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REGISTRATION is open for 'besides the screen' conference, workshops, screenings, and performances
by adnan hadzi 09 Nov '12

09 Nov '12

dear all, 'besides the screen' (bts) 2012 will be held in london, around goldsmiths college and the dekspace media lab, from november 29 to december 2. the full programme of the 'besides the screen' 2012 international conference is now online, please visit: http://bts.re. we are happy to announce that the registrations for the 'besides the screen' conference, workshops, screenings, and performances are now open. please visit: http://www.bts.re/node/133 (note that places on the workshops are limited, thus please add your name to the waitinglist). bts is an event about the continuing transformation of audiovisual media practices. the 2012 edition will have a number of panels, workshops and screenings – plus keynotes by professor janet harbord (queen mary university) and dr. charlotte crofts (uwe-bristol). check http://www.bts.re/node/133 in order to register for these activities. you are also invited to submit film, video, performance and installation projects for a special night coordinated by 'exploding cinema', please visit: http://explodingcinema.org. the conference is supported by the goldsmiths’ and middlesex' media & comms research funds.

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3D Karaoke
by G.H. Hovagimyan 22 Sep '12

22 Sep '12

Hi All, I've developed an open source app for use with 2 kinect cameras. It's a 3D Karaoke app. Right now it uses two cameras and processing. you add the karaoke songs and lyrics separately and put in the time code for the lyrics. it uses mesh lab as the 3D matrix. It can be developed further and is actually a good basis to develop lots of other live 3D video. Here's the link for the repository -- https://github.com/pixelPalace/3DKaraoke It's a lot of fun for parties! Still to be done is to add a 3rd camera. seems like the kinect software needs a separate USB bus for each camera. It won't work if two or three cameras are plugged into a USB hub on a single bus. The most I could get are two cameras. If anyone is interested in working with me to develop this further or take it in a different direction please contact me or grab the app and have fun with it! G.H. Hovagimyan http://nujus.net/~gh http://artistsmeeting.org http://turbulence.org/Works/plazaville

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Art Books with stolen YouTube comments up for sale on Amazon Kindle. KINDLE'VOKE GHOST WRITERS Press Release.
by verlag＠traumawien.at 09 Jun '12

09 Jun '12

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Vienna, 9 June 2012. *KINDLE'VOKE GHOST WRITERS.* A project by TRAUMAWIEN and Bernhard Bauch. 2011-2012. Our bots are compiling and uploading hundreds of ebooks on Amazon.com with text stolen from the comments on YouTube videos. http://www.amazon.com/Sparta-my-have-ebook/dp/B007MLJZSS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8… http://www.amazon.com/Wierd-song-you-cute-ebook/dp/B007MMCYIU/ref=sr_1_1?ie… http://www.amazon.com/Wierd-song-you-cute-ebook/dp/B007MMCYIU/ref=sr_1_1?ie… We programmed the bots to be completely autonomous. They are working uninterrupted through dislocated, anonymized accounts. We are not even able to track the exact amount of generated books infiltrating the Amazon Kindle library. The results are self-published, human-readable ebooks in form of classical dramas ready to be sold and enjoyed by a multitude of global readers, defining a new generative genre of digital literature: the 'slang of Youtube' - a digital Esperanto that emerged out of millions of users worldwide. The Internet slang of YouTube comments is treated as fresh dialogue, and sold through Amazon.com in the form of massive, self-generated e-books. In an auto-cannibalistic model, user generated content is sold back to the users themselves, parasitically exploiting both corporations: YouTube and Amazon. The KINDLE'VOKE GHOST WRITERS project's aim is to address and identify pertinent questions concerning the digital publishing industry's business models, as well as to draw the lines of new trends for a possible new kind of digital literature, after the web. The project wants to raise questions like: who do YouTube videos/comments belong to? Where does authorship start and end? To what extent does the e-book format have to be reconsidered with regard to the traditional book form, and what are its most innovative opportunities? How could we act and work on it? Furthermore, this project explores the idea of exploitation of labor on web platforms to create or comment on attractive content. So-called "user generated content" is a product created and consumed in the exchange of free labor managed with surplus information overflow. Giant Internet corporations exploit people's ingenuity by trading contextual advertising. Users are the workers of a communication-junk factory, whose bytes are consumed by the producers themselves. By manipulating this exploitation, our system will give fair fame to the authors of those texts that clearly deserve a fair piece of the pie of this nonsense economy. The project will presented in Vienna, on June 26, 2012. At Kandinsky Lerchenfelderstrasse 70 1070 Vienna 20h. A discussion will follow. http://goo.gl/maps/Xgyu Thanks for the attention. TRAUMAWIEN, Luc Gross http://traumawien.at/ghostwriters http://facebook.com/traumawien http://twitter.com/traumawien

