus, Salzburg, Austria (2006), Galerie Kai Hilgemann, Berlin, Germany (2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012), Galeria Fruela, Madrid, Spain (2008) and Helac Fine Art, New York, USA (2011). 

She has exhibited internationally for over three decades and her work is included in major public and private collections.

Saturday
Sep082012

CO-OP at b.j. spoke Gallery [TONIGHT!]

Occupy with Art and B.J. Spoke Gallery in Huntington, Long Island are pleased to announce the launch of CO-OP, an experimental collective art exhibit and exchange, on view from September 5-30, 2012. A reception will be held at the gallery on Saturday, September 8, from 6-8 PM. CO-OP will feature an array of OWS photos by Steve O'Byrne, works on paper by Konstant and Isaac Moylan, and 4D animations, paintings and multimedia pieces by Paul McLean. CO-OP will introduce a model gift-barter of art for food, prototyping the direct integration of the local art and cooperative food networks. 

Konstant
Exhibition: September 5-30, 2012
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 8, 2012 6-9PM
B. J. Spoke Gallery
299 Main St  Huntington, NY 11743
Gallery hours are Tuesday-Sunday 11-5 and Friday 11-9.
Phone: (631) 549-5106
Contact: Marilyn Lavi: manager@bjspokegallery.com
Website: http://www.bjspokegallery.com
Directions: 495 to exit 39N; Glen Cove Rd. north to 25A east; 25a about 14 miles to Huntington Village. Main St. is part of 25A.
Occupy with Art
Website: http://www.occupywithart.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/occupywithart
Co-organizers: Paul McLean [artforhumans@gmail.com + (615)491-7285] & Christopher Moylan [cmoylanc@gmail.com + (347)512-0833]

  • Download the CO-OP book HERE.
  • Download the CO-OP stencil HERE.
  • See the CO-OP photoset HERE.
  • Paul McLean's new essay for the Brooklyn Rail, "WTF America!"
  • Steve O'Byrne's OWS photos at Flickr.

CO-OP installation view at bj spoke gallery.[EXHIBIT CONCEPT, NARRATIVE and DESCRIPTION]

CO-OP/Occuburbs/Occufest began in December 2011 as an Occupy with Art (OwA) initiative to bridge the apparent divide between Occupy Wall Street and artist-activists living in the suburbs of New York City - specifically, those who make Long Island their home. OwA co-organizers Paul McLean and Christopher Moylan, a Long Island-based educator, artist, poet and Occupier, discussed a range of measures they hoped might activate and unite Occupy with those sympathetic to the movement in Long Island, measures that included community-building cultural events and art exhibitions, in addition to mobilizing or organizing efforts. In so doing McLean and Moylan hoped to model innovative programs for sustainable, alternative art economies for the 99%, and to inspire those who engaged in activism in the past several decades to get involved with OWS actions, now. 

Drawing from Moylan's experience in co-operative food networks, the co-organizers developed the CO-OP concept into an exhibition with an art and food exchange component. Through the CO-OP exchange, OwA is developing a simple template for in-kind or barter-based markets that will help artists become more integrated in communities that lack accessible or available retail infrastructure for affordable art. After a search and inquiry phase, McLean and Moylan, found great partner organizations in Huntington - The Cinema Arts Centre, which hosted an OwA screening program on July 25th featuring the films of Liza Bear, and B.J. Spoke, a member-supported gallery with deep roots in Long Island, dating to the 70s.    

Moylan and McLean have written essays to platform the issues underpinning CO-OP, which have either been published in The Brooklyn Rail or the Occupy with Art blog. These include Moylan's CO-OP/Occuburbs/Occufest series, McLean's "ENOUGH [BASTA]!" and, more generally, McLean's "Soul of Occupy" sequence, which maps the sometimes (for the author) discomfiting parameters and expectations for art situated in the OWS protest movement, in its initial anarchic emergent state. 

