Monthly Archives: February 2013

Intersection for the Arts Presents: By–­product Becomes Product

By-product Becomes Product Press Release FinalIMAGE: Christine Lee, A Product’s By-­‐product, a By-­‐product’s Product (detail of installation), scrap wood and adhesive-­‐free sawdust composite boards, 2011

An innovative cross-­‐disciplinary project using excess wood waste to explore safer alternatives to working with toxic material. Featuring work by Russell Baldon, Julia Goodman, Barbara Holmes, Christine Lee, Scott Oliver, and Imin Yeh.

Opening Reception: Wednesday February 6, 2013, 7–9pm, FREE

Members VIP Reception: Wednesday February 6, 2013, 6–7pm, RSVP ryan@theintersection.org

Gallery & Community Hours: Tuesdays – Saturdays, 12–6pm, FREE

Intersection for  the  Arts

925 Mission Street (5th)

San Francisco, CA 94103      

www.theintersection.org  |  (415)626-­2787    

Intersection for the Arts presents By-­‐product Becomes Product, an innovative cross-­‐disciplinary project involving lead artist Christine    Lee (sculpture, furniture), U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Products Laboratory (FPL, the country’s leading wood research institute) Research EngineerJohn  F.    Hunt, and five artists who use wood as their main material: Russell  Baldon (sculpture, furniture), Julia  Goodman (paper, sculpture), Barbara  Holmes (sculpture, furniture), Scott  Oliver    (sculpture, public art), and Imin  Yeh (printmaker). Christine Lee’s practice is characterized by an objective to reveal the latent potential of disregarded material.  Influenced by the prevalent theories and practices of materials reclamation, resource conservation, and recycling in contemporary art, Lee is proposing an innovative solution to working with composite wood boards that are free of toxic adhesives and binders, effectively utilizing excess waste, offering a safer alternative to readily available plywood and medium-­‐density fiberboard (commonly called MDF), and creating value to a common, abundant by-­‐product for use by a range of artistic and industrial disciplines.  The exhibition will showcase a broad range of conceptual and aesthetic styles, demonstrating diversity of construction techniques, and blurring boundaries between fine art, craft, industrial design, and interactive installation. By-­‐product Becomes Product embodies Intersection’s commitment to supporting innovative thought that facilitates positive change by working with an artist who has proactively developed material that is sustainable, non-­‐toxic, and highly usable in artistic, craft, and industrial fields by manifesting scientific and engineering expertise into real-­‐world applications.

The genesis for this project came when Lee was a Resident Artist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison  Art Department’s Wood Program in 2010.  Already concerned about the health effects of working with commonly available composite wood panels such as MDF, particle board, and certain plywoods, she wanted to explore alternative approaches to material use and investigate material choices that could establish a healthier creative practice during her residency. Formaldehyde resins and glues are commonly used to bind together both plywood and MDF, and testing has consistently revealed that these wood boards emit urea-­‐formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for months after manufacture, let alone the harmful, residual particles created from cutting the boards. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classified urea-­‐ formaldehyde as a “probable human carcinogen” as early as 1987.  During her residency, Lee worked with a supply of excess, post-­‐industrial wood donated from a local millwork company.  Being accountable for even more waste, Lee collected the sawdust she generated and worked with FPL Research Engineer John F. Hunt to create test panels with the sawdust supply, in essence producing usable material out of typically discarded by-­‐product. Working at the FPL since 1979, Hunt has been committed to discovering innovative ways to utilize wood waste with cutting-­‐edge technology and manufacturing methods. Building upon Hunt’s extensive research knowledge on molded fiber products and recycling paper into structural products, Lee and Hunt used various forming processes to create sawdust composite boards exhibiting properties similar to current manufactured wood boards such as MDF. These new boards, however, do not contain formaldehyde-­‐based resins or other toxic adhesives, and are entirely biodegradable and recyclable. Given that The Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in 2010 to regulate formaldehyde omissions, this project is both timely and relevant to larger social concerns. By-­‐product Becomes Product is supported in part by the San Francisco Arts Commission Cultural Equity Grants program.

