of course the other absoluto brilliant show – in town is the:
JACK EARLY: JACK EARLY’S EAR CANDY MACHINE
which opened on Jan 21, 2011
and runs thru MARCH 5th, 2011 – at DANIEL REICH GALLERY – 537A W 23RD ST. CHELSEA
JACK EARLY – at the opening, which was yes. quite m-a-g-i-c.
cause you walked right into another black tunnel – the entire front room of the gallery – pitch black – bathed in black light !! except for a neon rainbow and a vintage victrola – the Ear Candy Machine !! – playing music composed and performed by Jack Early and a few friends.
quite beautiful entirely on its own . . .
with a white on white front panel !! yes.
it played music – wonderful and yet strange music – made by Jack and friends – on hand-pressed vinyl.
like the recent – over-played – and over-wrought – almost kinda desperate – ANSELM KIEFER show at GoGo’s – this show also spoke to the ceiling – but was so way – more succinct and well, cool. to the point. on point. and mysterious all at the same time. yet with so few elements . . and a true understated grace. much feeling frozen in time.
not to mention – great design elements. the rainbow around the ceiling.
the rainbow arc – down one wall.
and I guess you could say it was: interactive – how the black light played upon the crowd.
if you were wearing white – how fun !!
SECURITY !!
so, in strolled FLORIAN ALTENBURG . . .
FLORIAN ALTENBURG and his wife MAIKA POLLACK run Brooklyn’s SOUTHFIRST GALLERY. Maika is the curator and Florian is the man of all else. SOUTHFIRST gave Jack’s EAR CANDY MACHINE – its first showing about a year ago, in 2009.
they were standing in front of a big JACK EARLY canvas in the back room – his first in a new series of “combine” paintings.
JACK EARLY, ‘Not Yet Titled’, 2011.
Dimensions variable (panel 50 x 97 x 8 in.,barrel 15 x 18 x 13 in.)
wood, paper, printed linen, paper mache, wood cabinet, wallpaper, turn of the century wood beer barrel, farm rope.
yes, that is PAUL McCARTNEY at the left.
JACK EARLY, detail
JACK EARLY, detail
JACK EARLY, detail
it actually had a real live rope . . .
connecting to a vintage beer barrel !!
and a way strange little “medicine cabinet” – right in the middle – that contained . . .
a sort of cute nasty funny very green – gnome !!
giving the “finger” – is that an apple he holds ? you know. take the Big Apple & shove – it ??!!
LUCY ADELMAN, a friend of Jack Early’s from back home – North Carolina – now in NYC studying studio arts at SVA – is enjoying the show – too.
ok – so yeah – once upon a time JACK EARLY and ROB PRUITT were PRUITT-EARLY and this was one of their early pieces . . . Dr. Spock and Captain Kirk, oh yeah. 1992.
well, that would be: Captain Kirk and Dr. Spock !!
DANIEL McDONALD and DANIEL REICH – mortals among the legends – or, is it – the other way around ?
Daniel Reich and AMY GARTRELL.
both ROB PRUITT and JACK EARLY seem to share a knack for graphic design – as well as concept, cultural branding, and ingenuity.
JACK EARLY – ‘JACK STACK’ – ’19 stories’ – “this Jack Stack includes: The one about his dad telling him just ‘not to be gay’ / The Piggly Wiggly Ham Story. / When Jack had ESP for a whole summer !”
some contain music and lyrics by Jack. but the graphic design – is what got to us.
packaging. most def.
JACK EARLY (center) and pals, at the left DANIEL CASPERA, and on the right, friend and musician, JAMES PHAM.
Mr. Pham plays guitar on many of Jack’s compositions, including those currently playing the gallery – on the custom pressed vinyl – on the victrola.
JACK designed a really cool poster for the show – Big Apple. great tone of green, too. and he did sign some for fans !!
the signing of art, posters or books by any artist – always fascinating to watch.
JACK EARLY – smiley face !!
JACK EARLY – an intense – kinda laid-back combo of a super edgy talented musical kinda guy. great graphic designer. very interesting painter, and top-notch conceptualizer – on the rise, again.
JACK EARLY – JACK EARLY’S EAR CANDY MACHINE – up thru MARCH 5, 2011.
PHOTOS COPYRIGHT: NANCY SMITH
UP-DATE: TUES FEB 15, 2011 – 1:20 PM
P.S. DANIEL REICH just told me they posted a video for the show on YouTube – it’s quite the video – very vintage sounding !!
here’s the link: JACK EARLY’S EAR CANDY MACHINE/YouTube !!
~JACK EARLY’S EAR CANDY MACHINE !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | February 14th, 2011, 10:42pm
RETNA – at the opening of his first ever NYC solo show – last night – THURS FEB 10, 2011 – in a pop-up downtown west side New York City space – presented by ANDREW VALMORBIDA and VLADIMIR RESTOIN ROITFELD – and, yes they did BLOW everyone away – it was that great !!
it was beyond great – it was: MAGIC.
ANDY VALMORBIDA & VLADIMIR RESTOIN ROITFELD PRESENT:
RETNA: THE HALLELUJAH WORLD TOUR
FEBRUARY 10, 2011 – FEBRUARY 21, 2011
560 WASHINGTON ST – WEST SIDE, NYC
DAILY HRS: 10 AM – 6 PM
the magic started from the get-go – with a long black tunnel – entrance. it felt like a museum show already – yep. the production, the design, lighting, and concept of the show, the venue itself large with high ceilings – was that great. but this time around VLADIMIR and ANDY – had the most important element down too – the work. the work was superlative, cutting edge and well, damn well – historic.
and this is just a pop-up, dudes. better get over here this weekend – it comes down Monday Feb 21, 2011.
something about art – rhymes with fashion week !!
yeah he’s happy. no doubt about it. great show.
co-presenter (ANDY) ANDREW VALMORBIDA.
the very first impression – it reminded of the KEITH HARING shows – when he was at his peak.
wow. candle. calligraphy. mid-eastern, Hebrew, Persian, global ethnic LA tag – all the way !!
the paintings looked amazing in the space. great lightning. great spacing. nice title cards. beautiful beautiful lighting.
the artist – RETNA greets his fans !!