[ABOUT OCCUPY WITH ART]

The CO-OP production builds on OwA programs and initiatives, such as "Occupy Printed Matter," OwA's collaboration with Yoko Ono entitled "Wish Tree for Zuccotti Park," the Spatial Occupation at Hyperallergic, "Wall Street to Main Street," "Low Lives: Occupy!" and the soon-to-open Occupational Art School Node #1 at Bat Haus in Bushwick, Brooklyn, NYC. Occupy with Art was founded in late September as Occupennial, and until recently existed as an affinity group for the Arts & Culture Working Group of the New York City General Assembly for Occupy Wall Street. Over the past ten months, OwA has operated in constant transition, serving initially as a nexus for communications and documentation of OWS-related arts and culture, then shifting into production and program development. Over its brief life span OwA has generated many opportunities for Occupy artists to share ideas and work, facilitated important discourse on the disposition of art and artists in the Occupation, and presented diverse programming exploring a spectrum of meaningful creative action. 

 

Monday
Sep032012

OASN1@BH Week 2 Review

[Novadic transmission from A, September 1, 2012]:

 

friends. 

this morning i received a sweet letter from a NYC occupier which raises important questions for the struggle. riding on its wave, would like to discuss a bit the Body-Without-Organs (BwO) notion and the hot possibility of mathematically modeling the movement through non-linearity.  

occupier letter.

"The key is in learning to embrace contradiction. It's the only way we can grow. Radical + reformist. Masculine + feminine. Rejecting the system + using the system to implode itself. Outreach + Inreach. The list is endless. I know it's personal for me, but I feel so strongly that if we blow up the binary, everything becomes so much more POSSIBLE. It's a pretty obvious thing that these divisions are created to keep us submissive. What do we do once we dissolve these imaginary lines?"
C.

this brings us to the exploration-experimentation that our collective has been conducting in the movement so far, namely with the use -and abuse, why not?- of pluripotential spaces. these zones are effectively TAZs elicited by organizers, whom "code" a given space with the right inscription (rules) and then present the instructions to the players; through this rune-like operator, trained organizers can optimize the emergence of flow (optimal experience) at any given loci, outdoor or indoor. the consequences are endless. 

         A.

time suspension.                    

~ "When you will have made him a body without organs,

then you will have delivered him from all his automatic reactions

and restored him to his true freedom." ~ 

                         A. Artaud (1947) 

Fibonaci Arena (FA) is any given space coded with instructions that elicit flow (e.g. Salon, Magic Mountain). FAs are intentionally unintentional vortexes, a spiral-eliciting accident, which draws its theoretical basis on anarchy and the notion of BwO that Deleuze & Guattari introduce in their collaborative work. in those instances where play is elicited time is abolished. 

play is flow & flow is play

"what is your name?" dialogues.

(...) existence means exposition to and adaptation of a full range of given norms, structures and boundaries (...)

(...) this does not lead to a loss of personality but to a construction of an artificial one: already before we are born we are categorized based on our genitals, which decide what kind of name is going to be imposed on us, Susan or Tom (...) 

(...) a stratification of our bodies, which is created through the hierarchical order of society (...) Thousand Plateaus (...) continuous power relations amongst members of society (...) power where those at the top oppress the others 

Mark

in illo tempore ~ "in that time" ,  or "once upon a time".

in order to break binaries, and thus promote a revolution in the logical framework that guides -- and ensnares -- Western thought it is suggested: 

(1) that instead of "breaking" boundaries, revolutionaries seek to "dissolve" them by eliciting phase transitions :: from solid to liquid :: liquid time, flow :: ~ this method of engaging Empire discussed by OccupySunTzu acts on the links, on the spaces in between.

