Neural 32 features the usual mix of reviews, interviews with artists, short news and more in-depth coverage of issues as diverse as polymorphic intelligence, sex & love with robots, machines that play drums and other musical instruments or media art in New Zealand
A remarkable exhibition at LACMA in Los Angeles traces the paths followed by a Germany split in two after World War II. Each side developed distinctive versions of modern and postmodern art–at times in accord with their political cultures, at other times in opposition to them. I knew i would get a powerful lesson of history but i was not expecting the show to be so overwhelmingly good
What happens when we are “tagging” , “posting” and “sharing” our experiences and opinions in platforms such as those of Facebook, YouTube, flickr or del.icio.us? Are we really connecting and interacting or are we also forming the content and the structure of the social web itself?
advertising
I’ve never had any interest in football (that’s soccer for you, American friendz.) Never ever. I come from a country that never won any championship (and if they ever did, well… i still don’t care), i find men in shorts a rather pathetic affair and i just don’t get sport on tv anyway. There’s been just one exception to this until last week and it was Eric Cantona, his sardines, his iced tea commercials
Postopolis Day 5 was the day i realized once more that many people in the audience should have been on the programme too. It was the day i fell in love with stripped trousers and the day i decided all those hours spent on the roof of The Standard had not been that cold after all
A day that featured a Deputy Chief of LAPD, traffic Islands, fruit that grow on private soil but fall into the hands of LA citizens, data in Stamen wonderland, Texan oilscape and an audio mirror somewhere in Denmark
social
Notes from the talk given by Benjamin Ball from Ball-Nogues Studio, the wonder boys whose temporary installations explore the crossroads between art, architecture and design
Second day of the blogathon in Los Angeles. I’ve lost my notes and my memory is not that great. Still, here’s for you a couple of architecture wonders, a strange floating landscape that makes pollution glow, and a project to turn America into a commune
Using some DIY laboratory equipment, Andy Gracie’s team developed a system of variable strength magnetic field generators and related apparatus which allowed them to observe living micro-organisms as they were exposed and responded to various magnetic fields
Highlights of Day one includes postborder city, gardening instead of mowing the lawn, temperature architecture, adventures in Kazakhstan and live interviews. Do not forget to bring on the blankets tonight. It’s freezing up there on the roof top
Having this dream of painting a whole town, Brazilian street artists Calma traveled to Lençóis (Bahia) and started painting murals onto villagers’ houses. He soon ended up painting the inside of a chapel and even tombstones in the cemetery.
Could chemical reactions in fruits be also used to create on-off switches, the basic building blocks of computer logic and memory? Would it be possible to create a computer with fruits? The Fruit Computer Laboratory project proposes to create a temporary laboratory, open to the general public, that will raise questions and reflections about the construction of a future computer based on fruits
Join us in Los Angeles for a series of discussions, interviews, slideshows, panels, talks, and presentations about architecture, landscape, urbanism, art and space
Together with a team of 14 people and the help of a whole range of experts, Cesar Harada is currently busy developing the Open Sailing project, a floating architecture that evolves like a living organism, a laboratory for techno-social experiments
Martin Kersels took his plumpness for an absurd and dramatic ride nto the pants of acrobatic, charismatic, muscle-tastic and 60-something Iggy Pop. The result is both endearing and even more rock ‘n’ roll than Iggy himself
Given the urgency of the topic, C-Lab has borrowed the bootleg format to quickly distribute observations, initiated in dialogue with Urban China, on the crisis and its management
An exhibition and a series of lectures proposed by RYBN to recontextualize the crisis, its mediatic and politic strategies, on the topics of disaster, structural instability and financial markets mythologies
The Game is Up! chose a challenging theme: today’s ecological and economical crisis. The festival could hardly ignore that it was stepping on trodden tracks. Yet, the event’s pleasant mix of low tech, no-tech and high-tech installations, performances, graffiti, workshops and debates managed to amaze and inspire
Peter Bialobrzeski’s photographies attests men’s desire to built themselves a place they can call home, even from the garbage thrown away by civilization
Los Angeles-based Jiacong “jay” Yan completed his degree at the cradle of young talents that is UCLA Design|Media Arts Department. Fresh from UCLA, Jay started exhibiting his interactive installations and videos in galleries in the U.S., Asia and Europe as well. This is my attempt to extract a few words from a very laconic and clever artist
This exhibition at the Triennale in Milan shows knitting, embroidery and all those (mostly) feminine crafts that are now so much in favour. I’ve seen quite a few exhibitions on that very theme over the past few years and this one is definitely not the best but it has merits
Live music and cinema shows, performances, talks, exhibitions, films, workshops, etc. I’ve got 5 day tickets for April 8th – 13th for you. Anyone interested, just send me your name and email address
Fernando Gutiérrez draws images pulled from the mass-media in a sketchy manner on acetate and later superimposes them to others. His piece innovates the traditional technique of drawing from within, while redefining it and positioning it in the present by the use of new techniques and supports
This suit allows one ardent fan to distinguish themselves from the crowd at film premieres. Comprised of a projector, speakers and a light system, controlled by an portable media player, the suits emits hysterical screams louder than the standard fan collective. As the target star approaches confessed messages are projected. When the wearer gets the attention from the object of their devotion, the suit rejoices by bursting into a climatic display
Ericailcane’s bestiaries depict this as an awakening after a dream. Anthropomorphic creatures are an allegory of human weakness, wondrous animals that re-emerge from our childhood memories to illustrate fairy tales that are morally crude and disenchanted
What happens to your online profile after you die? Do you want it to remain online, so friends can leave a message in your memory? Or do you prefer having it deleted, so no confusion can arise about your death? These questions are the inspiration for the new exhibition Ik R.I.P., the third in the series about self-representation on the internet.
