2006-12-16 until 0000-00-00
Museum of New Art
Detroit, MI, USA United States of America
Douglas Gordon won the 1996 Turner Prize on the basis of a single work: his famous 24 Hour Psycho. First shown at Glasgow's Tramway 13 years ago, it was and will always remain the one work synonymous with his name. It is Gordon's shark, his bed, his bloody head. Even if you have already seen 24 Hour Psycho, Gordon is giving us all another chance at what seemed impossible to improve upon - as he unveils his remake of this seminal work at the Museum of New Art (MONA) this December 16.
Whenever I've watched 24 Hour Psycho, Gordon's slowed-down video presentation of Hitchcock's thriller, I somehow manage to miss the shower scene. I always arrive too early or too late, and have never had the patience to see it through. Most recently I failed to catch the ominous shadow at the shower curtain yet again, in Edinburgh's Royal Scottish Academy Building, where 24 Hour Psycho is currently installed in a major survey of Gordon's work.
Gordon’s reworked masterpiece One-Minute Psycho, in its two versions presented in Detroit, not only allows me this missed viewing but more, and all in the time it takes most titles to scroll onto the screen.
Douglas Gordon's success with 24 Hour Psycho has oddly given him the desire to remake it. As an artist, he believes the first try was a failure on one important level.
“24 Hour Psycho showed that you can't always appropriate,” he recently confided. “Or you can appropriate, but it's not going to be great art simply by association. Part of me totally believes in anonymous art. By making a second version, I make the first anonymous and the second the appropriation."
When the artist announced he was remaking 24 Hour Psycho, loyalists to the first work were baffled, puzzled, outraged, soured, and in the mood of total rejection. Why do it? they asked. What was the idea? A host of related questions were raised, not the least of which was: what is Gordon's idea of a remake anyway?
He had been toying with the idea for the last several years, and one motivation was to renew its appeal. The original 24 Hour Psycho is filmed in black-and-white, not a very attractive medium to the younger generation in itself. The difficulty increased when Gordon decided to recreate the original not in the usual fashion of remakes. The most apparent changes were that this modern remake was shot in color, and alternately sped up to a minute rather than slowed down to a full day as before.
It had been the success of the first work that has made Gordon’s second attempt seem so foolhardy and frustrating. In imitating himself, he had to rise to a higher occasion, but now constrained to a one minute playing time rather than the original twenty-four hours. All this has not only heightened the expectations of audiences, but also increased their skepticism. Whatever the motivation, the fact remains that a classic remade with such ambitious standards was bound to be subjected to intense scrutiny. Comparisons are now inevitable, especially by the unforgiving older audiences. Still, one has to be fair to Gordon and to his honestly stated motives - to attract the youth culture, and to revive interest in his earlier work.
In the final analysis, Gordon’s motives do not matter. One must judge the product by the results, based on one's perception of this work on aesthetic grounds. And on such grounds One-Minute Psycho succeeds masterfully. The transition of black-and-white to color does seem a happy choice. Today color in film is so dominant it seems almost unthinkable that a modern work, even of the darkest subject, could be filmed in anything but color. Color and color tone affect the viewer's psychological disposition and help determine the emotions a film, and a violent film to boot, will evoke.
Also, Gordon’s choice of fast-motion is deliberate, to mitigate the shock of blood swirling down the drain in the shower scene, and to invest the film's gothic subject-matter with an aura of comic gloom. Such speeded action alters the tone of the grim tale into what seems a carefree holiday adventure in the tradition of the Keystone Cops on acid. As now-familiar images flash by they have become signs referring to the earlier work as well as a twisted view of our new millennium.
Finally the success of One-Minute Psycho must be attributed to Gordon himself and to his mirrored artistic vision. Times change, and so do people's outlooks. Today's audiences are gorged with violent spectacle. The shower scene, though still shocking and frightening, can no longer traumatize them to the degree that it did in the original. One-Minute Psycho is able to penetrate audience's inner fears, irrational desires, and mad urges at the attention speed of a Play Station gamer. This updated version references the latest trend of shock art and horror film so prevalent now in our culture. Gordon, above all, wants to communicate with this audience; their pity and fear matter to him. With a condensed expression of these mental states, the tragic drama remains here on a level of emotional liquidation and dark indifference. A truly grand success and approachable companion piece to his overlong Warholian original.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Nintendo's Wii Breaks the 3 million sales mark worldwide!!
Due to strong sales in Japan and North America in the build up to the holidays, Nintendo's Wii has now sold over 3 million copies worldwide, over twice as many as Sony's Playstation 3 in a similar timeframe.
read more digg story
read more digg story
5 Predictions for Apple in 2007
2006 is coming to a close, and all anyone can think about (in regards to Apple, at least) is the upcoming Apple Phone…but what happens next? What are we going to be salivating over and speculating about after Macworld? What changes are in store for Apple in 2007? No one knows for sure…but it sure is fun to take a guess…
5 Predictions for Apple in 2007
1) Expanding the Mac Brand - 2007 is going to be the year of the “Mac”. Apple is going to expand upon the Mac branding to include the new Phone product (my guess is MacMobile), and possibly even the “i” software suites. MacLife anyone? The “i” branding is played out, and, with the exception of the iPod and possibly the iMac, the “i” is on the down hill slide. There will be a dramatic shift away from the lowercase “i” in 07.
2) The “true” Video iPod…Finally - After years of speculation, the full screen video iPod will make it’s debut just in time for the 07 holiday season sales push. The device will feature a beautiful screen and a new, clickwheel-free, design. My guess is it will not be touch screen, and will in no way live up to the 2+ year hype surrounding it…in spite of that, however, it will be a “must have” item for Christmas 07.
read more
5 Predictions for Apple in 2007
1) Expanding the Mac Brand - 2007 is going to be the year of the “Mac”. Apple is going to expand upon the Mac branding to include the new Phone product (my guess is MacMobile), and possibly even the “i” software suites. MacLife anyone? The “i” branding is played out, and, with the exception of the iPod and possibly the iMac, the “i” is on the down hill slide. There will be a dramatic shift away from the lowercase “i” in 07.
2) The “true” Video iPod…Finally - After years of speculation, the full screen video iPod will make it’s debut just in time for the 07 holiday season sales push. The device will feature a beautiful screen and a new, clickwheel-free, design. My guess is it will not be touch screen, and will in no way live up to the 2+ year hype surrounding it…in spite of that, however, it will be a “must have” item for Christmas 07.
read more
Video Killed the Painting
2006-12-27 until 2007-02-03 Yoshiko Matsumoto Gallery Amsterdam, , NL Netherlands
Yoshiko Matsumoto Gallery is pleased to present ‘Video Killed the Painting’, an exhibited curated by Bart de Koning Gans, which will be on view from December 27, 2006 until February 3, 2007.Our language of immediacy has made us hungry for quick imagery, however video art teaches us to 're'-observe by taking our time to look. True it is very annoying when it is bad but when it is good the reward is worth the wait. Video forces us to view, listen and take time to adjust. Paintings and sculptures can more easily be divided into bad and good with a brief glance, yet with video it demands your time. This exhibit features 4 video artists whom interpret various stages of the human mind and its behavior.
Absence of Humans in Nature:
Bill Albertini approaches his visual field as a sculptor shaping each frame into a conscious sequence. Through creating a digital world he confronts the viewer with absence, memory and time. In isolation and lack of human engagement the viewer becomes aware of composition and space, while eerily being confronted with a ‘peaceful’ loneliness.
Human and Artificial Nature:
Liselot van der Heijden’s focus is on documenting an environment influencing humans. This offers a beautiful contrast to Albertini’s desolation. Her close up of a monkey eating becomes a fascination with the mundane, as you are staring at the face you hear the voices of zoo visitors and we become aware of being a spectator. After a while you wonder who is observing whom, and who influences whom. Does a surrounding create us or do we create it?
Human versus Human:
David Guinan’s video is a discourse on the Cargo Culture, through its direction and focus it becomes a discussion of culture versus culture. Within the video Guinan relays how a myth can become a salvation from oppressive Western religions (i.e. the reborn Christians and Mormons). We see a native culture clinging onto a tradition and admiration of America, founded in WWII, to save them from oppressive Western religion.
Humans and their Desire:
Jillian Mcdonald displays humans with their own imagination. She plays with the power of adoration by projecting herself into movie scenes with cultural icons (i.e. Johnny Depp to Billy Bob Thorton). Through this visual manipulation Mcdonald comments on our obsession with the unattainable, yet she illustrates the root of the desire: wanting to be recognized and admired. She attains this reality through fiction, and the notion of “it’s on TV so it must be true” becomes very apparent.
mondomedeusah
Yoshiko Matsumoto Gallery is pleased to present ‘Video Killed the Painting’, an exhibited curated by Bart de Koning Gans, which will be on view from December 27, 2006 until February 3, 2007.Our language of immediacy has made us hungry for quick imagery, however video art teaches us to 're'-observe by taking our time to look. True it is very annoying when it is bad but when it is good the reward is worth the wait. Video forces us to view, listen and take time to adjust. Paintings and sculptures can more easily be divided into bad and good with a brief glance, yet with video it demands your time. This exhibit features 4 video artists whom interpret various stages of the human mind and its behavior.
Absence of Humans in Nature:
Bill Albertini approaches his visual field as a sculptor shaping each frame into a conscious sequence. Through creating a digital world he confronts the viewer with absence, memory and time. In isolation and lack of human engagement the viewer becomes aware of composition and space, while eerily being confronted with a ‘peaceful’ loneliness.
Human and Artificial Nature:
Liselot van der Heijden’s focus is on documenting an environment influencing humans. This offers a beautiful contrast to Albertini’s desolation. Her close up of a monkey eating becomes a fascination with the mundane, as you are staring at the face you hear the voices of zoo visitors and we become aware of being a spectator. After a while you wonder who is observing whom, and who influences whom. Does a surrounding create us or do we create it?
Human versus Human:
David Guinan’s video is a discourse on the Cargo Culture, through its direction and focus it becomes a discussion of culture versus culture. Within the video Guinan relays how a myth can become a salvation from oppressive Western religions (i.e. the reborn Christians and Mormons). We see a native culture clinging onto a tradition and admiration of America, founded in WWII, to save them from oppressive Western religion.
Humans and their Desire:
Jillian Mcdonald displays humans with their own imagination. She plays with the power of adoration by projecting herself into movie scenes with cultural icons (i.e. Johnny Depp to Billy Bob Thorton). Through this visual manipulation Mcdonald comments on our obsession with the unattainable, yet she illustrates the root of the desire: wanting to be recognized and admired. She attains this reality through fiction, and the notion of “it’s on TV so it must be true” becomes very apparent.
mondomedeusah
The 20 Most Innovative Tech Products of the Year
A PC that's half desktop, half notebook. An operating system that runs entirely on the Web. A radically made-over office suite. A thin, superstylish handheld with both Wi-Fi and a usable QWERTY keyboard. Our Innovations Award winners exemplify the best kinds of breakthroughs--ones you can get right now.
read more digg story
read more digg story
The 15th annual Art Salon at the Bay
2006-12-22 until 2007-01-11 Bay Hotel Cape Town, , ZA South Africa
An expertly selected cross-section of the vibrant and rapidly growing South African art scene will be on view at The 15th annual ART SALON AT THE BAY. Rose Korber will once again showcase an overview of the finest that the local art scene has to offer, based on her experience as an art consultant and curator in Cape Town. The exhibition opens this year on the 22nd December 2006 and runs until 11 January 2007 in a specially appointed display area at The Bay Hotel, Victoria Road, Camps Bay, Cape Town. Exhibition hours are 10am to 9pm daily. With a reputation built upon the quality of the previous Salons, Korber has curated a show that takes full advantage of the new-found, international interest in South African and other non-Western, contemporary art. read more
An expertly selected cross-section of the vibrant and rapidly growing South African art scene will be on view at The 15th annual ART SALON AT THE BAY. Rose Korber will once again showcase an overview of the finest that the local art scene has to offer, based on her experience as an art consultant and curator in Cape Town. The exhibition opens this year on the 22nd December 2006 and runs until 11 January 2007 in a specially appointed display area at The Bay Hotel, Victoria Road, Camps Bay, Cape Town. Exhibition hours are 10am to 9pm daily. With a reputation built upon the quality of the previous Salons, Korber has curated a show that takes full advantage of the new-found, international interest in South African and other non-Western, contemporary art. read more
Thursday, December 07, 2006
{gaming} Xbox 360 vs. Sony Playstation 3 By: James Yu and Sarju Shah
Need for Speed Carbon
Both systems have fairly similar graphics in Need for Speed Carbon, but the Xbox 360 has better lighting while the PS3 has sharper textures. The 360 has better high dynamic range lighting in the Camaro image. We're not sure if the PS3 version blurs the background tree leaves on purpose, but it's another noticeable difference. The lighting in the street shot appears more realistic on the 360, but the building textures are sharper on the PS3. We also seem to be missing some lighting and a few landmarks in the rearview mirror of the PS3 version.
read more and see online graphics demo
Both systems have fairly similar graphics in Need for Speed Carbon, but the Xbox 360 has better lighting while the PS3 has sharper textures. The 360 has better high dynamic range lighting in the Camaro image. We're not sure if the PS3 version blurs the background tree leaves on purpose, but it's another noticeable difference. The lighting in the street shot appears more realistic on the 360, but the building textures are sharper on the PS3. We also seem to be missing some lighting and a few landmarks in the rearview mirror of the PS3 version.
read more and see online graphics demo
{gaming} Warhammer 40,000: Dark Crusade by Dan Boaden
Hot on the heels of the critically acclaimed real-time strategy game Company of Heroes comes the second expansion for the Dawn of War series, Warhammer 40,000: Dark Crusade. Once again, developer Relic has not disappointed.
Dark Crusade introduces two brand new and innovative factions taken from the board game universe, raising the total number of playable races across all three games to 7. There are new units for each of the returning factions along with an abundance of skirmish maps. Accompanying this, a brand new Risk-esque single player mode has been added to tickle the taste buds of the Dawn of War veterans but also provide something slightly unique and exciting to lure in the rookies.
read more
Dark Crusade introduces two brand new and innovative factions taken from the board game universe, raising the total number of playable races across all three games to 7. There are new units for each of the returning factions along with an abundance of skirmish maps. Accompanying this, a brand new Risk-esque single player mode has been added to tickle the taste buds of the Dawn of War veterans but also provide something slightly unique and exciting to lure in the rookies.
read more
Apple Launches iTunes & Online Apple Stores in New Zealand
Apple launches new store giving New Zealanders access to outstanding local music and the same innovative features, breakthrough pricing and seamless integration with iPod® that have made iTunes the most popular music jukebox and online music store in the world. Apple today also opened the online Apple Store® New Zealand (www.apple.co.nz/store), where customers can quickly and conveniently purchase Apple’s complete lineup of innovative products, including the wildly popular iPod digital music player, the critically acclaimed Intel based Mac® desktop and notebook computers, the iLife® ‘06 suite of digital lifestyle applications, a vast assortment of iPod and Mac accessories from Apple and third parties and Mac OS® X, the world’s most advanced operating system.
“We’re thrilled to bring the iTunes Store and the online Apple Store to our customers in New Zealand just in time for the holidays,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “With over two million songs, the iTunes Store features the largest catalogue of local and international music in New Zealand, and with the new online Apple Store, it’s easier than ever to shop for everything from a personally engraved iPod to a customized Mac.”
With a catalogue of over two million songs, the iTunes Store features the most music of any digital music store in New Zealand with songs priced at just NZ$1.79, music videos at NZ$3.59 and most albums at NZ$17.99. Exclusive music featured on iTunes includes tracks from New Zealand artists Fat Freddy’s Drop, Brooke Fraser, Tim Finn, The Datsuns and Bic Runga as well as extensive catalogues from New Zealand greats including Shihad, Crowded House, The Black Seeds, Breaks Co-Op, Elemeno P and Dei Hamo. International exclusives on iTunes include albums from The Doors, Faithless, Incubus, Foo Fighters, George Michael and more. The iTunes Store features iTunes Originals from international stars Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ben Harper, Black Eyed Peas and Jack Johnson. The iTunes podcast directory currently features over 65,000 podcasts, including featured New Zealand podcasts from TVNZ, The Voice Booth and Radio NZ.
At the online Apple Store New Zealand, customers can browse and purchase Apple hardware, software, accessories and a large selection of third party products with just a few clicks of a mouse. Customers can custom engrave any iPod through the online Apple Store, and can easily custom configure their Mac to suit their individual needs. With iPod engraving, a new holiday gift guide and the convenience of shopping from home or the office, the online Apple Store is the ideal shopping destination this holiday season. The online Apple Store offers special education pricing to teachers and university and college students.
