September 9, 2011
September 2, 2011
The inside of the eye!
This eye sculpture is by Tony Tasset, a public work installed in Chicago. For me, the metaphor of being inside the eye makes this image more compelling than the work itself. I wonder if there are more songs (like the one below) or works of art about the inside of the eye...
September 1, 2011
Stills from elements of animation - unmixed, unfiltered
I made a new set on Flickr of stills from the animated gifs used to make the Pleasure video.
I am considering what to do with these - they are the elements that the visual composition was created from, so I'm considering including them in the upcoming "Experimental Notations" show - but I'm not yet sure how... There are 49 of them, and I have an idea for some of them what they represent, but others are more obscure, and all would be difficult to create any sort of text for. Hmmm...
I am considering what to do with these - they are the elements that the visual composition was created from, so I'm considering including them in the upcoming "Experimental Notations" show - but I'm not yet sure how... There are 49 of them, and I have an idea for some of them what they represent, but others are more obscure, and all would be difficult to create any sort of text for. Hmmm...
August 31, 2011
Exciting Autumn Art Activities!
Howdy stranger!
I've been too busy to blog much recently, but I wanted to share three superartsy things that I'll be doing this fall; the Experimental Notations exhibition, the Keeping an Eye on Surveillance exhibition, and the UC Berkeley Alumni Symposium IX.
1.
First of all, opening on Friday, September 9th, from 7 - 10 pm, and staying open til October 2nd, I will be showing the video I created for the song "Pleasure" by Blondes at Experimental Notations - an exhibition that will co-occur at the Royal NoneSuch Gallery (a dear personal favorite East Bay space) and MacArthur b arthur (it took me a few minutes to figure out what letters to capitalize in these gallery names - just wanted to point that out...). RNS is at at 4231 Telegraph Avenue between 42nd and 43rd street, super close to the BART.
As the blurb gods say, this is "an exhibition of dialogues between sound and visual representation, and the systems or interpretive strategies that inspire them." It seems like an awesome idea for a show, a cool group of artists, and I can't wait to see the work. Apparently it's associated with the 15th Annual Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival, so there is a whole program of rad jams!
And in case you didn't see it the 50 million or so times I posted it to facebook, here is that video:
In addition to a super crisp uncompressed version of the video, I will be showing some of the original animated gifs I used to make the video (if you don't know what I'm talking about, check the blurb on the video's Vimeo page) as well as notes I made while planning the visuals.
2.
The following evening from 6 - 9 pm will be the opening for "Keeping an Eye on Surveillance," (facebook invite) an exhibition curated by Hanna Regev at the Performance Art Institute: 575 Sutter St., San Francisco, 94102.
This is a group show with many participants. It aims to be "a comprehensive look at societal surveillance in the 'post-9-11' world." I am contributing a piece I made with a tape that my friends John deBoer and Kirsten Dwyer and I made on September 11th, 2001 in New York. This piece is unusual for me in that it was sort of a commissioned piece made at the suggestion of Hanna Regev, the curator. When I first got the tape in the mail (thanks Kirsten!), it was just as I remembered, a distinctly non-brilliant strip of noise, but I've turned it into something else.
You are welcome to take a short listen now, but it is designed to be played to people walking in and out of the space.
"it's going to take us forever to get home" by Farley Gwazda - Live NYC, 09.11.01 by farleygwazda
Here's something I wrote about it:
"It's going to take us forever to get home" was recorded by Farley Gwazda and his friends in downtown Manhattan on September 11th, 2001, and edited ten years later.
This primary document is digitally looped into relentlessly repetitious post traumatic chants comprised of decontextualized phrases calculated to meet our expectations of an account of such a dark moment. Further listening reveals that these phrases were cut from conversations about food, sex, pop culture, and other personally meaningful topics that did not become part of the mythos of 911.
The media's replaying of spectacular recordings has led us to forget that life on this one day was a complex mish-mash of tragedy, confusion, appetites, minor complaints, and bad jokes - the concerns of nonheroic social beings making their way through shouts, sirens, street static, and tolling bells. This work takes advantage of the media's strategies to overwhelm the mind, but also offers the opportunity to reject the simplicity of monolithic negativity and let in complexity, confusion, and vulnerability."