RETNA aka MARQUIS LEWIS is a native born and bred in Los Angeles, California in 1979. that makes him something like 32. a bonafide street artist – who came up from the streets – and made his “debut” in the mid-1990s – he has “participated in over 30 international exhibits” with “countless works in the public realm” – i.e. on the streets.
“An integral fixture in the Los Angeles art scene – since an early age the transcendent nature of RETNA’S work has allowed him to seamlessly transverse from the unregulated urban landscape to institutional galleries across the globe.”
this is his first – debut – solo show in New York City.
CARINE RESTOIN ROITFELD – VLADIMIR’S MOM and I think- one of his biggest fans.
(L) PM TENORE with RCHARD SACHS.
PM TENOT RE is credited with being acutrator int he shows ppaperwork – but whn presed – he diad no he “only brought them altogther’. good job from the man who does such a brillant job g for RVCA !!
the man himself – young curator VLADIMIR RESTOIN ROITFELD – with clothing designer STACEY BENDET.
VLADMIR has an eye for detail and design, that’s for sure. even the typography on the painting title cards – is ace.
STAVROS NIARCHOS – an integral part of this dynamic art ‘production’ crew.
and yah – there were a lot of beautiful women swirling around, for sure.
RETNA, Los Ninos De La Calle, 2011. 96 x 72 in., mixed media.
this piece of RETNA’S stood out, pun intended !! – as it was one the few, maybe the only – that was multi-dimensional. it’s image elements raised from the canvas in a shallow relief, as well as painted.
RETNA. Midnight Stalker (dipych), 2010. 72 X 120 in., oil & enamel on canvas.
hand-wrought calligraphy and ‘code’.
most were flatly painted . . . which is not to say they didn’t have their contrasts !!
the art of the muted color contrasts: silver on white. white on gray. gray on white. white on white. black on white. shiny on matte.
that’s about the sum of what’s interesting us all – at the moment. esp. calligraphy.
RETNA. It Doesn’t Hurt, 2011. 96 X 64 in., Acrylic on canvas.
Bradley, Raspa and Cheeto.
Chris Brown made the opening.
Cheeto showed me a photo – he had caught of him – earlier on in the evening. damn.
R.D. – visiting from L.A.
also in from L.A. – REVOK !!
also making the scene – on the left: PATRICK GRIFFIN – one of the best of the best of the local underground NYC scene.
don’t believe me ?
check out: PATRICK GRIFFIN
GREG LaMARCHE with his wife MIKEALA.
Greg LaMarche is also a big fave of mine – as well as alot of other people’s – for his own brand of ‘tagging’ and ‘block’ calligraphy – which although very stylized and visually compelling – both from a design and ‘fine art’ point of view – is very very different from Retna’s take.
MIKAELA – told me Greg has shows coming up in TORONTO and BOSTON.
you might know him better as S.P.ONE back in the day.
check out: GREG LaMARCHE
JULIAN GONZALEZ and MATT LALANDU
independent filmmaker and apparently big artlovers fan: ALLEN CORDELL
a wild new addition to the scene: COLIN T. McELROY – just 4 months into life in the East Village – from San Francisco. the West Coast. and yes, he says he misses surfing and can’t believe the snow – but is digging life in the big apple. and was here with a nice video camera.
COLIN told us L.A. based RETNA works with 2 West Coast crews – MSK and AWR. MAD SOCIETY KINGS and ANGELS WILL RISE. sometimes when they all work together – its MSKAWR – and they add the 7th letter – G (for God).
something about COLIN – speaks out – VOLCOM !! his dad designed their famous rock . . . logo.
check out: VOLCOMICS RELEASE PARTY/FUSE GALLERY/MAY 19, 2007 – scroll down – YOUNG CELEBS !!
RETNA
RETNA, detail
RETNA, detail
RETNA, detail
one last look . . . KNOW THY CODE.
VLADIMIR RESTOIN & ANDY VALMORBIDA PRESENT – RETNA: The Hallelujah World Tour/NEW YORK CITY/FEB 10-FEB 21, 2011.
then back through the looking glass . . .
even – the signage was great. like I said at the top: looked more like a museum show – than a pop-up.
if this is the way things are going – get in, and get out, make a big impression . . . and spread some lasting magic.
I would say – things are definitely heating up.
PHOTOS COPYRIGHT: NANCY SMITH
~RETNA TAKES NEW YORK BY STORM |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | February 11th, 2011, 9:27am
well that’s the funny thing, where you see boxing gear . . .
JOSH HARRIS, isn’t too far off !!
after QUIET got shut sown – he transformed the place into a hard-core artist boxing club. more like an unsupervised – FIGHT CLUB – for sure.
is that a BROOKLYN SKYLINE . . . ?
and here’s the funny thing, where JEFF GOMPERTZ used to be – he who built the QUIET / WE LIVE IN PUBLIC pod hotel – now resides – Josh !!
the MONTECRISTO cigars . . .
yep. JOSH HARRIS at work – in his new HQ – the top story loft of GOMPERTZ, in our fair WILLIAMSBURG – BROOKLYN.
and where’s the Gomp ? he’s off in Thailand – living the cheap good life, making art – and not looking to come back – any time soon.
what’s Josh working on ? think it was his MIT MEDIA LAB proposal ?
yep. that’s Josh, alright.
and in the work studio . . . those are Josh’s paintings. yep Josh is painting – Singularities !! – he calls them.
yeah, I brought Kate along.