(2) this phase transition may be elicited through flash ~ liberations, i.e. collective processes of emancipation in public streets & squares :: similar to ancient tribal hierophanies :: regression to the undifferentiated state of BwO :: 

(3) dissemination of Fibonaci Arenas. 

the resulting kaleidoscopes are #novad-like supernovas. 

occupyMathematics ~ "and they say you always hated math (...)"

to start thinking about how to mathematically model the movement, at this point of maturity and beyond, is probably the last thing that Empire wants us to do. from here on lies the suggestion that we OccupyMathematics. 

check out mathematical approaches to model complex emergent behavior (eg, central nervous system;; ant colony;; traffic jams ;;) and these links with tricks from the trickster: 

Sent from my soul

Mapping the voyage of the Hippo.
[NOTES]:
The dynamics that manifest as revelations in the material zone or phase only comprise a small fraction of the dynamics in play. Most of the dimensional arena is active with immaterial transpects demonstrating what can be described as multiplicity, resistant to epistemology or the recursive. The key for the lead artist is to encourage or facilitate the transiting of evidence, of life, through the spatial layers we designate as free and open to our pluripotential phenomena. 
In OAS we discovered in Week 2, for example, that a course need not exist to exist in substantiated iterations. We found, additionally, that timing can pronounce the extended, even epic, duration of a 4D artistic project, given a dedicated locus + chronos, as long as the witness(es) and presenter(s) share the space with a focal media array, including networked electronics attached to the web and database. As such, the spectacle is only activated by a combination of hard-, soft- + wetware [LOL], in the actual stage, with the virtual as both accompaniment and archive. In relation to experience, the transmission is conducted in a flux of casual and formal micro-environments. The environment has a time feature, and it is easily translated as "a moment" itself, although such a designation is incomplete. 
The technical evaluation of the phenomena is hardly encompassing of the experience. 
Another interesting anecdote involves the act of preparation for the transmission. Is such activity not also an invitation, or a calling? What if the calling IS the event? 
Super Lucky Cat reappears to connect OASN1 & AFHGC.
1. Lead artist wears a "red dirt" shirt from Kauai, to initiate a discussion of source material for artistic, organic staining processes.
2. Today's business section of the NY Times is provided as a substrate, but also as an acknowledgment of timeliness, and other relevant considerations affecting (or not) the artistic enterprise. The subject of materials is expanded to include "non-artist" materials.
3. The lead artist displays a large set of many types of painting tools, mostly brushes. Students are encouraged to choose several for painting with the coffee. The brushes serve as the point of origin for a conversation about the "life" of the artist's tool, and/or the partnership between the artist and the tool + the history of making that may be thought of as embedded in the tool through usage and application. [Introduction to Techne, time, craft traditions... (+)]
4. Many types of papers are introduced. Experiments on viability as substrate for medium, "pigment" and expressive means.
5. An array of large format (mostly floral) photographs are mounted around the classroom. We will paint on the museum board cut into window mattes, enclosing the photos. Many considerations. One of the photos (a rose) is displayed on a nice Italian easel at the door.
6. "Final" exercise will be to paint on very fragile light paper (multi-hued), which will buckle and otherwise dramatically respond to the coffee-paint. 
7. Discussion about artists who use coffee as an important part of their exhibition practice (like Sara Sun, who has a show going currently at Governor's Island Art Fair - thanks for the heads-up Andrea; and Jayson Musson + Manning Williams). Discussion about coffee growing (political/economy). 
Clemens Poole + Shane Kennedy & other Hippo crew members talk story to a full Haus, Friday, August 31 at OASN1.
OASN1 reached an important marker with the "Voyage of the Hippo" program on Friday, August 31. The evening presentation, which consisted of a fantastic, compelling slideshow/movie sequence + Q&A + commentaries facilitated by Clemens Poole and long-time AFH anchor Shane Kennedy, realized our vision of how our "class" format would work in practice. At the conclusion of the talk, many of us walked to Tandem, a few blocks down Troutman in Bushwick, to continue the vibrant concourse over libations. 
Interior shot of Pickthorn in Bushwick.
We continue to make friends in the neighborhood, like Jayson Musson, AKA Hennessy Youngman and the amazing ladies of Pickthorn. We are also beginning to establish strategic partnerships. OASN1 is now sponsored by both Wyckoff Starr and the vaunted Brooklyn Rail. JenJoy Roybal is already proving invaluable, as she begins the process of scanning the domain for artist-teachers and relevant organizational/mission comparisons to/for our enterprise. She sent Chris & I links that reveal possibilities neither of us had entertained prior. JenJoy is gifted with big vision. 
The discourse that is percolating in the novad pool is providing us with tremendous inspiration and seed-thought, moving forward. Coming in multiple forms (poems, images, sounds, movies, links, texts, notations, forwarded correspondence, system schematics, references, citations, equations, juxtapositions... [+]) the novadic inputs are fueling some OAS movements, refining threads, introducing new seams, expanding horizons, shifting PoVs & frames of reference [+]. Thank you, gamers!
The occupationalartschool [dot] com nexus is weekly undergoing facelifts, as we assess the proper format for that organ. For now, the preponderance of notices and documentation is being sited on the OAS Tumblr and in the OwA/OAS Facebook pages. The OAS Twitter, Pinterest and other social media are functional but rudimentary in our usage of them for a bit longer. The question at this point is whether to invent an entirely new framework for the virtual / actual interplay. 
Finally, the ripple effect from DisciplineAriel [Event 1, August 25, 2012] has only begun to evidence itself in our secondary co-lab phase. Stay tuned.

