(small) creative initiatives that challenge (big) traditional ideas
• ( egoistic ) • activistic • architectural • audible • cinematic • conceptual • graphic • strategic • surface • urban • wireless
Posted by Sebastian on Feb 07, 2011
798 Art Zone is a former factory complex in Beijing now occupied by art galleries, studios, bookstores, cafés and design shops.
The complex is enormous and often referred to as Beijing's Meatpacking District, but 798 is a gated area and much more condensed and busy like an art fair.
798 has supposedly turned too mainstream for some local artists and galleries who have instead moved to Caochangdi some 5 kilometers further out of the city, but even on a freezing cold Saturday in mid-January where every second place was closed (due to holidays?), there were still some good things to see and experience.
From a personal perspective, the most inspiring exhibition was Twelve Chinese Artists at Iberia Center for Contemporary Art and in particular the conceptual works Go Home Project and True Fighter - two completely different works about identity and role playing.
The first one, Go Home Project, is an anthropological experiment, in which the artist Pak Sheung Chuen asked museum-goers to take him to their homes. The project plays with the duality between viewer and creator and a wall of photographs shows the artist socializing with the strangers at their homes, in restaurants and on the streets as if they were best friends.
The second one, True Fighter, is an installation by Feng Mengbo inspired classic Kung Fu arcade-games. In Feng's version of the game, all characters are replaced by Feng and his friends. Feng himself is an obsessive online gamer and his works have been shown at PS1 in New York and at Ars Electronica in Linz.
Another gallery worth recommending is UCCA: Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, which also features performances, talks, music and workshops. There are simply lots of things to see (but do a bit of research if you plan to go) and if you are into more traditional Chinese crafts, such as sweatshop-produced paper cuts, you'll find a place for that too.
Forgot your camera? Missed a photo-opportunity? Wanted to share that missed moment with the rest of the world?
Here's your chance to fix the problem.
Simply go to fixr.org and submit a text describing the missed moment and it will published on the website.
Furthermore, the best moments are printed on posters and shown in the exhibition Persistence of Vision, currently taking place at Kunsthal Nikolaj in Copenhagen and then later at FACT in Liverpool.
fixr is a project by Sascha Pohflepp and Jakob Schillinger.
Posted by Sebastian on Oct 06, 2010
For John Lennon's birthday, October 9th, Yoko Ono is asking Twitter users to make a peace-wish and tweet it to @IPTower.
@IPTower is the Twitter profile of The Imagine Peace Tower, which is a light sculpture located in Iceland. The tower consists of strong lights that are beamed vertically into the sky from a 10-meter wide wishing well. It was conceived by Yoko Ono in 2007 and dedicated to John Lennon.
Tweets to @IPTower are shown at the website www.imaginepeacetower.com. Wishes can also be send as postcards or emails.
Posted by Sebastian on Oct 03, 2010
The Speed Creating Project is a series of rapid prototypes created by artist/designer Dominic Wilcox for the recently held Anti-Design Festival in London.
A month before the festival, Dominic challenged himself to make something new each day for 30 days - it could be an object, an installation or a creative intervention. He would receive a small budget of £10 for materials each day.
The self-imposed dogma, with is constraints on time and money, forced him into taking a highly instinctive and experimental approach. In perfect harmony with the the Anti Design theme, complete failures were expected and embraced.
Apparently, not all prototypes made it in time for the Festival, but they are documented on his own blog. Don't miss Bread Vases, Beach Ball Chair, Workercise and The Football Smoothie Maker.
• Speed Creating Project on: variationsonnormal.com
Posted by Sebastian on Oct 03, 2010
Basketball hoop installed at the Tobacco Factory in Linz.
The installation, titled Never Ever, is created by German artist Benjamin Bergmann.
Posted by Sebastian on Oct 03, 2010
For his graduate show at the Royal College of Art, Thomas Thwaites decided to build a toaster from scratch.
The project involved digging up the raw materials from abandoned mines around the UK, processing them at home, and forming them into a product.
The project turned out to be quite challenging and at the end of the process, Thomas Thwaites had spend 9 months and £ 1187.54 on an imperfect product, which he could have bought fully functional for just £ 3.94.
The Toaster Project was exhibited and awarded an honorary mention at this year's Ars Electronica Festival.
Videos documenting the hilariously absurd process are available at the project site.
TORTURE CLASSICS is a collection of music that has been used as instruments of torture by US government interrogators.
It includes Top 40 hits, Metal, Hard Rock, Country and Western, TV theme-songs and commercial jingles, as well as original “mash-ups” created by CIA agents, prison administrators, guards and interrogators.
According to the publishers: "Torture Music is the kind of music that’s perfect for sitting in the Afghan or Iraqi Desert, sharing a prisoner for a night, or relaxing in a military barrack or a CIA black site in some godforsaken country on a lazy afternoon. It's music thats just makes you feel free and drives others crazy. '
TORTURE CLASSICS is seemingly released by Time Life, one the world's largest entertainment companies. However, if you take a closer look, you will find that it is a project by notorious e-activists/artists UBERMORGEN feat. James Powderly.
Posted by Sebastian on Apr 26, 2010
Kunsthal Nikolaj in Copenhagen has kicked-off the upcoming football World Cup with an exhibition of works that in different ways are linked to the world of football.
In the spirit of the game most of the works are pretty playful. Team-shirts are remixed in Floor Wesseling's Blood in Blood out and the very template of the game is challenged in Asger Jorn's Three Sided Football (pictured). Asger Jorn developed the concept in the sixties and today the game is still occasionally played.
Other more political works in the exhibition include www.0100101110101101.orgs legendary culture hack Nike Ground.
The exhibition runs from April 22 through August 8 2010.
It is time for the Webby Awards again and no matter what you think of events like this, it is a great way of getting updated on new and interesting websites, trends etc. Just visit the site and browse through the different categories and nominees for inspiration.
And if you don't already know it, be sure not to miss - and vote for - POKE's Bakertweet! An intriguing way of using twitter to blend the physical and virtual world.
Posted by Sebastian on Mar 04, 2010
The Next Nature foundation calls upon designers, technologists and artists to submit speculative nanotech products for the upcoming NANO SUPERMARKET in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
The supermarket will be feature debate–provoking visions on possible products expected to hit the shelves between today and 2020.
Submission deadline: May 12, 2010.
• www.nextnature.net/events/nano-supermarket
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Contact: Sebastian Campion