A human project

(via Eton | Quiet Babylon)

Sat, 25 May 2013 09:33:09 +1000

Althamer transformed the space of the prestigious Berlin...

Fri, 24 May 2013 12:35:59 +1000

Althamer transformed the space of the prestigious Berlin gallery, the Neugerriemschneider, into a picturesque ruin (2003). The gallery remained open (or rather desolate) 24 hours a day, which was interpreted as a vanitas metaphor, or even a pessimistic forecast for the “art world”. (via pietmondriaan.com)

Pawel Althamer, Fairy Tale, 2006 included in “Of Mice and Men,”...

Fri, 24 May 2013 12:23:00 +1000

Pawel Althamer, Fairy Tale, 2006 included in “Of Mice and Men,” the 4th Berlin Biennale.

Althamer used his exhibition budget to help an eighteen-year-old Turkish immigrant named Besin Olcay avoid being sent back to Turkey by the German government. The Polish artist, once himself an illegal immigrant in Berlin, wanted to help another foreigner stay in the city legally. Olcay and his family received financial assistance, and Althamer‘s installation in the exhibition consists of a lone running shoe, which belongs to Olcay, and an open letter to Erhart Körting, the city’s senator for internal affairs. The letter, which has been signed by nearly one thousand people—including many artists, curators, and museum directors—asks the senator to reconsider Olcay’s case on “humanitarian grounds.” (http://artforum.com/news/week=200614)

"An artwork is not as effective as a treaty or a law or a budget change. I don’t think a single..."

Mon, 06 May 2013 08:51:44 +1000

“An artwork is not as effective as a treaty or a law or a budget change. I don’t think a single artwork transforms society. But what an artwork does is create a cultural milieu within which things will be understood differently. That is what we’re hoping to achieve.”

- Tate Modern’s women’s liberation army | Art and design | The Guardian

I’m working on a new project with Catherine Ryan for...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:44:15 +1000

I’m working on a new project with Catherine Ryan for Underbelly Arts Festival. You could help us make it happen and receive some rewards for your support: http://pozible.com/removethebridge

(via Remove Sydney Harbour Bridge by Amy Spiers and Catherine Ryan)

Fischli and Weiss, Rock on Top of Another Rock, Serpentine...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 21:53:00 +1000

Fischli and Weiss, Rock on Top of Another Rock, Serpentine Gallery, London 2012

‘In Norway and here, to put one rock on top of another rock in the wilderness is the first thing you do if you want to make a mark. When you walk and you want to find your way back… you make this mark. It is a very archaic, simple thing, but it is referencing the [Robert] Venturi duck. We wanted to make something that forces you to stop your car and get out to take a photograph.’ - Peter Fischli

Public Art – because you’re worth it! | from Studio to Situation

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:48:20 +1000

Public Art – because you’re worth it! | from Studio to Situation

"It is because of our history that we are a confident and positive nation. We must not allow a..."

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:37:29 +1000

“It is because of our history that we are a confident and positive nation. We must not allow a confidence-sapping ‘black armband’ view of our history to take hold.”

- Libs reignite culture wars over Anzac Day teaching

(via Government tears up rainbow crossing - ABC News (Australian...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 08:17:44 +1000

(via Government tears up rainbow crossing - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation))

Roman Ondak, Resistance, 2006. “The work of Roman Ondak...

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:02:35 +1100

Roman Ondak, Resistance, 2006.

“The work of Roman Ondak consists of subtle interventions into sociocultural structures, which denote processes in society that are often outside of direct public visibility. His intervention entitled “Resistance” was a performance carried out at the opening of the exhibition “Kontakt… works from the collection of Erste Bank Group” at the Viennese Museum of Modern Art (MUMOK) on March 16, 2006. The video shows a number of people who have their shoelaces untied, standing and walking around in the exhibition space. By focusing on the feet of the people at the opening, the identity of the protagonists remains hidden as the camera pans towards the floor, capturing mostly black shoes and open laces. Fellow visitors were puzzled by this intervention, since there was no direct clue as to why certain people were posing this way. Thus Ondak queries the bondage, not necessarily visible, of certain peer groups, in this case through the need of people working in the field of art to proclaim otherness as a means counterbalancing social standardization.”

http://www.kontakt-collection.net/artists/Roman+Ondak/

Palle Nielsen, Model for a Qualitative Society, 1968:...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:19:00 +1100

Palle Nielsen, Model for a Qualitative Society, 1968: http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/childs_play/

The End of the Hangup - Ian Bogost - The Atlantic

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 11:28:08 +1100

The End of the Hangup - Ian Bogost - The Atlantic:

Why the physical form of smartphones and the unreliable operation of cellular networks has made hanging up the telephone impossible.

Catherine Ryan and I have uploaded to our blog documentation and...

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:28:00 +1100

Catherine Ryan and I have uploaded to our blog documentation and a description of the work we developed during our residency at ZK/U in Berlin: http://thefuturesofthepast.wordpress.com/monument/ (via Site Dedicated to the Active Effacement and Complete Disregard of History | The Futures Of The Past)

The latest issue of Das Superpaper is focused on performance...

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:21:00 +1100

The latest issue of Das Superpaper is focused on performance practices. I have an article in there entitled “Facetime: Intimacy and Discomfort” that looks at the rise of participatory encounters in Melbourne’s Live Art scene. (via Issue 26 | Das Platforms)

(via I wish I was as lucky as you / Richard Lewer)

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:18:59 +1100

(via I wish I was as lucky as you / Richard Lewer)

Workers demonstrate personal computers as technological...

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:19:00 +1100

Workers demonstrate personal computers as technological achievements in a parade in East Germany, 1987

Doing, Being, Performing

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 07:50:34 +1100

performamagazine:

By Bree Richards

Read More

The Toxicity of Smugness | Melbourne Review

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 07:33:35 +1100

The Toxicity of Smugness | Melbourne Review

"Not just in America but across liberal democratic societies, there is today a sense that all..."

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 07:24:07 +1100

“Not just in America but across liberal democratic societies, there is today a sense that all political subjects grope amid shared symbols for the lost purpose and unity of our communities. This search is a doomed quest: our political community can never be as smooth or consistent as it appears in our myths and ideologies. Nevertheless, commemorative events come around again — and so we try, again. Although we may not believe in ghost stories, we nevertheless gather in commemorations to “body forth” a haunted presence. This gathering stirs intimations of the past in the present, a revenant memory.”

- Ben Gook, 9/11: The value of memory

"The Internet is perhaps the closest thing we’ll ever have to the ring of Gyges—the invisibility..."

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:15:10 +1100

“The Internet is perhaps the closest thing we’ll ever have to the ring of Gyges—the invisibility charm that allows its wearer to be alone while having access to the outside world—which Plato posited as the truest test of how a person will act when freed from accountability or restraint. We might not be doing anything evil, but we’re not doing anything we want the world to see.”

- A Fake Facebook wedding : The New Yorker