The propositions of strangers are to be expected in the close quarters of the city during the springtime. In this performance, the objectified becomes the instigator. Announcement invites the cat calls, whispers and romantic solicitations with blunt signage and the ultimate vehicle of liberation: the bicycle.
Melissa Osborne performs.
Anxious about the lack of ownership and access to my personal history, I explore how the structure of Facebook provides a literal construct of identity, framing the tension between the opacity of image and the multiplicity of being. For several weeks, I clear my Facebook profile of public information only to spontaneously repopulate the fields and clear them again, each time leaving a single link in my “About Me” section. Facebook users who select the link will open a flattened “archive” version of the previously visible profile.
Facetbook is part of a project called I’m Not Stalking You; I’m Socializing, an exploration of how social networking changes the ways in which we relate to one another and enrich our lives. It is a 2009 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) created for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from the Jerome Foundation.
[ become my friend on Facebook ]
[ go to Facetbook ]
[ go to I'm Not Stalking You; I'm Socializing ]
Give and Take represents the process of destabilizing the threat of unsolicited advertisements, extrapolating on the work There is Still Time to Change Things (2010). The installation consists of two podiums labeled “Give” and “Take” with found paper advertisements, accompanied by a two-part audio track in which a voice facilitates a cleansing meditation practice.
Thank you to Jamie O’Shea and Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology.
For a few years, my two older brothers were active in Boy Scouts and my father would help them win various badges by engaging in self-esteem and skill-building traditions like starting fires and building bird houses. I was regretfully excluded from these rituals on the basis of gender. But I convinced my father to let me accompany them to the highly competitive Pinewood Derby. I was unprepared for the long and boring afternoon.
Last weekend, I awarded five little girls with the Patient Sister Award at the Boy Scouts Pinewood Derby. Misha Jenkins photographed the event.
[ visit Misha Jenkins' website ]
I am installing a new project, Give and Take at “Heed the Machine, Illustrious,” an exhibition organized by Clara Jo and Allie Tsypin. Images and information about Give and Take are to come.
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 15, 7-11PM
Performances: 8PM
Saint Cecilia Parish
21 Monitor Street, Brooklyn, NY
L train to Graham Ave
G train to Nassau Ave
[ http://heedthemachineillustrious.blogspot.com ]
One of the original cases of criminal stalking in America is retold within the framework of a social network called Black&White, which consists of two mirrored profiles, those of Laura Black and Richard Farley. The website extrapolates on the tongue-and-cheek usage of the term “stalking” to describe the accepted social protocol, a far cry from the original behavior that, in this case, lead to a massacre at a booming Silicon Valley company in 1988.
Black&White is part of a project called I’m Not Stalking You; I’m Socializing, an exploration of how social networking changes the ways in which we relate to one another and enrich our lives. It is a 2009 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) created for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from the Jerome Foundation.
[ Go to Black & White ]
[ Go to I'm Not Stalking You; I'm Socializing ]
Last summer, I was unemployed and it was a very alienating experience. I became disproportionately resentful toward restaurant solicitation in the form of menus slipped under my door and handed to me on the street. The more angry I became, the more guilty I felt about shaming the people distributing menus. I wanted to be happy for anyone working, so I began to transform my experience by gratefully collecting solicited items.
I started thinking about my process of acceptance and the following instruction set came to me:
1. Continue to collect menus.
2. Accept menu drop-offs from participants.
3. Meditate on slogans loosely describing the interaction between solicitor and solicited.
4. Ask solicitors what they would truthfully like to say to passersby.
5. Cut slogans into the menus and distribute on the street.
6. Invite passersby to help distribute.I will continue to work through my experience and post updates.
Viral Conversations will be on view in an exhibition of selected works from Joseph Delappe‘s IraqiMemorial.org at the Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery at the University of Nevada in Reno.
Exhibition dates: February 15, 2010 – March 12, 2010
Gallery Walk Through: Thursday, March 4, 1-2pm
A record of telephone interactions is gathered under the pretense of a social networking service called Status Grabber, in which a representative makes personal phone calls to request very short “status updates” from strangers. Call recipients are told that someone they know has anonymously requested a “status update” about them, and that they should provide the representative with an open statement about their career, family, social life, or literal whereabouts. Visitors to the Status Grabber website can directly request status updates through the satirical service, listen to phone records, and view rolling, one-line status updates.
Status Grabber is part of a project called I’m Not Stalking You; I’m Socializing, an exploration of how social networking changes the ways in which we relate to one another and enrich our lives. It is a 2009 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) created for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from the Jerome Foundation.
[ Go to Status Grabber ]
[ Go to I'm Not Stalking You; I'm Socializing ]
Peak Peek
CURRENTLY IN THE PEAK OF PRODUCTION:
———————————————————————————————–
Vigil
3 channel video installation
A series of candle lit memorials are filmed after dark at locations where canvassers or street solicitors stood during the day. At each location, a sign relays a personal message from a solicitor to the population at his or her work post. The videos depict spontaneous curiosity blooming in the absence of solicitation.
Rehabilitation/Redemption
performance
Synthetic duck models are systematically washed in a performance of rehabilitating oiled wildlife. Over time, the ducks begin to fall apart and lose feathers, their coloring dying the water, as the performer adorns herself with the animal debris.
———————————————————————————————–