Additionally, Apple announced that the iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition is now available in New Zealand, only at the new online Apple Store. The iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED, available in 4GB and 8GB models, comes in a beautiful red aluminum enclosure and features up to 24 hours of battery life, Apple’s innovative Click Wheel and an incredibly thin and light design. Apple will contribute a portion of proceeds from the sale of each iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED to the Global Fund to help fight HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Pricing & Availability iTunes 7 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Store and is available as a free download immediately from www.itunes.com. Purchase and download of content from the iTunes Store for Mac or Windows requires a valid credit card with a billing address in the country of purchase. Games are available for download and play on the fifth generation iPod.
The iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition is available today in a 4GB model for NZ$349 including GST and an 8GB model for NZ$449 including GST through the online Apple Store (www.apple.co.nz). All iPod nano models include redesigned earbud headphones providing superior comfort, fit and sound quality, and a USB 2.0 cable. The second generation iPod nano features up to 24 hours of battery life and completely skip-free playback.*
iPod nano requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port and Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or later and iTunes 7.0.2 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4), Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2) and iTunes 7.0.2 or later. Internet access is required and a broadband connection is recommended.
read more
“We’re thrilled to bring the iTunes Store and the online Apple Store to our customers in New Zealand just in time for the holidays,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “With over two million songs, the iTunes Store features the largest catalogue of local and international music in New Zealand, and with the new online Apple Store, it’s easier than ever to shop for everything from a personally engraved iPod to a customized Mac.”
With a catalogue of over two million songs, the iTunes Store features the most music of any digital music store in New Zealand with songs priced at just NZ$1.79, music videos at NZ$3.59 and most albums at NZ$17.99. Exclusive music featured on iTunes includes tracks from New Zealand artists Fat Freddy’s Drop, Brooke Fraser, Tim Finn, The Datsuns and Bic Runga as well as extensive catalogues from New Zealand greats including Shihad, Crowded House, The Black Seeds, Breaks Co-Op, Elemeno P and Dei Hamo. International exclusives on iTunes include albums from The Doors, Faithless, Incubus, Foo Fighters, George Michael and more. The iTunes Store features iTunes Originals from international stars Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ben Harper, Black Eyed Peas and Jack Johnson. The iTunes podcast directory currently features over 65,000 podcasts, including featured New Zealand podcasts from TVNZ, The Voice Booth and Radio NZ.
At the online Apple Store New Zealand, customers can browse and purchase Apple hardware, software, accessories and a large selection of third party products with just a few clicks of a mouse. Customers can custom engrave any iPod through the online Apple Store, and can easily custom configure their Mac to suit their individual needs. With iPod engraving, a new holiday gift guide and the convenience of shopping from home or the office, the online Apple Store is the ideal shopping destination this holiday season. The online Apple Store offers special education pricing to teachers and university and college students.
Additionally, Apple announced that the iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition is now available in New Zealand, only at the new online Apple Store. The iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED, available in 4GB and 8GB models, comes in a beautiful red aluminum enclosure and features up to 24 hours of battery life, Apple’s innovative Click Wheel and an incredibly thin and light design. Apple will contribute a portion of proceeds from the sale of each iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED to the Global Fund to help fight HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Pricing & Availability iTunes 7 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Store and is available as a free download immediately from www.itunes.com. Purchase and download of content from the iTunes Store for Mac or Windows requires a valid credit card with a billing address in the country of purchase. Games are available for download and play on the fifth generation iPod.
The iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition is available today in a 4GB model for NZ$349 including GST and an 8GB model for NZ$449 including GST through the online Apple Store (www.apple.co.nz). All iPod nano models include redesigned earbud headphones providing superior comfort, fit and sound quality, and a USB 2.0 cable. The second generation iPod nano features up to 24 hours of battery life and completely skip-free playback.*
iPod nano requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port and Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or later and iTunes 7.0.2 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4), Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2) and iTunes 7.0.2 or later. Internet access is required and a broadband connection is recommended.
read more
Teenage clicks in Second Life
By Gareth Mitchell
A few days before my trip to San Francisco, I was in the online world of Second Life having problems with my avatar - the digital manifestation of myself in this massive 3D virtual environment.
Linden have been making efforts to protect teenagers in Second Life
Around me, perfectly proportioned boys with prominent torsos floated around with skinny mini-skirted girls. After an hour fiddling around in the "edit appearance" menu, Therag, my avatar, stubbornly refused to be anything other than an anonymous silhouette. The only thing I could change was Therag's hair colour. I settled for purple.
Three days later, I found myself at Second Life in real life. The virtual world is the creation of Linden Lab, located on a quiet road near Telegraph Hill in San Francisco.
It runs on 4,100 computers housed in two server farms - one in San Francisco and the other in Dallas. Over a 24-hour period, an average of 60,000 of Second Life's 1.5 million users log in.
Despite my avatar-related frustrations, this was something of a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory moment for me - an opportunity to peer behind the scenes of this social phenomenon with over three times the population of Luxembourg.
Business and porn
In a large, airy open plan office generously decked out with pot plants and figurines of characters from various sci-fi movies, around thirty people sat at their computers keeping an eye on their digital world.
Linden Lab's vice president of platform and technology development, Joe Miller, is one of those charged with keeping it all going.
"We feel like we're surfing a very large tidal wave of popularity and we're staying out ahead of that crashing wave and surfing it successfully right now", he told Digital Planet.
But as Second Life has grown, so has criticism of it. Far from being a utopian online paradise, some regard Second Life as a seedy, even violent place, compromised by the presence of big business and porn.
And if my experiences are anything to go by, its technical capacity has failed to keep up with the rapid increase in membership. At busy times, scenes take ages to load, and navigating the landscape is slow and tedious.
"There are some bottlenecks in the system," Mr Miller concedes.
"We're actively working to remove those bottlenecks so that we can distribute the load that is perhaps causing some performance reduction at peak time.
"One of our challenges is just the sheer amount of bandwidth that we use. That's something we can easily solve by adding another one gigabit data line which is literally going in as we speak."
But last week, a Digital Planet listener told us that the newly expanded World of Warcraft online game supports four times as many people as Second Life and it never falls over.
"World of Warcraft touts a six million or larger active user base - but they shard their world off into smaller servers so you never see 16,000 people in the same place", said Mr Miller.
"That's unlike Second Life, where tonight you will see 16,000 people enjoying exactly the same world all able to communicate with each other, all attending the same live music event should they wish to."
Global issues
I mentioned my difficulties with my avatar and Joe Miller obligingly introduced me to one his team, who cranked up Second Life on my errant laptop and started fiddling with the graphics settings.
Meanwhile, for Digital Planet's contribution to the BBC World Service Generation Next season, focusing on issues surrounding young people, I made it to the other side of the office.
I wanted to find out more about Teen Second Life, an area of the virtual environment fenced off exclusively for younger users.
The idea of the Teen Grid is to act as a safe haven for younger users, free of the adult content that pervades much of the main space.
Through their avatars, Teen Second Life's young users can go shopping, hang out and island hop just as their grown-up counterparts do on the Adult Grid.
But community manager Claudia L'Amoreaux told me that the Teen Grid is also a place for young people to tackle serious global issues that affect them.
"They built this maze as a project on global sex trafficking," he said.
"They were interested in helping other students learn about it so they could protect kids around the world who are being taken advantage of. It's a way to share what it's like for kids who are held captive in the sex trade."
The walls of the maze are emblazoned with images and posters giving information on the problem. Being ensnared in the puzzle is meant to mirror the experience of being a child trapped in prostitution.
Meanwhile across the office, Joe Miller and his colleagues had successfully configured my laptop to display Second Life properly.
Therag sprang on to the screen in the regulation Second Life newbie uniform of blue jeans and white t-shirt. Job done, it was time to go.
mondomedeusah l'ectronique
A few days before my trip to San Francisco, I was in the online world of Second Life having problems with my avatar - the digital manifestation of myself in this massive 3D virtual environment.
Linden have been making efforts to protect teenagers in Second Life
Around me, perfectly proportioned boys with prominent torsos floated around with skinny mini-skirted girls. After an hour fiddling around in the "edit appearance" menu, Therag, my avatar, stubbornly refused to be anything other than an anonymous silhouette. The only thing I could change was Therag's hair colour. I settled for purple.
Three days later, I found myself at Second Life in real life. The virtual world is the creation of Linden Lab, located on a quiet road near Telegraph Hill in San Francisco.
It runs on 4,100 computers housed in two server farms - one in San Francisco and the other in Dallas. Over a 24-hour period, an average of 60,000 of Second Life's 1.5 million users log in.
Despite my avatar-related frustrations, this was something of a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory moment for me - an opportunity to peer behind the scenes of this social phenomenon with over three times the population of Luxembourg.
Business and porn
In a large, airy open plan office generously decked out with pot plants and figurines of characters from various sci-fi movies, around thirty people sat at their computers keeping an eye on their digital world.
Linden Lab's vice president of platform and technology development, Joe Miller, is one of those charged with keeping it all going.
"We feel like we're surfing a very large tidal wave of popularity and we're staying out ahead of that crashing wave and surfing it successfully right now", he told Digital Planet.
But as Second Life has grown, so has criticism of it. Far from being a utopian online paradise, some regard Second Life as a seedy, even violent place, compromised by the presence of big business and porn.
And if my experiences are anything to go by, its technical capacity has failed to keep up with the rapid increase in membership. At busy times, scenes take ages to load, and navigating the landscape is slow and tedious.
"There are some bottlenecks in the system," Mr Miller concedes.
"We're actively working to remove those bottlenecks so that we can distribute the load that is perhaps causing some performance reduction at peak time.
"One of our challenges is just the sheer amount of bandwidth that we use. That's something we can easily solve by adding another one gigabit data line which is literally going in as we speak."
But last week, a Digital Planet listener told us that the newly expanded World of Warcraft online game supports four times as many people as Second Life and it never falls over.
"World of Warcraft touts a six million or larger active user base - but they shard their world off into smaller servers so you never see 16,000 people in the same place", said Mr Miller.
"That's unlike Second Life, where tonight you will see 16,000 people enjoying exactly the same world all able to communicate with each other, all attending the same live music event should they wish to."
Global issues
I mentioned my difficulties with my avatar and Joe Miller obligingly introduced me to one his team, who cranked up Second Life on my errant laptop and started fiddling with the graphics settings.
Meanwhile, for Digital Planet's contribution to the BBC World Service Generation Next season, focusing on issues surrounding young people, I made it to the other side of the office.
I wanted to find out more about Teen Second Life, an area of the virtual environment fenced off exclusively for younger users.
The idea of the Teen Grid is to act as a safe haven for younger users, free of the adult content that pervades much of the main space.
Through their avatars, Teen Second Life's young users can go shopping, hang out and island hop just as their grown-up counterparts do on the Adult Grid.
But community manager Claudia L'Amoreaux told me that the Teen Grid is also a place for young people to tackle serious global issues that affect them.
"They built this maze as a project on global sex trafficking," he said.
"They were interested in helping other students learn about it so they could protect kids around the world who are being taken advantage of. It's a way to share what it's like for kids who are held captive in the sex trade."
The walls of the maze are emblazoned with images and posters giving information on the problem. Being ensnared in the puzzle is meant to mirror the experience of being a child trapped in prostitution.
Meanwhile across the office, Joe Miller and his colleagues had successfully configured my laptop to display Second Life properly.
Therag sprang on to the screen in the regulation Second Life newbie uniform of blue jeans and white t-shirt. Job done, it was time to go.
mondomedeusah l'ectronique
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
The Happy Jazz Show - iPodyourmondo.com with Adrian Leach and Mark Taylor - December 2006
Happy Jazz Playlist for December 2006 Show 1
Part A - Adrian Leach
Ronnie Ross : Cleopatras Needle
Dexter Gordon & Slide Hampton - A Day In Vienna
Art Taylor : Syeeda's Song Flute
Karel Krautgartner : Ludek Halen
Jazz Quintet 60 : Yake De Yak
Dick Morrissey Quartet : Storm Warning
Sonny Criss : Ode to Billy Joe
Borje Fredriksson : Brollopsvals
Harry South Big Band : Costa Fortuna
Johnny Lytle : Selim
Horace Silver : Cape Verdean Blues
Part B - Mark Taylor
Eri Ohno : Butterfly
The Danish Jazz Ballet Society Ensemble : Jive Samba
Triste Janeiro : Without Him
Cal Tjader & Charlie Byrd : Samba De Oneida
Auracle : Sno Fun
The Peddlers : I Have Seen
Catharsis : Styx
Brian Bennett : Discovery
Marilyn Scott : You Are All I Need
Seawind : Free
Zeca Do Trombone E Roberto Sax : Ta Legal
Plumstead Radical Club : The Coast is Clear
Mike Westbrook : Original Peter
http://happyjazz.ipodyourmondo.com
http://mondomm.com/blog
Part A - Adrian Leach
Ronnie Ross : Cleopatras Needle
Dexter Gordon & Slide Hampton - A Day In Vienna
Art Taylor : Syeeda's Song Flute
Karel Krautgartner : Ludek Halen
Jazz Quintet 60 : Yake De Yak
Dick Morrissey Quartet : Storm Warning
Sonny Criss : Ode to Billy Joe
Borje Fredriksson : Brollopsvals
Harry South Big Band : Costa Fortuna
Johnny Lytle : Selim
Horace Silver : Cape Verdean Blues
Part B - Mark Taylor
Eri Ohno : Butterfly
The Danish Jazz Ballet Society Ensemble : Jive Samba
Triste Janeiro : Without Him
Cal Tjader & Charlie Byrd : Samba De Oneida
Auracle : Sno Fun
The Peddlers : I Have Seen
Catharsis : Styx
Brian Bennett : Discovery
Marilyn Scott : You Are All I Need
Seawind : Free
Zeca Do Trombone E Roberto Sax : Ta Legal
Plumstead Radical Club : The Coast is Clear
Mike Westbrook : Original Peter
http://happyjazz.ipodyourmondo.com
http://mondomm.com/blog
Friday, December 01, 2006
{art} Annabelle Jasmin Verhoye
2006-11-30 until 2006-12-15
Opera Gallery
New York, NY, USA United States of America
The Opera Gallery in New York City is proud to present the first solo show in New York of paintings by Annabelle Jasmin Verhoye beginning Thursday, November 30th, 2006. Annabelle Jasmin Verhoye's work seeks to create imagery on multiple dimensions that is at once true to her subject's form, yet with an additional layer of interpretation. The resulting effect is one of elucidating both the scene‚s objective nature as well as its inner essence and the mood it organically creates.
Many of her new pieces are pure landscapes, but some also involve human subjects seamlessly integrated within natural settings with an intent and purpose that is emotive and powerful. She plays with both monochromic backdrops as well as vistas that pull the viewer into the piece with gradients of light and depth. It is in part in the detail of her work that the artist‚s style is first revealed: painted on the backside of glass, the colors of the images are applied in various coats, inspired in part by Europe‚s stained glass windows.
Annabelle's artistic process cannot be completely predetermined. Her technique and conceptual framework is in many ways the polar opposite of many past and current approaches in two important ways. For example, she gives her paint in part free rein, as she works in a reverse layering process sometimes obfuscating form with each application. The result is her first layer of paint is often the first image the viewer sees, as opposed to the last brush stroke of an oil painting being the most forward facing. The unveiled result is stunning; just as a forest itself does not evolve as a predetermined collection of trees, Annabelle‚s work begins and ends in a similarly natural way–uncalculated yet true to the spirit of her subject's sublime nature.
Additionally, she has extended her traditional palette of glass and acrylic paint to raise the significance of the naming of her work, in a sense attempting to synergistically bring visual art and prose together. The intent is to not limit the viewer's experience, but to in fact enhance it, adding another dimension to the piece yet within a framework that is provocative; in a sense a movement away from the relativism embraced by some contemporary artists.
Born in Germany and raised in France, she ultimately moved to Manhattan where she received her MFA degree from the School of Visual Arts. Her work has won numerous awards and has been exhibited at Opera Gallery (New York), BMW (New York), R2 Gallery, Thomas Werner Gallery (New York), The Society of Illustrators, The Tribeca Arts Club, School of Visual Arts (Korea), Catherine Malandrino ( New York) and La Samaritaine (Paris), in addition to other venues.
mondo
Opera Gallery
New York, NY, USA United States of America
The Opera Gallery in New York City is proud to present the first solo show in New York of paintings by Annabelle Jasmin Verhoye beginning Thursday, November 30th, 2006. Annabelle Jasmin Verhoye's work seeks to create imagery on multiple dimensions that is at once true to her subject's form, yet with an additional layer of interpretation. The resulting effect is one of elucidating both the scene‚s objective nature as well as its inner essence and the mood it organically creates.
Many of her new pieces are pure landscapes, but some also involve human subjects seamlessly integrated within natural settings with an intent and purpose that is emotive and powerful. She plays with both monochromic backdrops as well as vistas that pull the viewer into the piece with gradients of light and depth. It is in part in the detail of her work that the artist‚s style is first revealed: painted on the backside of glass, the colors of the images are applied in various coats, inspired in part by Europe‚s stained glass windows.
