The People Formerly Known as the Audience

Back in th saddle here today. Thanks to anyone who took the time with a seriously long post at Speaking of Ashes on Monday. Thanks to Ashes for the platform.



Brad Delong had an excellent piece yesterday on the need to build new institutions - see here. It is mostly centered on new media (blogs) as a needed antidote to the increasingly suspect media insititutions. (David Brooks of the NY Times recently spoke more vile accusations against the blogging community in typical hypocrisy mode) What is best about the post though is the link to this amazing piece by Jay Rosen at Pressthink called the People Formerly Known as the Audience. Its sort of an "open letter to the landlord" type of the thing. Its a great piece it truly is, with links to major media outlet heavy weights - the AP, Reuters, Rupert Murdoch etc. It goes quite nicely with the New Media post I did in May that linked to the excellent Economist survey.

Rosen's piece conlcudes with this:

The people formerly known as the audience are simply the public made realer, less fictional, more able, less predictable. You should welcome that, media people. But whether you do or not we want you to know we’re here.

Take some time with thread as well, excellent commentary.

So why am I taking the time with this cliche discussion on the power of blogs/podcasts? Because its about Audience. I know this notion of the audinece participating is also abit old hat for many in the performing arts/performance artists but it has become renewed and validated again in the larger public sphere. These are revolutionary times - I'm not sure we'll recognize much of anything in 20 years - environment withstanding.

What does this mean for the art audience? The painting/sculpture audience? Is that audience being empowered by the same forces we see effecting journalism and political discourse? With some many artists blogging and providing art criticism and art practice insights will this lead to a wider more engaged audience? Do we as practioners/artworld citizens even know this audience? (aside from ourselves) Is there a new audience yet to emerge? One largely coming to the fold through art blogs?

Bill Gusky reports on one seemingly stilted effort at a New Media art experience by the Whitney Museum's traveling show Remote Viewing , which asks patrons of the St. Louis Art Museum to view art works through an Ipod. Bill is riffing on the heels of Todd Gibson's original June 16th post on the same exhibit. The curators of the exhibit in essence are asking audiences to choose a mediated experience through a popular manufactured commodity over/or in addition to a direct and personal viewing experience. Ironies and cross-branding aside - as Bill abley points out - the Audience unwittingly becomes secondary to the device. Its the technology of the device that the curators are interested in - and how that technology mediates experiences with painting and drawing through "remote viewing". The art is simply "future"media content and the viewer becomes the consumer. I would have preferred that patrons were given a chance to create a podcast while interacting with the exhibit. It seems that would have been more in the spirit of New Media and given patrons a chance to speak to their art experience. I'm sure many of them would have provided excellent and original commentary - and I'm sure some of it would have been bad, but that is the power of it after all. Imagine a general audience asked what they think and feel about what they are viewing? Could change some lives I think. I haven't seen the show so if someone knows more on the actual usage of the device please let me know, couldn't find one mention of the Ipods in any review I read on line, which speak volumes in itself perhaps.

So everyone, I'm interested in what people think about the questions posed above regarding the influence of New Media and the People Formerly Known as the Audience:

Send me your thoughts and I'll post a piece based on those.



image: Rocky Horror - the first active film audience?

Quest for Renewal

Today I'm guest posting over at Speaking of Ashes! Very exciting.
The subject is the Art Renewal Center - and its looong so be warned!








ARC image: First Kiss - William Bouguereau

Poe: on effect

Heading into the weekend so I thought I would tone down a bit from all the hysteria and acrimony bouncing around the art web. Its come to my attention that we are all feeding off each other quite well in this bathysphere of art blogging but that we do too often sound like we are speaking for our own catharsis and perhaps forget why we all started blogging in the first place - catharthis !!!. Kidding, we're all speaking to each other for the purpose of the larger discussion on practice, ART PRACTICE and meaning in all its forms and frustrations.

I'm devouring a new book by the duo of Reiser + Umemoto called the Atlas of Novel Tectonics. Having just finished a wonderful brief encounter with Edgar Allan Poe and his thoughts on composition, I thought I would share with the studio in mind for anyone reading this.

