visiting artists :: derek holzer & sara kolster

The artist team of Derek Holzer (sound) and Sara Kolster (visual) work together to create new meaning by integrating sound and image. Although considered autonomous disciplines, sound and image have always been interrelated in both life and art. A monster example would be cinema, where sound and the moving image are both matched perfectly (almost formulaic) in order to create maximum effect on the viewer. An important artistic distinction between cinema and the work created by Holzer/Kolster is that their audio and video retains the unique individual qualities inherent in both sound and image, even when performed synchronously. I actually saw Derek and Sara perform at FILE 2003 in Sao Paulo, well almost... Sara's video was PAL and unfortunately the display equipment at the venue was NTSC so Derek had to perform his sound piece solo. I could go on an endless rant for the need for universal media technology standards but that is a whole other post.

Derek and Sara also presented a screening of visibleSOUND/audibleIMAGE which was a compilation of important (and historic) examples of sound and image:

• Steina & Woody Vasulka: Violin Power (US, 1978) & BAD (US, 1979)


• Servaas: 4 Poems (NL, 1981)


• Matthew Schlanger: Lizard Hearts (US, 1986)


• Nicolas Provost: Papillon d'Amour (BE, 2003)


• Jan van Nuenen: SET_4 (NL, 2003)


• Bas van Koolwijk: five (NL, 2002)

Their latest project (and the "one they are most proud of") is SoundTransit, which serves as a database of sound under the collective commons license and serves as a space in which to build a community of sound artists (189 and counting).
Check it out and contribute your sound. http://soundtransit.nl/

visiting writer :: mckenzie wark

I have always been aware of the new breed of parasites on society, those that do not create or produce anything but buy intellectual property as a commodity and then extort it exhaustively, stifling innovation. In his book "The Hacker Manifesto," McKenzie Wark calls them the vectoralist class. SCO "The Linux Killer" is a good example of a vectoralist company.

Wark recently visited our nophoto class and presented ideas from his book as well as engaged in discussion of contemporary hacking culture. At one point the topic was when other artists steal your work without manipulating, changing or hacking anything and presenting it as their own in an art show. Wark stated that the Surrealists would have trashed the show, the Situationalists would have beaten them up, he then offered that a better solution would be to put the show on your CV and claim it as your own.

Brilliant.

In a world of objects, commodities and properties it is almost beautiful when an author practices what he preaches and gives the whole text of his book to you for free in digital form. He told me I could give it to my friends but to please do not make it available on the internet. So of course it is available here.

*%#@ adobe

I actually remember photoshop 2.5.1 (1989-1993) and 17 years and 7 versions later not much has really changed (5.5 "imageready" was a big leap but now obsolete). I have sucked up the yearly laughable upgrades and tolerated the price gouging after the macromedia buyout.

Today I tried to put adobe cs2 (that I legally purchased) on more than two of my personal machines (I am an American and a geek). I have computers in my studio, office, home, and person (laptop). Long story short, I can't. cs2 requires online or telephone activation. I even tried a lengthy telephone call trying to convince adobe that I am not a thief and just want to use the software that I paid for how I want. Interesting enough I was informed that I could only use the software 80% on my primary machine and 20% on my secondary machine. I asked if they where tracking my usage, there was no reply. What's next, yearly subscriptions? There is a good discussion on this subject here.

I am going to try to boycott adobe, which is a bit difficult since they bought out their only viable competitor macromedia. The answer my friends is open source. If the software is good enough for poor countries then it is good enough for me and my students.

Gimp is an open source photoshop alternative.
Inkscape is an open source illustrator alternative.
Blender is an open source maya/3d studio max alternative.
Cinepaint is an open source film effect editor.

I will add more when I find them (if you know any please add to the comments)
A comprehensive list of open source projects here.

rhythm science :: dj spooky

Dj Spooky that Subliminal Kid is an invented persona initially created as a conceptual art project by Paul Miller. This may indicate that Paul is not your average Dj, intellectually speaking. Another clue is that Paul is the only Dj that has a book, "Rhythm Science" published by MIT Press. The companion cd to the book "c-side" is as intellectual as electronica can be. Not only in the maturity of the composition, but in the actual samples are the voices/words of wisdom from intellectuals, academics, philosophers, theorists, scientists, poets, writers etc. Dj Spooky seems to get above the obligatory pop culture of the "me so horny" and "sampled movie quote here."

I actually did want to get into some details from the book, but I seemed to have lost it (it is small enough to fit in a coat pocket so I was carrying it everywhere), which sucks because I do believe it of "cultural artifact" accolade that is worth owning for the occasional re-read.

Two good experiences that happened because of Paul Miller's Rhythm Science. My first night with the book my head was spinning w/ ideas the book was presenting (i.e "thoughts are vector." Yeah yeah, vector. starting point, ending point, fixed length, but no fixed point of origin. Not only the ideas but the way Miller presented them, rhythmic poetic -put me in a euphoric state. I never really got into poetry, but if that is how it makes you feel, then I will surely give it a second look.

The other experience was with the music (c-side) itself. I was on a long drive with my son listening to dj spookys companion cd. I was put into a wonderful trance-like state of consciousness. The sound complemented my stream of thoughts and ideas. I snapped out of it and looked back at my 5-year old and noticed he was pretty entranced as well. I would love to know what he was thinking about. When I asked him if he liked the music he replied "Yeah, pretty cool".

visiting artist :: paul pfeiffer

The artist Paul Pfeiffer is known for manipulating imagery from popular sports culture. In a series of video clips taken from actual broadcasts of boxing, basketball, hockey, and soccer, Pfeiffer maticuloulsly removes foreground objects (athletes or the ball) frame by frame or loops the singular motions repeatedly. I the piece "caryatid" the Stanley Cup appears to float by its own power -represented the idea of a false idol.

Another piece that resonated with me was "Orpheus Descending" which consisted of capturing 2 1/2 months of continuous video footage of chickens. The video was then replayed in real time (2 1/2 months) at the world trade center. Workers at the (former) WTC were able to cohabitate with the chickens virtually (even though there was an actual separation of both time and space).

During Paul's visiting artist lecture he admitted he has reached a point of frustration in his work and is searching for the "next." It was refreshing to hear an artist be honest and human at the same time. I was surprised at his reaction to the suggestion that he could he start using the internet as a platform for his work. He responded that although he appropriates material found online it would be redundant to put that work back online. He rationalized that there is already too much content online and that he does not want to be considered "techie." I would argue that there are too many objects in the real world but that does not stop anyone from making more of the same. At least with online data we can employ search engines to filter the amount of virtual objects that we are exposed to. I am no fan of copyright (see previous post), however I do not think it is right to "take from the web" and not put give it back online in its new form. In Paul's case he uses appopriated material he finds online, manipulates it, and then displays it in the closed forum of the gallery.