The transistor radio: weapon of micro dissemination

…more SoundLab Woostercollective on Spring

Thousands of New Yorkers queued up to see the Street Art installation over the weekend. Literally lines wrapped around Spring and Elizabeth Street for this free event. Our sound system (broadcast though the space via radio) kept the space lively during the 3-4 hour wait. Big big thanks for all the DJs and live PA who came down to play. This much patience from an audience that is used to immediate gratification leads me to two thoughts.

1. People are hungry for flavor. The things that have some grit, noise, and bite back. I don’t mean bite back simply in a tough way, but in a way that has meaning for maker and viewer. It seemed to me that the people who came through the exhibition felt like they were participating in something…in a New York happening. Sara and Marc, who curated the event, had the wisdom to set things in motion then pretty much let the artists alone. Enjoy the flikr stream here and here

2. Individuals can thrive––in fact be further inspired––working in loose collective conditions. There was terrific respect in the space over the several weeks of installation. People shared equipment, gave a hand or an opinion, but also stayed out of each other’s hair. Artist who had been leaving coded messages for each other for years on the walls of cities allover the world met together in the space and shared it. Dope.

How can this kind of energy be sustained?

SoundLab Action : Sonic Tags Dec 15-17

transmission frequency modulation 100.1

Soundlab joins with Wooster Collective for a NYC explosion of international flavor.

All weekend long we will be broadcasting sounds live at the event
We need you to help us make up the soundsystem
Dig out your Boomboxes and handheld transistors
tune when at the building to 100.1 on the fm dial
eq it.
crank it.
rock it.

djs and live electronics in effect

Hours for the open house: 11-5pm Friday-Sunday
Date: Dec 15-17
Address: 11 Spring Street
Panel discussion 3pm on Sunday
Info: woostercollective.com
See New York Times article on the installation
…come by this event is you are in New York.

OpenStudio: web + art + community + economics

I joined OpenStudio today, a project created by Amber Frid-Jimenez and Brent Fitzgerald as part of John Maeda’s Physical Language Workshop. The “Draw PLW” application used to make pictures is intuitive and sweet––it downloads with signup. An interview with Amber and Brent by the wonderful Sascha can be found at We-Make-Money-Not-Art. Also a link to an exhibition of OStudio drawings in Second Life. I believe that is architect Joe Dahmen’s faboo Condi drawing. See my own humble offering on right.

More Second Life Sandbox

That’s Jenny and myself as the evil twin Cute Robots. We were back in the sandbox today working on alt zoom camera moves and seeing it we could shoot in the air. There is less traffic up at higher elevations, so there is less “drag” on the signal. It gets very Time Bandits or something Terry Gilliam-esque breaking up spaces like this…but it’s not like the box floating over the earth is any more real than the sandbox we started in. There were these snappy little poodles following us all over, even 200 feet up. Want to find who wrote the code for them and see if it can be reversed. Barking mad indeed. Time to find a home of our own.

Institute of Contemporary Art Opens in Boston

The Boston ICA opened this weekend. The big, glowing Diller Scofidio + Renfro tiered structure sits right on the water. The architects created excellent fresh perspectives from inside the building out onto the water, igloo-white media rooms, as well as the more standard exhibition spaces. There are echoes of Rem Koolhaas’ Rotterdam Kunsthalle and, especially in the stairwells, Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin.

Japanese artist Chiho Aoshima’s mural at the front of the building, Divine Gas , is a pleasure. The piece of American artist James Turrell in the SUPER VISION exhibition makes light thick and luscious in that magic way only Turrell can.

World AIDS day + RED

Opened up the Google browser this morning to find RED featured. I don’t know that I’ve a seen an activist focus on the site before. The occasion is World AIDS Day, today December 1, and there is a link to rockstar Bono (one of Red’s architects) giving his World AIDS Day Red message …the quarter of a million hits to the manifesto around ThanksGiving are going to look like child’s play.