Sunday
Sep022012

CO-OP at b.j. spoke Gallery [Photo Array]

OWS Photos by Steve O'Byrne for CO-OPFor CO-OP exhibit at b.j. spoke Gallery opening next weekend in Huntington, Steve O'Byrne will be exhibiting a beautiful and compelling set of OWS photos culled from the remarkable documentary body of work Steve has assembled after nearly a year covering the movement. Click the image above to visit the photographer's Flickr site to see more of his great pictures.

Sunday
Sep022012

Novadic Mandalas

By Angela Grace [novad]

Sunday
Sep022012

[CO-OP]: @b.j. spoke Gallery [Trans-animation]

Trans-animation for window display at CO-OP, an Occupy with Art experimental collective project at bj spoke gallery [Sept 5-30, opening reception Sat Sept 8, 6-9pm] in Huntington, LI.

Moving images by Paul McLean. Special thanks to Cody Sullivan, Isaac Moylan, Konstant and Michael Barron. Also, gratitude to Novads of Magic Mtn, Direct Action Flaneurs, Occupational Art School, Living Gallery, Co-Lab Projects (Austin) [+]

Saturday
Sep012012

Videos from DisciplineAriel performance at OASN1 @Bat Haus [August 25]

Photo by Cody Sullivan

Video by Cody Sullivan of live performance at Occupational Art School Node 1 at Bat Haus on Saturday, August 25, 2012. Performing: Wilson Novitzki (synth, etc), Adam Caine (guitar), Michael Barron (overhead projector), Paul McLean (animations, overhead projector, image uploads).

[MORE VIDEOS]:


http://www.disciplineariel.tumblr.com

Thursday
Aug302012

OAS Node #1 @BAT HAUS: Voyage of the Hippo

Click the image to visit the "Voyage of the Hippo" Tumblr.The Occupational Art School Node 1 at Bat Haus is pleased to present "Voyage of the Hippo," with Shane Kennedy and Clemens Poole. Kennedy and Poole will recount an epic journey down the down the Danube aboard a 36' junk rig schooner with a crew of more than a dozen intrepid artists. The journey was documented via Tumblr, through texts, still and moving images, uploaded to the blog when the travelers came ashore or en route through handheld mobile devices. The program is a one-night only event, Friday, August 31, 2012, from 7-9PM, to be held at Bat Haus in Bushwick, located by the L train's Jefferson Street stop at 279 Starr Street.

Slovakia to Port, Hungary to Starboard

Three months. Several thousand kilometers of rivers and canals. More than a dozen adventurous friends. Countless supporters. Incalculable good cheer.

 

Wednesday
Aug292012

OAS Node #1 @BAT HAUS: Coffee painting tonight! [Info]

Click image to download doc.Info on this evening's Occupational Art School "COFFEE PAINTING" class @ Bat Haus Coworking Space, "COFFEE PAINTING." Should be a ton'o'fun. All you have to do is bring yourself + a great attitude. FYI: First OASN1 class is always free!