Annabelle's artistic process cannot be completely predetermined. Her technique and conceptual framework is in many ways the polar opposite of many past and current approaches in two important ways. For example, she gives her paint in part free rein, as she works in a reverse layering process sometimes obfuscating form with each application. The result is her first layer of paint is often the first image the viewer sees, as opposed to the last brush stroke of an oil painting being the most forward facing. The unveiled result is stunning; just as a forest itself does not evolve as a predetermined collection of trees, Annabelle‚s work begins and ends in a similarly natural way–uncalculated yet true to the spirit of her subject's sublime nature.
Additionally, she has extended her traditional palette of glass and acrylic paint to raise the significance of the naming of her work, in a sense attempting to synergistically bring visual art and prose together. The intent is to not limit the viewer's experience, but to in fact enhance it, adding another dimension to the piece yet within a framework that is provocative; in a sense a movement away from the relativism embraced by some contemporary artists.
Born in Germany and raised in France, she ultimately moved to Manhattan where she received her MFA degree from the School of Visual Arts. Her work has won numerous awards and has been exhibited at Opera Gallery (New York), BMW (New York), R2 Gallery, Thomas Werner Gallery (New York), The Society of Illustrators, The Tribeca Arts Club, School of Visual Arts (Korea), Catherine Malandrino ( New York) and La Samaritaine (Paris), in addition to other venues.
mondo
{art} The Problem with Photography: Marco Breuer
2006-11-28 until 2007-02-10
Galerie Bernhard Knaus
Mannheim, , DE Germany
Bernhard Knaus Fine Art is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new works by Marco Breuer. In “THE PROBLEM WITH PHOTOGRAPHY (z.Zt)” Marco Breuer continues his systematic investigation of the conditions of the photographic medium. In a series of cameraless photographs, Breuer marks the surface of photographic color material with a razor blade, building the image line by line. Through this process of subtraction, layers of the material are physically removed and color is forced out of the material (in photographic color material black contains all other colors).
Many of the images in the exhibition are created through a cycle of imaging and re-imaging: shifts in scale and color, moving from positive to negative, going in and out of focus – with every image possibly being the result of a previous one.
The works of Marco Breuer are photographic revelations about what happens between forces: light, chemistry, and physical processes clashing on photographic material. Every resulting piece is unique – and truly surprising in range of colour, rhythm and depth.
Marco Breuer born in Germany in 1966, lives and works in New York. Marco Breuer has exhibited widely throughout the United States. His work is in numerous collections, including the Museum of Modern Art; the New York Public Library; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, Germany.
Galerie Bernhard Knaus
Mannheim, , DE Germany
Bernhard Knaus Fine Art is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new works by Marco Breuer. In “THE PROBLEM WITH PHOTOGRAPHY (z.Zt)” Marco Breuer continues his systematic investigation of the conditions of the photographic medium. In a series of cameraless photographs, Breuer marks the surface of photographic color material with a razor blade, building the image line by line. Through this process of subtraction, layers of the material are physically removed and color is forced out of the material (in photographic color material black contains all other colors).
Many of the images in the exhibition are created through a cycle of imaging and re-imaging: shifts in scale and color, moving from positive to negative, going in and out of focus – with every image possibly being the result of a previous one.
The works of Marco Breuer are photographic revelations about what happens between forces: light, chemistry, and physical processes clashing on photographic material. Every resulting piece is unique – and truly surprising in range of colour, rhythm and depth.
Marco Breuer born in Germany in 1966, lives and works in New York. Marco Breuer has exhibited widely throughout the United States. His work is in numerous collections, including the Museum of Modern Art; the New York Public Library; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, Germany.
{music} Wata (Water) featuring Mutabaruka
Taken off of Beat Pharmacy’s Constant Pressure album and featuring reggae legend Mutabaruka, the latest single on Francois K’s Deep Space Media label combines the depths of underwater dub with elegant and flighty techno riffs, all kept together by a relentless bass beat.Whether you’re looking to gear your groove deep or to keep floor-filling the dancefloor with a demanding number, “Wata” will satisfy your thirst. Hypnotic and mystifying, Beat Pharmacy, aka Brendon Moeller, knows how to combine all the different elements without making a track sound congested. The result is as gratifying as the sonic of dub reggae sounds, while still gearing it towards 4/4 house fans.The original track can be found here in all its progressive beauty. The b-side contains an all out minimal techno re-rub, much like what you would hear Richie Hawtin drop from his Minus label. As swirling sound effects surround listeners, plodding drums make for a particularly punchy and trippy late-night ride. Clocking in at over 9 whopping minutes, you couldn’t be more satisfied with the track progressions and minimalism.. more
mondomedeusah
mondomm.com
mondomedeusah
mondomm.com
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Call for Artists: UNESCO Digital Art Award 2007
2006-11-27 until 2006-12-31
DigiArts - UNESCO Sharjah, , AE United Arab Emirates
The UNESCO Digital Art Award 2007 is organized in association with the Sharjah Biennial 8 (4 April - 4 June 2007, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates) on the theme of "STILL LIFE - Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change". Young artists are invited to reflect on how urban spaces and city environments could be transformed into creative outlets cultivating artistic innovation and new form of expression. Potential applicants to the award are asked to conceive and design their creative projects that are integral to the theme of sustainable urban development.
Prize money:
The total award money is US $10.000, which could be divided and delivered to more than one laureate.
General Guidelines:
- Submitted projects should relate to the theme and topics of the award
- The applicants must submit one project through the above-mentioned online YDC application - http://unesco.sjsu.edu/
- The user name and password of the online application would be distributed to the candidates once they have sent their CVs and completed entry forms to the UNESCO DigiArts Team digiarts@unesco.org
- Collaborative participation from more than one artist is highly welcomed
- Young, talented people from under-represented countries are especially encouraged to participate.
Deadlines and submission Materials :
Preparatory materials by 31 December 2006:
- CV and biographies of participating artist(s)
- Completed Registration form
Final materials by 16 February 2007:
- Creative projects submitted online http://unesco.sjsu.edu
- Written documentation on the process of building the creative projects with supporting audio-visual materials
Information also available on the UNESCO DigiArts portal :
DigiArts - UNESCO Sharjah, , AE United Arab Emirates
The UNESCO Digital Art Award 2007 is organized in association with the Sharjah Biennial 8 (4 April - 4 June 2007, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates) on the theme of "STILL LIFE - Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change". Young artists are invited to reflect on how urban spaces and city environments could be transformed into creative outlets cultivating artistic innovation and new form of expression. Potential applicants to the award are asked to conceive and design their creative projects that are integral to the theme of sustainable urban development.
Prize money:
The total award money is US $10.000, which could be divided and delivered to more than one laureate.
General Guidelines:
- Submitted projects should relate to the theme and topics of the award
- The applicants must submit one project through the above-mentioned online YDC application - http://unesco.sjsu.edu/
- The user name and password of the online application would be distributed to the candidates once they have sent their CVs and completed entry forms to the UNESCO DigiArts Team digiarts@unesco.org
- Collaborative participation from more than one artist is highly welcomed
- Young, talented people from under-represented countries are especially encouraged to participate.
Deadlines and submission Materials :
Preparatory materials by 31 December 2006:
- CV and biographies of participating artist(s)
- Completed Registration form
Final materials by 16 February 2007:
- Creative projects submitted online http://unesco.sjsu.edu
- Written documentation on the process of building the creative projects with supporting audio-visual materials
Information also available on the UNESCO DigiArts portal :
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Erik van Lieshout: This can’t go on (Stay with me)"
2006-11-25 until 2007-02-04
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Rotterdam, , NL Netherlands
Drive-in Cinema - The exhibition is set up as a depressing Rotterdam environment with containers, lorry tarpaulins, cars and garages – and insufficient finances. In Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s large exhibition galleries, Erik van Lieshout (Deurne, 1968, lives and works in Rotterdam) has built a drive-in cinema in which to show his new film: about a family in Brabant, about money, the nouveau riche and art collecting, fast cars and a contemporary lifestyle.
‘This is set to be the film spectacle of the year. Nobody knows whether Erik van Lieshout is real or not. Everyone is taken in by him, not least of all himself. He races all over, from China to Mexico, on a bicycle through Germany and returns home to Rotterdam to cry his eyes out by the fire. But even when he undertakes a journey through his own neighbourhood, his own city, he is still not at home. And the worst thing is: his mother isn’t coming to the opening because she is giving foot massages in Tanzania.’
A razor-sharp analyst of our times. Erik van Lieshout makes work that cannot be dissociated from our society. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is organising the first survey of his work from the last six years: all his films, a selection of drawings and a new series of paintings. Van Lieshout’s presentation in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is a journey through modern life in all its manifestations.
This new film entitled Rock is accompanied by a presentation of new paintings. After a long break from painting, during which he has concentrated on films and drawings, Van Lieshout has recently returned to the medium. Alongside Rock there are nine other films by Erik van Lieshout on show at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Presented in garages, they deal with the multi-cultural reality of life in Rotterdam-Zuid (Respect), the world of mental disability (Happiness), hip-hop (EMMDM and Lariam), the Germans and their history (Rotterdam-Rostock) and much more.
Catalyst of Emotions
Whereas Erik van Lieshout made his name in the 1990s with his powerful drawings and paintings, over the last six years he has focussed more on films and installations. In the meantime Van Lieshout has developed into a fully-fledged video artist. He makes poignant films that represent the pulsing rhythm of life today. His protagonists are Germany’s unemployed, ‘soft’ therapists, Theo van Gogh sympathisers and opponents, Chinese girls, junkies in Rotterdam and Ghanaian rappers. But actually the artist always casts himself in the leading role. Van Lieshout is upfront and honest, often exhibitionist and provocative and always a catalyst of emotions. He presents reality in a raw yet subtle manner.
In the last few years he has turned the camera on himself, as in the video installation Up!, which is on show at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Van Lieshout: ‘A recurring element in my work is the manner in which I present myself in relation to others. This film gets closer to who I am. In the final analysis it raises the question: how can you be an artist and still be happy? Existentialist, political, not quite kitsch and also definitely not therapy.’
The exhibition and accompanying publication have been organised in association with the Kunsthaus Zürich and the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich. The project has been realised with special subsidies from the Centrum Beeldende Kunst and the Dienst Kunst en Cultuur in Rotterdam.
Publication
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with a substantial essay by Tom Morton (Frieze London) and an interview by Rein Wolfs and Mirjam Varadinis. The publication has been designed by Elektrosmog (Zurich) and is published by JRP/Ringier in Zurich in three different editions: Dutch, English and German; 304 pages; Price: €32.00
Dolf Henkes Prize
The prize-giving ceremony for the Dolf Henkes Prize to Erik van Lieshout will take place Friday 24 November from 4.30 p.m. at the Arminiuskerk, Museumpark 3 prior to the opening in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Rotterdam, , NL Netherlands
Drive-in Cinema - The exhibition is set up as a depressing Rotterdam environment with containers, lorry tarpaulins, cars and garages – and insufficient finances. In Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s large exhibition galleries, Erik van Lieshout (Deurne, 1968, lives and works in Rotterdam) has built a drive-in cinema in which to show his new film: about a family in Brabant, about money, the nouveau riche and art collecting, fast cars and a contemporary lifestyle.
‘This is set to be the film spectacle of the year. Nobody knows whether Erik van Lieshout is real or not. Everyone is taken in by him, not least of all himself. He races all over, from China to Mexico, on a bicycle through Germany and returns home to Rotterdam to cry his eyes out by the fire. But even when he undertakes a journey through his own neighbourhood, his own city, he is still not at home. And the worst thing is: his mother isn’t coming to the opening because she is giving foot massages in Tanzania.’
A razor-sharp analyst of our times. Erik van Lieshout makes work that cannot be dissociated from our society. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is organising the first survey of his work from the last six years: all his films, a selection of drawings and a new series of paintings. Van Lieshout’s presentation in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is a journey through modern life in all its manifestations.
This new film entitled Rock is accompanied by a presentation of new paintings. After a long break from painting, during which he has concentrated on films and drawings, Van Lieshout has recently returned to the medium. Alongside Rock there are nine other films by Erik van Lieshout on show at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Presented in garages, they deal with the multi-cultural reality of life in Rotterdam-Zuid (Respect), the world of mental disability (Happiness), hip-hop (EMMDM and Lariam), the Germans and their history (Rotterdam-Rostock) and much more.
Catalyst of Emotions
Whereas Erik van Lieshout made his name in the 1990s with his powerful drawings and paintings, over the last six years he has focussed more on films and installations. In the meantime Van Lieshout has developed into a fully-fledged video artist. He makes poignant films that represent the pulsing rhythm of life today. His protagonists are Germany’s unemployed, ‘soft’ therapists, Theo van Gogh sympathisers and opponents, Chinese girls, junkies in Rotterdam and Ghanaian rappers. But actually the artist always casts himself in the leading role. Van Lieshout is upfront and honest, often exhibitionist and provocative and always a catalyst of emotions. He presents reality in a raw yet subtle manner.
In the last few years he has turned the camera on himself, as in the video installation Up!, which is on show at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Van Lieshout: ‘A recurring element in my work is the manner in which I present myself in relation to others. This film gets closer to who I am. In the final analysis it raises the question: how can you be an artist and still be happy? Existentialist, political, not quite kitsch and also definitely not therapy.’
The exhibition and accompanying publication have been organised in association with the Kunsthaus Zürich and the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich. The project has been realised with special subsidies from the Centrum Beeldende Kunst and the Dienst Kunst en Cultuur in Rotterdam.
Publication
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with a substantial essay by Tom Morton (Frieze London) and an interview by Rein Wolfs and Mirjam Varadinis. The publication has been designed by Elektrosmog (Zurich) and is published by JRP/Ringier in Zurich in three different editions: Dutch, English and German; 304 pages; Price: €32.00
Dolf Henkes Prize
The prize-giving ceremony for the Dolf Henkes Prize to Erik van Lieshout will take place Friday 24 November from 4.30 p.m. at the Arminiuskerk, Museumpark 3 prior to the opening in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.
Chris Humphreys: Woodland Chicken World
2006-11-25 until 2006-12-17
Transition
London, , UK United Kingdom
Chris Humphreys’ strangely beautiful paintings depict that misty area in which nature gets caught up between fantasy and reality. His first solo show Woodland Chicken World at Transition Gallery, enhances this sense of mystery with a touch of exotic orientalism to give his new paintings of common or garden birds an aristocratic grace.Influenced by Chinoiserie, a centuries-old decorative style based on highly embellished and exaggerated Chinese design, Humphreys’ sets his birds (most particularly chickens) in an intricate, ornamental world of paint.
Chinoiserie has an element of the homemade about it in its often misinformed imitation, giving it not only an element of the absurd but also an attitude towards borrowing and history, which is pertinent to Humphrey’s practice.
Humphreys’ very contemporary paintings have a fluidity and brightness that has made him highly popular with both interior designers and academics alike and Woodland Chicken World (part of Transition Gallery’s Supernature season) is accompanied by a talk on Chinoiserie by Gill Saunders of the V&A on Monday 11th December at 7pm.
Meanwhile Humphreys’ humble chickens freed from their restrictive pens and given a sense of elegance and dignity in their new gallery location take on a level of art seriousness where the birds, the paint and the decoration are all brought to the same level of heightened reality.
Transition
London, , UK United Kingdom
Chris Humphreys’ strangely beautiful paintings depict that misty area in which nature gets caught up between fantasy and reality. His first solo show Woodland Chicken World at Transition Gallery, enhances this sense of mystery with a touch of exotic orientalism to give his new paintings of common or garden birds an aristocratic grace.Influenced by Chinoiserie, a centuries-old decorative style based on highly embellished and exaggerated Chinese design, Humphreys’ sets his birds (most particularly chickens) in an intricate, ornamental world of paint.
Chinoiserie has an element of the homemade about it in its often misinformed imitation, giving it not only an element of the absurd but also an attitude towards borrowing and history, which is pertinent to Humphrey’s practice.
Humphreys’ very contemporary paintings have a fluidity and brightness that has made him highly popular with both interior designers and academics alike and Woodland Chicken World (part of Transition Gallery’s Supernature season) is accompanied by a talk on Chinoiserie by Gill Saunders of the V&A on Monday 11th December at 7pm.
Meanwhile Humphreys’ humble chickens freed from their restrictive pens and given a sense of elegance and dignity in their new gallery location take on a level of art seriousness where the birds, the paint and the decoration are all brought to the same level of heightened reality.
Rebecca Purdum Paintings and On the Edge, a video by Miguel Angel Rios
2006-11-28 until 2006-12-22
Tilton Gallery
New York, NY, USA United States of America
Two solo exhibitions, Rebecca Purdum Paintings and On the Edge, a video by Miguel Angel Rios, will be on view at the Tilton Gallery from November 28 - December 22. The exhibitions feature Purdum’s large-scale abstract paintings from the past three years, and Rios’s most recent video installation.The Tilton Gallery is located at Eight East 76 Street, between Madison and Fifth Avenues. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 10 – 6 and Monday by appointment.