Poe on Composition-
The consideration of effects over history and narrative:

There is a radical error, I think, in the usual mode of constructing a story. Either history affords a thesis - or one is suggested by an incident of the day... I prefer commencing with the consideration of an effect. Keeping originality always in view- for he is false to himself who ventures to dispense with so obvious and so easily attainable a source of interest - I say to myself , in the first place, "oh of the innumerable effects, or impressions, of which the heart, the intellect, or (more generally ) the soul, what one shall I, on the present occasion, select?

Second, the establishment of complex repitition:

As commonly used, the refrain, or burden, not only limited to lyric verse, but depends for its impression upon the force of monotone- both in sound and thought. The pleasure is deduced soley from the sense of identity - of repitition. I resolved to diversify, and so vastly heighten, the effect, by adhering, in general, to the monotone of sound, while continually varied that of thought: that is to say, I determined to produce continuously novel effects, by the variation of the application of the refrain - the refrain itself remaining, for the most part, unvaried.

Poe's discussion of composition begins with a mood (rhythm/refrain) which later acquires a narrative. Novel Tectonics elaborates further:

The refrain from The Raven, "nevermore" went into the poem before the raven did, in order to generate a certain tonal affect. The narrative came only later, at the end. Continuous variation within a homogenous refrain is also the means of modulating the possible duration of an effect. Variations in thought are generated around the same sound, changing its tone. "Nevermore" is like a zero and a one, it is objectively meaningless repitition read through in various narratives. It is an expression of a certain tone and intensity with variable emotional resonances projecting from it, including humor. "Nevermore" is the migration of the diagram.

It is the speed or slowness which causes the diagram to have particular and emotional resonances of understanding as well as creative staying power. The diagram or tone is the template for the practice or the act itself, which allows the artist to compose and navigate with an endless range of emotive and intellectual particularity without getting too mired in the topical (contemporary) or historical (nostalgic). Poe is genious and certianly an Art for Art Sake guy, but I think this idea of a tonal centerpiece, an intensity strategy rather, is fascinating and bodes well for hard questioning within the studio practice. It allows one to discover complex variables derived from a simple and personal constant - whatever form that diagram may take, refrain, rhythm, sound, color, melancholy, humor, etc. It hints at finding an element(s) within a process that can be constantly mined without trying to reinvent the wheel everytime you confront making. This has tremendous value, and I would argue, frees the mind to really find new routes of discovery without getting dragged down by discourse fears and demands.

Last Call for Net Neutrality

Have you called your Senator today? Hurry up!
U.S. SENATE


God help us

Dude, that is so shitty and cool.....

Paddy at AFC has a wonderful call to arms today that just makes me want to get on a soapbox and rant! She's basically calling it the Shutz effect or rather "Frank", which is seeping like puss into and onto so many canvases throughout the borough of Chelsea. More appropriately we should call it the Hunter College/Columbia template 2.0 . Or maybe just Painting for Dummies.

AFC cites the recent Nicole Eisenman works, as well as Andre Ethier whom I don't know but by the looks of it is making works in Eisenman's studio or the reverse? An addition to this list could easily be the current Jackie Gendel show. The list of painters engaging in this bad painting exercise is long - at least in NYC . Chelsea is wallowing in shit bag aesthetics with drivelish concepts and a lust for infantilism of the most sophomoric and banal. Just check out PaintersNYC for a regular taste. More importantly, read the threads and you'll get more than your fair share of inane discourse. I'm not saying that these particular artists are empty(certainly not Shutz or Eisenman, I enjoy both) or completely stylistic opportunists but something is up and something is wrong. There does seem to be a very real trend especially among emerging or middish career painters. I'm not sure what that has to say about location, gender, age or the current art school trends but I concur with Paddy, its an underwhelming gimmick that was already tired in 1984. How many more '80's pastiches do we have to live through? Are we at 8th generation yet? Wake me when Carravaggio comes back in vogue. Why is this calculated painting style still considered brave? Its so status quo at this point, quite conservative actually when you think about the last 60 years. The recent fucking rad, bad painting crop feels like a collection of hollow style mongers and quite honestly do little more for the world than provide hipster wallpaper for gallery hopping.