Tuesday
Aug282012

Neighborhood Metal [OASN1@BH][August 24]

Clif Hawkins. Click the image to visit Clif's Tumblr.

Some reflections on Clif Hawkins' visit to Occupational Art School.

By Paul McLean

Friday night, and the Bushwick sidewalk and street outside Bat Haus are quiet. We haven't really got a handle on the traffic flow in the neighborhood, yet. The conversation around it reminds me of gallery talk in Santa Fe, which relies, or did when I was there, on a significant walk-in demographic. Gallerinas and -rinos would pass the time conjecturing on what might responsible for a slow spell, and what the duration might be. I thought of it as an equivalent to dowsing. The lights in BH are low. It's an altogether pleasant moment. Clif and I and some friends sat in the ergonomic office chairs and carried on a relaxed conversation.

First, Clif passed me the obituary for Manning Williams. Clif apprenticed with Manning, who became a lifelong inspiration, mentor and friend to Clif. The first lesson in Clif's "Neighborhood Metal" teach-in is the value of the community artist. We go through photos on the laptop, briefly summarizing a life of art and culture. While scrolling quickly through images, Hawkins quietly interjects anecdotes about Williams, what his studio looked like, the kinds of tasks Clif would carry out for him. Eventually, a picture begins to emerge of an exchange that over years helped Clif shape his relationship to art, craft and the artist's life.

Clif enjoyed describing his first metalwork occupations, which he took in his teens. Now Hawkins reached into a beautiful leather bag and produced several portfolios. We leafed through them, stopping at this or that print for my questions or compliments. Clif shares very quickly a progression through his past creations, and after a few minutes of this, it's clear that by his late 20s he had amassed an impressive catalogue of pieces, created for many applications, from stage sets to puppet shows, architectural conservation to sculpture, his own and others'.

We covered territory that for a mid-career artisan, artist, craftsman, tradesman is fairly common, especially after the gloss and ambitions of youth-driven desire for recognition has settled into a programmatic endurance. Again, the discussion revolves around examples of experiences, changing ideas about the fields and options available to a technician, the effect of the economy on culture. It isn't a philosophical talk, as such. It isn't about theory. Clif talks about making things, about people and projects, and the social currents that flow through a life in materials, a life in the shop, a life of manifesting ideas as things.

One can sense respect for fine work, and a keen limit for bullshit, particularly the sort that derives from a desire for great output unaccompanied by recognition of its real cost. It's clear Clif doesn't begrudge a haggler. It's more than this. The sensibility is attached somehow to Clif's willingness, even pride in being a neighborhood shop guy. Ash, his partner at AWS shares this local boy headset. I can verify on my account, having stopped in a time or two with little jobs that Clif and Ash have attended to. Neither one grew up in Brooklyn, but both spend time and energy serving the community.

The last thing I'll mention about "Neighborhood Metal" are Clif's closing thoughts. He seemed genuinely to have enjoyed the evening. I asked him why. He told me that the kind of talk we had seems lost in today's wired world of ever-texting creative classers barhopping and posting about it on Twitter in real time.

 

Steel Plant Stands

Tuesday
Aug282012

NOVADIC TRANSMISSIONS No.01∞ [OASN1@BH]

Novadic Transmissions [09.2012]

1.

[From OASN1 embodied spirit, Ambrose Curry: artist, surf guru + poet]

[Part 1][Progression]

You mean this?

when is a participle hanging,...?

when there is wall space .
when is a participle dangling...,?
whenever ee cummings 
says So... Ho.
...ambrose...
never met
 the man.
altho I have been
 arrested.
Ambrose's shop.
SEE THE new OwA ABROSE CURRY PHOTO GALLERY HERE.

 

 

[PART 2] [I WAS SO INSPIRED BY YOUR LETTER]

 

i went out in the yard

and turned on the

prosthetic device...