Rebecca Purdum’s paintings are shifting fields of color that suggest atmospheric space filled with light. The movement in Purdum’s paintings is subtle, often nearly imperceptible, flowing from dark to light and from formless to form. Color moves in micro-tonal steps, with small strokes of individual hues massing to create clouds of colored light. Paradoxically, the artist paints with a real physical directness, usually using her gloved hands to apply marks and layers of pigment. Purdum’s recent paintings emphasize the material reality of paint, with oil color building up a textural presence on the canvas.
Purdum’s art is meditative – the work of reiterative practice, and of realizing the contours of one’s own consciousness. Each of Purdum’s paintings is a kind of existential space of perpetual investigation, emerging awareness, and of hard-won grace. As Michael Kimmelman wrote, “It is almost impossible not to like Rebecca Purdum’s…works, so beautifully painted are they and so tinged with what seems an evanescent light.” The artist has exhibited her paintings at the Tilton Gallery since 1985. Her work was has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and The Corcoran Gallery of Art.
On the Edge, a two-channel video by Miguel Angel Rios, is based on the popular Mexican playground game, El Juego del Topo. The installation immerses the audience with the frenetic activity and sound of the whirling of spinning tops. In this work, teams of black and white tops compete for a dominance of white grid in a dark field. Rios has observed that, "My idea was to use this game as a metaphor for our times. In this film, I express the terrible moments in which we are living, where we can feel like life is worth nothing. This is also about competition, power, violence and chaos. The viewer can identify with the powerful or the weak one. It is about war."
As with Rios’ previous work (sculpture and mixed media installations) the artist focuses on the European conquest of Latin America. On the Edge follows Don’t Look for Me You Won’t Find Me, a 2003 video in which the artist encounters the visionary power of the Mexican desert. Discovery of the Amazon, a collaborative piece done with Sergio Vega explored the apocryphal battle of an early explorer with the “amazons”, indigenous women-warriors. Rios was born in Argentina and divides his time between Mexico City and New York. He has shown his work extensively in America and Europe, with recent solo exhibitions at LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) and the Hirschorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and group exhibitions at the Shaghai Doulon Museum of Modern Art, the Miami Art Museum, and the Phoenix Art Museum.
Tilton Gallery
New York, NY, USA United States of America
Two solo exhibitions, Rebecca Purdum Paintings and On the Edge, a video by Miguel Angel Rios, will be on view at the Tilton Gallery from November 28 - December 22. The exhibitions feature Purdum’s large-scale abstract paintings from the past three years, and Rios’s most recent video installation.The Tilton Gallery is located at Eight East 76 Street, between Madison and Fifth Avenues. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 10 – 6 and Monday by appointment.
Rebecca Purdum’s paintings are shifting fields of color that suggest atmospheric space filled with light. The movement in Purdum’s paintings is subtle, often nearly imperceptible, flowing from dark to light and from formless to form. Color moves in micro-tonal steps, with small strokes of individual hues massing to create clouds of colored light. Paradoxically, the artist paints with a real physical directness, usually using her gloved hands to apply marks and layers of pigment. Purdum’s recent paintings emphasize the material reality of paint, with oil color building up a textural presence on the canvas.
Purdum’s art is meditative – the work of reiterative practice, and of realizing the contours of one’s own consciousness. Each of Purdum’s paintings is a kind of existential space of perpetual investigation, emerging awareness, and of hard-won grace. As Michael Kimmelman wrote, “It is almost impossible not to like Rebecca Purdum’s…works, so beautifully painted are they and so tinged with what seems an evanescent light.” The artist has exhibited her paintings at the Tilton Gallery since 1985. Her work was has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and The Corcoran Gallery of Art.
On the Edge, a two-channel video by Miguel Angel Rios, is based on the popular Mexican playground game, El Juego del Topo. The installation immerses the audience with the frenetic activity and sound of the whirling of spinning tops. In this work, teams of black and white tops compete for a dominance of white grid in a dark field. Rios has observed that, "My idea was to use this game as a metaphor for our times. In this film, I express the terrible moments in which we are living, where we can feel like life is worth nothing. This is also about competition, power, violence and chaos. The viewer can identify with the powerful or the weak one. It is about war."
As with Rios’ previous work (sculpture and mixed media installations) the artist focuses on the European conquest of Latin America. On the Edge follows Don’t Look for Me You Won’t Find Me, a 2003 video in which the artist encounters the visionary power of the Mexican desert. Discovery of the Amazon, a collaborative piece done with Sergio Vega explored the apocryphal battle of an early explorer with the “amazons”, indigenous women-warriors. Rios was born in Argentina and divides his time between Mexico City and New York. He has shown his work extensively in America and Europe, with recent solo exhibitions at LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) and the Hirschorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and group exhibitions at the Shaghai Doulon Museum of Modern Art, the Miami Art Museum, and the Phoenix Art Museum.
King Britt: Seeing Music
By Dustin Driver
For most of us, music conjures imagery — calm pastoral landscapes, futuristic chase scenes, laid-back metropolitan lounges. For King Britt, imagery and experience conjure music. “As a kid, I listened to my walkman every day on the way to school,” he says. “I would stare out of the window of the train and everything was so visual, so coordinated with the music, like a music video. Since then I’ve approached all my records from a visual standpoint.”
In the late ’80s, Britt worked with superstar DJ Josh Wink, producing jazzy, funk-fueled dance tracks and house music hits. In the ’90s he shredded vinyl for the groovin’ hip-hop trio Digable Planets, spinning under the pseudonym “Silkworm.” Later he produced remixes for Tori Amos, Donna Lewis, Keoki, Jazzanova, G-Love & Special Sauce, United Future Organization, and Gilles Peterson. He then formed his own super funk-jazz-hip-hop fusion group “Sylk 130,” which released two internationally acclaimed albums. In 2005, he remixed recordings of New Orleans painter, blues singer, and self-proclaimed “bride of Christ” Sister Gertrude Morgan into a stunning funk-infused opus.
Still, despite his natural aptitude for cranking out visual tracks, the producer hadn’t scored any films — until now. In 2006, he underscored several scenes in Michael Mann’s remake of the legendary ’80s cop drama “Miami Vice.” “It’s always been my dream to do music for movies and I’m a huge Vice fan,” he says. “When Michael Mann asked me to underscore a few scenes for the film, I was just blown away.” Britt produced several tracks for the film using Logic Pro and Power Macs and went on to score several high-budget commercials for Rolex and the soundtrack for a National Parks Service documentary. In the midst of it all, he managed to produce an album of electronic music and complete an international tour. “It’s just amazing how easy it has become to make music,” he says. “I can create tracks so quickly and efficiently using Logic and Macs that I end up making a lot more music.” more
For most of us, music conjures imagery — calm pastoral landscapes, futuristic chase scenes, laid-back metropolitan lounges. For King Britt, imagery and experience conjure music. “As a kid, I listened to my walkman every day on the way to school,” he says. “I would stare out of the window of the train and everything was so visual, so coordinated with the music, like a music video. Since then I’ve approached all my records from a visual standpoint.”
In the late ’80s, Britt worked with superstar DJ Josh Wink, producing jazzy, funk-fueled dance tracks and house music hits. In the ’90s he shredded vinyl for the groovin’ hip-hop trio Digable Planets, spinning under the pseudonym “Silkworm.” Later he produced remixes for Tori Amos, Donna Lewis, Keoki, Jazzanova, G-Love & Special Sauce, United Future Organization, and Gilles Peterson. He then formed his own super funk-jazz-hip-hop fusion group “Sylk 130,” which released two internationally acclaimed albums. In 2005, he remixed recordings of New Orleans painter, blues singer, and self-proclaimed “bride of Christ” Sister Gertrude Morgan into a stunning funk-infused opus.
Still, despite his natural aptitude for cranking out visual tracks, the producer hadn’t scored any films — until now. In 2006, he underscored several scenes in Michael Mann’s remake of the legendary ’80s cop drama “Miami Vice.” “It’s always been my dream to do music for movies and I’m a huge Vice fan,” he says. “When Michael Mann asked me to underscore a few scenes for the film, I was just blown away.” Britt produced several tracks for the film using Logic Pro and Power Macs and went on to score several high-budget commercials for Rolex and the soundtrack for a National Parks Service documentary. In the midst of it all, he managed to produce an album of electronic music and complete an international tour. “It’s just amazing how easy it has become to make music,” he says. “I can create tracks so quickly and efficiently using Logic and Macs that I end up making a lot more music.” more
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Comp film party Fri at Crobar with cocktail reception & museum exhibit
Jules and Jim starring Jeanne Moreau
(In French with English subtitles, music and dancing continue throughout the screening.)
Presented by Andy Warhol Superstar Ivy Nicholson and Baird Jones
Crobar Nightclub, 530 w 28th St. (between 10th and 11th Aves.) Friday, Nov. 24, Private complimentary cocktail reception from 10 – 11:30 in the Reed VIP RoomFree admission for you and your guests from 10 until 1, by saying
that you are there for the “Film Party” (ask for Doorman Cris AC)
======================================================
An exhibit of works on paper
“Pioneering Graffiti”
LAVA I.II
Curated by Baird Jones
Nov. 27, 2006 through Dec. 3, 2006
The Paterson Museum
2 Market St.
Paterson, NJ (973-321-1260)
(In French with English subtitles, music and dancing continue throughout the screening.)
Presented by Andy Warhol Superstar Ivy Nicholson and Baird Jones
Crobar Nightclub, 530 w 28th St. (between 10th and 11th Aves.) Friday, Nov. 24, Private complimentary cocktail reception from 10 – 11:30 in the Reed VIP RoomFree admission for you and your guests from 10 until 1, by saying
that you are there for the “Film Party” (ask for Doorman Cris AC)
======================================================
An exhibit of works on paper
“Pioneering Graffiti”
LAVA I.II
Curated by Baird Jones
Nov. 27, 2006 through Dec. 3, 2006
The Paterson Museum
2 Market St.
Paterson, NJ (973-321-1260)
Friday, November 17, 2006
Find your PS3 and Nintendo finder
In light of the release of Sony's Playstation 3 on November 17th, and the shortage that ensued, it is our mission to make finding a PS3 as easy as possible.We hope you were one of the lucky ones to buy a PS3 today. But, since you're here, chances are that you weren't one of the lucky ones.Simply type in your zip code or city/state into the search box below to see a list of local retailers which carry the PS3, and our inventory estimates. The inventory data is based on multiple sources of information, including information that is submitted by our visitors and various shipment allocation documents that have been made publically available.
http://www.ps3seeker.com/
http://www.ps3seeker.com/
Thursday, November 16, 2006
High Times: Singles 1992 - 2006
Jamiroquai
Will Be Released Nov 21, 2006
Released By Epic Records
When Jamiroquai exploded onto the music scene with “When You Gonna Learn” in 1992, few thought that his vintage jazz-funk, sweet horn grooves and quick dance moves would survive 14 years, let alone sell over 20 million albums, receive Grammy & MTV Awards and embark on tours that would span the planet several times over. High Times: Singles 1992-2006, is a timely reminder of the sheer strength and depth of Jamiroquai's back catalogue, which is presented here in all its glory with two new tracks: The funky and hard-edged “Radio,” and lead single “Runaway,” a blistering mix of disco strings and infectious bass lines. One of the UK's greatest musical exports of the past 20 years, Jay Kay & Co's career took a new direction when the anti-war anthem “Too Young To Die,” went Top 10. By the time the inner-city social commentary of his sophomore album Return Of The Space Cowboy hit the shelves Jamiroquai became the face of British urban music. Still, it was down to third album, 1997's Travelling Without Moving, some logic defying dance moves and a moving sofa, to take Jamiroquai over the top and to the masses. By the time the dust settled, the album, singles and the irresistibly catchy “Virtual Insanity” video directed by Jonathan Glazer, had netted 5 MTV Awards, a Grammy, put Jamiroquai on the cover of USA Today and sold more than a million albums in America. Global hits such as “Cosmic Girl” and “Deeper Underground” followed, as well as Jay Kay classics like “Little L,” “Canned Heat,” and “Love Foolosophy.” As a bonus, this special edition also features various Jamiroquai remixes (including the classic David Morales remix of “Space Cowboy”) and a DVD featuring Jamiroquai videos and two bonus tracks (“Stillness In Time” and “Half The Man”) not included on the regular release. In an era when everything's a sanitised sound bite, Jay Kay is the one man who can be relied upon for his full, frank and unedited opinion. As High Times: Singles 1992-2006 proves with every single frenetic track, music, like the rest of life, would be a hell of a lot duller without him.
http://www.jamiroquaimusic.com/
Jamiroquai
Will Be Released Nov 21, 2006
Released By Epic Records
When Jamiroquai exploded onto the music scene with “When You Gonna Learn” in 1992, few thought that his vintage jazz-funk, sweet horn grooves and quick dance moves would survive 14 years, let alone sell over 20 million albums, receive Grammy & MTV Awards and embark on tours that would span the planet several times over. High Times: Singles 1992-2006, is a timely reminder of the sheer strength and depth of Jamiroquai's back catalogue, which is presented here in all its glory with two new tracks: The funky and hard-edged “Radio,” and lead single “Runaway,” a blistering mix of disco strings and infectious bass lines. One of the UK's greatest musical exports of the past 20 years, Jay Kay & Co's career took a new direction when the anti-war anthem “Too Young To Die,” went Top 10. By the time the inner-city social commentary of his sophomore album Return Of The Space Cowboy hit the shelves Jamiroquai became the face of British urban music. Still, it was down to third album, 1997's Travelling Without Moving, some logic defying dance moves and a moving sofa, to take Jamiroquai over the top and to the masses. By the time the dust settled, the album, singles and the irresistibly catchy “Virtual Insanity” video directed by Jonathan Glazer, had netted 5 MTV Awards, a Grammy, put Jamiroquai on the cover of USA Today and sold more than a million albums in America. Global hits such as “Cosmic Girl” and “Deeper Underground” followed, as well as Jay Kay classics like “Little L,” “Canned Heat,” and “Love Foolosophy.” As a bonus, this special edition also features various Jamiroquai remixes (including the classic David Morales remix of “Space Cowboy”) and a DVD featuring Jamiroquai videos and two bonus tracks (“Stillness In Time” and “Half The Man”) not included on the regular release. In an era when everything's a sanitised sound bite, Jay Kay is the one man who can be relied upon for his full, frank and unedited opinion. As High Times: Singles 1992-2006 proves with every single frenetic track, music, like the rest of life, would be a hell of a lot duller without him.
http://www.jamiroquaimusic.com/
Rhythms Del Mundo: Cuba
Rhythms Del Mundo: Cuba
Rhythms Del Mundo - CubaCDWill Be Released: Nov 21, 2006
Released By Hip-O Records/Universal Music Enterprises
'Rhythms Del Mundo: Cuba' is a collaborative album that fuses Cuba's beloved The Buena Vista Social Club and some of today's biggest artists such as U2, Coldplay, Sting, as well as some of the buzziest bands, including The Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand and The Kaiser Chiefs. 'Rhythms Del Mundo' also includes music by famed Cuban singers Omara Portuondo and the last vocal recording of Afro-Cuban bolero singer, Ibrahim Ferrer, who died tragically in 2005. The album is in aid of Artists Project Earth (APE), which lends support for natural disaster relief and climate change awareness. Additionally, a portion of the proceeds from sales of the album in the US will be donated to the Music Rising campaign, an instrument replacement fund for musicians of the Gulf Coast.While the majority of the vocals remain the same on the tracks featured here, The Buena Vista Social Club take the original orchestration from each song and create something utterly unique casting their trademark mastery over each song. After obtaining permission from the various bands to modify their material, the Cuban collective (under the guidance of arranger Demitrio Muniz) created brand new backing tracks for the original vocals of songs like "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," "High And Dry" and "Fragile." The musicians who play on the album include Barbarito Torres, Amandito Valdes and Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez in addition to Omara Portuondo, who performs a killer cover of "Killing Me Softly," and duets with the late Ibrahim Ferrer on "Casablanca." The project emerged after the devastating Tsunami of 2004 struck and other environmental disasters followed like the Asian earthquakes and Hurricane Katrina All these artists featured here show their support by taking part in the project (even the packaging for the album is carbon neutral). You, too, can do something now by logging onto the following website links to be informed and spreading the word.
http://www.rhythmsdelmundo.com/
Rhythms Del Mundo - CubaCDWill Be Released: Nov 21, 2006
Released By Hip-O Records/Universal Music Enterprises
'Rhythms Del Mundo: Cuba' is a collaborative album that fuses Cuba's beloved The Buena Vista Social Club and some of today's biggest artists such as U2, Coldplay, Sting, as well as some of the buzziest bands, including The Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand and The Kaiser Chiefs. 'Rhythms Del Mundo' also includes music by famed Cuban singers Omara Portuondo and the last vocal recording of Afro-Cuban bolero singer, Ibrahim Ferrer, who died tragically in 2005. The album is in aid of Artists Project Earth (APE), which lends support for natural disaster relief and climate change awareness. Additionally, a portion of the proceeds from sales of the album in the US will be donated to the Music Rising campaign, an instrument replacement fund for musicians of the Gulf Coast.While the majority of the vocals remain the same on the tracks featured here, The Buena Vista Social Club take the original orchestration from each song and create something utterly unique casting their trademark mastery over each song. After obtaining permission from the various bands to modify their material, the Cuban collective (under the guidance of arranger Demitrio Muniz) created brand new backing tracks for the original vocals of songs like "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," "High And Dry" and "Fragile." The musicians who play on the album include Barbarito Torres, Amandito Valdes and Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez in addition to Omara Portuondo, who performs a killer cover of "Killing Me Softly," and duets with the late Ibrahim Ferrer on "Casablanca." The project emerged after the devastating Tsunami of 2004 struck and other environmental disasters followed like the Asian earthquakes and Hurricane Katrina All these artists featured here show their support by taking part in the project (even the packaging for the album is carbon neutral). You, too, can do something now by logging onto the following website links to be informed and spreading the word.
http://www.rhythmsdelmundo.com/
The Open-Source Impact - It’s Gaining Ground In Larger Enterprises, But What About SMEs?
