The art of Sonya Rapoport has long operated as a bridge between the public sphere of intellectual curiosity and scholarship, and the domestic one of spiritual inquiry and nurturing. Spaces of Life presents a group of Rapoport’s interactive works, created between 1980-2010, that function in the intersection between questioning and inviting.

The installation will be structured so as to infuse the spaces of the museum with the energy of the artist’s Berkeley home and studio. A mixture of documentation of original interactive installations, domestic objects that provide a launching pad for interactions, and new interpretations of the works’ systems of interaction will be developed in conjunction with Mills students and departments. Visitors to the gallery will engage in ongoing, distributed performance actions that draw on imagery and ideas from a range of disciplines including biochemistry, anthropology, psychology, and feminist studies.

Central to this installation of Rapoport’s work at Mills is Objects on My Dresser (1979-1983), an 11 phase work intended as a kind of “conceptual visit” to the artist’s home and studio. The titular dresser, which has occupied Rapoport’s foyer for decades, will be installed along with the original objects that sparked her investigation of the connections between symbols, words and ideas. Documentation of “netweb plots” created by Rapoport and by visitors to installations of previous project phases will be included along with a new “netweb plot” created with Mills students. The “Mills plot” will include images, correlative images and words determined by Mills students in advance of the exhibition, and will be on display for visitors to the exhibition to manipulate and customize according to their own, personal correlations.

This exhibition is supported by the Agnes Cowles Bourne Fund for Special Exhibition and the Helzel Family Foundation.

Geometry is a kinetic installation that uses light as a means of communication and is inspired by such communication devices as light houses, military signal lights and the Morse code. The interplay of the different movements of the sculpture create a symbolic language of communication between the sculpture and the viewer.

Geometry exploits wind-farm technology to drive two masts which cross (one vertically one horizontally) on which mirrors are attached. The reflection of the sky in the mirrored blades and the movement of the sculpture itself create different kinetic effects according to the time of the day and season. At nightfall the signal is reinforced through projections of laser light from the horizontal mast. Laser lines will be projected from the Watermans building onto the horizontal mast and reflected from the sky.

Geometry was made possible with a grant from The Mayor of London’s Outer London Fund and is supported by The London Borough of Hounslow.

Félicie d’Estienne d’Orves explores the meaning and impact of light through her work. She uses light and sound technologies to create a mysterious art of beauty and power, challenging the boundaries of her materials and our own perceptions of them. The resulting kinetic work appears frameless and seems to possess a life of its own. Her audience is invited to engage in both the works’ seductive simplicity and delve into their complex layers of mystery. Key examples of D’Estienne d’Orves’ work include Gong: a resonant, pulsating, often frightening work from her Cosmos Series in 2009 and Monolithe, in 2008, which stands like a futuristic needle-point surrounded by ancient spiritual drama and was presented at Paris’ all-night art happening, Nuit Blanche. In 2004, Félicie founded In-visible, a conceptual multi-media studio.

Technical support has been provided by Mechatronic company Bonfiglioli who delivered the motor solutions for the installation. Watermans would also like to acknowledge the contribution of David Simpson of Show Laser Systems for the laser technology, Michel Delarasse and the Institut Français.

GEOMETRY is part of the International Festival of Digital Art 2012.

404 International Festival of Art & Technology has been awarded by “Fondo Nacional de las Artes” (National Arts Founding) for the production of the ninth season, which will be organized in different phases throughout 2012.

404 Festival launches an open call destined to artists and researchers from all over the world with the aim of spread and stimulate new media creations.

Authors can submit their works in the following areas:

• Installation
• Net.Art
• Still Image
• Animation
• Video
• Music
• Audiovisual Set
• Theory
• Performance

Submission is free. Please follow the instructions published here.

As the object has become a central issue in both theory and the arts, the Goethe-Institut New York dedicates a weekend to intensive theoretical exchange and spatial experience to the object in performance. An installation, a symposium and a performance are the starting point of long-term engagement with the object and related matters in the fields of theory and the arts alike.