Established in 1965, Intersection is widely considered to be one of the most vital cultural centers on the West Coast. Intersection recently forged a set of unique cross-­‐sector partnerships rooted in a shared belief that art and creativity realized through meaningful, inclusive, and collaborative places fuels vibrancy and facilitates positive change. The change the world needs now happens when we are outside of our silos – colliding with complex experiences, grappling with new metaphors, understanding people who are different than us, finding new ways to communicate and problem solve.  Through our unique partnership, we are collaborating on The 5M Project. Led by Forest City, The 5M Project is a 4-­‐acre multi-­‐phase, mixed-­‐use development project located at the intersection of several distinct neighborhoods in downtown San Francisco.  With 5M, we are prototyping the next generation of urban development that embraces diversity of thought, life experience, and culture as essential to positive economic and social change in our neighborhoods. 5M proposes that art – creative collaboration, placemaking, and problem solving – builds understanding and community, celebrates and mobilizes neighborhood assets, and drives inclusive change.

About the participating artists in By-­product Becomes Product:

Lead artist CHRISTINE  LEE (www.missleelee.com) is a sculptor, furniture maker, and installation artist whose creative practice is characterized by an objective to reveal the latent potential of disregarded material. She received her MFA from San Diego State University in 2007 and has exhibited her work in group exhibitions locally at the Museum of Craft and Design, Headlands Center for the Arts, Invisible Venue, Intersection for the Arts, Recology SF, and San Francisco State University, and in group exhibitions nationally at the Racine Art Museum (Racine, WI), The Museum of Arts and Design (New York, NY), Art Produce Gallery (San Diego, CA), and Fuller Craft Museum (Brockton, MA). She has been a visiting resident artist at the ASU Art Museum (Tempe, AZ), Anderson Ranch Arts Center (Snowmass Village, CO), and an Artist in Residence at the University of Wisconsin-­‐Madison, Stone Quarry Hill Art Park (Cazenovia, NY), Purchase College (Purchase, NY), and Recology SF.  She has taught at ASU, California College of the Arts, and San Diego State University and also worked as a studio assistant for new media artist Jim Campbell and woodworker Wendy Maruyama.  She has presented lectures and participated on panel discussions at the ASU Art Museum, Yale University, Stanford University, Maine College of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, and the University of Arkansas-­‐Little Rock.

RUSSELL  BALDON (www.russellbaldon.posterous.com) is a sculptor and furniture maker who was born and raised in California. He was a partner in his family’s wooden toy business before moving to San Francisco in 1984. After receiving his BFA in Wood/Furniture from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1992 and his MFA in Wood/Furniture from San Diego State University in 1998, he studied and worked with some of the country’s leading studio furniture makers. In 1999, he helped to form a cooperative studio in Alameda, CA, where members pursue many commissioned and speculative furniture and sculptural works in a 5,000-­‐square-­‐foot wood and metal shop. Since 2002 Baldon has taught in the Furniture Program at CCA, and has served as chair of the program since 2009. He also has had the honor of teaching at Laney College’s Wood Technology Program (Oakland, CA), Haystack School of Craft (Deer Isle, ME), Penland School of Crafts (Spruce Pine, NC), San Diego State University, and the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts (Portland, OR).  His work has been included in group exhibitions locally at LIMN Gallery, Fort Mason, and Museum of Craft and Folk Art, and in group exhibitions nationally at Shoshana Wayne Gallery (Santa Monica, CA), Lexington Art League (Lexington, KY), and Society of Arts and Crafts (Boston, MA).    

JULIA  GOODMAN (www.jagoodman.com) is a papermaker and sculptor who received her MFA from the California College of the Arts in 2009, after studying studio arts at Santa Monica College from 2004–2007 and earning her BA in International Relations  and Peace and Justice Stuides at Tufts University in 2001.  Her work has been included in exhibitions locally at Rena Bransten Gallery, Performance Art Institute, ProArts Gallery, Varnish Art Gallery, Intersection for the Arts, Richmond Art Center, Lincart, Triple Base, and the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, and in group exhibitions nationally at Project 4 (Washington, DC), Dieu Donne (New York, NY), Highways Performance Art Space (Santa Monica, CA), and Long Beach Arts (Long Beach, CA).  She was awarded a J.B. Blunk Artist Residency (Inverness, CA), completed a studio internship at Dieu Donné Papermill Inc. (New York, NY) and a residency in Kona, HI, and is a 2012 resident artist at Recology SF.  She not only casts paper in the traditional method, but pushes the medium into sculptural form.  In her recent body of work, she has been carving into MDF to create molds with which to cast paper pulp in a process residing between sculpture and printmaking.