Is open-source software making an impact in small and medium-sized enterprises?
That depends on whom you ask. Open-source developers and service providers will sing the praises of software that is not only free but also frees you from many long-established commercial restraints. However, if you ask Microsoft, it will dismiss open-source software—including alternatives such as OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org/), BSD (http://www.bsd.org/), and Red Hat Linux (http://www.redhat.com/)—as bit players, tiny specs on the landscape of mission-critical business computing.
And yet, there is an impact. The real question is, to what extent? Surprisingly, most of the impact today is in the enterprise. Larger companies have the resources to support Linux and have established relationships with service providers such as IBM (http://www.ibm.com/) and Oracle (http://www.oracle.com/) that sometimes promote open source as an alternative to Microsoft, according to Yankee Group analyst Gary Chen. Meanwhile, the impact on SMEs that could benefit the most from the cost savings and decommercialization is minimal.
Open Source In The Small To Medium-Sized Enterprise
“Even in the next five years, the adoption rate for open-source software will increase only about 1 to 2% for small business,” says Chen, who wrote a report on the open-source impact. According to Chen, the adoption rate could increase significantly in 10 years, but he notes how difficult it is to predict what companies will do over the next decade. In his opinion, Microsoft is entrenched in business at so many levels, including service, middleware, email, and Web servers and with service providers and partners. These channels are so well-established and reliable that open-source options are not as attractive.
One issue is support. Costs for deploying open source in smaller companies are higher because the admin staff is not typically trained to support Linux, OpenOffice, and other software, says Chen. Interestingly, even though these programs are generally free, the consultants trained to support them typically charge a much higher rate. On the other hand, finding a Microsoft- or Cisco-certified consultant is relatively easy. Still, open-source providers disagree with the assessment that open source is harder to support.
“There is a more significant user support base for open source,” says Marc Rotzow, the chief technology officer at Open Source Systems, a solutions provider for data centers (http://www.opensourcesystems.com/). “Oftentimes you will deal directly with project heads or lead programmers. When I ask a question or report a bug about Webmin, a Web-based interface for managing Unix-based servers [http://www.webmin.com/], I will likely receive a reply from Jamie Cameron, the creator of Webmin. You will never get that level of support from a closed-source project.”
Still, according to Chen, there is also an important training and usability factor. Laptop buyers tend to use whatever is installed on their systems and are accustomed to using Microsoft productivity software. Even if an open-source alternative is easier to use, it's new and therefore presents a higher learning curve. "There's a much greater challenge with desktops than servers, where you can swap out a Microsoft server with a Linux server for email or Web. With a desktop, users expect to be able to plug in a USB key or a printer, and it will just work. And small and midsized companies have already paid for the OS license for Windows, so replacing it with Linux is not as attractive.”
The Turning Tide? Still, even with the drawbacks of support and training, the picture is changing. Linux is finally becoming part of college or university coursework, and Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) downloads are skyrocketing. According to Netcraft (http://www.netcraft.com/), 60% of all Web servers in the world use Apache, an open-source platform (http://www.apache.org/). Because of the growing interest, usability has become more important as the user base grows. And as the software matures and gains ground, end-user training is less of a problem than it once was. Meanwhile, open-source software is also customizable and uses an open architecture that is not commercially retrained, so smaller companies could eventually develop internal resources to support the infrastructure.
Eventually, the message could catch on and the open-source impact could increase. “The biggest hurdle we face is the perception that open source and Linux is just too difficult to use or lacks too many features to be effective [in smaller companies],” says Rotzow. “This is why people keep choosing Microsoft.” In many ways, the ancillary example to the open-source impact is Apple (http://www.apple.com/), which has steadily gained some market share in business over the past few years. Chen notes that Apple has an advantage over open source in terms of usability and skilled providers but that the Mac OS is a closed, commercial system. Open source could gain more traction because there are so many emerging open-source vendors, such as VA Software (http://www.vasoftware.com/), Adaptive Planning (http://www.adaptiveplanning.com/), Centric CRM (http://www.centriccrm.com/), OpenMFG (http://www.openmfg.com/), Pentaho (http://www.pentaho.org/), Zenoss (http://www.zenoss.com/), and Liferay (www.liferay.com).
“If there’s going to be an impact, it will be through constant steady growth over the next five to 10 years,” says Chen. “Commercial vendors need to start working together, form a consistent marketing message, train people to have the open-source skills, improve the software and interoperability between systems, and improve usability.”
by John Brandon
That depends on whom you ask. Open-source developers and service providers will sing the praises of software that is not only free but also frees you from many long-established commercial restraints. However, if you ask Microsoft, it will dismiss open-source software—including alternatives such as OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org/), BSD (http://www.bsd.org/), and Red Hat Linux (http://www.redhat.com/)—as bit players, tiny specs on the landscape of mission-critical business computing.
And yet, there is an impact. The real question is, to what extent? Surprisingly, most of the impact today is in the enterprise. Larger companies have the resources to support Linux and have established relationships with service providers such as IBM (http://www.ibm.com/) and Oracle (http://www.oracle.com/) that sometimes promote open source as an alternative to Microsoft, according to Yankee Group analyst Gary Chen. Meanwhile, the impact on SMEs that could benefit the most from the cost savings and decommercialization is minimal.
Open Source In The Small To Medium-Sized Enterprise
“Even in the next five years, the adoption rate for open-source software will increase only about 1 to 2% for small business,” says Chen, who wrote a report on the open-source impact. According to Chen, the adoption rate could increase significantly in 10 years, but he notes how difficult it is to predict what companies will do over the next decade. In his opinion, Microsoft is entrenched in business at so many levels, including service, middleware, email, and Web servers and with service providers and partners. These channels are so well-established and reliable that open-source options are not as attractive.
One issue is support. Costs for deploying open source in smaller companies are higher because the admin staff is not typically trained to support Linux, OpenOffice, and other software, says Chen. Interestingly, even though these programs are generally free, the consultants trained to support them typically charge a much higher rate. On the other hand, finding a Microsoft- or Cisco-certified consultant is relatively easy. Still, open-source providers disagree with the assessment that open source is harder to support.
“There is a more significant user support base for open source,” says Marc Rotzow, the chief technology officer at Open Source Systems, a solutions provider for data centers (http://www.opensourcesystems.com/). “Oftentimes you will deal directly with project heads or lead programmers. When I ask a question or report a bug about Webmin, a Web-based interface for managing Unix-based servers [http://www.webmin.com/], I will likely receive a reply from Jamie Cameron, the creator of Webmin. You will never get that level of support from a closed-source project.”
Still, according to Chen, there is also an important training and usability factor. Laptop buyers tend to use whatever is installed on their systems and are accustomed to using Microsoft productivity software. Even if an open-source alternative is easier to use, it's new and therefore presents a higher learning curve. "There's a much greater challenge with desktops than servers, where you can swap out a Microsoft server with a Linux server for email or Web. With a desktop, users expect to be able to plug in a USB key or a printer, and it will just work. And small and midsized companies have already paid for the OS license for Windows, so replacing it with Linux is not as attractive.”
The Turning Tide? Still, even with the drawbacks of support and training, the picture is changing. Linux is finally becoming part of college or university coursework, and Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) downloads are skyrocketing. According to Netcraft (http://www.netcraft.com/), 60% of all Web servers in the world use Apache, an open-source platform (http://www.apache.org/). Because of the growing interest, usability has become more important as the user base grows. And as the software matures and gains ground, end-user training is less of a problem than it once was. Meanwhile, open-source software is also customizable and uses an open architecture that is not commercially retrained, so smaller companies could eventually develop internal resources to support the infrastructure.
Eventually, the message could catch on and the open-source impact could increase. “The biggest hurdle we face is the perception that open source and Linux is just too difficult to use or lacks too many features to be effective [in smaller companies],” says Rotzow. “This is why people keep choosing Microsoft.” In many ways, the ancillary example to the open-source impact is Apple (http://www.apple.com/), which has steadily gained some market share in business over the past few years. Chen notes that Apple has an advantage over open source in terms of usability and skilled providers but that the Mac OS is a closed, commercial system. Open source could gain more traction because there are so many emerging open-source vendors, such as VA Software (http://www.vasoftware.com/), Adaptive Planning (http://www.adaptiveplanning.com/), Centric CRM (http://www.centriccrm.com/), OpenMFG (http://www.openmfg.com/), Pentaho (http://www.pentaho.org/), Zenoss (http://www.zenoss.com/), and Liferay (www.liferay.com).
“If there’s going to be an impact, it will be through constant steady growth over the next five to 10 years,” says Chen. “Commercial vendors need to start working together, form a consistent marketing message, train people to have the open-source skills, improve the software and interoperability between systems, and improve usability.”
by John Brandon
CRM, ERP, ILM … & iPods?
How To Benefit From Consumer Tech In The Enterprise
The next wave of enterprise productivity products may well come from the consumer world. This article preaches an "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach towards employees who bring new devices to the office. MP3 players like iPods serve as convenient receivers of corporate messages (delivered as podcasts) or digitized recordings of meetings some people may have missed. Smartphones can become direct links to CRM or ERP systems. The key issues with consumer devices: security, and policy enforcement.
Don’t look now, but they’re invading your office. iPods, smartphones, instant messaging, blogs, wikis, and nearly every form of consumer technology have begun to infiltrate the enterprise, sometimes with profound effects. And don’t expect it to stop. “As long as we live in a democracy,” says Carmi Levy, senior analyst with the Info-Tech Research Group, “employees will feel that they have the right to bring their latest gadgets to the office.” (Disclaimer: Info-Tech analysts write a regular column for Processor.) Even worse, they’ll try to attach those tools to your network—the one you protect with blood, sweat, tears, and every dime you can spare from the corporate coffers. If you think any amount of “threats and crackdowns” will stop them, says Levi, you’re “rather profoundly detached from reality.” Having A Party? But you don’t have to fight the trend. In fact, you can profit from it, co-opting consumer tech for bona fide business ends.
Nauman Haque, Levy’s colleague and fellow Info-Tech analyst, likens the attitude—which he believes is the only proper one for enterprise IT experts—to parents with party-happy teens. “Many parents would rather have their kids bring friends over to their house,” says Haque. That way, they can “monitor the partying, and adults are there in case anything goes wrong.” Haque’s point is simple: If you’re smart enough to embrace the influx of consumer tech, you can at the very least keep your eye on it, and with luck you can even control it. Policies, Policies & More Policies How? Start with policies—rock-solid, airtight, exhaustive policies that govern how iPods, blogs, or any other type of consumer tech should be used inside the office walls. What’s more, you need to enforce those policies “with rules that have teeth,” says Levy. If you don’t enforce the rules and punish offenders, you’ll invite gadget lovers and power users to see your network as their own digital playground. Just don’t go overboard. “Defining what makes an individual productive is not something the enterprise can mandate,” says Haque, who notes that while policies must be exhaustive, they have to be supple enough to let users adapt their technology to their working patterns. Comfort, after all, is a key to efficiency.
What About Security?
When it comes to consumer toys, keeping your network safe is “the biggest issue,” Haque adds. “The rapid proliferation of personal tech and changing standards makes crafting an effective security strategy a nightmare.” A nightmare, but not an impossibility. Haque notes that certain tools, such as software that blocks or monitors USB ports, will keep private data from leaving your network and malware from sneaking in. (Windows Vista, set for release early next year, has built-in, policy-based port-blocking features. Symantec [www.symantec.com] and McAfee [www.mcafee.com] also make tools for this purpose, as do lesser-known firms such as Safend [www.safend.com].) And while third-party software in this field is still “immature,” says Haque, it does let admins “create enforceable rules that align with existing corporate security policies.” You can also take commonsense steps to guard your networks from consumer gadgets. For instance, Levy notes that “many firms quarantine external devices—laptops, smartphones, any type of external device—upon their return” to the office. This gives data center staff and IT teams the chance to scan them, giving an imprimatur before they’re released into the office at large.
iPods: Not Just For Music
Some gadgets, such as the iPod, lend themselves well to business use. You can podcast weekly announcements, updates, or training, posting MP3s to your intranet and letting iPod users (or owners of any MP3 player, for that matter) download them at their convenience. Even a run-of-the-mill meeting can be recorded, digitized, and distributed so that employees who missed it can stay in the loop. If you equip your end users’ machines with RSS readers such as Tristana (www.tristana.org) or podcast players such as PodSpider (www.podspider.com), they can download podcasts and rich-text corporate newsfeeds automatically, giving you a first-rate—and cheap—distribution system. And don’t forget about smartphones. Whether they’re Palm- or Windows-based, they can vastly enhance a user’s ability to keep in touch and organize corporate data on the road. More and more companies are turning to handhelds for high-end business apps, too, putting ERP, CRM, and even help desk systems onto Treos and other gadgets that users clamor for. In fact, a quick glance at Handango (www.handango.com), a leading site for handheld software, shows business tools from project planning to content management to expense tracking and billing, a far cry from the simple PIMs (personal information managers) that handhelds cut their teeth on. If you’re looking to slash your phone bills, turn to instant messaging platforms or even Skype (www.skype.com), a consumer VoIP tool. Just be sure to archive any instant message the same way you do for email or spreadsheets, all the more if Sarbox, HIPAA, or other regulations apply. Business-grade IM systems, such as those from WebEx (www.webex.com), Akonix (www.akonix.com), and Jabber (www.jabber.com), can help. And before you go ballistic on blogging, remember that many firms—including marquee names in the Fortune 500—embrace corporate blogs for brand-building. You can even use a blog for internal use, as a way to share news, key documents, or plain old opinions with employees. The bottom line? Consumer tech is not the evil it’s made out to be. And giving end users access to it will not only muzzle their complaints, but combine those two things we so rarely find in today’s enterprise: work and fun.
- David Garrett
mondomedeusah
ipodyourmondo.com
The next wave of enterprise productivity products may well come from the consumer world. This article preaches an "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach towards employees who bring new devices to the office. MP3 players like iPods serve as convenient receivers of corporate messages (delivered as podcasts) or digitized recordings of meetings some people may have missed. Smartphones can become direct links to CRM or ERP systems. The key issues with consumer devices: security, and policy enforcement.
Don’t look now, but they’re invading your office. iPods, smartphones, instant messaging, blogs, wikis, and nearly every form of consumer technology have begun to infiltrate the enterprise, sometimes with profound effects. And don’t expect it to stop. “As long as we live in a democracy,” says Carmi Levy, senior analyst with the Info-Tech Research Group, “employees will feel that they have the right to bring their latest gadgets to the office.” (Disclaimer: Info-Tech analysts write a regular column for Processor.) Even worse, they’ll try to attach those tools to your network—the one you protect with blood, sweat, tears, and every dime you can spare from the corporate coffers. If you think any amount of “threats and crackdowns” will stop them, says Levi, you’re “rather profoundly detached from reality.” Having A Party? But you don’t have to fight the trend. In fact, you can profit from it, co-opting consumer tech for bona fide business ends.
Nauman Haque, Levy’s colleague and fellow Info-Tech analyst, likens the attitude—which he believes is the only proper one for enterprise IT experts—to parents with party-happy teens. “Many parents would rather have their kids bring friends over to their house,” says Haque. That way, they can “monitor the partying, and adults are there in case anything goes wrong.” Haque’s point is simple: If you’re smart enough to embrace the influx of consumer tech, you can at the very least keep your eye on it, and with luck you can even control it. Policies, Policies & More Policies How? Start with policies—rock-solid, airtight, exhaustive policies that govern how iPods, blogs, or any other type of consumer tech should be used inside the office walls. What’s more, you need to enforce those policies “with rules that have teeth,” says Levy. If you don’t enforce the rules and punish offenders, you’ll invite gadget lovers and power users to see your network as their own digital playground. Just don’t go overboard. “Defining what makes an individual productive is not something the enterprise can mandate,” says Haque, who notes that while policies must be exhaustive, they have to be supple enough to let users adapt their technology to their working patterns. Comfort, after all, is a key to efficiency.