(yeah, I made that sweater.)
remember – I saw them – and write them up – this past summer – when JOSH rescued, seriously/ lost & found ALFREDO MARTINEZ . . . rescued from detention, yep secret incarceration – in China.
and he’s really going at – big time. serious.
and he’s painting. code. big time. hieroglyphs. writing on the wall.
and the new big event that day ?
he had just rescued a rescued cat from some lady who couldn’t handle him, off craigslist – even though she had pumped over $300 into cat meds !!
see him, peeking out – at the top left.
he’s a little skittish – but I bet he will calm down. Josh and pets – another story – for another day !!
his name is GREENBERG . . .
don’t ask.
doesn’t every web guru, Internet visionary and ex-dot.com C.E.O. now turned painter in Brooklyn – need a cat named Greenberg ?
JOSH HARRIS – FASTER THAN THE SPEED – OF LIGHT.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH, BROOKLYN. NOV 2010
~WHERE IN THE WORLD IS JOSH, NOW ? |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | February 11th, 2011, 8:54am
or: THE SOCIAL NETWORK vs THE HUMAN GRID vs THE MATRIX vs THE HUMAN CHICKEN FACTORY – as in – STACKED in CAGES. WIRED TOGETHER 24/7 on the inter-connective highway – that is the web & THANK GOD FOR HUMAN LUST, is all I can say. and can we leave it at that ? ditch the keyboards – and orgy – that was Josh’s message – in 2000. for sure.
WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – Director Ondi Timoner’s great graphics and branding – aside.
WATCH – OUT !! the grid is gonna – bite your butt. that’s Josh’s ‘human chicken factory’ message. it’s just one step from the polite mental grid – of FACEBOOK – to the human chicken factory – to the matrix. but in 2000 when laptop computers weren’t on everyone’s laps – Josh’s interconnected-ness was a pod hotel and the 24/7 cameras – caught the human nature that spilled out !! big time. and it got plenty low down and dirty – not mental.
WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – his series of ‘social experiments’ from year 2000 on for another year or so – til he burnt out and retreated to a farm – to tend apples – was wilder than you can imagine – and the capstone – the Pseudo-funded millennium party – he called QUIET – that became the basis of the film – WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – took the grid – to human biology 101. humans vs the machine, humans won. big time. it was messy. and it was wild and it wasn’t pretty – but it most definitely was – human nature – spilling – outta that grid, baby. hands down.
the QUIET ‘grid’ began as a ‘pod’ hotel – stacked cheap sleeping compartments – wired yes. but by surveillance cameras – not keyboards. inhabited by a wild hard-core artist crew – fueled by a visionary genius with a LUVVY the clown alter ego – what do you expect, it was raw human nature – it was a grid based on sleeping quarters, not keyboards – get it ?
yep. artists and open sleeping quarters. what do you think happened ? QUIET over a span of 2 weeks – quickly deconstructed into such racy basic human behavior – as in lust – as opposed to keyboards and the typed communication of today’s grid – which is wired – ok. but with each person isolated in their own web compartment bedroom – communicating – but here – at QUIET they were all stacked literally one on top of the other – and yes. it became absolutely human, as in touch and feel. fight and cry, male and female caught up in the earliest story – of being alive – Adam and Eve and the forbidden apple. let’s just say lusty human behavior rules – can we – and maybe, just maybe it is that lusty primordial human drive to copulate, compulsively – that at once undermines us, while saving us – from the matrix fate . . .
QUIET and in essence WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – was ultimately – not – about the first computer take-over – as much as it was about the hard-core drive of the human condition. bodily contact.
human beings doing the nasty – spilling out and rolling around – you know – the social networking – that used to be called basic biology = sex. as in man vs the machine – the complete opposite of social networking as we know it today. which is – computerized. it was all about the human drive – not the human keyboard. rock on.
THE OFFICIAL – WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – TITLE HEADER. DREAMED UP, FABRICATED & DESIGNED in 2009 by Ondi’s creative team – the year WE LIVE IN PUBLIC was finally edited & shaped & sent off to SUNDANCE – to capture the world ‘s imagination. as the very first – “social network”.
it was a very funny – cleaned up – brand – as in logo – to most of us who had lived through it – and knew it to be – so the opposite, even though the preppy ‘social networkers’ were wearing facsimilies of our uniforms. the real QUIET was – raw and wild. hence its superb name.
but in fact – that was Ondi’s filmmaker Sundance-winning (twice) genius – her special brand of magic – the storyteller’s magic – the ability to weave a greater truth from a rocked-out dot-com party – that pushed WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – beyond the NYC underground art scene – and I do mean very underground – no mainstream art critic in this lame town – except of course CHARLIE FINCH – ever got it . . WE LIVE IN PUBLIC went right over their poor little heads, and still does. unbelievable. sad but true. even though half the world has seen it . . . and it still continues to tour – almost 3 years later . . . WLIP won SUNDANCE BEST DOCUMENTARY (USA) in 2009.
but I digress – my favorite sport – art critic bashing, sorry.
(did you get that in the post below – StudioFilmClub called him – the “warhol of the web” – and nobody here in the art world proper gives him the time of day. such a friggin lame town or what. whatever. and all, I mean all the film critics did rave. )
yes. just as the title of our mad wild millennium party – was QUIET – the total antithesis to the rowdy action – so Ondi’s branding – was the yin to our yang – and that circle of a snake chasing its tail – that summation and parallel made everything – fall into place – and allowed for the vision – to come forward.
and she was right. Josh’s social experiment – art installation and performance piece – was the very seed – of the ‘social media’ web of today – wild and crazy – our grid interconnected living – stacked one on top of the other – was the grid. the matrix. the human chicken factory. we who were on the payroll of Pseudo web guru – and artist – JOSH HARRIS – were the interconnected living – 24/7 wired – that begat the social networks of today. but yo – we were we so much more rowdy and fun – or what. give me a hard-core downtown NYC artist !! – over a Harvard tech with dating issues – and some twin DNA rowers – any day.
what’s in the briefcase – Josh ? piles of dough . . . as in cold hard cash ?
