E-Derive: Psychogeography and the Digital Landscape

Informed by the psychogeographic strategy of “derive,” we will be creating data visualization maps, or “portraits,” of a sample group’s virtual meanderings. These portraits will then be displayed in an online gallery.

Please note: Wifi-ready laptops are required to participate in this workshop.

 More information here.

Social technologies have been around for decades, but mainstream use of social media platforms has grown exponentially only over recent years. This column explores uses of social media platforms relevant to the arts community: by artists, art-based organizations, and the general audience. Leading off the column is a post from New York-based artist, An Xiao.

http://blog.art21.org/2009/06/25/platea-art-in-the-web-20-ethos/

Many kind thanks to Jonathan Munar and Kelly Shindler for organizing this new column and being great editors.

1stfans Meet-up
Brooklyn Museum
7:30 - 8:30 pm
($20 membership req’d)

200 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, NY

In this presentation, An Xiao is talking about the @Platea collective and their public art projects carried out in the digital megacity of social media. Please stop by to learn more about some of their recent public art projects and An’s plans for future projects, including “hopes/dreams/fears”, which debuts at FIGMENT NYC on June 12.

Bushwick Reading Series
Part of Bushwick Open Studios at Bushwick Library
3:00 - 5:00 pm

340 Bushwick Avenue @ Siegel Street
Brooklyn, NY

The end of the season for the Bushwick Reading Series marks the following events:

1. Special musical guest Colin Summers,
2. Readings from poetic moguls Nicole Steinberg, Dan Magers, and Parker Phillips, and
3. An extraordinary interdisciplinary panel about the topic of WILD/LIFE. What does that mean, exactly? You’ll have to come find out what they have to say. The cast of characters includes:

Clara Jo, Video Artist
Nathan Schneider, Writer/Blogger
An Xiao, Photographer/Poet
Roger Bonair-Agard, Poet

Status Update
Through August 1, 2009.
Hours: Wednesday through Friday, 10am to 4pm.
Opening reception Thursday, May 14, 5-7pm

Yale Haskins Laboratories
300 George St., 9th floor
New Haven, (203) 772-2788

The show is curated by Debbie Hesse and Donna Ruff and features artists Kevin Van Aelst, Cat Balco, Sharon Butler,Heather Freeman, Greg Garvey, Matt Held, Keith Johnson, Katie Ring, Jeremiah Teipen, Lee Walton, Rachel Perry Welty and An Xiao.

On Thursday, May 14, from 5-6 pm, An Xiao will also be participating in a panel discussion entitled “Big Love: Artists and Social Networking Technology.” Panelists include Matt Held, Paddy Johnson, Sharon Kleinman (editor of Displacing Place: Mobile Communication in the Twenty-first Century), and others.

About the panelists:
Sharon Butler, who organized the panel discussion via a Facebook Event Invitation, is an associate professor in Eastern Connecticut State University’s Department of Visual Arts, and maintains the art blog Two Coats of Paint. According to Butler, online social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter represent “undefined territory in the art community.” In April she wrote about the artworld’s embrace of Facebook in The Brooklyn Rail.

Matt Held’s Facebook group, “I’ll have my Facebook portrait painted by Matt Held,” has more than 3,000 members, each of whom hopes to have his or her portrait painted as part of a collection of 200 works.

Paddy Johnson is a Brooklyn-based writer whose work has been published in numerous art journals in this country and abroad. Her blog, Art Fag City, has been linked to by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and New York Magazine, among others.

Sharon Kleinman, a professor of communications at Quinnipiac University, earned her B.A. degree in English and American literature from Brandeis University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in communication from Cornell University. She is the editor of Displacing Place: Mobile Communication in the Twenty-first Century (2007, Peter Lang Publishing).

An Xiao is a conceptual artist who uses online social networks as her medium. The Guardian’s (London) Ruth Jamieson recently included her in a “who’s who” of the Twitter art world alongside Yoko Ono, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Tate.

For those who can’t physically make it to New Haven, An Xiao is setting up a Twitter hashtag #hlsu (haskins lab status update) so farflung friends can follow live tweets. For more information about “Big Love: Artists and Social Networking Technology,” Status Update, and Haskins Laboratories, please call the Greater New Haven Arts Council at (203) 772-2788.

Thinking back to those days when my grandmother had to return to the Philippines after spending time with me in California, it wasn’t the big things that I missed…. I realized that Twitter and other microblogging media allows us to simulate closeness. It is the mundane tidbits that make us feel like the people we love, even those who are on the other side of the planet, are but a few feet away.  

An is also excited to appear in the April 2009 edition of ARTNews. The article is not available online but can be found on page 32 of the magazine.The last few months have served as a great stepping stone for An’s work and overall artistic vision.

She is grateful to both Suzan Sherman of NYFA Current and Carolina A. Miranda of ARTNews for generously supporting her work.

This New York conceptual artist uses Twitter as “a scrapbook, a way to capture thoughts and share them”, believing that the 140-character limit enforces “a discipline of thought and economy of language that encourages sharp ideas”. She also creates Twitter-based artworks.

Her work with Twitter as an artistic medium has also received mentions in the following select blogs and publications:NRC Handelsblad(Netherlands): Tweets in MorseThe National Newspaper (United Arab Emirates) Cheep Talk?smArts & Culture: Artist An Xiao on Twitter as MediumMuseum 2.0: 1stfans: An Audience-Specific Membership Program at the Brooklyn Museum

During the month of January 2009, An will be microblogging in Morse code. In so doing, she aims to recall the communications revolution that the telegraph brought about. However, by using the code to share daily life inanity, she hopes to encourage 1stfans members to examine the evolution of instant communication and what purpose, exactly, is served by sharing such minor details of one’s life.

The Brooklyn Museum’s official announcement can be found on their blog, and An’s full proposal can be found here. Please stay tuned for more details about this exciting opportunity!

Click here to view the full interview.

Micro-Macro
Opening Friday, November 21
6:00 - 8:00 pm

Gallery Satori
164 Stanton St @ Clinton
gallerysatori.com

The show runs till December 31.