Synchronous Objects: Degrees of Unison
Installation by Norah Zuniga Shaw
February 2–26, 2012; Wed–Sun 2:00 – 7:00 pm
Opening: February 2, from 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building
5 East 3rd Street (at Bowery)
New York, NY 10003

Synchronous Objects: Degrees of Unison is a multipart sound and video installation focusing on “One Flat Thing, reproduced,” an ensemble dance by William Forsythe.

Focusing on the choreographic visualization online project Synchronous Objects created by Norah Zuniga Shaw, Maria Palazzi and William Forsythe, the installation brings viewers into an encounter with the deep structures of a dance and the generative ideas contained within. A series of visual objects — animations, computer graphics, interactive tools — enact a parallel performance of Forsythe’s choreographic ideas. The work was first launched online in 2009 and is still available in this form. In the installation, Norah Zuniga Shaw stays close to the conceptual foundations of the online original while extending them into the architectural and experiential possibilities of the Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building. In addition to interacting with the site and viewing HD animations from the project, visitors can spend time within a circle of synchronized visualizations unfolding from dance to data to objects over the 15-minute time span of the piece. William Forsythe’s voice calls out timing to the dancers and the sounds of the dancers’ actions move in multi-channel choreography around the space. Finally, a paper proliferation of creative processes can be found to read, leave behind, sort, or carry home.

Synchronous Objects: Degrees of Unison (2010)
A video installation by Norah Zuniga Shaw based on original material from Synchronous Objects for One Flat Thing, reproduced (2009) by William Forsythe, Norah Zuniga Shaw, Maria Palazzi

Objects in Performance
Symposium curated by André Lepecki, Performance Studies, NYU
February 3–4, 2012
NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Performance Studies
721 Broadway, 6th floor
New York, NY 10003

The recent phenomenon of object-invested experimental dance and performance echoes the resurgence of the object in recent philosophy, critical theory, literary and cultural studies; as well as in the renewed interest in the concept of the object in the visual arts. This resurgence of the object also has implications for studies on subjectivity. If, as Deleuze once said, “the status of the object is changed, so is the subject’s,” it is crucial to investigate the contemporary nature of this phenomenon. The Objects in Performance Symposium will gather a group of renowned American, German, and international scholars and artists, from a variety of fields and perspectives, to present their most recent research on the matter. The environment will be such as to stimulate exchange and conversation between disciplines, and between artists and scholars.

With Barbara Browning, Franz Anton Cramer, Eleonora Fabião, George Ferrandi, Jenn Joy, Heather Kravas, Thomas Lehmen, André Lepecki, Eva Meyer-Keller, Sarah Michelson, Ann Pellegrini, Allen S. Weiss, Norah Zuniga Shaw.

Death is Certain
Performance by Eva Meyer-Keller
February 5, 2012, 2 performances at 6:00 pm and 7:30 pm
MINI/Goethe-Institut Curatorial Residencies Ludlow 38
38 Ludlow Street (btw. Grand & Hester)
New York, NY 10002

Cherries have tender skin, meat and a kind of bone inside them. Their juice is red like blood. When you treat them like humans sometimes treat other humans, then they become human themselves or at least animated objects, which invite you to identify yourself with them. In the performance Death is Certain, Eva Meyer-Keller has installed sweet cherries as her protagonists.

The viewer is reminded of deaths from films, but also the reality of executions, how they really happen: associations from individual and collective experience in face of the sweet death at the kitchen table.

The Goethe-Institut New York is a branch of the Federal Republic of Germany’s global cultural institute, established to promote the study of German language and culture abroad, encourage international cultural exchange, and provide information on Germany’s culture, society, and politics.

Join Amy Jo Diaz and Casey Hughes for an afternoon of personal-diorama-making. These dioramas are intended to produce miniature immersive environments using both two and three-dimensional elements and a point-of-view.

The workshop will begin with a brief discussion of dioramas with examples representing the breadth of the medium. The participants will be asked to imagine a context (fictional or not) which they will construct within a provided frame. The intention isn’t to represent the context literally but rather create a palpable atmosphere. Throughout this workshop we will be introducing concepts and techniques to aid the participants in the development of their dioramas. These techniques will range from incorporation of lighting and viewing devices (peep holes, webcams, etc.) to working with intuition through lateral and associative thinking.