BARBARA  HOLMES (www.barbaraholmes.com) is a sculptor and furniture maker who received her MFA from San Diego State University in 2002 and her BFA from Brigham Young University in 1993.  Her work has been included in group exhibitions locally at Headlands Center for the Arts, Museum of Craft and Design, Museum of Craft and Folk Art, Root Division, Catherine Clark Gallery, Compound Gallery, and LIMN Gallery, and in group exhibitions nationally at the Fuller Craft Museum (Brockton, MA), Oceanside Museum of Art (Oceanside, CA), Divan Gallery (La Jolla, CA), Kohler Arts Center (Sheboygan, WI), and Sushi Art Space (San Diego, CA).  She has been awarded Artist Residencies at Anderson Ranch Arts Center (Snowmass Village, CO), Recology SF, and Capital City Arts Initiative at St. Mary’s Art Center (Virginia City, NV), and has work in the permanent collection at SFMOMA. She has taught at the University of Wisconsin-­‐Madison, San Diego State University, Southwestern College, Mira Costa College, and currently at CCA. Her practice has focused on the reclamation and creative reuse of discarded construction material.

JOHN  F. HUNT (www.fpl.fs.fed.us)  is a Research Mechanical Engineer who has been working at the country’s leading wood research institute, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, WI, since 1979.  His research focuses on developing new ways to improve wood fiber products with cutting edge technology and production methods. Understanding the fundamental properties of wood fibers, he has extensive research background knowledge on molded fiber products and recycling paper into structural products, and is passionately committed to finding innovative ways to use wood waste. His research background knowledge includes molded fiber products, Spaceboard, Gridcore, wet-­‐formed fiberboard manufacturing, recycling paper into structural products, press drying paper, fiberglass in fiberboard, honeycomb paper cores and sandwich construction, veneer peeling, and laminated paper.  He also works on three-­‐dimensional modeling of paper laminates, composites, small diameter utilization through laminated structural lumber, and whole tree fiberization.

SCOTT  OLIVER’s (www.scottoliverworks.com) diverse practice explores our entangled relationship with objects and materiality through, what he calls, “poetic repurposing.” His work has taken many forms including in-­‐home sculptural interventions, a symbiotic restaurant, a collection of discarded LPs, an elaborate parlor game with students, and most recently, a multi-­‐faceted public project at Lake Merritt in Oakland. He is also a maker of objects, and while he does not claim any particular medium his background in design and woodworking are often evident in his work. He holds a BFA (1994) in Graphic Design and an MFA (2005) in Wood/Furniture from California College of the Arts. His work has been shown widely in the Bay Area at the deYoung Art Center, San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art, Triple Base, Oakland Museum, Johansson Projects, Southern Exposure, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SF Arts Commission Gallery, Mission 17, and Rena Bransten Gallery; and nationally at Grounds for Sculpture (Hamilton, NJ), Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery (Portland, OR), and UCLA.  He has received awards and grants for his work from the East Bay Community Foundation, Center for Cultural Innovation, the City of Oakland, and Southern Exposure. He was an artist in residence at Headlands Center for the Arts in 2009 and at Recology SF in 2007. He has taught at the California College of the Arts and UC Berkeley. He currently lives and works in Fort Bragg, CA with his wife and their son.    

IMIN  YEH (www.iminyeh.info)  attended the University of Wisconsin-­‐Madison receiving a Bachelors of Art and Art History with Asian Option and an MFA at California College of the Arts in 2009. She creates sculptures, installations, downloadable crafts, and participatory artist-­‐led projects. Recent projects include a 2012 commission from the San Jose Museum of Art and a year-­‐long parasitic contemporary art space called SpaceBi that takes place in the Asian Art Museum. She has exhibited locally at the 01 Biennial, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Meridian Gallery, Kearny Street Workshop, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, 18 Reasons, Pro Arts Gallery, Mission Cultural Center, and Southern Exposure and has received awards and fellowships from the San Francisco Arts Commission, Barclay Simpson Award, Murphy and Cadogan Fellowship.  She has completed residencies at Blue Mountain Center in New York, Mission Grafica in San Francisco, and Montalvo Art Center in Saratoga, CA.