Why does this irritate me so much you may ask? I ask that alot myself because there is certainly a hell of a lot more to upset one in the larger world. I'm sure many think I'm some kind of sentimentalist or traditionalist. Perhaps, but only if it applies and pushes the current discourse towards something tangible and meaningful for as many artists and viewers as possible. Something outside of style needs to be sought, quit quoting lame dead art and make something about this world. This work is already dated - mid/late 2000's. Quite simply, I feel cheated and looked down upon as a viewer and forget that I'm a practioner myself, a double whammy. I think for me there is a snide and selfish insularity to this aesthetic. Its dumb, frankly. Its lazy and corrupt at the core, a self congratulatory exercise that I think requires the minimum of the artist and asks a hell of lot more in return from the viewer to adjust their experience and intelligence by having to navigate false importance and swallow the pretzel logic of an inverted value system.

image: Andre Ethier

More Gore...

Low and behold I ran into Al Gore again last night on Charlie Rose. Obviously the discussion centered on the film but some themes were expanded. The tipping point discussed was a 10 year grace period that Gore firmly believes we have - God I hope it is more than that. He still thinks radical change is possible which is an optimism I wholly embrace even if I don't fully believe it. Being a "half-full" person ain't so easy for me these days. The whole time you watch the interview you realize just how poorly our government is performing and just how disasterous a mistake it was to have Bush enter the White House. The race should have never even been close. Gore again comes off as flexible and agile of mind and quite honestly, a very feeling person. Some might call it Presidential.

Here's the episode if your interested - Al Gore on Charlie Rose.

On Edge

Well I finally got around to seeing An Inconvenient Truth on Saturday. Its an important film and I was nicely surprised as to how much I like Al Gore - I never imagined him so personable. Things are missing from the discussion and there are a few too many gauzy close ups of his Mac - which feels a bit infomercial - but I'm happy this film is getting into the public. Its a good continuance of (though not related) Bill Moyers' Earth on Edge from a few years back. My hope is that it can get into each classroom. The saddest part of all is that we know what's wrong - unlike so many other areas of the human tragedy, we can actually measure and see what is going wrong. There just isn't the political will from our leadership and I think our followership is nearly as guilty. Go see it and email your reps about it. Its a worthy film.

So Sunday, like a parrallel universe of denial, Tim Russert had three of the top four oil giants on board - resulting in hand wringing and crying about how hard they work delivering energy. See the full transcript here. They also kept on point that they need 100 years to fully divest of oil - if then! Forget the 40-50 year tipping point cited in the Gore film and endless scientific "report cards" administered by multiple independent bodies ( even the UN) that consisitently state we are in crisis mode. The oil boys insisted on not being energy independent but rather part of the global community. It was laughable to say the least. These Corps created the world oil economy in the first place, made the rules and continue to re-make the rules while consistently undermining international law and human rights efforts in hot spots. Anyway, you know that. I'm just glad they got a free 30 minute commercial courtesy of NBC/ General Electric. The lack of vision is appalling - just regular millionaires working under the ever increasing burdens of demand from thankless and Selfish consumers!

The tri-fecta today- there is a story over at MSN via Huffington about the doomsday Seed Vault. 100 nations have decided to lock away all the earth's seeds near the Arctic Circle. Effectively storing the history of human plant domestication. Its pretty amazing when you think about it and quite prudent, but it is frightening to think this is what has to be done NOW as a safety net. I'm sure future mutants will enjoy corn on the cob as much as we do.

Basel Tov!!!

(from the official Basil portal-live)

There's a good two day old post over at Modern Art Obessesion regarding the rip roaring start of Art Basel this week and its weird (un)parallel with a massive international stock sell off. Here's the Bloomberg report MAO cites on the early sales success of the fair. I'm not going to going to echo the MAO anaylsis about how a $trillion in stock selling is perhaps an omen but a report at Bloomberg two weeks ago, postulated the possibility of a prematurely peaking art market if the global economy slows - might say nothing about something, but..... If you think I'm alarmist then read this bit about stagflation from the LA Times via Kevin Drum. (sorry, couldn't get a permalink with LA Times)

But back to Basel! So I thought it would be fun for those of us who couldn't be IN or at the fair, to highlight what we are ALL missing. (MAO has some choice quotes btw) The Basel website boasts the following:

"Works by 2000 artists will be on display while over 55,000 art collectors, art delears, artists, curators, journalists and art lovers take part in the annual family reunion of the Artworld! They come to see the most rigorously juried selection of what the international art market has to offer, and to meet the insiders and stars of the art scene!"