JOSH HARRIS – dot.com mogul and C.E.O. – in 1999 – at the height of his game – worth $86 million. no joke. and like any computer nerd – just like the Harvard guys – totally into and absolutely fascinated by what separates humans from the machine – !! 2 guesses.
flesh and the drive to reproduce.
what else could you expect from a dot.com boss – who had as many alter egos – as you have dreams.
360-degrees of observation. no sh*t !!
LUVVY aka JOSH HARRIS.
it’s said he stocked the stacks – the pod hotel – with paid sex performers. true. and hookers. yep, that’s Luvvy for ya.
JEFF GOMPERTZ a few years after – QUIET – in Williamsburg, NY. 2003
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH
it was JEFF GOMPERTZ who built the ‘grid’ / hotel pod for QUIET – the grid, human grid – that was to became the basis of the WE LIVE IN PUBLIC social networking / branding logo of Ondi’s later design. JEFF built the pod ‘hotel’ where the 99+ in-house resident crew of artists – lived and slept – and really had more live sex – than anything else.
wired it was – but for surveillance !! polite keyboard networking – FACEBOOK – it was not !! though therein lie – the seeds.
reality show: yes. biology 101: yes. they networked up close and personal in 2000 – laptops were hard to come by – but surveillance cameras were not !!
JOSH HARRIS, right. and JEFF GOMPERTZ – at the pod hotel’s – earliest stage.
the pod hotel – became the ‘stack’ – the holy matrix – the mother of all grids – wired 24/7 with cameras everywhere. sending out streaming video in real time – available in multi-channels on small screens in each individual pod. you could choose which action – you wanted to watch. your neighbor’s – or – even your own. the transparent shower was a big fave.
the hotel as we called it – was designed after classic – poor journeyman – Japanese pod hotels.
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH
in its sweetest early days – it even held a futuristic – pod boy !!
note the cameras and the screens.
but just as you might expect from a hardcore downtown art crew – funded by a wild crazy genius – in an underground bunker !! – as the pod hotel came to be know in the press – things got pretty racy – pretty quickly – and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
underground artists – in an underground bunker – perfect symmetry. raw and knock down – wild. no rules.
in fact even Josh got so fed up with the bad behavior and kinky drama – that this WWII concentration camp was the image he chose as the title image – for the first WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – RADAR VIMEO CLIP !! It was Ondi’s particular genius to come up with the ‘preppy’ social networking grid – several years, later.
watch: radar vimeo !!/early cut/QUIET/WE LIVE IN PUBLIC
check out: WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – the finished version/trailer
PHOTOGRAPHS FROM NEWMARKET FILMS/NEW YORK TIMES
the stacked grid – did actually re-surface this year (2011) in Australian director PETER WEIR’S – ‘THE WAY BACK’.
but of course it’s been around forever . . .
weaving a drama of gods and man – locked in transcendence, conflict, birth, death and sex. the cycle of human nature – in a nutshell. but a stacked one, for sure.
I bet when they get to the bottom of nano particles, and RNA – they will find stacked structures, too. like when you find a dead nest of roaches, cockroaches – hidden under a light switch in a creepy tenement – know what I mean. like cars in a parking lot. all in a row.
didn’t I just read that somewhere – science and art are one. 2011. yeah. WE LIVE IN PUBLIC/artfutura !!
~WE LIVE IN PUBLIC/THE UNDERGROUND BUNKER |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | February 11th, 2011, 3:42am
JOSH HARRIS – TAKES A COFFEE BREAK. WIILLIAMSBURG, NY – where Josh is currently holed up.
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH. OCT 2010.
JOSH HARRIS/OPERATOR 11 PROJECT, L.A. IMAGE/COURTESY JOSH HARRIS & ArtFutura
WE LIVE IN PUBLIC started touring the world, as in – seriously circling the globe – usually with Josh and Ondi (Timoner – the film’s auteur-director) in tow – after the film won BEST DOCUMENTARY (USA) at SUNDANCE 2009 – and it’s still going strong – witness Josh’s two gig – NEW YORK TIMES and GOOGLE HEADQUARTERS – keynote activity – at this week’s – SOCIAL MEDIA WEEK in NYC.
one recent tour gig that sticks out – was the screening of WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – with guest lecture by Josh – last Nov 4-7, 2010 – at the prestigious and cutting edge: ArtFutura 2010 – which took place this year in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
from the ArtFutura website:
“ArtFutura, the festival of culture and digital creativity of reference in Spain, crosses frontiers. For the first time, during the month of November (2010) the conferences and main exhibitions are held in BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA.
This year’s edition features as principal documentary “We Live In Public” . An extraordinary film about social networks and privacy on the Internet, which won the last edition of Sundance and which forms part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).
Directed by ONDI TIMONERthe documentary explores Josh Harris’ and his company Pseudo’s experiences . . . in the NEW YORK of the end of the MILLENNIUM and the dot.com companies.
Before the existence of Broadband and many of the services we consider to be indispensable today , HARRIS sensed – with great clear-sightedness – the consequences of our new life on Internet and the arrival of the social networks . . . ”
read: more here !! – WE LIVE IN PUBLIC/ArtFutura
what really struck me were these words on the ArtFutura site:
ART FUTURA / ART + THOUGHT
At the beginning of this third millennium we enter a process in which art and science run together on parallel paths.