For me this piece was inspired by the frighteningly repetitive, paralyzing thought structures characteristic of the panic attacks I had in the years following the attacks. Repetitive negative thoughts are at the root of PTSD, and accompanying these traps is something called "derealization", which, for me, took the form of a floaty feeling and a kind of fascinating nostalgia without content that would cause me to fall back into a wave of stammering nervous heartbeat fear. I hope that the odd moments in this sound piece where you hear a sample fall into context evokes an empathetic response.
That said, I haven't shared this piece with too many people, and I'd love to hear what you think!
3.
Lastly, on Saturday, October 15th from 1 - 4 pm I will be moderating the afternoon session of the UC Berkeley Art Alumni Symposium IX - HELP: Facing and Fielding Transitions. This all-day event "will explore ways of composing a career in a shifting landscape. Panelist of varied experience will address their histories and perceptions regarding exhibitions, gallery relationships, networks, critical written discussions, residencies, mentors, and legacy." I will be speaking to Taraneh Hemami, Jonn Herschend, Will Rogan, and Margaret Tedesco. I am looking forward to learning more about these artists and their practices and a little nervous about being in front of such a large group of people...
I hope to see you, dear internet, at some of these events, and hope that the Autumn finds you well!
I've been too busy to blog much recently, but I wanted to share three superartsy things that I'll be doing this fall; the Experimental Notations exhibition, the Keeping an Eye on Surveillance exhibition, and the UC Berkeley Alumni Symposium IX.
1.
First of all, opening on Friday, September 9th, from 7 - 10 pm, and staying open til October 2nd, I will be showing the video I created for the song "Pleasure" by Blondes at Experimental Notations - an exhibition that will co-occur at the Royal NoneSuch Gallery (a dear personal favorite East Bay space) and MacArthur b arthur (it took me a few minutes to figure out what letters to capitalize in these gallery names - just wanted to point that out...). RNS is at at 4231 Telegraph Avenue between 42nd and 43rd street, super close to the BART.
As the blurb gods say, this is "an exhibition of dialogues between sound and visual representation, and the systems or interpretive strategies that inspire them." It seems like an awesome idea for a show, a cool group of artists, and I can't wait to see the work. Apparently it's associated with the 15th Annual Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival, so there is a whole program of rad jams!
And in case you didn't see it the 50 million or so times I posted it to facebook, here is that video:
In addition to a super crisp uncompressed version of the video, I will be showing some of the original animated gifs I used to make the video (if you don't know what I'm talking about, check the blurb on the video's Vimeo page) as well as notes I made while planning the visuals.
2.
The following evening from 6 - 9 pm will be the opening for "Keeping an Eye on Surveillance," (facebook invite) an exhibition curated by Hanna Regev at the Performance Art Institute: 575 Sutter St., San Francisco, 94102.
This is a group show with many participants. It aims to be "a comprehensive look at societal surveillance in the 'post-9-11' world." I am contributing a piece I made with a tape that my friends John deBoer and Kirsten Dwyer and I made on September 11th, 2001 in New York. This piece is unusual for me in that it was sort of a commissioned piece made at the suggestion of Hanna Regev, the curator. When I first got the tape in the mail (thanks Kirsten!), it was just as I remembered, a distinctly non-brilliant strip of noise, but I've turned it into something else.
You are welcome to take a short listen now, but it is designed to be played to people walking in and out of the space.
"it's going to take us forever to get home" by Farley Gwazda - Live NYC, 09.11.01 by farleygwazda
Here's something I wrote about it:
"It's going to take us forever to get home" was recorded by Farley Gwazda and his friends in downtown Manhattan on September 11th, 2001, and edited ten years later.
This primary document is digitally looped into relentlessly repetitious post traumatic chants comprised of decontextualized phrases calculated to meet our expectations of an account of such a dark moment. Further listening reveals that these phrases were cut from conversations about food, sex, pop culture, and other personally meaningful topics that did not become part of the mythos of 911.