As humankind has developed increasingly sophisticated weaponry with which to harm its enemies, medicine has had to adapt to cope with the volume and the changing nature of resulting casualties.
Concentrating on the modern era, the exhibition ‘War and Medicine’ considered the constantly evolving relationship between warfare and medicine, beginning with the disasters of the Crimean War and continuing through to today’s conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq
‘World War One, France: a radiographer wearing protective clothing and headpiece’, a photo seen at the remarkable exhibition ‘War and Medicine’ at the Wellcome Trust in London
transmediale’s 2009 award exhibition presents a spectrum of artistic positions, inquiries and responses to the multifacetted, and often contradictory scenarios of climate change. Will the melting of the polar ice-caps lead to an emergency situation in which survival is paramount? Beyond the spectre of a world knocked out of climatic control by our collective lack of foresight, the exhibition explores the symptoms, contexts and possible futures of a seemingly imperceptible yet fundamental change
It seems that i’ll be part of the ars electronica jury this year in the Digital Communities category. As such i’m invited to recommend projects. I might have a couple of ideas but i thought that some of you could help me out with ideas and suggestions
I’ll have to put a stop soon-ish to this avalanche of posts about ARCO. But there’s still a couple of stories i owe you. On top of the list is a report on Expanded Box, ARCO’s section that specializes in new media art and video art. I’ll focus on the former. Obviously
As surreal and enchanting a collage can be
Back in July 2007, Russia’s Duma voted to allow the country’s biggest energy monopolies, Gazprom and the state oil pipeline company Transneft, to employ and arm private security units in order to ‘protect themselves from terrorist attack.’ Artists PSJM’s political fiction project explores the possible sequels of the Russian proposal
Couples are geometrically arranged into compositions of up to 110 bodies with two colours. The Acts feature the various possible combinations of penetrator / penetrated: white man-white woman, white man-white man, white man-black woman, white man-black man, black man-black woman, black man-black man, black man-white woman, black man-white man
Sara Li and Ana Ka celebrate their birthday party. They invited Eli Love -the girl who goes around with a stone on her head; The Crying Girl, their old friend Penis Boy and The Chocolate Man whom they end up devouring. On the table, cake topped with eye balls, baby brain and other offal delicacies
‘Digital By Design’ is a wide-ranging survey that considers the work of those visionaries who are reimagining the relationship between technology, design products, immersive environments and human interaction for the twenty-first century. The result is a captivating assessment of pioneering approaches in art and design that encompasses a broad spectrum of humanist values, humor, magic and sensory experiences
Castellon’s Contemporary Art Space has recently opened a delightful exhibition that re-invents architectural space through the most intangible strategies: mist, light, colour and sound
What if Jimmy Carter had been re-elected in 1981? What would have happened if money and resources had been poured into geo-engineering rather than into space programs?
Hey, look what i found for you at the Madrid contemporary art fair: a Peruvian artist who paints dysfunctional and corrupt superheroes
Postmodernism is dead and a new form of art is taking over. Nicolas Bourriaud christens it Altermodern! This ‘alternative modern’ is the product on non-stop communication, globalization and new forces that shape the way artists operate today