Artificial life, Virtual Reality, computer generated images . . are only the first chapter of a new universe, capable of both broadening and shrinking the human spirit.
ArtFutura 2010 – presents JOSH HARRIS in the THOUGHT SECTION . . .
JOSH HARRIS/MR. TV HEAD/LAUNDER MY HEAD – early PSEUDO ANIMATION – concept by Josh Harris/animation by FEEDBUCK
Josh’s alter ego – LUVVY the CLOWN
JOSH HARRIS/C.E.O of Pseudo and founder/CEO of JUPITER COMMUNICATIONS – the first ever Internet ‘trend’ tracking site. (which he flipped for $86 million in the late 80s.)
JOSH on the ‘farm’ – an apple orchard in up-state New York – where he retreated in 2001 – after he lost, or he thought he lost his mind – after the crazy intensity of WE LIVE IN PUBLIC had run its course – and the financial collapse of Pseudo – but he only was at it again – anticipating intuitively – the local organic farm craze that has since swept the nation and the globe. you know – uber-foodies and back-to-the-farm green markets, the cult of the locavores, the whole deal.
Josh loved to drive the tractors. at the time he said every (organic) apple was going to have not only a shelf life – but a bar code that would gave its unique ‘name’- were it was raised !! yikes, not far off was he ?
all 4 images/COURTESY: JOSH HARRIS & ArtFutura.
but what also struck me for the first time – was the title & text – of Josh’s ArtFutura presentation: THE HUMAN CHICKEN FACTORY !! what the hell was he talking about !!??
the introductory text by JOSH HARRIS to his ArtFutura gig – begins:
“Imagine being a Mayan Indian ages ago declaring that 2012 is the year the world as we know it will end. The problem for the Mayans back then was that they could not conceive of “how” a technological revolution would connect people and information independent of space and time.
The Mayans simply accepted that the human condition born from millions of years of evolution would end and evolve into another form of consciousness. We now know that they are talking about The Singularity (billions of brains weaved together in a vast data net that form a new higher level intelligence.)
For us modern humans, now living at the cusp of the 2012 dividing line, the issue at hand is perspective. To the extent possible we need to understand that the next evolutionary force is building, at a rapidly accelerated pace, better and more efficient human chicken factories. We need to understand that these factories are cages of the mind and that we are becoming the factory chickens that we eat. With the QUIET installation (year 2000 Christian millennium) we asked artists to build a prototype human chicken factory designed for groups of people. With the We Live In Public installation we wired for individual caging. . . ”
read: more – JOSH HARRIS/HUMAN CHICKEN FACTORY/ArtFutura 2010
also: check out the wonderful catalog – they, ArtFutura – printed up for Josh !!
what Josh means by human chicken factory is the social network. facebook, the wired web grid – etc – all interconnected and increasingly ‘stacked’ and ‘caged’ – as are – our (non-organic !!) chickens – raised in tiny cages – one on top of the other – in our worst – big company industrial chicken farm scenarios – aka – factories. chicken factories. get it ?
it’s the yin yang of the web grid. of the new world computer-realized social network.
at it’s best, straight – or most naive – it is this:
the ‘official’ – cleaned-up and totally fictional WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – logo poster – that Ondi Timoner actually manufactured – to brand – the film !!
and bring it into focus – as a social networking precursor !!
PHOTO: DONNA FERRATO/COURTESY WE LIVE IN PUBLIC
and at – its worst – !!
in fact – the pod – as in sleeping ‘pod’ – at QUIET – the basis of the WE LIVE IN PUBLIC experience – a 24-hr wired surveillance and real-time live streaming multi-channel video event – not to mention $1 million dollar Millennium party & art performance – as it actually was.
after the first few days – when all hell broke lose – the ‘pod’ – the artist-built jerry-rigged web / grid sleeping hotel and 24/7 surveillance hot spot – not the cameras and TV monitors – really looked more like this !!
in fact in most media reports – the sleeping ‘pod’ – is deemed: “the underground bunker” !!
trust me – it was so. even if those guys in the clean-cut version are wearing our same house crew uniforms orange pants & gray utility work shirts !! QUIET and the artist/visionaries who fueled it – were a hardcore NYC downtown bonafide artist bunch – if I ever did see one.
and I was there.
NANCY & THEO. Dec 1999 – at the very beginnings.
PHOTO: DONNA FERRATO/COURTESY WE LIVE IN PUBLIC
Josh watched the initial idealism and futurism – of QUIET – devolve into mayhem – and, well he instigated it a lot of that – – as Luvvy !!
(another story for another time. – yes, that bad.)
hence: up close he witnessed first-hand – the human social ‘network’ – at its earliest homemade Josh-built inception – devolve into a wild and crazy mad bad ‘chicken’ factory – up-close & personal !!
Josh always said he felt QUIET – and the subsequent WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – was more of a social experiment than an art installation or even a truly wild in your-face no-stops dot.com party.
IMAGE/STUDIOFILMCLUB
this was also brought to mind by the (also) recent, super chic STUDIOFILMCLUB presentation of WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – this past January 13, 2011.
STUDIOFILMCLUB is a weekly film club – for free – hosted by Gavin Brown enterprise artist PETER DOIG (whose work can command millions of dollars – in the contemporary auction art market) and CHE LOVELACE in Laventille, near Port of Spain, TRINIDAD !!