 

and now having survived

 building a fire

at the blue campfire,

 

who builds a fire at

10:30 am,I will now                                              

set to sweating in

the tropical summer heat.

 

what would Gauguin do?

he certainly wouldn't have to

 look up the spelling of his name

yet he wouldn't have such a fine

prosthetic memory.

Yes he would probaly pop a bottle

of absenthe to forget how to spell

his name to free his creative mind

from worries of the world.

 

 

...ambrose...

and then I found this movie set...wow!

 

Ambrose's movie set.

2.

[From novadic poet & transpershamaformist Richard Machado]

Commons like rivers are hands of love, 
flow transient in the dance of new comrades


Badasses, rads and wholly new beings
emerge from the sensations of home


Amazing tchru native with a living death abated
Now has the rest of the infiniTime Nov-A-d'd


#<---<<O
The Colonized Indigenous

3.

[From Alexandre Carvalho, occupier of both Borges + Cervantes Chairs @OASN1]

Alex at his Liberty Square birthday / bon voyage novadic festival.

 

∞...

Have been wondering a lot about how we can start a whole new civilization.  Imagine if we started a WikiPedia entry of a mysterious people know as Rovers >>> they have a whole different Architecture, Art, (A)narchives, Ethos, Libraries, Political Frameworks, Direct Actions e.g. Rio+20 "They Don't Represent Us", Housing experiments (Magic Mountain); some crazy shit. good shit. following the flow;;; 

Eliade mentions a concept called "in ilo tempore", a mythological time for humanity where space was relative and time absolute. absent. when archetypes enacted the creation of the cosmos. The anarchical Communa:: an arquipelago-constellation of communes founded on the principles of trust, proximity and solidarity:: interdependent, autonomous and interlinked, they form a fluid network of communes:: the Communa is never static // hence the name communa mobilis. never stops asking questions or changing, acquiring history, becoming... and then it wakes up Communa Fluens:: the Sunflower of the Garden:: 

let's #playtogether with what Luis Borges suggests. Borges  was the author of "Labyrinths", a book that collects many of his short fantastic lit stories. in one of them called Tlon, Uqbar & Orbius Tertiurus, Borges have his two characters in pursuit of a disquieting truth: they must discover if this legendary place called Tlon exists or is a bad joke of a bibliotec prankster. the characters find a strange yellowish copy of a 1907 Encyclopedia Brittanica which contais this weird article about Tlon: it contains its demographics, art, architecture, music, language, history, political configuration, religion, juris, its schools (OAS, e.g.), ethical beliefs, games played, publications (Novad zine) etc etc etc. 

describing Tlon could be an elegant literary license to unleash our best radical dreams publicly; to ooze #poiesis revgamers.   

Tlon - wikipedia. crazy experiment. let me know what you think.

Me and Rafa started writing what the Rovers would probably have economically and in politik. Nicole could do geometry by hoola hooping her spirals?, mitch pour architecture/urbanist rad ideas? #jez3prez, the Anarchives a way rovers write history? 

thoughts?

A.

(#braingasm)

...∞

 

 

4.

[From anarchivist, dimensional filmmaker + metatronic mechanic, Bold Jez]:

 

<draft> The state of nature as a state of play

There is no pure "state of nature"... except for, perhaps, in the invitation to play.  The invitation to play is an opportunity to re-invent the World, not necessarily in its entirety, but certainly some important aspects of its specificity: in its Object(s), Purpose(s) or Rules. These aspects represent the magic circle of Play, the state of a game, and a world that is open to all agents, infinitely beyond and underneath the boundaries of the State.

When Hobbes postulates that prior to the invention of Sovereigns & States existed a natural "state of war," he is inviting us to consider the world in terms of a particular political game. This game is based in fear, power, and security; and for those of us well-educated in the history of Western states, this portrayal of politics should not seem so very strange. (This version of politics, well illustrated in Shakespeare's royal courts, could have informed Hobbes of this well if he did not learn it from his birth; born prematurely when his mother heard of the approach of the Spanish Armada, he remarked that he was born "a twin with fear."