Notice that artists come in third rank on that list! So in the spirit of rigorous juries, I decided to curate a little online greatest thumbnail hits from the Art Basel website. Enjoy art lovers!

In no particular order:













HLIB favorite ;[}

Credit Freeze

You can always count on the US Congress to take the wrong tac on almost everything that they get their corrupt hands on. The latest is limiting consumer rights (yes again) when it comes to credit card fraud. So of course after reading this over at USA Today earlier this week I got really paranoid. If you are a working artist in an urban center such as myself, you understand the insidious nature of credit cards and their unfortunate necessity in keeping one off of the streets.

Far too often they have been the difference in my ability to produce work or not. (If you have a trust fund ignore this post) So for those of you in the purgatory of high interest rates, victims of identity theft, or if the bulk of your mail is unsolicited pre-approved credit offers, check out this timely and informative post by Ryan Singel at Wired News.

I've already called 888-5OPTOUT.

image from www.Cockeyed.com

Amazing Grace

Ok I'm a total geek for posting this but I still have my head in the stratosphere! By some divine miracle I was granted a free ticket to Radiohead's first night in NY on their new tour.
For total freakers - here's the playlist from tonight.

I'm still kinda speechless. So many bands and for that matter artists, are put to shame by these guys. This is what art should feel like, all components working dutifully together - mind, body and grace. Yes Grace! Totally lucid, visceral and borderline angelic. Awesome.

On Ashes' Painting is a Way of Thinking

I was more than pleased to read this entry over at Studio of Ashes late last week. Painting is dearest of all to my heart so its good to hear something intelligent and yet personal being uttered. You know something for adults? Anyway, beyond my general concurrence that painting is a mirror to the maker -it seems to me that you can't hide from what you can't do. Well, that seems to be too craft-centric a comment, though not intended to be. Let me re-phrase, it seems to me that painting is always present tense. Unlike photography which is a superimposition of reality and the past, painting is the now. Its who you are at that moment of making - a long, slow layered legacy of now(s). Always additive and subtractive yet constantly evolvong into now. You will always know what baggage you have brought to the 'easel'. You will be reminded of whether you are seeing clearly or not. Painting is a lateral move by nature, and as Ashes points out, the intelligence that is employed is not simply a singular intelligence, but stratified, incorporating the emotive, a "felt sense". That doesn't mean rigor and discipline are ousted, they are central of course - this isn't therapy. But there is something to the non -rational but comprehensive intelligence of feeling that's what is potentially so radical for the art of painting during this general decline of civil society and global democracy. For me, the best paintings don't scream, they stare through your heart with simplicity and grace. Good painting is about time, its about the strange beauty of discovery and the dedication of the pupil to that discovery. Its personhood, not a snapshot.

Image: Frederic Church

The Diabolical Diebold

The Brad Blog is running this report (since last week) that Diebold is up to its witchery again by quite possibly tampering with votes in the hotly contested congressional seat in CA. formerly paid for by disgraced Repug Duke Cunningham. Its a story I haven't seen any where else and yes, he is making a compelling argument that Busby may have won or at least we'll never really know because Diebold reps took voting machines HOME WITH THEM. Anyway read the report. I can't believe that no major news outlets are even looking at this? This is hardly a partisan issue - its a voting issue!!! I'm not going to link to a zillion places here but if this is true we can add CA to the long list of states that have lost the votes of their citizens due to these machines: FL, GA, IN, NC, OH, and CO. Call your representative and demand a paper ballot initiative. The elections are very soon! You do have the right to one vote you know - at least for now...

No Net Neutrality?

If you haven't been following the Net Neutrality Bill - you should be. To catch up on the issue check out details here at c/net news.com. Last week it looked like the pendulum had swung in favor of users when Google, Amazon and few others crossed aisles and got behind Net Neutrality.

Well leave it to the House of Repugnants to go with their lobbyist "johns" and vote against the bill today opting for a two-tier web. I'm inclined to think this is bad for citizens and the pubic discussion. Here are two sides of the debate courtesy of CNN: apologist vs. truth. I'm pissed and concerned.

And read the open letter from Eric Schmidt of Google.(thanks slashdot)

Warm up the virgins...