Top Solar Power US States (Per Capita)

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Of course lists, top-tens and the like are a very particular way of seeing the world, but this analysis, published on the blog CleanTechnica, of the USA by State and population is very interesting.  It shows how much solar PV is installed per capita (i.e. per head of population).  They have also published stats for wind power.

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
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Summer School – Sustainable Technologies and Transdisciplinary Futures

This post comes to you from Cultura21

From Collaborative Design to Digital Fabrication

STTF2013 Summer School – July 8-12 – ISCTE-IUL University Institute of Lisbon

STTF2013 invites you to apply for a one week intensive programme of social and technical methods, in a transdisciplinary environment that will engage participants in both conceptual and practical activities with all four pillars of sustainability as background.

STTF2013 is intended for Master and PhD students, researchers, and professionals from STS, Product and Service Design, Social Sciences and Humanities, Architecture and Engineering, Communication and Media, Environmental Studies, Economics and Management, Computer Sciences, and others.
Regardless of individual experience, everyone will have the opportunity to work in sociotechnical processes of design, construction and discussion of concrete objects, through Introductory Sessions, Masterclasses and Hands On Workshops.

Keynote Speakers

  • Jerry Ravetz (University of Oxford UK)
  • Liz Sanders (MakeTools US)
  • Tomas Diez (FabLab Barcelona ES)
  • Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent (Université Panthéon-Sorbonne FR)
  • Alex Schaub (FabLab Amsterdam NL)

Important Dates

  • Application Deadline – APRIL 1
  • Notification of Selected Participants – APRIL 15
  • Early Registration and Payment Deadline – MAY 1
  • Late Registration and Payment Deadline – JUNE 1

Find out more

  • For more information on How To Apply, Fees, Programme, Speakers, or Venue, please visithttp://sttf2013.iscte-iul.pt
  • STTF2013 is a joint initiative of VitruviusFabLab-IUL (Digital Fabrication Laboratory) andCIES-IUL (Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology), research units of ISCTE-IUL(University Institute of Lisbon)
  • For any additional inquiries, contact sttf2013 [at] iscte [dot] pt or call CIES-IUL Front Desk +351 210 464 018

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

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Agnes Denes stretches the canvas as far as it can go – NYTimes.com

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Thanks to Amy Lipton for highlighting this interesting article in the NY Times on Agnes Denes and her multifaceted work.  If you don’t know Wheatfield – a confrontation, then check it out, but also look at Denes’ drawing.

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
Go to EcoArtScotland

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Su Grierson 25 January

From our mountain home looking towards Mt. Eide (Photo and permission Su Grierson

From our mountain home looking towards Mt. Eide (Photo and permission Su Grierson

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Report Number 3 from Su Grierson in Kitakata, Fukushima Province Japan.

Slowly, as we move around engaging with the locality and people and negotiate the difficulty of translation, we are gaining more insight into the aftermath of the Tsunami two years ago.

All the displaced and dispossessed people from the coastal disaster area are referred to as Refugees.

This term is general and has value in identifying them, but covers many differences that exist within that community. I have had no sense that the term is disparaging, but we were told that the initial intense sympathy that people held for them has been diminished as certain tensions have arisen.

There are Refugee camps in many areas in order to scatter the load on existing communities. The Refugees are housed in temporary purpose-built wooden houses (un-insulated as is common here) which they can occupy for up to 3 years. This deadline was put in place to discourage permanent ghetto-like clusters simply continuing indefinitely and to put pressure on the dispossessed to try and rebuild their lives. Many previous community groups are actually wanting to be resettled together in the areas they came from but this is mainly not possible as the land is not safe for re-building and there are insufficient large areas of free land to build new houses in any quantity. The issue seems to be unresolved.