What About Security?
When it comes to consumer toys, keeping your network safe is “the biggest issue,” Haque adds. “The rapid proliferation of personal tech and changing standards makes crafting an effective security strategy a nightmare.” A nightmare, but not an impossibility. Haque notes that certain tools, such as software that blocks or monitors USB ports, will keep private data from leaving your network and malware from sneaking in. (Windows Vista, set for release early next year, has built-in, policy-based port-blocking features. Symantec [www.symantec.com] and McAfee [www.mcafee.com] also make tools for this purpose, as do lesser-known firms such as Safend [www.safend.com].) And while third-party software in this field is still “immature,” says Haque, it does let admins “create enforceable rules that align with existing corporate security policies.” You can also take commonsense steps to guard your networks from consumer gadgets. For instance, Levy notes that “many firms quarantine external devices—laptops, smartphones, any type of external device—upon their return” to the office. This gives data center staff and IT teams the chance to scan them, giving an imprimatur before they’re released into the office at large.
iPods: Not Just For Music
Some gadgets, such as the iPod, lend themselves well to business use. You can podcast weekly announcements, updates, or training, posting MP3s to your intranet and letting iPod users (or owners of any MP3 player, for that matter) download them at their convenience. Even a run-of-the-mill meeting can be recorded, digitized, and distributed so that employees who missed it can stay in the loop. If you equip your end users’ machines with RSS readers such as Tristana (www.tristana.org) or podcast players such as PodSpider (www.podspider.com), they can download podcasts and rich-text corporate newsfeeds automatically, giving you a first-rate—and cheap—distribution system. And don’t forget about smartphones. Whether they’re Palm- or Windows-based, they can vastly enhance a user’s ability to keep in touch and organize corporate data on the road. More and more companies are turning to handhelds for high-end business apps, too, putting ERP, CRM, and even help desk systems onto Treos and other gadgets that users clamor for. In fact, a quick glance at Handango (www.handango.com), a leading site for handheld software, shows business tools from project planning to content management to expense tracking and billing, a far cry from the simple PIMs (personal information managers) that handhelds cut their teeth on. If you’re looking to slash your phone bills, turn to instant messaging platforms or even Skype (www.skype.com), a consumer VoIP tool. Just be sure to archive any instant message the same way you do for email or spreadsheets, all the more if Sarbox, HIPAA, or other regulations apply. Business-grade IM systems, such as those from WebEx (www.webex.com), Akonix (www.akonix.com), and Jabber (www.jabber.com), can help. And before you go ballistic on blogging, remember that many firms—including marquee names in the Fortune 500—embrace corporate blogs for brand-building. You can even use a blog for internal use, as a way to share news, key documents, or plain old opinions with employees. The bottom line? Consumer tech is not the evil it’s made out to be. And giving end users access to it will not only muzzle their complaints, but combine those two things we so rarely find in today’s enterprise: work and fun.
- David Garrett
mondomedeusah
ipodyourmondo.com
Two Exhibitions: Recent Works by Louise Hall and Paintings by Caroline Birch
2006-11-13 until 2006-11-25
artSPACE durban
Durban, , ZA South Africa
artSPACE durban is pleased to present two exhibitions during the last weeks of November 2006. In the Main Gallery we view Recent Works by Louise Hall and showing in the Middle Gallery are paintings by Caroline Birch.artSPACE durban is a new initiative in Durban that recently opened its doors. artSPACE durban is located in a warehouse in a light industrial area of Durban, South Africa. artSPACE durban is a SPACE for artists of all disciplines to interact within. There are three galleries to exhibit in and on the floor above are artists studio spaces to rent.
With her abiding interest in the human form, this exhibition of recent figurative paintings and drawings by KZN artist Louise Hall reflects the development of two main themes: moving figures and the interaction of audiences with contemporary media. These works are rooted in drawing from observation, memory and imagination, and include images of cyclists, a cinema series and intimate interiors. Hall paints in oil on board while many of the drawings are mixed media pieces in which she has used watercolour, ink, pastel, conte and compressed charcoal. Moving to: Irma Stern Museum Cape Town: 13th February – 3rd March 2007
and IN THE MIDDLE GALLERY: Caroline Birch
The paintings in this exhibition are a bring together of elements I love - the decorative and the simple, and trying to find a meeting place of the two. This is especially so in the paintings of people where I want to simply catch their aliveness and joins it with the decorative aspect.
Caroline studied art at the University of PMB graduating in 1988. Her first exhibition was at artSPACE durban in 2004. In 2005 she was a finalist in the Nivea Start the art award.
artSPACE durban
Durban, , ZA South Africa
artSPACE durban is pleased to present two exhibitions during the last weeks of November 2006. In the Main Gallery we view Recent Works by Louise Hall and showing in the Middle Gallery are paintings by Caroline Birch.artSPACE durban is a new initiative in Durban that recently opened its doors. artSPACE durban is located in a warehouse in a light industrial area of Durban, South Africa. artSPACE durban is a SPACE for artists of all disciplines to interact within. There are three galleries to exhibit in and on the floor above are artists studio spaces to rent.
With her abiding interest in the human form, this exhibition of recent figurative paintings and drawings by KZN artist Louise Hall reflects the development of two main themes: moving figures and the interaction of audiences with contemporary media. These works are rooted in drawing from observation, memory and imagination, and include images of cyclists, a cinema series and intimate interiors. Hall paints in oil on board while many of the drawings are mixed media pieces in which she has used watercolour, ink, pastel, conte and compressed charcoal. Moving to: Irma Stern Museum Cape Town: 13th February – 3rd March 2007
and IN THE MIDDLE GALLERY: Caroline Birch
The paintings in this exhibition are a bring together of elements I love - the decorative and the simple, and trying to find a meeting place of the two. This is especially so in the paintings of people where I want to simply catch their aliveness and joins it with the decorative aspect.
Caroline studied art at the University of PMB graduating in 1988. Her first exhibition was at artSPACE durban in 2004. In 2005 she was a finalist in the Nivea Start the art award.
Collective Exhibition: Contemporary Art at its Best
2006-11-14 until 2006-12-05
Agora Gallery
New York, NY, USA
United States of America
Agora Gallery in New York City presents an international array of artists in Collective Exhibition: Contemporary Art at its Best from November 14 to December 5, 2006. Contemplative and surreal, inspiring and visionary, spirited and more than a little provocative, Agora Gallerys November Collective Exhibition features a wide variety of artistic expression. Presented in five parts, each assemblage is a distinctive artistic happening that allows the artists’ pieces to engage in a thematic dialog.
From November 14 through December 5, 2006, Collective Exhibition: Contemporary Art at its Best features the idiosyncratic art of artists Paul Gu, Helen Lee, Roni Pinto, Miklos Sipos, Mia Gjerdrum Helgesen, Steven Dickey, Michael Misha Kennedy, Paul Robinson, Penrod Unger, Eva Antonini, Christian G. Brandner, Jules Gotay, Marty Maehr, Sanjeev Misra, Jan Wheeler, and Allyson Norwood Bush.
Agora Gallery
New York, NY, USA
United States of America
Agora Gallery in New York City presents an international array of artists in Collective Exhibition: Contemporary Art at its Best from November 14 to December 5, 2006. Contemplative and surreal, inspiring and visionary, spirited and more than a little provocative, Agora Gallerys November Collective Exhibition features a wide variety of artistic expression. Presented in five parts, each assemblage is a distinctive artistic happening that allows the artists’ pieces to engage in a thematic dialog.
From November 14 through December 5, 2006, Collective Exhibition: Contemporary Art at its Best features the idiosyncratic art of artists Paul Gu, Helen Lee, Roni Pinto, Miklos Sipos, Mia Gjerdrum Helgesen, Steven Dickey, Michael Misha Kennedy, Paul Robinson, Penrod Unger, Eva Antonini, Christian G. Brandner, Jules Gotay, Marty Maehr, Sanjeev Misra, Jan Wheeler, and Allyson Norwood Bush.
Call for Artists: Residencies and Stipend Available for 2007
2006-11-15 until 2007-01-12
Camargo Foundation
Cassis, , FR France
The Camargo Foundation, located in Cassis, France, is a residential center for composers, writers, and visual artists (painters, sculptors, photographers, filmmakers, video artists, and new media artists) pursuing creative projects as well as for scholars pursuing studies in the humanities and social sciences related to French and francophone cultures.
Residencies are one semester (either early-September to mid-December or mid-January to the end of May) and are accompanied by a stipend of $3500. The Foundation’s campus includes thirteen furnished apartments, a reference library, and three art/music studios.
Applicants from all countries are welcome to apply. The application deadline is January 12 for either semester of the following academic year.
For more information and to apply, please consult our web site at www.camargofoundation.org or write to apply@camargofoundation.org.
Camargo Foundation
Cassis, , FR France
The Camargo Foundation, located in Cassis, France, is a residential center for composers, writers, and visual artists (painters, sculptors, photographers, filmmakers, video artists, and new media artists) pursuing creative projects as well as for scholars pursuing studies in the humanities and social sciences related to French and francophone cultures.
Residencies are one semester (either early-September to mid-December or mid-January to the end of May) and are accompanied by a stipend of $3500. The Foundation’s campus includes thirteen furnished apartments, a reference library, and three art/music studios.
Applicants from all countries are welcome to apply. The application deadline is January 12 for either semester of the following academic year.
For more information and to apply, please consult our web site at www.camargofoundation.org or write to apply@camargofoundation.org.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Andalusian International Artists Group Exhibition
2006-11-10 until 2006-11-30
Casa de la Cultura, Competa
Competa, , ES Spain
The Casa de la Cultura in Competa celebrates the arrival of The Andalusian International Artists Group between November 10th and 30th, 2006, consisting of 17 artists from 9 countries. This collective exhibition will showcase their work at the Casa de la Cultura. Competa, in the Provence of Malaga is a delightful medium-sized white Spanish village, nestled 700 meters above sea level in the Sierra Almijara, the snow capped range of mountains between Malaga and Granada that stretch down to the warm Mediterranean. The locally produced Moscatel wine is famous throughout the region.Work by AIA-Group member and absolutearts.com Premiere Portfolio Artist Roger Cummiskey will be featured in this exhibition.
The Competa Casa de la Cultura presents a magical and energetic group exhibition featuring new work by 17 contemporary artists from the Andalusian International Artists Group (aia-group.net) with a compelling range of media, themes, figuration and abstraction, many with Spanish themes. This exhibition includes art by artists some of whom will show their work for the very first time in Spain.
The AIA-Group was formed in 2005 by professional and dedicated visual artists from around Europe, Scandinavia, the USA and South America, who are all living and working in the Province of Andaluc韆, in southern Spain. The Group boasts members from 9 different countries.
The AIA-Group objectives are to encourage members to promote their work, enhance their knowledge, assist them in their careers, and promote best standards as Artists, between people from diverse backgrounds.
"I am excited to have the opportunity to include the works of such diverse artists in an exhibition about the far reaching consequences of color, form, concept, and execution", says Loly Martin, director of the Casa de la Cultura.
Casa de la Cultura, Competa
Competa, , ES Spain
The Casa de la Cultura in Competa celebrates the arrival of The Andalusian International Artists Group between November 10th and 30th, 2006, consisting of 17 artists from 9 countries. This collective exhibition will showcase their work at the Casa de la Cultura. Competa, in the Provence of Malaga is a delightful medium-sized white Spanish village, nestled 700 meters above sea level in the Sierra Almijara, the snow capped range of mountains between Malaga and Granada that stretch down to the warm Mediterranean. The locally produced Moscatel wine is famous throughout the region.Work by AIA-Group member and absolutearts.com Premiere Portfolio Artist Roger Cummiskey will be featured in this exhibition.
The Competa Casa de la Cultura presents a magical and energetic group exhibition featuring new work by 17 contemporary artists from the Andalusian International Artists Group (aia-group.net) with a compelling range of media, themes, figuration and abstraction, many with Spanish themes. This exhibition includes art by artists some of whom will show their work for the very first time in Spain.
The AIA-Group was formed in 2005 by professional and dedicated visual artists from around Europe, Scandinavia, the USA and South America, who are all living and working in the Province of Andaluc韆, in southern Spain. The Group boasts members from 9 different countries.
The AIA-Group objectives are to encourage members to promote their work, enhance their knowledge, assist them in their careers, and promote best standards as Artists, between people from diverse backgrounds.
"I am excited to have the opportunity to include the works of such diverse artists in an exhibition about the far reaching consequences of color, form, concept, and execution", says Loly Martin, director of the Casa de la Cultura.
Call for Artists: Holiday In, An All-Inclusive Art Journey of a Lifetime
2006-11-13 until 2006-12-20
Gasworks Gallery
London, , UK United Kingdom
Holiday In is an all-inclusive art journey of a lifetime. This unique package includes all expenses paid travel around Britain, France or Lithuania; and exhibitions in each art centre. This major travel and exhibitions project is proposed by triangle france, Marseille; Gasworks, London; and the Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius. Artists are more mobile than ever before with access to residencies promoting research and experimentation in specific geographic and social contexts. Holiday In develops this logic, offering a time for wandering and discovery in three European territories (Great Britain, France and Lithuania) rather than a time for sedentary work.
Artists from France, Lithuania, and the UK are invited to propose a three-month trip in one of the participating countries other than their own, using the host organisation as a studio base while 憈ouring? the country. Residencies will culminate in a group exhibition in each art centre.
Application info
Applying artists must be based permanently in Lithuania, UK or France.
Deadline for proposals: Wednesday 20 December 2006.
There is no submission fee.
Selection announced end of January 2007.
For full details and application procedure please go to: www.holidayin.info (you will need Flash to view the site)
Please check any questions are not answered on the website before contacting us with queries.
For further information please contact Mia Jankowicz at mia@gasworks.org.uk
Gasworks Gallery
London, , UK United Kingdom
Holiday In is an all-inclusive art journey of a lifetime. This unique package includes all expenses paid travel around Britain, France or Lithuania; and exhibitions in each art centre. This major travel and exhibitions project is proposed by triangle france, Marseille; Gasworks, London; and the Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius. Artists are more mobile than ever before with access to residencies promoting research and experimentation in specific geographic and social contexts. Holiday In develops this logic, offering a time for wandering and discovery in three European territories (Great Britain, France and Lithuania) rather than a time for sedentary work.
Artists from France, Lithuania, and the UK are invited to propose a three-month trip in one of the participating countries other than their own, using the host organisation as a studio base while 憈ouring? the country. Residencies will culminate in a group exhibition in each art centre.
Application info
Applying artists must be based permanently in Lithuania, UK or France.
Deadline for proposals: Wednesday 20 December 2006.
There is no submission fee.
Selection announced end of January 2007.
For full details and application procedure please go to: www.holidayin.info (you will need Flash to view the site)
Please check any questions are not answered on the website before contacting us with queries.
For further information please contact Mia Jankowicz at mia@gasworks.org.uk
Game glitches for PlayStation 3
Sony has admitted that some games designed for older PlayStation consoles are not working properly on the newly released PlayStation 3 (PS3).
Clickable guide to the PS3
A voyage around the hardware
A fan's view of the PS3
The PS3 was supposed to be "backwards compatible", meaning it should run games written for PlayStation and PlayStation 2.
Sony said that the audio features do not work on some titles, while others have problems with the graphics.
It has offered to fix the PS3 problems via online upgrades for consoles.
There were huge queues when PS3 went on sale in Japan
Limited numbers
"We are aware that a select number of titles have compatibility issues but these problems will be fixed with a software upgrade that will be available in the near future," a Sony spokesman told the BBC News website.
Japanese newspaper Sankei has reported that the problems affect about 200 games sold for the original PlayStation and the PlayStation 2. Sony has declined to give numbers.
Games affected are believed to include Gran Turismo and Final Fantasy.
Glitches of this nature are quite common when new consoles are released. Microsoft received complaints about scratched disks when it launched the Xbox, and other consoles have had compatibility issues.
The console is described by the firm as its most important strategic product of this year, and it is intended to go head-to-head with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's upcoming Wii console.
The PlayStation 3 was originally supposed to go on sale in early 2006, but production problems and shortages of key components forced a delay. The European launch of the console has been pushed back to March 2007.
This has also meant that there are only 100,000 consoles for gamers in Japan.
Sony said 400,000 will be available for the US launch on 17 November. Despite the shortages, Sony said it was confident of shipping six million PS3s by the end of March 2007.
mondomm.com/blog
Clickable guide to the PS3
A voyage around the hardware
A fan's view of the PS3
The PS3 was supposed to be "backwards compatible", meaning it should run games written for PlayStation and PlayStation 2.
Sony said that the audio features do not work on some titles, while others have problems with the graphics.