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The Thing@VON presents an evening with Joshua Thorson
by w 12 Apr '12

12 Apr '12

dear thingsters, after a longer hiatus, the thing's monday screenings resume at a new location. we are very happy to have found a new place in the basement of VON at bleecker and bowery. i will be traveling in europe for a while longer, but i am confident shelly, cassandra, caspar and harold can manage without me. best wishes, wolfgang ----snip---------- The Thing@VON presents an evening with Joshua Thorson Where? VON, 3 Bleecker Street (at Bowery) When? Monday April 16th, 7:30 Joshua Thorson is an artist, curator, and writer. His work has been exhibited in numerous venues. His recent essay on Lisa Steele’s narrative works will appear in the forthcoming DVD box set of her work from Vtape in Toronto. In addition to his dissertation projects, Thorson has been working on a body of short fiction. Screening: Rock and a Hard Place, 2006, 22" (Color, Stereo, 4:3, DVcam and VHS video). One night in New York, not long after 9/11, a friend gave me a New Yorker article about some events that took place in mid-‘90s; the article was titled “Virtual Love” and was written by Tad Friend. The story was everything that troubled me about what had happened after identity politics took hold in the 1990s, leaving in its wake a compartmentalized, quarantined, impotent struggle between individuals who answer to no one–where victims are suspect. The script is adapted from an amalgam of articles, media, and online information regarding a boy named Anthony Godby Johnson, author of the “best-selling” memoir, A Rock and a Hard Place. (Coincidentally, as I finished this tape, the J.T. Leroy phenomenon broke). Protest Rushes, 2009, 3" (Color, Silent, 4:3, Super8 transferred to DV video). Part of an ongoing project of filming, on Super8, one-person protests of seemingly innocuous locations or phenomenon that comprise the banal failures of every day life. New Testament, 2007, 20" (Color, Stereo, 16:9, HDV video). Near the end of Bush’s presidency, I desperately wanted to be able to think about the future again. This video is about the use and abuse of the idea of “Christ” by politicians who distort the basic ideas and teachings into their image of a capitalist society of control, and how ridiculously impossible that is; it is just as much about how race has been manipulated for political purposes. In this video, the black Christ figure continuously escapes control towards..... Is that Isis? The script is loosely based on two texts by D.H. Lawrence, among his last works, Apocalypse and The Man Who Died, while keeping in mind Philip K. Dick’s Valis trilogy. Divorce 2.0, 2010, 14" (Color, Stereo, 16:9, HD animation and DVcam video). I developed this piece out of a one-paragraph “news-of-the-weird” article that was in the New York Post. I wasn’t entirely sure why I saved this article until I began to think about how I hover around my laptop at certain times during the day, checking messages or email or the news or blogs or Facebook, whatever–the way that I circle the computer, come in for a dive, leave the room, come back, leave again, return... And how easy it is to lash out online at someone I’ve never seen, or simply delete a person from my world or change my preferences to hide them from view. What are the consequences of friendship reconfigured as a digital apparition and its inherent disposability? Horizon, 2011, 13" (Color, Stereo, 16:9, High-8 video transferred to web transferred to HD video). In 1982 EPCOT Center, or, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, opened–a little late in for such a utopic modernist project. It featured a ride called “Horizons,” which was sponsored by G.E, that showed a future in which technology and innovation coupled with the family unit would evolve into exciting and previously unimaginable territories–colonies in outer space and under the Earth’s oceans, etc. In 2000, the ride was demolished. Sometimes I nostalgically mourn the passing of the Modern moment, especially in terms of architecture and its desire to think the future, even if, as was the case for G.E.’s “Horizons,” it was all just a manipulative corporate ruse. The story in the video was written to loosely accompany the archival video footage of the ride. Masturbation in Space (collab. with Mike Harringer), 2011, 4" (Color, Stereo, 16:9, HD Animation and Mpeg video). This video, commissioned by Suzie Silver for her Strange Attractors project, is a collaboration between myself and Mike Harringer, who I met at a book fair in 2009. Harringer recounts an extra-terrestrial abduction that followed a humorous late-night conversation he had with his boyfriend about Whitley Streiber and Christopher Walken. Harringer's story is accompanied by CGI video sequences that vaguely illustrate Harringer’s story about auto-eroticism-as-performance for curious, sex-positive alien anthropologists.