We were told a little about the tensions that exist, and predictably money seems to be a major factor both between the Refugees themselves and between them and the rest of the community. As far as I can ascertain there were two types of compensation. Those living within the Nuclear disaster zones were paid compensation directly from the Nuclear industry and it was generally much higher than the Government payout to those who were affected only by the Tsunami. In addition, the nuclear payment was zoned by the proximity to the fallout area. Even though those living further away also lost everything and cannot return to their homes they received less. No one mentions whether exposure to the radiation is a factor or not. Likewise those who lost everything from the tsunami are receiving much less than those in the nuclear payout zone. It is not hard to see how tensions arise.

It seems this has been exacerbated by the fact that some of those receiving large payouts, who have never had so much money before, are not managing it wisely and some are buying fancy cars and living extravagantly and again that does not impress the local people and tests their degree of sympathy and support. It is human nature playing out predictably I think.

I am now on my third experience of Japanese traditional style accommodation – and yes, I can actually see the snow through the cracks in the single plank wooden wall! This is a large traditional house run by the owner as a B&B type accommodation. She and her elderly mother live in the (newer) building built alongside. This seems to be a common arrangement. As well as Yoshiko and myself there are also a Refugee couple staying here. He is very talkative but I am dependent on Yoshiko’s interpretation which she find quite challenging so I hope to piece together more of the story slowly as the days go by.

So far I have gathered that there has been a problem with the Government payout because the system is extremely bureaucratic and that many of the less educated or able people deal with the form filling. A system has been put in place to give individual interviews to help those with problems but some people even then cannot answer the complex questions about their history, income and lifestyle so they simply give up.

As for this couple they have moved 8 times in the 2 years, looking for a place to settle. He says he is looking for good water. When I asked why that was so important, thinking it might be something to do with rice growing or fishing, he explained that it was because good water was the source of life. In order to get good human life, good soil and a full eco-system (my word not his) there must be good life-giving water. The area we are in now Kitakata, he says has lots of bears which is good, but lower down the chain of animal and plant life it is missing many things. So it seems they will be off to location number 9 at some stage. At least he managed to get a job here doing night shift at a compost factory. I think he is 68 and took to farming when he retired as a plasterer and before that he worked in the nuclear plant. It would be good to chat with his wife when her talkative husband is not around but she does seem very shy at the moment. Who knows what effect such uncertainty and constant moving around, on top of the catastrophe itself might have had on her.

It is snowing hard again today and I must tell you about the way in which they clear the main roads. Down the centre of the roads where we might have ‘cats eyes’ there are little holes through which at appointed times little fountains of warm water (at least I was told they were warm but haven’t tested it) spray out onto the road. It washes away the snow most effectively without any need for the unpleasant salt that we spread with less efficiency. At our first accommodation the same system was used on the outside paths simply using hoses with holes. The country and side roads are partly cleared with snow ploughs and then every car uses winter tyres and everyone just drives on the packed snow base as normal.

Because the houses are largely un-insulated and without central heating, and anyway many people are giving up using electricity, the rooms, including our new studio spaces, are heated with ‘paraffin’ heaters (well I am not sure exactly what form of oil it is but it smells like that). Most of them are also plugged into the power supply for control. They do heat up very quickly but cut out when they reach temperature and then the cold comes back all to rapidly so it is difficult to get a comfortable even temperature.

The artists on the project with me, in addition to Yoshiko Maruyama, who is an installation artist and the originator of this project, are a sculptor, Vigdis Haugtroe, and Margrethe Aas, an architect/landscape architect working on City Planning, both from Norway. You can see more images of the project from our various Facebook pages and about us from our websites:

http://www.facebook.com/facingnorthjapan

http://www.facebook.com/SeishinNoKitae

www.facebook.com/su.grierson.9

http://haugtroe.com/

http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/maryoshi/index-e.html

www.sugrierson.com

Until next time from snowy Kitakata. Su 

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
Go to EcoArtScotland

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Call for Papers – Acoustic Space No. 12: ART OF RESILIENCE

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Riga’s Center for New Media Culture RIXC is welcoming submissions – articles, conceptual and artistic texts, research papers and visual contributions – from artists, theorists, scientists, researchers who are engaged with issues of social and ecological sustainability, and who are interested in a deeper understanding of technology, for the next Acoustic Space (Volume No. 12), a peer-reviewed journal for interdisciplinary research on art, science, technology and society, devoted with the theme Art of Resilience.