The media's replaying of spectacular recordings has led us to forget that life on this one day was a complex mish-mash of tragedy, confusion, appetites, minor complaints, and bad jokes - the concerns of nonheroic social beings making their way through shouts, sirens, street static, and tolling bells. This work takes advantage of the media's strategies to overwhelm the mind, but also offers the opportunity to reject the simplicity of monolithic negativity and let in complexity, confusion, and vulnerability."
For me this piece was inspired by the frighteningly repetitive, paralyzing thought structures characteristic of the panic attacks I had in the years following the attacks. Repetitive negative thoughts are at the root of PTSD, and accompanying these traps is something called "derealization", which, for me, took the form of a floaty feeling and a kind of fascinating nostalgia without content that would cause me to fall back into a wave of stammering nervous heartbeat fear. I hope that the odd moments in this sound piece where you hear a sample fall into context evokes an empathetic response.
That said, I haven't shared this piece with too many people, and I'd love to hear what you think!
3.
Lastly, on Saturday, October 15th from 1 - 4 pm I will be moderating the afternoon session of the UC Berkeley Art Alumni Symposium IX - HELP: Facing and Fielding Transitions. This all-day event "will explore ways of composing a career in a shifting landscape. Panelist of varied experience will address their histories and perceptions regarding exhibitions, gallery relationships, networks, critical written discussions, residencies, mentors, and legacy." I will be speaking to Taraneh Hemami, Jonn Herschend, Will Rogan, and Margaret Tedesco. I am looking forward to learning more about these artists and their practices and a little nervous about being in front of such a large group of people...
I hope to see you, dear internet, at some of these events, and hope that the Autumn finds you well!
June 1, 2011
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace
Another fantastic, dark, mind-blowing, visually-rich documentary by the BBC's crown jewel, Adam Curtis. All I can say is: WATCH!
And I can also share the following ominously prescient quote:
“It is fashionable to suggest that cyber-space is some island of the blessed where people are free to indulge and express their individuality, this is not true. I have seen many people spill out their emotions - their guts - online and I did so myself until I began to see that I had commodified myself.
Commodification means that you turn something into a product which has a money value. In the 19th Century, commodities were made in factories, by workers who were mostly exploited. But I created my interior thoughts as commodities for the corporations that owned the board I was posting to - like Compuserve or AOL - and that commodity was sold onto other consumer entities as entertainment.
Cyber-space, is a Black Hole; it absorbs energy and personality and then re-presents it, as an emotional spectacle. It is done by businesses that commodify human interaction and emotion - and we are getting lost in the spectacle.”
Carmen Hermosillo
Gin, Television, and Cognitive Surplus
Clay Shirky.
This video has been around for a while, but it is still inspiring in that we still haven't realized that potential of the internet to catalyze cooperative endeavors. I've been working on a series of art projects exploring "far out" potential social networks (nothing too practical). This video just reiterates something that we all take for granted now, but it quotes some impressive numbers...
May 19, 2011
Video for "Pleasure" by BLONDES
Hello there -
I haven't been keeping this blog up too much recently, but I thought I would post to let you know about the video "Pleasure" I just finished for the group BLONDES. It should be live now, and it will probably premiere on XLR8R.
I am looking to create more videos - my artist website is www.farleygwazda.net. It is a very cool website, so check it out.
There is a description on the Vimeo site that reads:
"Assembled entirely from animated gifs - scientific diagrams, mathematical figures, representations of data, and renderings of simulated systems, this video appropriates images meant to serve as a rational demonstration of logical concepts and transmogrifies them into a cosmic trip.
In the same way that BLONDES use analogue instruments to humanize electronica and create psychedelic soundscapes, this video explores irrational paths to knowledge and investigates how information is processed into meaningful experience."