No experience in design is necessary for this workshop so people at all levels of design experience are encouraged to join. All the necessary materials will be provided but participants are invited to bring magazines and materials that they would like to use/share.

The workshop will be organized by Amy Jo Diaz, a Los Angeles based artist who has worked extensively in collage and Casey Hughes, a Los Angeles based architect who has a built, lit and photographed many-a-architectural model.

(photo credit: Max Hooper Schneider)

“True ghost stories and paranormal experiences are gathered through individual conversations, spirit communication attempts, telephone messages, radio technology experiments, found audio clips, social media sound fragments… What I have discovered is that ghosts are everywhere, and disembodied individuals and energies seem to be present in increasing numbers. Belief systems and skepticism varies as widely as the personalities I encounter.

Ultimately the material collected is recomposed into an audio installation that drifts between experimental music composition, cut up audio docudrama, and ghost hunt. Seven low-wattage fm transmitters will be installed throughout the deCordova Museum. Visitors to the museum will be able to pick up a radio from the front desk & use it to seek out the transmissions throughout the building. The stories become ghosts themselves, and by physically searching through space, invisible fragments are revealed.”

Ven Voisey is a multi-disciplinary artist living in North Adams, MA. Through sound compositions, installations, drawings and photographs, Voisey shifts perceptions of common objects and routines by presenting them in a new context, thus questioning ideas of “practicality” and “faith” in constructs of the familiar.

Born in Richmond, CA, Voisey grew up in the East Bay Area of Northern California. In 2000, he received a BA from San Francisco State University in a self-designed major combining Humanities, Electronic music , Film, and Conceptual Art. For several years, he continued his education outside of school by working, touring and collaborating with kinetic sculpture and installation collective Amorphic Robot Works, building machines, learning fundamental electronics, and composing music. In 2003, Voisey moved to North Adams, MA where he has been worked with a variety of arts organizations (MASS MoCA, MCLA Gallery 51, Clark Art Institute, Images Cinema…) and making his own work in his studio. In 2010 he was Artist-in-Residence at the Berkshire Museum and was awarded the Individual Artist grant from Local Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire. His work will be included in the 2012 deCordova Biennial at deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park.

Hypo Chrysos is the second piece of a series of bio-interactive works based on the Xth Sense (XS), an open, biophysical and wearable technology I’ve recently developed. The work was composed ad hoc for the Matadac Festival in Madrid, which this year explores the theme of Machines and Flesh. In conjunction with this premiere, I’m teaching a workshop on biophysical generation and control of music and video using the Xth Sense tech.

In There is nothing left different works by Céline Condorelli and Uriel Orlow are in dialogue with each other in a new multi-part installation.

There is nothing left explores blind spots, unexpected epilogues and disappearances in the grand narratives of history; it starts from Alexandria and the Suez canal in twentieth century Egypt. A series of installations engage with the constitutive movements affecting time and space: movements of people and goods, the flow of capital, political movements, removal of statues (and regimes) and migrating species.

The exhibition is accompanied by an artist book, Terrains Vagues/ محادثات /Persistent Images designed by Sophie Demay and Lola Halifa-Legrand; it includes interviews with Bassam El Baroni, Marianne Hultman, Jean-Marie Straub, and a text by Gilane Tawadros.

Céline Condorelli: “We know that story-telling, misreading or errors can produce real historical events. And in some way, as an artist, I am implicated in forging documents, devising utopias, and constructing imaginary schemes about the future, and in this way I actively participate in the production of the real. The project is not so much a fictionalized version of real events, than a narrative, a construct, enabling a different understanding of history and the re-imagination of possible futures.”

Uriel Orlow: “This means that history is up for grabs — it doesn’t have to be related to as a truth that is neatly re-inserted into a historical chronology. Instead, the imaginary, evocative potential of a minor event, forgotten in the twilight of history, connects to a whole host of associative chains and appears extra-ordinary, almost mythical. The work itself is articulated through fragments, shards of research, reconstructions and hallucinations: images and text beyond the dichotomy of fact and fiction.”