I'm pandering to a baser instinct this morning.....















... and from the NY Daily News - the gold frame standard

Rumsfeld as Muse...Holzer on Torture

Just saw this little gem over at AOL News, regarding an upcoming art exhibition in Baghdad. It looks as if political art - and political painting is alive and kicking outside of the greenzone. Muayad Muhsin is the artist behind the painting pasted here, titled Picnic.
I'm not going to say I think it is great as a painting - a little too illustrative for me - but it certainly packs a punch with its perspective on war profiteering and negligence regarding Iraqi cultural heritage. Its also good to hear that a public is is excited about a painting for a change.The artist is a war veteran of two of Saddam's brutal wars and feels that the men behind all of these wars have cost him dearly in his personal life. [An interesting counterpoint to Steve Mumford] I would argue he has found a potential new role as cultural spokesman for his war torn country. The Rumsfeld effect is going to cost us all for a long time.....


In other political art news, Jenny Holzer still has a show up at Cheim & Reid regarding Gitmo. Images here.

I'm curious what people think about Holzer and this subject matter? Is it topical platform art? Is Cheim and Read profiteering from the misery of others? Is the artist complicit with this? Is it simply a little too easy, a little too timely? Or none of the above. Let me know what you think - there's alot to consider here.

Saatchi Gallery is now "Your" Gallery

Not sure how many of you have seen this, but it was pointed out to me from a fellow artist. Saatchi Gallery now has an online gallery that is open to artists. You basically create an online profile and can post up to 8 images, CV, future exhibitions and a personal photo. Now you too can be a Saatchi artist! click here all you future art stars!

666-Prophet Culture for [End]Gamers

Seeing as its 6-6-06 today, I thought I would delve into the fundie phenomena. I'm thinking that this may be part of a series of posts where I look at what I believe are the two heirs to post-modernism: Prophet Culture and Network Culture. Maybe not so much the successors of the endless parade of -isms but at least the new replacement or prism that seems to be shaping everything we know, touch, and feel for some time to come. Its a big topic of which I am sure to be unqualified but I'll give it my best shot with the help of the real brainiacs in cyberspace along with a dose of Fred Jameson now and again ;)

I came across this alarming, though not surprising post on Daily Kos via Raw Story. The Christian Right has developed and is about to deploy and market a video game that looks to be quite competetive in the game market. In addition to being a financial ringer, it certainly has the potential to be a horrifying watershed moment not only for video game culture, but for the overall "culture war" and the way religion in general is dispensed to the youth of America. The game is positioned to be the first Dominionist game to break into the popular culture. By what devices? Violence peppered with racial, religious, homophobic hatred that usually equates to boat loads of money.

Hate is big business in case you hadn't noticed...

The game is called Left Behind:Eternal Forces. The men that are behind this have enormous cultural and political clout - though you won't hear about them on any art blog. They are Rev. Rick Warren and author Tim LaHaye. Rick Warren is a pastor of a mega-church and author of the multi-million copy selling book, The Purpose Driven Life. Tim LaHaye is the author of the wildly successful series, Left Behind - millions in sales as well. [If you think the DaVinci Code has suspect prose get a hold of one of these! Its written on a highschool level at best- but you knew that already.] Warren and LaHaye are also linked to James Dobson Phd. of Focus on the Family which is based in Colorado. Dobson as you may know is a major player in national politics and has been highly vocal against violent video games (and everything else for that matter) - it remains to be seen if he endorses LB:EF - but his publisher, Tyndale, helped develop the game so it may be within his interest to do so. Tyndale is the publisher of the Left Behind book series and is heading marketing and distribution.. It should also be noted that Mr. Warren was dubbed America's minister by Time magazine, having recently filled the LA Angels baseball stadium with his congregation. To sum up, these are the leading evangelical leaders in America who are heading major corporations which are looking to expand there religious and business programs onto a global stage. He has stated the desire for a billion stealth Christian foot soldiers and is actively recruiting business leaders and political leaders throughout the world, namely Africa at the moment.

But back to the game! What is the game exactly?