Because you are awesome enough to have found this post, here is a list of some of the things you may see in the video:
Electron orbital configurations
Epicycloid k=1 (cardioid)
Exoplanet Formalhaut b
Firing cascade in neural axon
Gravitational lensing (Einstein ring)
High frequency active auroral research program
Hypercube rotation in 4D
Karman vortex street
Low earth orbiting satellite constellation for GPS
Modelling of particles in loop quantum gravity
Observations of supermassive black hole at center of Milky Way
Protein folding
Simulation of dark matter's effect on galactic rotation
Simulation of evolution of protoplanetary disk
Simulation of Sculptor Supercluster
Simulation of stellar core during supernova
Topological structures: torus
X-ray diffraction pattern crystallography
Here are some awesome stills:
I haven't been keeping this blog up too much recently, but I thought I would post to let you know about the video "Pleasure" I just finished for the group BLONDES. It should be live now, and it will probably premiere on XLR8R.
I am looking to create more videos - my artist website is www.farleygwazda.net. It is a very cool website, so check it out.
There is a description on the Vimeo site that reads:
"Assembled entirely from animated gifs - scientific diagrams, mathematical figures, representations of data, and renderings of simulated systems, this video appropriates images meant to serve as a rational demonstration of logical concepts and transmogrifies them into a cosmic trip.
In the same way that BLONDES use analogue instruments to humanize electronica and create psychedelic soundscapes, this video explores irrational paths to knowledge and investigates how information is processed into meaningful experience."
Because you are awesome enough to have found this post, here is a list of some of the things you may see in the video:
Electron orbital configurations
Epicycloid k=1 (cardioid)
Exoplanet Formalhaut b
Firing cascade in neural axon
Gravitational lensing (Einstein ring)
High frequency active auroral research program
Hypercube rotation in 4D
Karman vortex street
Low earth orbiting satellite constellation for GPS
Modelling of particles in loop quantum gravity
Observations of supermassive black hole at center of Milky Way
Protein folding
Simulation of dark matter's effect on galactic rotation
Simulation of evolution of protoplanetary disk
Simulation of Sculptor Supercluster
Simulation of stellar core during supernova
Topological structures: torus
X-ray diffraction pattern crystallography
Here are some awesome stills:
December 31, 2010
use for evil
http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer?view=raceethnicity&lat=42.3200&lng=-71.119&l=12
December 15, 2010
December 8, 2010
In my novel
http://being.publicradio.org/programs/2009/language-and-meaning/transcript.shtml
In the scifi novel I'm writing there is a lot about native american languages, skill uploading, language mining, and speculative word markets.
In the scifi novel I'm writing there is a lot about native american languages, skill uploading, language mining, and speculative word markets.
November 29, 2010
Really
I really am working on all these projects of which I speak.
They might have been lost or burned.
They might have been lost or burned.
Adviso
I love profound youtube comments. This I found on a classical Indian Raga vid - I'm working on a project involving such a weaving times sci-fi.
1 year ago
What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.
1 year ago
What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.
November 27, 2010
"""We are our narratives"""
Article.
To contextualize CounterSchema; the stories people tell about the Test Patterns are actually stories about themselves. To a certain extent these stories match, just as individuals who share common culture share common narratives. But these stories will often diverge, especially at the level of greater detail. Beginning as a story about the Test Pattern, the path of the story diverges inward, until it merges with a main artery of self-story. For any individual the butterfly of the moment will cause a different route to be chosen, so this can never be an isolated variable experiment. But field work will still enable concrete observations about the nature of the paths.
To contextualize CounterSchema; the stories people tell about the Test Patterns are actually stories about themselves. To a certain extent these stories match, just as individuals who share common culture share common narratives. But these stories will often diverge, especially at the level of greater detail. Beginning as a story about the Test Pattern, the path of the story diverges inward, until it merges with a main artery of self-story. For any individual the butterfly of the moment will cause a different route to be chosen, so this can never be an isolated variable experiment. But field work will still enable concrete observations about the nature of the paths.
November 26, 2010
We don't want to be creative.
Guitar Hero (and now Rock Band) have sold millions.
“They are performance simulators,” Mr. Rigopulos said of his company’s current games. “There is not really a creative dimension to them.”
