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20180724

Participated in the Performance Philosophy Reading Group organised by the Center for Performance Research. We read Work(s) and (Non)Production in Contemporary Movement Practices (2016) by Hetty Blades and discussed it with a small group. The event was hosted by Antonio Ramos, a dancer who works an artist director of a group called The Gangbangers. The text was very complicated, it attempted to define separate components of movement based praxis, which make up a dance (art)works and to examine how these components relate to labor (is rehearsal work?, is documentation work?, is performance work? etc.). The text attempted to make a clinical dissection of dance (art)works but it got tangled in loose definitions. Due to the complexity of the text, discussions were unfocused.

Rode at the Kensington stables today. My horse was called Bingo and I got to use a Western Saddle. The trip was fun, slow but fun. A passing bicycle spat on the ground as a protest. It was cool to see horse statues from the back of a horse. Also got some insight to inner-city horse politics. I learned about the New York State Horse Council.

ISCP discovered the Parks Enforcement Patrol that might develop into something. I applied to be a Parks Enforcement Patrol Mounted Auxiliary volunteer.

Participated to the Artists at Work: Modupeola Fadugba and Yen-Ting Hsu talks at ISCP. Hsu took us on a audio journey trough rural Korean villages (got to hear the rhythm of a tatam-mat knitting machine), the trip ended on a ride on the L-train to underline the course of modern development (I talked about SOW with her after the performance). Fadugba presented a series of paintings which depict synchronized swimmers. It was interesting to think about swimming from a collective/shared bodybuilding perspective and to learn about the The Harlem Honey and Bears synchronized swimming team. The event felt rigidly scripted.

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20180712

Participating in the ISCP weekly Open Doors Thursday. The beginning of the day was busy. I got to meet nice people but I got tired pretty fast. I retreated into my studio and started to log/quasi-edit Signal #6 (Cifas) footage which was shot by by Camille Laufer in 2017. Here is a raw cut of the Trans-Horse Parade and some footage form Care & Control workshops.

My visit to Staten Island (on Monday) felt like a beating, I’m still recovering. Busses were late, I was late, it was hot and I was so sweaty I couldn’t hold my camera rig steady. I didn’t have stamina to direct the interview I shot. The footage is almost good, better then I feared (More on that later). Bought a Rode RodeLink Wireless microphone system which worked well (Learning how to balance the audio will take a while).

Discovered Kensington Stables at Prospect Park. 45$ for an hour with a horse – Not bad! I learned from the news that there are a drastic development plans for the area and the local urban horse culture is under thread. I guess I’ll go to a riding class next week.

Why the Ed Sheeran lawsuit makes no sense (2018) Adam Neely. A very convincing video, arguing that some copyright lawsuits benefit lawyers (who work for corporations), at the expense of artists (who work for music).

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20180709

Got a semi-bad sun burn on my shoulders.

Preparing for tomorrows test-shoots (more on that later).

Met with the July batch of ISCP artists (fun looking people, mainly painters and photographers) and got a breakdown of the “services” ISCP provides for residents. I didn’t write everything down (which I regret as there was a lot to take in). ISCP takes residents on field trips and to gallery/museum openings, organizes various types of open studio events (Open Doors Thursday, Summer / Winter open house events), they organise artist talks (between visitors, residents & staff), third Thursday (of the month) informal gallery tours, critic visits (to which we can book appointments, I booked an appointment with Sara Reisman), aid in productions, some sort of coaching services and there are a lot of tools artist can borrow too. It’s great.. Like a Art-School-Social-Factory-Rehabilitation-Center. Residents are expected to spend 20h a week at the ISCP facilities and to be on location on Thursdays (and to have their studio doors open, for talks and informal meetings). I’m learning to cope with having my home and studio in separate addresses… Constantly forgetting to take gear (hard-disks or flash-drives) with me.

HP Lovecraft’s Racism (2018) Zero Book. A short extract on a longer podcast investigating Lovecrafts political views on others (he’s a racist but it’s complicated).