What **IS** strange to us is the possibility of a *return* to anarchy as it were: we feel discomfort at the mere suggestion of returning to nature, the uncertainty of a world w/o governors, the insecurity of our responsibility for maintaining the environment we live in.

 

Tuesday
Aug282012

OAS Node #1 [August 29]

Sponsored by the Wyckoff Starr coffee shop.

Monday
Aug272012

OAS Node #1 @BAT HAUS: DisciplineAriel [Internal Documentation]

[DisciplineAriel performs at OASN1@BH Saturday, August 25, 2012]

Michael Barron on overhead projector. Click image to see Bat Haus photoset.[Performance Elements]:

  • Wilson Novitzki improvises on synth and guitar
  • Photos shot on camera phones by Paul McLean, performers, Bat Haus owners Natalie Chan & Cody Sullivan, and guests (+ digital enhancements as after effects in some instances) are uploaded to the DisciplineAriel blog in real time, or later, and interlinked in the network of OASN1 sites and portals
  • PJM animations for DisciplineAriel are projected and presented on one of the Bat Haus computer monitors, looping
  • The overhead projector is utilized for real time old school psychedelic image mixing; Paul initiates the sequence, creating a wall projection, with olive oil, water, Guerra Paint and other water-borne pigments (acrylics) in powder, solid and liquid form, including interference and metallic paints, plus coffee; Michael Barron takes over, and also photo-documents the results
  • Wilson invites Adam Caine to sit in on the set; Adam plays guitar

Wilson Novitzki, Adam Caine

[LINKS]:

Overhead projection, iteration 1 [PJM][Narrative]

DisciplineAriel began in early summer 2012 as a "Borderless Art" proposition + mobile media collaboration for Bushwick-based musician and composer Wilson Novitzki and visual artist Paul McLean. The process involved several informal exchanges at Wyckoff-Starr, plus emails, phone calls and a pre-production meeting and 4d demonstration. Web archive links were exchanged and reviewed.

During a two-month European tour with renowned DIY artist R. Stevie Moore, Novitzki composed short electronic and guitar pieces on synthesizer and iPAD. These pieces were uploaded to a Tumblr created for DisciplineAriel by McLean, who added entries featuring "outside" content - from three sources:

  • Famed Kauai-based surf guru Ambrose Curry
  • The Voyage of the Hippo blog (long-time AFH collaborator Shane Kennedy contributing)
  • Anarchivist/revGamer/Novadic transmissions from Bold Jez.

These satellite or context threads also in real time sequences featured neo-epic or -journeyman components and intersecting trajectories. McLean contributed digital still and moving images, as well as photo documentation of "HOME," i.e., Bushwick, the project's point of origin.

The DisciplineAriel performance for Occupational Art School Node 1 at Bat Haus constitutes a "Welcome Home" party for Wilson; a version of "Talking Story;" a prototyping proof for the particular kind of collaboration Novitzi and McLean practice(d); an invitation to further expand the collaboration to include both random and "staged" participation by OASN1 artists [+]

Overhead projection [operator transition phase]

[PHOTO & VIDEO DOCUMENTATION]: Natalie Chan, Cody Sullivan, JenJoy Roybal, Michael Barron, Paul McLean [+]

Monday
Aug272012

New OwA ads for the September issue of Brooklyn Rail

Brooklyn Rail ad for September

Brooklyn Rail ad for September

Friday
Aug242012

OAS Node #1 @BAT HAUS: Whatever It Maybe ∞ [Internal Review]

Page 10 of Jeff Sugg's portfolio. Click image to download the PDF of Jeff's portfolio.