“Realistically, if you give the average consumer total creative freedom, it’s somewhat paralyzing,” he added. “It’s like if you just hand someone a paintbrush, most people don’t know what to do with it. It’s always striking the balance between freedom and constraint. And for your average consumer you have to give them objectives and criteria for success and failure. For many people, being creative feels like work and the creative impulse isn’t something that most consumers are motivated by.”
“They are performance simulators,” Mr. Rigopulos said of his company’s current games. “There is not really a creative dimension to them.”
“Realistically, if you give the average consumer total creative freedom, it’s somewhat paralyzing,” he added. “It’s like if you just hand someone a paintbrush, most people don’t know what to do with it. It’s always striking the balance between freedom and constraint. And for your average consumer you have to give them objectives and criteria for success and failure. For many people, being creative feels like work and the creative impulse isn’t something that most consumers are motivated by.”
succint quote - art as experience
“The product of art — temple, painting, statue, poem — is not the work of art. The work takes place when a human being cooperates with the product so that the outcome is an experience that is enjoyed because of its liberating and ordered properties.” John Dewey, Art as Experience, 1934.
November 23, 2010
November 22, 2010
November 15, 2010
Seven Generations; Biological Illustration and its problematic lack of problematization
The seventh large project on my list has to do with deconstructing visualizations of particle phenomena beyond the scale at which light is a useful tool to describe reality.
I am interested in this article about a group called XVivo that does scientific visualization at the cellular molecular level (several orders of magnitude bigger than what I'm interested in).
I'm intimidated by the sophistication used to model these forms, but I'm not interested in creating illustrations that are content with unexamined modes of communication. My goal is to question the assumptions of how data is visualized and interpreted, even at this level of sophistication. *Especially* at this level of sophistication.
Of course, they do go into this a bit in the article "Dr. McGill acknowledges that showing cellular processes can involve a significant dose of conjecture. Animators take liberty with color and space, among other qualities, in order to highlight a particular function or part of the cell. “All the events we are depicting are so small they are below the wavelength of light,” he said.
But I think I have little to worry about - these illustrators aren't interested in this process as philosophy, and don't seem to want to have the process of illustrating the unseeable be the subject of their work.
Glad there is not a conflict, especially as this allows me to fully enjoy these amazing images.
That said, I do not agree with the following testimonial statement:
“XVIVO’s animations are the ideal integration of art and science...”
Les Szabo, Pure Potential Media
Now, I know you're not supposed to take these things seriously, but, no - art and science both relentlessly question basic assumptions. These animations are "background dependent" illustration (to steal a phrase from physics) in that they take the basic substrate of illustration theory for granted.
Check out the many more on the site.
I am interested in this article about a group called XVivo that does scientific visualization at the cellular molecular level (several orders of magnitude bigger than what I'm interested in).
I'm intimidated by the sophistication used to model these forms, but I'm not interested in creating illustrations that are content with unexamined modes of communication. My goal is to question the assumptions of how data is visualized and interpreted, even at this level of sophistication. *Especially* at this level of sophistication.
Of course, they do go into this a bit in the article "Dr. McGill acknowledges that showing cellular processes can involve a significant dose of conjecture. Animators take liberty with color and space, among other qualities, in order to highlight a particular function or part of the cell. “All the events we are depicting are so small they are below the wavelength of light,” he said.
But I think I have little to worry about - these illustrators aren't interested in this process as philosophy, and don't seem to want to have the process of illustrating the unseeable be the subject of their work.
Glad there is not a conflict, especially as this allows me to fully enjoy these amazing images.
That said, I do not agree with the following testimonial statement:
“XVIVO’s animations are the ideal integration of art and science...”
Les Szabo, Pure Potential Media
Now, I know you're not supposed to take these things seriously, but, no - art and science both relentlessly question basic assumptions. These animations are "background dependent" illustration (to steal a phrase from physics) in that they take the basic substrate of illustration theory for granted.
harmit09232010 from XVIVO | Scientific Animation on Vimeo.
Check out the many more on the site.
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