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20180705

Visited galleries with other residents of ISCP (Didn’t get to know people yet but at least I recognise them). We went to Ronald Feldman Gallery and got an introduction to the space by Mr. Feldman himself (and gallery staff). Feldman was excited about the works he talked about (the works on display had an artist-as-archivist/witness emphasis). Their summer exhibition includes Dressing to Go Out / Undressing to Go In (1973) by Mierle Laderman Ukeles, who is represented by the gallery! The frame of the artwork had a cleaning cloth attached to it. Feldman talked very highly of Ukeles and made her sound like a superstar, which strangely, made me doubt Ukeles. Her work as the Artist-in-Residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation was framed as the foundation for contemporary artist-to-institution residencies. We were told that Ukeles started to work with sanitation workers because they were underappreciated and that their work was considered “dirty”. This made me feel uneasy. Why were the sanitation workers considered “dirty” and by whom? How does her art effect this? The “dirtyness” and underappreciation of sanitation workers made her initiative to work with them appear more noble (which is definitely not intended). Someone should do a project with Wall Street Bankers – They are surely more dirty then sanitation workers! Her exhibitions in Europe were celebrated.

After Feldman we visited The Drawing Center. There was an exhibition by Terry Winters but I wasn’t in the mood for drawings. The center had worked with The Center of Urban Pedagogy which seems like a really interesting organization. They have produced a comicbook called I Got Arrested! Now What? (2010) which is intended for juveniles who need to learn more about their rights.

The tour ended at the The Grey Art Gallery which presented the “Landscapes after Ruskin” exhibition. Lucy Oakley’s (Head of Education and Programs) gave us a very convincing tour (she was backed up by an intern whose name I forgot). The curator of the show had developed an interesting interpretation of “The Sublime”. The sublime is not about experiencing universal beauty (in landscapes, forms etc.) which is impossible to describe & becoming aware how insignificance humans are compared to nature… It is also awareness of ones mortality and a sense of the frailness of human life. The exhibition linked the anthropocene with the sublime, arguing that these are similar experiences! In both cases we (the spectators) feel ashamed of ourselves… Either for our pompous believe that humans are the owners of the world (The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is humbled by the majesty of the mountains) or for the fact that we have tainted the world with pollution.

This has an interesting link to horses! Students of the Horse & Performance course felt ashamed in the face of the horse (when they failed to execute care taking tasks in an orderly fashion).

The galleries used miniature Greek columns as space dividers or as roofing panels – This is extremely interesting. I think we don’t need to see artworks… We need texts which frame the way we see the world (or fail to frame it, which is fun to witness too). What the curator intended to pass with the “Landscapes after Ruskin” exhibition would have been accomplished with a clever text. After reading it we would have understood media like this in the context of the contemporary sublime.

I’m riding my bike shirtless (it the only way to go).

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20180702

I’m having trouble finding performance art venues which list their events online in a sensible fashion. Grace Exhibition Space has a newish site but the schedule of events they offer is messy (found the exhibition spacey on Broadway yesterday but it was closed). Panoply Performance Laboratory seems interesting but I can’t figure out if there are events in the space or is it primarily for projects. I’ve signed up to multiple email lists but they seem to be quiet (perhaps people are on vacations). Eyebeam is the most promising email list I’ve signed up for so far.

Having trouble communicating to Helsinki. Signal app is not 100% reliable in a non-roaming/wifi setting (this was the case during our trip to Brussels too) and I can’t send SMSs abroad from my US phone. I’m now getting regular SMS messages to my Finnish number (Signal messages come delayed) and using my US number with an alternative Signal installation. Also installed Wire on my US phone (which provides nice setup options for multiple devices).

Received my ISCP (International Studio & Curatorial Program) studio keys and got a short introduction to the facilities. The building has three floors and two gallery spaces. The room I was given is incredible. It’s a +20m² space with a 5m high ceiling. I found some basic tools (there is a soldering station for Synth DIY kits!) and a computer & scanner/printer. I’ll take my computer and other tech to the studio today. This is the first studio I’ve worked in. All of the art schools I’ve studied in have been poor or in the process of being shut down, so I learned to work in cafeterias or at home and to perform in public spaces.  I don’t know what to do with all of the space I now have at my disposal. I’m thinking about making a mural.

Olli was at the ISCP before me and I brought a bike from him. He left it at my studio and I rode it home. I feel like a rock star – Driving around Brooklyn on my cool new bike!

What would a public park look like if it was built from the perspective of bees? (2018) by Regine. An overview of Erik Sjödin project with bees. He’s approach reminds me of the species-sensitive-design concept. The Political Beekeeper’s Library seems like an interesting archive. It “looks at books where parallels are drawn between how bees and humans are socially and politically organised”.

The shelter explores what a public park would look like if it was built from the perspective of the wildlife that use the park alongside the humans.

Increased biodiversity in parks in the form of flowering plants, buzzing bees and chirping birds etc can provide aesthetic pleasure to park residents and be relevant besides from the intrinsic value nonhuman life has. Biodiversity doesn’t have to conflict with human interests.