The game places the player in a Christian militia deployed into NYC to convert or kill the following non-believers: Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who supports the seperation of church and state - that would be moderate Christians and liberals. [Note to Catholics, yes you are still not considered Christians by Evangelicals - sort of like the the Sunni/Shia divide. So wake up!] Anyone who resists this spiritual mission "must be taken out with extreme prejudice". Scared yet? Sounds alot like our Islamist brothers abroad I'd say. But there is a special role playing twist in this game that must even have fundies squirming. If you get bored being a paramilitary Christian killer you can switch sides and become the Anti-Christ and go on about killing everyone, Christians included! Such fun for the flock. There's a grand irony here - not too mention a quite cynical opportunistic bigotry and hypocrisy.

This is one of the uglier sides of product endorsement by association. The association topic is nicely analyzed by the Kos post as well as Warren's dealings with Rwanda as a laboratory for his global project of creating Christ's landing pad for the Rapture. This game will be piped through the mega-churches and the international pastoral networks. It will get into the hands of millions of teens and generate millions in sales. Of course that strategy might be the silver lining that limits the distribution from reaching the mass market. I'd like to think that a game killing the inhabitants of NY won't have much traction in the gaming world, but I won't be surprised if the opposite is true. I also don't underestimate the power of pastoral networks. We see how churches have affectively become political action committees for the GOP.

So what does this have to do with anything? It has everything to do with the cultural environment that artists are facing or about to face. While the art blogs are discussing irony, cool paintings, and the corporate influence on art boards - your neighbors are busy reading Tim LaHaye instead of Zizek, they are looking to video game imagery to express their inner world view and not the latest show at Zach Feuer. My point is they aren't the isolated group - we are. Its an isolation that can ill be afforded. We've been hinting a lot around the blogs about the civic role of the artist (beyond online petitions against Bush and the local Anti-War protest) and what that might mean and look like for the 21st century. We have the onset of Network Cuture - as manifested by so many blogs - which is certainly to be at the center of everything concerning the private and the public - not unlike Faith itself. It is a culture that will also be mastered by these the new religious corporations in the same way grassroots liberalism was co-opted and mastered by the right wing over the last 30 years. It will be a battleground. I'm not claiming to have an answer or program here, but I do think artists could begin with the content they choose to engage and how to get that out to a larger populace - what ever form that may take. There is a need to find something that can be part of the larger discussion and not the insular trage-comedy of what passes for discourse on many artblog threads.This may be utopian well wishing and perhaps a little conspiracy centric, and quite possibly has nothing to do with what the artworld can be about or should be about, but I think the visual arts has to start addressing the larger concerns of the human psyche with less narcissicism and insider art cliches. If not, then the LaHaye's of the world will start (and are) filling the social, emotive, and philosophical void left by the arts and artists- just as a Madras passes for an education in Pakistan.

What is happening to people around the world? Why is it that these particular "spiritual" quests, the ones based on literal interpretations of ancient literature, are consuming billions of people? Why are so many turning to fascist and fundamentalist outlooks and ethics? Its a big question that needs to be addressed by visual artists in some manner. Big business and Big religion are combining so wanking off in the corner is going to cost us our collective heads unless a counter statement for the human experience is presented.

Call It Democracy - at the Brooklyn Museum

Decided to remind everyone about the film screening tomorrow - from a previous post....

This is a plug for Matt Kohn's film Call It Democracy which is being shown as part of the Brooklyn International Film Festival at the Brooklyn Museum on June 5. Tix can be purchased here.

Matt has diligently worked 6 years on this and dedicated pretty much everything he has to film - he's penniless and exhausted! This film is simple - its a call for election reform. Footage begins with the 2000 Presidential election and the Florida recount and follows through the 2004 Presidential election with the added controversies of Diebold and Ohio. Thankfully this is not a Michael Moore film but an ernest intellectual and personal investigation into the history of the American electoral process and the current problems we face. There are dozens of relevant interviews from scholars, politicians, scientists and regular citizens. If you plan to vote in the next 5 years, try and see this film.

Here's the homepage.

Knife in Back: political payback for NY

I guess fronting the $multi-million tab for the GOP convention just wasn't enough to spare us from future repraisals. Guess I better get that kit together afterall - accepting spare rolls of duct tape....

Look on the bright side New York - the Gulf Coast is doing just fine with Mr. Chertoff and compassionate conservatism.

Mets, Yankees win!