It has offered to fix the PS3 problems via online upgrades for consoles.
There were huge queues when PS3 went on sale in Japan
Limited numbers
"We are aware that a select number of titles have compatibility issues but these problems will be fixed with a software upgrade that will be available in the near future," a Sony spokesman told the BBC News website.
Japanese newspaper Sankei has reported that the problems affect about 200 games sold for the original PlayStation and the PlayStation 2. Sony has declined to give numbers.
Games affected are believed to include Gran Turismo and Final Fantasy.
Glitches of this nature are quite common when new consoles are released. Microsoft received complaints about scratched disks when it launched the Xbox, and other consoles have had compatibility issues.
The console is described by the firm as its most important strategic product of this year, and it is intended to go head-to-head with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's upcoming Wii console.
The PlayStation 3 was originally supposed to go on sale in early 2006, but production problems and shortages of key components forced a delay. The European launch of the console has been pushed back to March 2007.
This has also meant that there are only 100,000 consoles for gamers in Japan.
Sony said 400,000 will be available for the US launch on 17 November. Despite the shortages, Sony said it was confident of shipping six million PS3s by the end of March 2007.
mondomm.com/blog
Zune goes head to head with iPod
Microsoft's Zune music player has gone on sale in the US, hoping to make a dent in the success of Apple's iPod.
The modest launch of the player is Microsoft's first direct attempt to topple the iPod, which dominates the MP3 player market around the world.
The Zune comes in three colours - brown, black and white
The Zune is only available in the US and there is just one 30GB model - in three colours - for $250 (£131).
The Apple iPod has a 75% share of the digital music player market in the US and more than half of the world market.
Microsoft has all but abandoned plans to try to topple the iPod by working with third-party MP3 player manufacturers.
The firm licenses software called Plays For Sure, which guarantees that digital music bought from a range of download stores works on players that have signed up to the system.
But Microsoft's Zune is not part of the Plays For Sure initiative - so songs bought from Napster, Rhapsody, AOL or Urge, for example, will not work with the player.
Songs bought from Microsoft's own MSN music store - which is being closed down - will also not work on a Zune player.
Instead Zune users must buy and download music from a dedicated Zune music store - or rip their own CDs and copy them on to the player.
ZUNE FEATURES
30GB model - $249
3-inch screen (320*240 pixels)
FM radio
Songs cost 99 cents or unlimited subscription for $15 a month
Two million songs on offer
Wirelessly share songs with other Zune users
Registered guests can swap songs via a PC
Zune owners can buy individual tracks using a points system - 79 Zune points equals 99 cents which buys a single - or subscribe to the service monthly, giving users access to two million tracks.
The first reviews of the player have been mixed - praising some features, and criticising others.
"The player is excellent," wrote David Pogue in the New York Times.
"It can't touch the iPod's looks or coolness, but it's certainly more practical.
"It's coated in slightly rubberised plastic, available in white, black or brown, yes, brown.
"It won't turn heads, but it won't get fingerprinty and scratched, either. It sounds just as good as the iPod."
Walter Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal wrote: "Zune has several nice features the iPod lacks: a larger screen, the ability to exchange songs with other Zunes wirelessly and a built-in FM radio."
The unique selling point of the Zune is the ability to wirelessly connect to other Zune users to share songs - one song can be shared three times and will only be stored on another Zune for up to three days.
But the practical limitations of the sharing option - even listening to part of a shared song counts as one listen - has been criticised by the early reviewers.
IPOD FEATURES
Three core models - Shuffle, Nano and iPod colour
30GB iPod ($249)
2.5-inch screen (320*240 pixels)
Songs cost 99 cents
iTunes users can share songs over a network
Can download and play podcasts
Extras such as calendar, notes and alarm
Limitations
The limitations are presumably in place to prevent wholesale sharing of songs but the protection even applies to songs not downloaded or bought.
"What's really nuts is that the restrictions even stomp on your own musical creations," wrote Pogue, describing the protection as "draconian" and "as strict as a 19th-Century schoolmarm".
Both reviewers criticised the lack of other features in the Zune.
Pogue wrote: "It doesn't have a single standard iPod amenity: no games, alarm clock, stopwatch, world clock, password-protected volume limiter, equaliser, calendar, address book or notes module."
You cannot download podcasts either, he pointed out.
"This first Zune has too many compromises and missing features to be as good a choice as the iPod for most users," wrote Mossberg.
He added: "The hardware feels rushed and incomplete."
Mr Mossberg also criticised the payment scheme for the Zune marketplace, pointing out that users have to buy £5-worth of points at a time, even if they intend to buy only a single track.
Zune users must use a new piece of library software - and not Windows Media Player.
Sadly, the two writers pointed out, Microsoft does not let music lovers share libraries across computers on the same network; one of the features of iTunes.
But Zune users can share their library with an Xbox 360 games console.
Mossberg concluded: "Overall, the iPod and iTunes are still the champs.
"Still, I expect the Zune to attract some converts and to get better with time.
"And this kind of competition from a big company with deep pockets and lots of talent is good for consumers in the long run."
The modest launch of the player is Microsoft's first direct attempt to topple the iPod, which dominates the MP3 player market around the world.
The Zune comes in three colours - brown, black and white
The Zune is only available in the US and there is just one 30GB model - in three colours - for $250 (£131).
The Apple iPod has a 75% share of the digital music player market in the US and more than half of the world market.
Microsoft has all but abandoned plans to try to topple the iPod by working with third-party MP3 player manufacturers.
The firm licenses software called Plays For Sure, which guarantees that digital music bought from a range of download stores works on players that have signed up to the system.
But Microsoft's Zune is not part of the Plays For Sure initiative - so songs bought from Napster, Rhapsody, AOL or Urge, for example, will not work with the player.
Songs bought from Microsoft's own MSN music store - which is being closed down - will also not work on a Zune player.
Instead Zune users must buy and download music from a dedicated Zune music store - or rip their own CDs and copy them on to the player.
ZUNE FEATURES
30GB model - $249
3-inch screen (320*240 pixels)
FM radio
Songs cost 99 cents or unlimited subscription for $15 a month
Two million songs on offer
Wirelessly share songs with other Zune users
Registered guests can swap songs via a PC
Zune owners can buy individual tracks using a points system - 79 Zune points equals 99 cents which buys a single - or subscribe to the service monthly, giving users access to two million tracks.
The first reviews of the player have been mixed - praising some features, and criticising others.
"The player is excellent," wrote David Pogue in the New York Times.
"It can't touch the iPod's looks or coolness, but it's certainly more practical.
"It's coated in slightly rubberised plastic, available in white, black or brown, yes, brown.
"It won't turn heads, but it won't get fingerprinty and scratched, either. It sounds just as good as the iPod."
Walter Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal wrote: "Zune has several nice features the iPod lacks: a larger screen, the ability to exchange songs with other Zunes wirelessly and a built-in FM radio."
The unique selling point of the Zune is the ability to wirelessly connect to other Zune users to share songs - one song can be shared three times and will only be stored on another Zune for up to three days.
But the practical limitations of the sharing option - even listening to part of a shared song counts as one listen - has been criticised by the early reviewers.
IPOD FEATURES
Three core models - Shuffle, Nano and iPod colour
30GB iPod ($249)
2.5-inch screen (320*240 pixels)
Songs cost 99 cents
iTunes users can share songs over a network
Can download and play podcasts
Extras such as calendar, notes and alarm
Limitations
The limitations are presumably in place to prevent wholesale sharing of songs but the protection even applies to songs not downloaded or bought.
"What's really nuts is that the restrictions even stomp on your own musical creations," wrote Pogue, describing the protection as "draconian" and "as strict as a 19th-Century schoolmarm".
Both reviewers criticised the lack of other features in the Zune.
Pogue wrote: "It doesn't have a single standard iPod amenity: no games, alarm clock, stopwatch, world clock, password-protected volume limiter, equaliser, calendar, address book or notes module."
You cannot download podcasts either, he pointed out.
"This first Zune has too many compromises and missing features to be as good a choice as the iPod for most users," wrote Mossberg.
He added: "The hardware feels rushed and incomplete."
Mr Mossberg also criticised the payment scheme for the Zune marketplace, pointing out that users have to buy £5-worth of points at a time, even if they intend to buy only a single track.
Zune users must use a new piece of library software - and not Windows Media Player.
Sadly, the two writers pointed out, Microsoft does not let music lovers share libraries across computers on the same network; one of the features of iTunes.
But Zune users can share their library with an Xbox 360 games console.
Mossberg concluded: "Overall, the iPod and iTunes are still the champs.
"Still, I expect the Zune to attract some converts and to get better with time.
"And this kind of competition from a big company with deep pockets and lots of talent is good for consumers in the long run."
Friday, November 10, 2006
Call for Artists: 4th Alexander Rutsch Award and Exhibition
2006-11-09 until 2007-02-02
Pelham Art Center
Pelham, NY, USA United States of America
The Pelham Art Center announces the 4th Alexander Rutsch Award and Exhibition. Alexander Rutsch 2007 Award and Solo Exhibition for Painting. Solo Exhibition May 11 - June 23, 2007 and $5,000 cash award. U.S. based artists 19 years of age and older. All work submitted must be available for exhibit. Entries must be received by February 2, 2007.
For prospectus send SASE to Pelham Art Center, Rutsch Award, 155 Fifth Avenue, Pelham, NY 10803 or contact Rutschaward@pelhamartcenter.org or 914.738.2525.
Please visit www.pelhamartcenter.org
Pelham Art Center
Pelham, NY, USA United States of America
The Pelham Art Center announces the 4th Alexander Rutsch Award and Exhibition. Alexander Rutsch 2007 Award and Solo Exhibition for Painting. Solo Exhibition May 11 - June 23, 2007 and $5,000 cash award. U.S. based artists 19 years of age and older. All work submitted must be available for exhibit. Entries must be received by February 2, 2007.
For prospectus send SASE to Pelham Art Center, Rutsch Award, 155 Fifth Avenue, Pelham, NY 10803 or contact Rutschaward@pelhamartcenter.org or 914.738.2525.
Please visit www.pelhamartcenter.org
Daido Moriyama"
2006-11-09 until 2006-12-30
Stephen Cohen Gallery
Los Angeles, CA, USA United States of America
The Stephen Cohen Gallery is pleased to announce an overview exhibition of the black and white photographs of major Japanese photographer, Daido Moriyama. This exhibition, “Daido Moriyama”, will run from November 9th through December 30, 2006. The artist will be present at the opening reception on Thursday, November 16, 2006 from 7 to 9pm. Born in Osaka, Moriyama studied photography before moving to Tokyo in 1961 to work as an assistant to the photographer Eikoh Hosoe. Living in the aftermath of Japan’s embarrassing defeat in World War II to the Allies and the changes the Americans brought to his tightly controlled and traditional country, the young Moriyama looked to the west for a way to approach and examine these changes that many traditionalists bemoaned.
Early influenced from the west, by the work of William Klein, Andy Warhol, and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Moriyama found an energetic, dynamic way to depict the clash of the old/new, to show the Japan that was morphing into an Asian version of America.
The 60’s and 70’s was a crucial moment in Japanese history - the economy was booming, but underneath lay a profound sense of guilt and shame. Moriyama became a part of the new generation of post-war artists, who were trying to explore these contradictions and capture the evolving Japan.
Moriyama’s 35 mm. photographs are shot in the streets, depicting the darker edges of everyday experience, the underbelly – strip clubs, dark bars, forbidden alleyways, transvestite performers, roadside scenes of urban decay. He is always the outsider shooting shadows as if he was on the run. His signature image of the snarling stray dog has become the artist’s alter-ego. Moriyama’s images are grainy, tilted, dynamic, expressionistic, alienated… more like the poetry of the Beat Generation than any haiku ever written.
Sensation and edginess are what he has always been after; through the years his style has become more focused and less blurry, but the images are still about a moment, a suggestion of an action about to take place or just completed. His favorite haunts are still Shinjiku, and Golden Gai, parts of Tokyo that still feel edgy and thrilling. “I want to express the realness of Japan. I want to show what is really going on.” Moriyama says of his work. Moriyama still photographs and resides in Japan. His work has been shown in galleries and museums around the world.
In the viewing room, we will show the work of Keizo Kitajima, a former student of Moriyama’s who traveled to New York in 1981 and, like his mentor before him, prowled the streets capturing the vitality and changing cultural trends of the gritty, wild, rebellious underbelly that was New York during the Reagan years. “Daido Moriyama” will exhibit at the Stephen Cohen Gallery located at 7358 Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and by appointment.
Stephen Cohen Gallery
Los Angeles, CA, USA United States of America
The Stephen Cohen Gallery is pleased to announce an overview exhibition of the black and white photographs of major Japanese photographer, Daido Moriyama. This exhibition, “Daido Moriyama”, will run from November 9th through December 30, 2006. The artist will be present at the opening reception on Thursday, November 16, 2006 from 7 to 9pm. Born in Osaka, Moriyama studied photography before moving to Tokyo in 1961 to work as an assistant to the photographer Eikoh Hosoe. Living in the aftermath of Japan’s embarrassing defeat in World War II to the Allies and the changes the Americans brought to his tightly controlled and traditional country, the young Moriyama looked to the west for a way to approach and examine these changes that many traditionalists bemoaned.
Early influenced from the west, by the work of William Klein, Andy Warhol, and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Moriyama found an energetic, dynamic way to depict the clash of the old/new, to show the Japan that was morphing into an Asian version of America.
The 60’s and 70’s was a crucial moment in Japanese history - the economy was booming, but underneath lay a profound sense of guilt and shame. Moriyama became a part of the new generation of post-war artists, who were trying to explore these contradictions and capture the evolving Japan.
Moriyama’s 35 mm. photographs are shot in the streets, depicting the darker edges of everyday experience, the underbelly – strip clubs, dark bars, forbidden alleyways, transvestite performers, roadside scenes of urban decay. He is always the outsider shooting shadows as if he was on the run. His signature image of the snarling stray dog has become the artist’s alter-ego. Moriyama’s images are grainy, tilted, dynamic, expressionistic, alienated… more like the poetry of the Beat Generation than any haiku ever written.
Sensation and edginess are what he has always been after; through the years his style has become more focused and less blurry, but the images are still about a moment, a suggestion of an action about to take place or just completed. His favorite haunts are still Shinjiku, and Golden Gai, parts of Tokyo that still feel edgy and thrilling. “I want to express the realness of Japan. I want to show what is really going on.” Moriyama says of his work. Moriyama still photographs and resides in Japan. His work has been shown in galleries and museums around the world.
In the viewing room, we will show the work of Keizo Kitajima, a former student of Moriyama’s who traveled to New York in 1981 and, like his mentor before him, prowled the streets capturing the vitality and changing cultural trends of the gritty, wild, rebellious underbelly that was New York during the Reagan years. “Daido Moriyama” will exhibit at the Stephen Cohen Gallery located at 7358 Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and by appointment.
Friday, November 03, 2006
San Francisco Cityscapes
2006-11-03 until 2006-12-23 Newmark Gallery San Francisco, CA, USA United States of America
Newmark Gallery San Francisco presents San Francisco Cityscapes our third annual group exhibit of contemporary paintings by Bay Area artists. Featuring Anna Conti, Anthony Holdsworth, Beryl Landau and Toru Sugita the show opens November 2nd and runs through December 23rd, 2006. There will be a public reception for the artists November 2nd, 2006 from 6 pm to 9 pm. San Francisco Cityscapes delves beneath glossy tourist images of San Francisco, continuing to be a show by and for the people who live in and love the city. Everyday images of the city are brought to life, inspiring residents and visitors to see San Francisco anew. The show encompasses several styles of painting with the common thread being the insiders view of the city.
Anna Contis paintings are deeply influenced by her connection to her San Francisco neighborhood and her interest in myth and symbolism. Her works are realistic and familiar reflections of the light, landscape, architecture and people of San Francisco. She often works in series, spending a year or more focusing on a particular concept.
Anthony Holdsworths seemingly still cityscapes are animated by an organic sense of internal combustion. There is a living, perhaps even fleshy, elasticity to Holdsworth‚s skyscrapers and streets, with their adjacent clusters of trees and other landscaping. He captures accurately the hammering intensity of afternoon sunlight - whose illusionism is so convincing, it almost makes you feel like checking the floor to see if any light spills over the bottom edge of the canvas. Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, June 12, 1987.
Beryl Landau, a New York native who has been a San Francisco painter for almost forty years, calls her work symbolic landscape. The acrylic paintings depict geographical places but evoke inner feelings. Each landscape draws the viewer into a particular space and mood. Landaus clear colors range from high contrasts to subtle gradations.
Toru Sugitas work has captured the fleeting drama of afternoon light pouring over the City by the Bay since the late 1990‚s. His skill and sensitivity acquired from printmaking, most notably the graphic arrangement of black and white, lends itself well to the lines and shapes of architectural elements in precise etchings, aquatints and oils on canvas.