CC: “A series of pieces, then, are ordered into movements, as in a piece of music: the First movement deals with the cotton industry and the mass departures from Egypt of the 1950s. The Second movement is concerned with the literal removal, disappearance and transformations of landmarks in a city. And finally the last movement is that of revolution, taking its cue from the 1981 film Trop tôt, trop tard by Straub-Huillet that now appears to be almost prophetic.”

UO: “And other kinds of movement or stoppages: the stranded cargo ships, trapped in the Suez Canal for eight years, while below maritime species continue their migration from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, and finally different versions of the removal of Lesseps’ statue when the canal was nationalised, all carrying a latency of meaning that is consonant with different versions of liberation and is tied to the historical present.”

CC: “Everything starts with a sentence “Il n’y a plus rien” [There is nothing left], that keeps appearing like a refrain in a multitude of voices describing the city of Alexandria; the work explores the narratives hidden by this blanketing of reality, and follows its echo back to the multiple occupations of Egypt.”

“Il n’y a plus Rien” by Condorelli started at Manifesta 8, Murcia, and the first iteration of the overall project is at ACAF, Alexandria, curated by Bassam El Baroni. The publication is developed in collaboration with Oslo Fine Art Society /Oslo Kunstforening, where a different version of the exhibition will be exhibited in March 2012, curated by Marianne Hultman. The Project is Supported by Pro Helvetia, The Swiss Arts Council, Cairo.

The Art Explorations track at TEI 2012 invites interactive artworks that explore the intersections between rich materiality, sensory interaction and digital and computational expression. The work should be tangibly evocative, thought provoking and content rich. Artworks can employ interactivity through digital installations, technology-enriched fashion and textiles, and interactive products and services. Art Explorations welcomes work from a wide range of practitioners in areas such as interaction design, research or art, including submissions from students and independent practitioners.

Submissions should meet the following criteria:

• Relevant: The work must have a tangible aspect, in the form of an installation, object or art piece.
• Technological: It must involve computational technology in some aspect of its form or function.
• Aesthetic: It must have an aesthetic element in form of craftsmanship and communicate its message effectively through form, function and emotion.
• Creative: It must be inventive, in its concept, technical architectural or physical form.

Submissions will be selected according to the following criteria:

• Concept: Conceptual quality of the work. Is the work new, appropriate, compelling, exciting? Does it provoke or intensify critical reflection? Does the work invent new technical or physical approaches to TEI?
• Execution (craft): Is the work well realized? Is it built and executed to a high standard? Will it be suitable to exhibit at the TEI 2012 conference?
• Aesthetics: Aesthetic quality of the work. Is the material aesthetically stunning and evocative? Does the work delight the senses? Does it intensify, enchant, amuse or draw on the subtle, visceral qualities of experience?
• Provocative: Does the work challenge the status quo of art and design theory and practice.

Submissions will be selected from a panel of expert jurors.

Kinds of Art Explorations can include but are not limited to:

• Art installations involving tactile, sonic, kinetic and visually rich exposition
• Inventions in robotics, sensing, toys, games and entertainment
• Materially or textile enriched interactivity
• Architectural prototypes and installations

Access (by Marie Sester) is a public art installation that applies web and surveillance technologies, allowing web users to track individuals in public spaces with a unique robotic spotlight and acoustic beam system, without people wearing any gear, exploring the ambiguities among surveillance, control, visibility and celebrity.

Architecture of Fear explores how feelings of fear pervade daily life in the contemporary media society. The cause of fear seems interchangeable and constantly fluctuating. Shifting from one thing to the next, often relating to invisible or indirect phenomena’s (terrorism, viral diseases, pollution, financial crisis), anything has the ability to become a potential threat. Rather than an immediate emotional strategy for survival fear is becoming a constant low level feeling in the background that gives rise to a new global infrastructure based on security, prevention and risk-management.

Architecture of Fear brings together a selection of international artists and designers that reflect in different ways on the society of fear, ranging from registration and critical research, to exploring its emotional, social and spatial mechanisms.

With Bureau D’Etudes, De Geuzen, Floris Douma, Laurent Grasso, Ilkka Halso, Susanna Hertrich, Charlotte Lybeer, Jill Magid, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Tracey Moffatt, Trevor Paglen, Marie Sester, Kin Wah Tsang and Els Vanden Meersch.