StudioFilmClub screens “Caribbean, foreign language, and independent films – it’s casual no-frills atmosphere attracts an eclectic audience of artists, writers, and other movie fans.”/Wikipedia
you’ll note they’ve got that ‘cleaned-up’ multi-screen thing – going on in their WE LIVE IN PUBLIC promo-image above !!
the social network – in its – ‘straight’ factor grid – – as opposed to the grid dissolution into mayhem – as JOSH seems to be predicting – aka the chicken factory – but wait, just you wait and see !!
in fact, just by absolute random beauty – a day ago I stumbled across a pal watching the original – mother of them all – social grid movies – MATRIX !! and not sure if that is the actual first time – but a blue mutli-screen of the ‘matrix’ – the web of the future ??? – popped up into view – just as I passed by. and I lost my breath !!
it was also a blue multi-screen scenario – and ran across the screen – just as that StudioFilmClub image does !!
go back and watch it – again.
and you remember what kinda stacked ‘chicken’ factories – humans had become in that pre-sentient sci-fi thriller !! don’t cha !!
from MATRIX – the movie
actually QUIET, Josh’s homemade – web – looked a lot like this !!
the corporate – web – wired – hive – at the heart of the MATRIX – or as Josh would call it – the human chicken factory.
a hand reaching out from the MATRIX – you could be next !!
watch: MATRIX TRAILER
of WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – StudiFilmClub wrote:
“Ten years in the making and culled from 5000 hours of footage, WE LIVE IN PUBLIC reveals the effect the web is having on our society, as seen through the eyes of ‘the greatest Internet pioneer you’ve never heard of ‘ artist, futurist and visionary Josh Harris. . .
Harris, often called the ‘Warhol of the Web’ founded Pseudo.com, the first internet television network (it was before broadband existed !!) during the infamous dot-com boom (in NYC !!) in the 1990s. he also curated and funded the ground-breaking project ‘Quiet’ (the Pseduo $1 million dollar Millennium party) in an underground bunker in NYC where over 100 people (artists) lived together on camera for 30 days (actually just about 2 weeks before FEMA, the NYPD and FDNY – shut it down) at the turn of the millennium. With ‘Quiet’ Harris proved how we willingly trade our privacy for the connection and recognition we all deeply desire, but with every technological advancement such as Myspace, Facebook and Twitter, becomes more elusive. Through his experiments, including a six-month stint living with his girlfriend (former GF / Josh’s so-called fake GF – Tanya) under 24-hour electronic surveillance which led to his mental collapse, Harris demonstrated the price we pay for living in public.”
read: more/STUDIOFILMCLUB/JOSH HARRIS
IMAGE/WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – A FILM BY ONDI TIMONER – ABOUT JOSH HARRIS . .
~WE LIVE IN PUBLIC/JOSH HARRIS & THE HUMAN CHICKEN FACTORY |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | February 9th, 2011, 12:22am
OK. WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – the MOVIE !!
is available on: INSTANT NETFLIX, HULU & iTUNES !! – among a million other places. pick your own favorite poison – !!
as well – you can download it for free – on the web: WE LIVE IN PUBLIC/stageVU !!
or as Josh says: at the your – nearest bit torrent . . .
the official website: WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – has the official trailer.
ALL IMAGES – COURTESY: WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – A FILM BY ONDI TIMONER
~WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – OH YES WE do !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | February 4th, 2011, 12:19pm
JOSH HARRIS – STAR of WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – 2009 SUNDANCE WINNER – with the film’s director ONDI TIMONER. SPRING 2010
PHOTO COURTESY/WE LIVE IN PUBLIC & INTERLOPER FILMS
yep. JOSH HARRIS is the featured KEYNOTE PRESENTATION SPEAKER in NYC: at next week’s GLOBAL TECH / WEB FEST – SOCIAL MEDIA WEEK !!
don’t: miss that link !! – SOCIAL MEDIA WEEK
SOCIAL MEDIA WEEK – FEBRUARY 7-11, 2011
NEW YORK, SAN FRANCISCO, ROME, PARIS, TORONTO, SAO PAULO, LONDON, HONG KONG, ISTANBUL.
SOCIAL MEDIA WEEK/SMW is a:
” . . . global platform that connects people, content, and conversation around emerging trends in social and mobile media.
Delivered primarily through a network of internationally hosted biannual conferences and online through social and media media, SOCIAL MEDIA WEEK brings hundreds of thousands of people together every year through learning experiences that aim to advance our understanding of social media’s role in society.
Social Media Week was held for the first time in FEBRUARY 2009 in New York City, and was launched as a “distributed conference ,” with events taking place in locations throughout the city with organizations such as as the NEW YORK TIMES, WIRED, RAZORFISH and NIELSEN. Over 2,500 people attended over forty individual events, and thousands more participated online.
In February 2010, we expanded SMW from one to six cities, reconvening in New York while adding London, Berlin, San Francisco, Toronto and Sao Paulo. The multi-city evolution of Social media week attracted more than 7,500 attendees across 200 events, nearly all of which were made available for free to attendees thanks to sponsorship from a number of global brands, including MEEBO, MOTOROLA, VODAFONE, and PEPSI CO.
In September 2010, we made the conference biannual, adding Los Angeles, Milan, Bogota, Mexico City and Buenos Aires. In February 2011, the conference will revisit London, Paris, New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Sao Paolo and will expand to Paris, Rome and Hong Kong”.
SOCIAL MEDIA WEEK is owned and operated by Crowdcentric Media LLC.
(don’t ya – just love it – when even the tech sites – are not up & running !! ha. web engineers live in an alternate universe – that’s for sure.
all code & no deadlines !! – but yo – is that a friggin’ great logo – or what !!)
INTERNET GURU & WEB VISIONARY, and of course, not to forget ARTIST: JOSH HARRIS, WILLIAMSBURG, NYC. AUGUST 2010
STAR OF: WE LIVE IN PUBLIC a critically acclaimed ‘bio-flick’ documentary of his visionary NYC BLOW-OUT !! PRE-WIRED CITY !!