Newmark Gallery San Francisco presents San Francisco Cityscapes our third annual group exhibit of contemporary paintings by Bay Area artists. Featuring Anna Conti, Anthony Holdsworth, Beryl Landau and Toru Sugita the show opens November 2nd and runs through December 23rd, 2006. There will be a public reception for the artists November 2nd, 2006 from 6 pm to 9 pm. San Francisco Cityscapes delves beneath glossy tourist images of San Francisco, continuing to be a show by and for the people who live in and love the city. Everyday images of the city are brought to life, inspiring residents and visitors to see San Francisco anew. The show encompasses several styles of painting with the common thread being the insiders view of the city.
Anna Contis paintings are deeply influenced by her connection to her San Francisco neighborhood and her interest in myth and symbolism. Her works are realistic and familiar reflections of the light, landscape, architecture and people of San Francisco. She often works in series, spending a year or more focusing on a particular concept.
Anthony Holdsworths seemingly still cityscapes are animated by an organic sense of internal combustion. There is a living, perhaps even fleshy, elasticity to Holdsworth‚s skyscrapers and streets, with their adjacent clusters of trees and other landscaping. He captures accurately the hammering intensity of afternoon sunlight - whose illusionism is so convincing, it almost makes you feel like checking the floor to see if any light spills over the bottom edge of the canvas. Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, June 12, 1987.
Beryl Landau, a New York native who has been a San Francisco painter for almost forty years, calls her work symbolic landscape. The acrylic paintings depict geographical places but evoke inner feelings. Each landscape draws the viewer into a particular space and mood. Landaus clear colors range from high contrasts to subtle gradations.
Toru Sugitas work has captured the fleeting drama of afternoon light pouring over the City by the Bay since the late 1990‚s. His skill and sensitivity acquired from printmaking, most notably the graphic arrangement of black and white, lends itself well to the lines and shapes of architectural elements in precise etchings, aquatints and oils on canvas.
Cyprien Gaillard: The Lake Arches
2006-11-02 until 2006-12-16 Laura Bartlett Gallery London, , UK United Kingdom
Laura Bartlett Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of The Lake Arches, the first exhibition in the UK by Parisian artist Cyprien Gaillard. "There is more poetry, more that is accidental; in a single tree which has endured the years and the seasons, than in the entire façade of a palace. One must ruin a palace to make it an object of interest." Diderot (1767) Cyprien Gaillard's series Real Remnants of Fictive Wars are films of explosions in the landscape that the artist has carried out since 2001. Part V, on view in this exhibition, is a 35mm film that slowly pans the balustrade of a chateau, traveling against a growing cloud of smoke that erupts from distant trees. Aggressive and mesmeric, these acts of temporary vandalism unsettle and reinstate the composure of the classical environs.
Gaillard's form of Land art has developed from within the urban landscape of housing estates and high-rise buildings outwards to the countryside and classical architecture, similar to Robert Smithson‚s gradual move from the suburbs of New Jersey to the desert. Gaillard's interest in disruption within the workings of the picturesque, in entropy and decay, has its roots in current political and ecological discord.
In Belief in the Age of Disbelief, Gaillard has introduced tower blocks into 17th Century Dutch l! andscape etchings. These post-war structures, once a symbol of utopian promise that have now come to represent racial conflict, urban decay, criminality and violence, have been seamlessly assimilated into a rural idyll. Some tower blocks have been positioned in the etching like a defiant medieval fortress, others as apocalyptic ruins. Like the paintings of Hubert Robert, admired by Diderot, who depicted ancient ruins and even the imaginary future ruins of the Louvre (1796), Gaillard comments on the relationship between romanticism and decay, and architectures‚ inherent communicative power.
Also in the exhibition Gaillard will show Geographical Analogies˜the artists' collection of polaroids that deal with entropic landscapes, places that are eroding or de-composing. Displayed as if butterflies under glass, the Analogies‚ crystalline formations belie an intricate, if exploded, taxonomy of concerns, from geopolitics to youth culture, geology to art history.
Cyprien Gaillard (b.1980) graduate d from L‚Ecole Cantonale des Arts de Lausanne in 2005. Gaillard will have a solo exhibition at Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris in 2007.
Laura Bartlett Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of The Lake Arches, the first exhibition in the UK by Parisian artist Cyprien Gaillard. "There is more poetry, more that is accidental; in a single tree which has endured the years and the seasons, than in the entire façade of a palace. One must ruin a palace to make it an object of interest." Diderot (1767) Cyprien Gaillard's series Real Remnants of Fictive Wars are films of explosions in the landscape that the artist has carried out since 2001. Part V, on view in this exhibition, is a 35mm film that slowly pans the balustrade of a chateau, traveling against a growing cloud of smoke that erupts from distant trees. Aggressive and mesmeric, these acts of temporary vandalism unsettle and reinstate the composure of the classical environs.
Gaillard's form of Land art has developed from within the urban landscape of housing estates and high-rise buildings outwards to the countryside and classical architecture, similar to Robert Smithson‚s gradual move from the suburbs of New Jersey to the desert. Gaillard's interest in disruption within the workings of the picturesque, in entropy and decay, has its roots in current political and ecological discord.
In Belief in the Age of Disbelief, Gaillard has introduced tower blocks into 17th Century Dutch l! andscape etchings. These post-war structures, once a symbol of utopian promise that have now come to represent racial conflict, urban decay, criminality and violence, have been seamlessly assimilated into a rural idyll. Some tower blocks have been positioned in the etching like a defiant medieval fortress, others as apocalyptic ruins. Like the paintings of Hubert Robert, admired by Diderot, who depicted ancient ruins and even the imaginary future ruins of the Louvre (1796), Gaillard comments on the relationship between romanticism and decay, and architectures‚ inherent communicative power.
Also in the exhibition Gaillard will show Geographical Analogies˜the artists' collection of polaroids that deal with entropic landscapes, places that are eroding or de-composing. Displayed as if butterflies under glass, the Analogies‚ crystalline formations belie an intricate, if exploded, taxonomy of concerns, from geopolitics to youth culture, geology to art history.
Cyprien Gaillard (b.1980) graduate d from L‚Ecole Cantonale des Arts de Lausanne in 2005. Gaillard will have a solo exhibition at Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris in 2007.
LEO ASEMOTA: Misfortune’s Wealth
2006-11-01 until 2007-01-20 EotLA - Estate of the Leo Asemota London, , UK United Kingdom
The exhibition Misfortune’s Wealth at EotLA is the third stage in Leo Asemota’s on-going The Ens Project. The presentation of drawings, illustrations and apophthegms expounds on the project’s theme of the loss of intimacy between the divine and human personality as embodied in the head, the index of identity, due to the massification of society.The exhibition will be on display until January 20, 2007 at EotLA in London.
“I began developing ens in 2005, but the idea has systematically been working on me since attending The Great Benin exhibition at the Museum of Mankind in London in 1994. ens, which in Latin means “the essence”, is a word used in various phrases in Christian theology and scholastic philosophy where it stands for something that has existence, a being, an entity as opposed to just an attribute or quality. After adopting the figure of an inscribed circle inside an equilateral triangle as the projects insignia, I then assigned each angle of the triangle the source of my ideas. Misfortune’s Wealth essentially is reason advanced and sources reconciled to define the inscribed circle. Furthermore, I felt that if the circular form contained the essence of my ideas, then the ideas should definitely be further made clearer in the form. The circle then became a metaphoric, figurative and conceptual form running throughout the work.”
Leo Asemota
Focusing on the ancient Igue ritual of Head worship practiced by the Edo people of Benin, the British Punitive expedition of 1897 against the Royal Kingdom of Benin and Walter Benjamin’s essay The Artwork in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility, his ideas enclosed within its circle the varied fields of art history, astrology, mythology, philosophy and his family’s history in describing his vision for the final element in the project, FiTH WORK No.40: Ens, a unique live artwork abstracted from the ancient Igue ritual in which Asemota performs as The Handmaiden. Ritual and art were instruments of the ancient Kingdom of Benin’s political ideology in asserting the divine origins, power and continuity of a dynasty of Kings (Oba’s) which still rules today. The annual Igue ritual of head worship which is the highest rite amongst its peoples is based on their firm belief that the human form is a sculpture animated by a soul (the essence of character), a spiritual self that guides and protects the temporal self, the physical head. The Igue ritual was also the catalyst to the chain of events that led to the punishing British Expedition of 1897 when the Royal Kingdom of Benin fell under the weight of the aspirations of the British Empire. In Walter Benjamin’s essay, he explores the notion of the aura and authenticity of an artwork and its basis in ritual and the political implications effected by technology on its intrinsic value.
In reconciling his sources for the anticipated live artwork, Asemota made his drawings in Coal and Kaolin (orhue) on paper with the exception of The Field of Mortal Activity; Time, Memory* which was drawn on a sheet of iron. Each of these materials carries magical and historically symbolic meaning. Iron and Coal transformed societies and fuelled the Industrial Revolution in Britain, propelling it to the greatest commercial empire in the world. To the Edo people of Benin, Iron is a symbol of the god Ogun, a patron deity to warriors and craftsmen whilst Kaolin (orhue), a special ritual chalk, is regarded as a symbol of purity and harmony. By using these raw materials, Asemota invokes into his work, the history, imagination and strength of these essential resources that were integral to the building of empires and in promoting beliefs that strengthened the might of both kingdoms.
The exhibition Misfortune’s Wealth at EotLA is the third stage in Leo Asemota’s on-going The Ens Project. The presentation of drawings, illustrations and apophthegms expounds on the project’s theme of the loss of intimacy between the divine and human personality as embodied in the head, the index of identity, due to the massification of society.The exhibition will be on display until January 20, 2007 at EotLA in London.
“I began developing ens in 2005, but the idea has systematically been working on me since attending The Great Benin exhibition at the Museum of Mankind in London in 1994. ens, which in Latin means “the essence”, is a word used in various phrases in Christian theology and scholastic philosophy where it stands for something that has existence, a being, an entity as opposed to just an attribute or quality. After adopting the figure of an inscribed circle inside an equilateral triangle as the projects insignia, I then assigned each angle of the triangle the source of my ideas. Misfortune’s Wealth essentially is reason advanced and sources reconciled to define the inscribed circle. Furthermore, I felt that if the circular form contained the essence of my ideas, then the ideas should definitely be further made clearer in the form. The circle then became a metaphoric, figurative and conceptual form running throughout the work.”
Leo Asemota
Focusing on the ancient Igue ritual of Head worship practiced by the Edo people of Benin, the British Punitive expedition of 1897 against the Royal Kingdom of Benin and Walter Benjamin’s essay The Artwork in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility, his ideas enclosed within its circle the varied fields of art history, astrology, mythology, philosophy and his family’s history in describing his vision for the final element in the project, FiTH WORK No.40: Ens, a unique live artwork abstracted from the ancient Igue ritual in which Asemota performs as The Handmaiden. Ritual and art were instruments of the ancient Kingdom of Benin’s political ideology in asserting the divine origins, power and continuity of a dynasty of Kings (Oba’s) which still rules today. The annual Igue ritual of head worship which is the highest rite amongst its peoples is based on their firm belief that the human form is a sculpture animated by a soul (the essence of character), a spiritual self that guides and protects the temporal self, the physical head. The Igue ritual was also the catalyst to the chain of events that led to the punishing British Expedition of 1897 when the Royal Kingdom of Benin fell under the weight of the aspirations of the British Empire. In Walter Benjamin’s essay, he explores the notion of the aura and authenticity of an artwork and its basis in ritual and the political implications effected by technology on its intrinsic value.
In reconciling his sources for the anticipated live artwork, Asemota made his drawings in Coal and Kaolin (orhue) on paper with the exception of The Field of Mortal Activity; Time, Memory* which was drawn on a sheet of iron. Each of these materials carries magical and historically symbolic meaning. Iron and Coal transformed societies and fuelled the Industrial Revolution in Britain, propelling it to the greatest commercial empire in the world. To the Edo people of Benin, Iron is a symbol of the god Ogun, a patron deity to warriors and craftsmen whilst Kaolin (orhue), a special ritual chalk, is regarded as a symbol of purity and harmony. By using these raw materials, Asemota invokes into his work, the history, imagination and strength of these essential resources that were integral to the building of empires and in promoting beliefs that strengthened the might of both kingdoms.
Call for Artists: 7th International Online Artist Competition
2006-11-02 until 2006-12-31 Art Interview Magazine , , UK United Kingdom
The Art Interview - 7th International Online Artist Competition is a quarterly, international, juried exhibition of paintings, drawings and sculptures in any medium. It is open to all living artists worldwide aged 16 and up. A European gallery exhibition and a total of € 17,000 in cash may be awarded each quarter to the first, second and third place winners. First place winners receive up to € 10,000 plus a featured interview in Art Interview Online Magazine.
The competition is run completely over the Internet, which eliminates the need for you to send slides or arrange for physical transportation of your artworks. Gain international recognition for your artwork and be interviewed along with the world's top artists, curators and gallery owners in Art Interview Online Magazine.
The Art Interview - 7th International Online Artist Competition is a quarterly, international, juried exhibition of paintings, drawings and sculptures in any medium. It is open to all living artists worldwide aged 16 and up. A European gallery exhibition and a total of € 17,000 in cash may be awarded each quarter to the first, second and third place winners. First place winners receive up to € 10,000 plus a featured interview in Art Interview Online Magazine.
The competition is run completely over the Internet, which eliminates the need for you to send slides or arrange for physical transportation of your artworks. Gain international recognition for your artwork and be interviewed along with the world's top artists, curators and gallery owners in Art Interview Online Magazine.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
The Happy Jazz Show - November 2006 Show 1 - iPodyourmondo.com
Happy Jazz Playlist for November 2006 Show 1
Part A - Mark Taylor
Yusef Lateef : Oscarlypso
Eddie Roberts Quintet : 24000 Baci
Indigo Jam Unit : Palette
Coconuts Crew : Samboler
Egberto Gismonte : O Gato
Guida De Palma & Jazzinho : Da Tenpo Ao Tempo
D.J.Day : Lovebug
Cristina Camargo : Corda Bamba
Leroy Hutson : Getting It On
Leroy Hutson : Cool Out
Art Farmer : Soulsides
Ian Preece : Intime
Jimi Tenor : Harmatic Man
Idea 6 : Minor Mood (N. Conte remix )
Part B - Adrian Leach
Paris Jazz All Stars : Freedom
A.K. Salim : R.U.1.2
Frank Foster : May We?
Louis Hayes feat Leon Thomas : Little Sunflower
Paris Smith Quintet : Thought Seeds
Mansany : Steve
Christy Essien : Rumors
Anthony Piere : Yesterdays Dreams
Cossa Nostra : Matrix Do Funk
Salinas : Temha Fe, Pois Amanha Um Lindo Dia Vai Nascer
Silvio Cesar : A Festa
click here to download on mondomedeusah l'ectronique {engine 4.4}
click here to listen on-demand
happyjazz.ipodyourmondo.com
myspace.com/happyjazzshow
myspace.com/mondomedeusah
Part A - Mark Taylor
Yusef Lateef : Oscarlypso
Eddie Roberts Quintet : 24000 Baci
Indigo Jam Unit : Palette
Coconuts Crew : Samboler
Egberto Gismonte : O Gato
Guida De Palma & Jazzinho : Da Tenpo Ao Tempo
D.J.Day : Lovebug
Cristina Camargo : Corda Bamba
Leroy Hutson : Getting It On
Leroy Hutson : Cool Out
Art Farmer : Soulsides
Ian Preece : Intime
Jimi Tenor : Harmatic Man
Idea 6 : Minor Mood (N. Conte remix )
Part B - Adrian Leach
Paris Jazz All Stars : Freedom
A.K. Salim : R.U.1.2
Frank Foster : May We?
Louis Hayes feat Leon Thomas : Little Sunflower
Paris Smith Quintet : Thought Seeds
Mansany : Steve
Christy Essien : Rumors
Anthony Piere : Yesterdays Dreams
Cossa Nostra : Matrix Do Funk
Salinas : Temha Fe, Pois Amanha Um Lindo Dia Vai Nascer
Silvio Cesar : A Festa
click here to download on mondomedeusah l'ectronique {engine 4.4}
click here to listen on-demand
happyjazz.ipodyourmondo.com
myspace.com/happyjazzshow
myspace.com/mondomedeusah
DJ DUCATS - Peaceful Journey HIP HOP Radio Show 10th Year Anniversary featuring DJ Trevor Walker and more...
Peaceful Journey HIP HOP Radio Show 10th Year Anniversary
Featuring:
DJ Trevor Walker: (LifeBoogie, Mercury Lounge)
Rude Boy
MACE
Ben Jamin
and many more...
A party that you do not want to miss.
Ottawa, Ontario CANADA
Straight Hip Hop...no fluff...
mondomedeusah / www.myspace/mondomedeusah
mondomedeusah l'ectronique
Thursday, November 16th, 2006 - Producer, composer, DJ - Titonton Duvante - NYC @ Beyond
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click here to view the post.