Whatever It Maybe ∞
Jeff Sugg at OASN1@BH (August 22, 2012)
By Paul McLean

Jeff Sugg parked his street-painted punk van directly in front of Bat Haus about an hour before his Occupational Art School Node 1 presentation was slated to begin. After a quick smoke, Jeff - master theatrical projectionist, designer, artist, visionary and enabler of visionaries [+] -  commenced to unload the gear he would be using during "Digitizing Theater" into the Bat Haus space. For tonight's program, OASN1 co-organizer Chris Moylan had supplied a digital projector, which Jeff would use to share his slideshow, movies and to create a real-time vignette, an immaterial hand-operated & projected reference table for Sugg's favorite inspirational picture texts. Sugg's influences? Sviboda, Bucky Fuller, Da Vinci...

I provided an overhead projector. The overhead throws a representation of Peter Cooper by Shane Kennedy in the rear of the screening area. The Cooper is our OASN1@BH mascot. Alice Cooper's "School's Out" is the OAS theme song, though I haven't shared that bit of intel with anyone yet, except for you, dear reader.

Tonight (that night), we're in for a treat.

Click to read more ...

Wednesday
Aug222012

[OAS NODE #1]: [TONIGHT!][Jeff Sugg: "Digitizing Theater"]

Jeff SuggOccupational Art School Node 1 at Bat Haus is honored to present Jeff Sugg: artist, theatrical projectionist, designer [+] on the topic of "Digitizing Theater," Wednesday, August 22 from 7-9PM. Tonight's discussion is the first OASN1@BH class session in our Fall 2012 course. 

[JEFF SUGG'S BIO]:

Jeff Sugg is a New York based artist, designer, and technical advisor. He is a co-founding member of the performance group, Accinosco, with Cynthia Hopkins and Jim Findlay and has co-designed their two critically acclaimed pieces, Accidental Nostalgia and Must Don't Whip 'Um. Other theater designs include: 33 Variations (projections: Arena Stage, La Jolla Playhouse), The Slugbearers of Kayrol Island (co-set & projections: The Vineyard Theater),¡El Conquistador! (lights: New York Theater Workshop), The Thomashefsky Project & Let Them Eat Cake/Of Thee I Sing (projections: San Francisco Symphony), Trece Días (sets & projections: San Francisco Mime Troupe) He has also worked as designer for multiple works with theater companies including: The Colllapsable Giraffe, Pig Iron Theater Company, DASS Dance, Transmission Projects. Music design: Natalie Cole (lights), and Natalie Merchant (lights).

In addition to his work as a designer, Mr. Sugg is regarded as a premiere technical consultant and system designer. Some credits include: The Wooster Group (technical artist), Laurie Anderson (video system design), Richard Foreman (video system design), Mikel Rouse (video system design), GAle GAtes et al. (effects designer/engineer), and The Baseball Music Project (video system design). Mr. Sugg has also taught Media and Technology at Swarthmore College. He has led several workshop/intensive courses in media technology at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), Rude Mechanicals Theater Company, and others.

For his work on Must Don’t Whip ‘Um, Mr. Sugg received a 2007 Bessie Award and was nominated for a 2007 Hewes Design Award. He was also nominated for a 2007 Hewes Design Award for his work on ¡El Conquistador!.

For his work on The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island, he received a 2008 Henry Hewes Award, 2008 Obie, and a 2008 Lucille Lortel Award.

A Jeff's-eye view of the stage.

[PROPOSITIONS]:

 

  1. If drama is the lens through which humanity views itself, how will we see ourselves when that vision is mediated via networked computer arrays? Will theater inevitably become mechanized? 
  2. How can or will acting, directing, scripting, blocking, audience interactivity and experience, etc., be affected by new media's intervention in the dramatic sphere?
  3. Is there an emergent theater appearing or promised, driven, by the intervention of digital tools and techniques?
  4. What does this phenomenon, the digital theater, mean for the economics of theatrical production?
  5. How is movement on stage, and the dramatic imagination, adapting to 01 conditions?

One of the shows Jeff worked on.We'll be continuing a discussion started earlier this summer when OAS Co-organizer Paul McLean visited Jeff at St. James Theater to view a tech rehearsal for Bring It On - The Musical, while Jeff was working. We'll be talking about how the computer has shaped new theater practices and hierarchies.