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH
SOCIAL MEDIA WEEK/SMW – WILL BE HOSTED THIS YEAR – IN OUR PART OF THE GLOBE – AT THE SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY HUB at GOOGLE / 76 9th AVE, NYC.
START: FRI FEB 11 2011 9:00 AM
END: FRI FEB 11 2011 11:00M
check out: THE JOSH HARRIS KEYNOTE PRESENTATION – WILL TAKE PLACE at THAT TIME WINDOW on FRI FEB 11. THE MORNING STARTS OFF WITH A KEYNOTE INTERVIEW with the author of Program or be Programmed, DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF with ERICK SCHONFELD – followed by a KEYNOTE PRESENTATION by JOSH HARRIS, producer of the Wired City.
Josh’s presentation is titled:
‘JOSH HARRIS: The Toothpaste Manifesto: Netcasting in the Age of the Home Studio’.
“The advent of home studio (a television studio in the home) is comparable to the advent of home theater 20 years ago, hence the retail theatrical experience was displaced by the home theater just as the traditional television studios are about to be displaced by the home studio.
monitoring the home is refined. Just as security companies (e.g ADT) monitor the perimeter of a home – more vertical monitoring systems will track most aspects of daily life, the home (and the rest of daily life a la ‘Minority Report‘) will become a series of sound stages. so the desktop will expand to the counter top, the fridge top and of course the bath top.
The bath top as a theatrical venue. Featuring just in time brushing (ergo video chat with other people who are brushing their teeth at the exact same moment). If Cindy Crawford and/or Depp was brushing at 8:32am on Monday morning you’d be there.
The Crest Oral Hygiene monitor will watch your mouth. In the future of toothpaste we can count on an “oral hygiene monitoring system” run by Proctor and Gamble, Colgate or Google. If your child misses a tooth brushing session you can be sure that the Crest equivalent of social services will let you know you are a bad parent.
Crest (or more likely their ad agency) will build the “Crest Net studio’s” in order to accommodate the above. The key to their success will be to connect people to space and time. or in other words just-in-time chat video brushing that assembles the most engaging and entertaining people at the moment you start brushing.
The world that we live in will become a series of net studio sound stages who will elevate even the most mundane of daily rituals into engaging and entertaining “micro day parts”.
When the human condition reaches a critical mass of micro day parts a psychic fracture (the singularities effect) will occur. or in other words the brain will convert from a mono tasking to multi tasking mode. thus the hive, matrix, or borg are born.
When the singularities effect takes full force the human will no longer operate as an individual”.
UP-DATE: JOSH HARRIS – KEYNOTE PRESENTATION:
NEW YORK TIMES VENUE: THURS FEB 10, 2011 at 2 PM
GOOGLE VENUE: FRI FEB 11, 2011 at 11 AM
~JOSH HARRIS KEYNOTE SPEAKER/SOCIAL MEDIA WEEK/NYC FEB 7-11, 2011 !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | February 3rd, 2011, 8:29pm
the QUIET SHOWER/PHOTO COURTESY PSEUDO.COM & ARTNET
CHARLIE FINCH’S BOAT – IS A COMIN’ IN.
first his dreamboat, Charlie’s Angel – LAUREL NAKADATE – hit the media – splat – big time – everywhere – last month, and this month – it’s his “Internet Star” – darling – JOSH HARRIS – whose gonna steal every spotlight and hot spot there is – out there, big time !!
read: ‘VIDEO KILLED THE INTERNET STAR’ – by Charlie Finch /artnet/ 7-27-01 – yes. that’s 2001 !!
JOSH HARRIS – in WIRED – THIS WEEK !! – PHOTO BY DAN MALAMID/IMAGE COURTESY DAN MELAMID & WIRED
note: Josh is wearing his ubiquitous custom silk screened utility jacket – designed & master screened by recently departed and really god damn-it missed: MARK ENGER of EXPLODING SKY. R.I.P. MARK ENGER (1963-2011)
note: the WE LIVE IN PUBLIC logo running down the front to the left – and the LUVVY logo, also designed by MARK ENGER – on the right.
LUVVY was this internet CEO and web guru’s – mad alter ego – and yes, we mean mad – as in bad boy !
yes, LUVVY the bad clown – was Josh !!
FIRST OFF: JOSH is featured this week – in a huge front page starring – tech article – by none less than WIRED – !!
in a lead article titled: ‘Singularities Effect’ Drives Josh Harris’ Dream for MIT Media Lab
the WIRED article leads off with a link to: an early WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – RADAR VIMEO CLIP !! ha.
and: the WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – OFFICIAL TRAILER/WLIP OFFICIAL WEBSITE – !!
the WIRED article begins:
Web impresario JOSH HARRIS burned through millions during the dot-com boom. Following the 2009 release of WE LIVE IN PUBLIC which documented Harris’ bizarre rise and fall, the Pseudo.com founder earned his living for a year playing high stakes poker in California.
Now Harris is back with a new plan: he wants to run the MIT MEDIA LAB. The Boston-area think tank has for 25 years championed sociable media , wearable computing and interfaces capable of “fundamentally transforming our most basic notions of human capabilities and daily life,” according to its website. the lab wil hire a new director and wants input about candidates. !!
follow the rest of the WIRED article: ‘SINGULARITIES EFFECT’ DRIVES JOSH HARRIS’ DREAM FOR MIT MEDIA LAB/WIRED/2011/01/31
not only that but:
MORE TO COME – GOT TO RUN, DUDES – YOU KNOW LIFE, THAT LITTLE THING CALLED – REAL LIFE – HAS MADE A REQUEST FOR A NANCY CHECK-IN !!
BACK WITH MORE – LATER – !!
but here’s a hint:
check out: SOCIAL MEDIA WEEK – JOSH HARRIS – AND HIS – TOOTHPASTE MANIFESTO – NO JOKE !! – WILL BE THE KEYNOTE SPEAKER !!