The conference exploring the topic — Art of Resilience — took place during Art+Communication 2012 festival in Riga, October 5-6, 2012 (http://rixc.lv/12). The forthcoming publication will include papers presented at this conference, but will not be limited to it and is open for contributions by other authors. It will be published in English.

“Today art is leaving its autonomous position behind the society’s quest for a sustainable future. Artists who once were in vanguard of exploring digital frontiers, today again are among the first ones who are actively engaged in looking for other ways how to make the world more sustainable.

Resilience is one of the key tactics that helps people to undergo unstable, uncertain times. The idea of a resilience is used as a guiding theme and as a point of departure for the discussions with which we aim at fostering deeper understanding of social, cultural and ecological, as well as technological sustainability issues.
We are questioning: How to enhance resilience – our capability to cope with today’s complex situation that has occurred in the result of rapid ‘techno-sciences’ development? Does art play a role of a ‘catalyst’ in this quest for sustainability, if it keeps actively establishing new connections with other fields – science and technology, architecture and design, rural infrastructure development and urban planning, social networking and global engineering? How these emergent art practices that are bridging not only different fields but also exploiting resilience experiences from different times and different cultures, are contributing towards developing a successful scenario for the future world?”

Deadline for submitting full papers – March 15, 2013
However, abstracts can be submitted first – deadline for abstracts: February 11, 2013

Length of texts: between 2500 and 8000 words (i.e. 20 000 – 45 000 characters).

Submitted texts should include:

  1. short abstract (ca. 250 words, i.e. 1500 characters)
  2. 5 – 6 keywords
  3. short bio of the author (ca. 100 words, i.e. 800 characters)

References should be in APA style.

Language for submissions: English.

The publication will come out in October, 2013, and it will be presented at the Media Art Histories 2013: ReNew conference / Art+Communication 2013 festival, October 8-11, 2013.

Please send abstracts and texts to the editor: Rasa Smite rasa [at] rixc [dot] lv

The previous editions of Acoustic Space are available on amazon.com

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

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Open call – Museum of Arte Útil

This post comes to you from Cultura21

dec6_queens_logoThe Museum of Arte Útil is a collaboration between the artist Tania Bruguera, theQueens Museum of Art, New York and the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The Museum of Arte Útil is the result of Tania Bruguera’s decade of research into a concept that emphasizes effectiveness and implementation over representation, looking at historical and contemporary examples of alternative strands in socially informed art practice.

Útil as a term refers to something being useful. But it goes further than the English translation, encompassing the idea of a tool or device. Bruguera states that “Arte Útil moves beyond a propositional format, into one that actively creates, develops and implements new functionalities to benefit society at large.”

The project will comprise research, an online platform, an association of Arte Útil practitioners, a series of public projects, a lab presentation at the Queens Museum of Art beginning in February 2013, culminating in the transformation of the old building of the Van Abbemuseum into the Museum of Arte Útil in the Fall of 2013 and a publication. The aim is to present a survey of past and present projects that are rooted in the notion of art’s use to its users and to society at large. Central to the project’s various forms is this open call.

The notion of what constitutes Arte Útil has been arrived at via a set of criteria that Bruguera and the participating museums’ curators have formulated. These criteria will set the parameters of the project and its working methodology. Arte Útil projects should:

  1. Propose new uses for art within society
  2. Challenge the field within which it operates (civic, legislative, pedagogical, scientific, economic, etc)
  3. Be ‘timing specific’, responding to current urgencies
  4. Be implemented and function in real situations
  5. Replace authors with initiators and spectators with users
  6. Have practical, beneficial outcomes for its users
  7. Pursue sustainability whilst adapting to changing conditions
  8. Re-establish aesthetics as a system of transformation

The public is invited to submit information on past or ongoing projects that align with these criteria. Submitted projects should meet as many of these criteria as possible. The selected projects will be listed on the website, to be launched in February and will be considered for inclusion in the artist association, the exhibition at the Queens Museum, the Van Abbemuseum, and/or the publication. Projects can be submitted by anyone, from any field, and need not be submitted by the initiators of the project.

The deadline for project submissions is 15th February 2013.

Click here for the submission form.

For questions, contact: opencall [at] arteutil [dot] net

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

Powered by WPeMatico