F*CK LIFE – JOSH – YOU ROCK !!
~CHARLIE’S CHOICE: JOSH HARRIS/QUIET/WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – FEATURED/ON WIRED !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | February 2nd, 2011, 10:35am
from the past to the present. KARA WALKER !!
just happened upon this black & white video . . . and well why, not !!
it’s posted: on the MoMA/MUSEUM of MODERN ART website – yeah, for sure you want to watch it !!
it’s titled:
KARA WALKER. Gone: An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It occured b’tween the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and her Heart, 1994.
and – it’s pretty amazing.
KARA WALKER. Exodus of Confederates from Atlanta, from the portfolio Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated). One from a portfolio of fifteen lithograph and screenprints, 39-1/16 x 52-15/16 in. Publisher and printer: Le Roy Neiman Center for Print Studies, Columbia University, New York. Edition : 35. The Museum of Modern art. General Print Fund and the Ralph E. Shikes Fund. copyright 2007 KARA WALKER
you can also find the above print and some other of Kara Walker’s black & white work – on this page: MoMA/Repicturing the Past/Picturing the Present/June 13 – November 5, 2007
where there: is also another multimedia insert/video
TWO SIMULTANEOUS – KARA WALKER EXHIBITS – WILL BE COMING TO NEW YORK – THIS SPRING.
KARA WALKER
SIKKEMA JENKINS & CO / 530 W22ND / APRIL 21 – JUNE 4, 2011
KARA WALKER
LEHMAN MAUPIN / 201 CHRYSTIE ST / APRIL 23 – JUNE 4, 2011
ALL IMAGES – SCREEN GRABS – MoMA/MUSEUM of MODERN ART
~BLACK & WHITE and brilliant – all over |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | January 31st, 2011, 1:47pm
. . . black and white and beautiful – forever.
‘Yvon’s Paris: Vintage Photographs from the 1920s’
the show opened Dec 16, 2010 – with a book signing by ROBERT STEVENS, author of ‘Yvon’s Paris’, published by WW NORTON.
the exhibit ran: Dec 16, 2010 – Jan 29, 2011
HIGHER PICTURES – 764 MADISON AVE – NYC
a wonderful and haunting show of vintage prints by postcard photographer PIERRE YVES PETIT aka YVON – as he liked to be known –
this show just came down – but you can still cruise the gallery website – for a most romantic and soul-solacing time. the show featured more than thirty vintage photographs exhibited for the first time.
from the press release:
Pierre Yves-Petit, . . . Yvon, as he considered himself, though virtually unknown by name, helped to shape the idea and physical understanding of the evolution of Paris. Through his company, Editions Yvon, he became what David Dunlap calls ‘the best-known unknown photographer in France.’
Preferring to photograph at sunrise and sunset, he worked the drama of the sublime, making stunning, hypnotizing and beautiful pictures. Yvon’s style evokes other flaneurs of the time such as EUGENE ATGET, ANDRE KERTESZ and BRASSAI.
Yvon, ‘Notre Dame’, c. 1920s, 3-5/8 x 5-1/8 in., vintage silver gelatin print.
this haunting and powerful image was found on the invite card for the show. it seems to say it all – about NYC, year 2011. about looking out over the city and the scene. esp the art scene. vampires and all. it seems to resonate with an uber contemporary grin.
Yvon, ‘Pont de la Tournelle and Notre Dame’, c. 1920s, 6-1.2 x 4-1/2 in., vintage silver gelatin print.
. . . though most of the photos bring to life, again – a lost time of great achievement.
Yvon, ‘Jardins des Tuileries’, c. 1920s, 4-3/4 x 6-3/4 in., vintage silver gelatin print.
. . . and all – of them – just stun you.
make you get quiet – and travel to the inwardly sublime. not a bad place to go – in our mean and speedy over-info, and harsh times.
brute force – be gone !!
Yvon, ‘Quai de la Tournelle’, C. 1920s, 3-3/8 x 5-3/8 in., vintage silver gelatin print.
Yvon, ‘Luxembourg Garden’, c. 1920s, 4-7/8 x 6-3/4 in., vintage silver gelatin print.
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY: HIGHER PICTURES
most def & and with profound delight: see more photos from the exhibit, ‘Yvon’s Paris’, HIGHER PICTURES
‘Yvon’s Paris’ by ROBERT STEVENS – published by W.W. Norton & Company
a beautifully produced hard cover book, released MAY 2010 / 9.5 x 11.3 in. / 144 pages. ($40)
regarding the book, from W.W. NORTON:
Photographs of the City of Light taken by a master photographer in the early part of the twentieth century.
The photographer PIERRE YVES-PETIT, who called himself ‘Yvon,’ wandered the streets of Paris between the world wars looking for the moment when the shifting light and clouds would perfectly reveal the city’s ephemeral, iconic beauty. The dramatic images of the city and its people that he made during those years would become the most popular postcards in France. They can still be bought today on Parisian quais and are eagerly sought by collectors.
With an eye for startling viewpoints and unusual weather conditions, Yvon photographed the city awakening at dawn, in the shimmering afterglow of rain, or seen over the shoulder of a gargoyle high atop a cathedral. ‘Yvon’s Paris’ reproduces more than one hundred of his loveliest images, many made from recently discovered glass negatives. This elegant and poetic collection captures the magic of paris at its most photogenic – the way many of us romantically wish it still were.
ROBERT STEVENS is Lecturer of Photographic History at SVA/the School of Visual Arts NYC, and at ICP/the International Center of Photography, NYC. He lives in NYC.
~BLACK & WHITE and Paris – all over |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | January 30th, 2011, 1:22pm