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Re: [thingist] Baby-Boomers' Cowardice
by w 19 Mar '12

19 Mar '12

> On Sun, 2012-03-18 at 14:19 +0000, pffend Fend wrote: > the complete lack of spine of the US military about the disgraceful > act of a soldier gone, they say, "amok"; the least we could do would > be a court-martial of the soldier and, as Wolfgang pointed out, his > commanding officers Peter, that's not exactly what I meant. The commanding general actually has been trying to calm down his troops, as Robert Fisk observed in a recent article: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-madness-… What I meant was the _systemic madness_ of a stupid neo-colonial war that cannot be won. Who wants to be the last one to die for this idiocy? There are some good reasons Afghanistan has been called the graveyard of empires. So far, nobody but Ghengis Khan managed to stay there for any length of time. Meanwhile, here in downtown New York, one the occasion of the half-anniversary of the OWS movement, some people congregated at Zucotti Park. I decided to exercise my constitutional right to free assembly and joined them in the evening. When I arrived, a crowd of perhaps 500 peaceful people were hanging out. While chatting with some old friends (Rene Gabri was there and some people from the Mayan Spring Training), I noticed a disproportionate force of NYPD troopers massing on the eastern side of the park. Then, without giving any reason (the park ostensibly has 24 hours public access, so the assembly was perfectly legal) they suddenly announced with a bullhorn that they were going to clear the park and if we wouldn't leave immediately we'd be subject to arrest. Some people sat down and the cops moved in with drawn batons and started arresting people. Those who didn't move were dragged away by force and loaded into waiting vans. Let's face it, the US is a failed state, run by a gang of thieves out of 200 West Street, the one thing Alessio Rastani was right about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC19fEqR5bA If you try to reason with them, you look like Kermit the frog. Nothing left but to join the occupation. Have a nice day, Wolfgang

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more turbo madness
by w 25 Feb '12

25 Feb '12

thingsters, this sunday at 3pm inside The MoMA PS1 Performance Dome an afternoon of unlimited turbo madness: Turbo Movies YouTube Favorite Memes Performances Visual panel discussion Party Bar Guests include: Wolfgang Staehle, artist Phil Sick, writer Adam Kleinman, critic/actor Giovanni De Dona, philosopher Eva and Franco Mattes, artists thingsters, this is going to be good! we've built a beautiful shack with a bar in this horrible dome... come inside the shack and we'll have tequila boom boom! http://post.thing.net/node/3583 http://www.thelmagazine.com/TheMeasure/archives/2012/01/31/beyond-performan…

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What about a subjective, evolving, archive?
by Justin Berry 18 Feb '12

18 Feb '12

I am new to THE THING, having only become involved in the last year or so, working with W and Christoph on The.Thing.Net and the White Slab screenings. I became involved almost by accident--I was recently out of graduate school and making non-salable and non-exhibitable work, mostly web stuff, and feeling a bit chagrined about the art world and its various camps of ideology. I was randomly surfing the web and sending out feeler emails to every organization I could find that was involved in New Media. Wolfgang was the one who answered back. I had no idea what THE THING actually was. I went to look it up online and struggled to find information, only coming up with numerous references to someTHING but never an actual history or a literal description. The most glaring example of THE THING online was the Post, and I think enough has been said about that. It took a long time of being involved, listening in conversation, and attending talks by Wolfgang, etc. in order to really arrive at a sense of what THE THING was and what it represented. If it were not so tragic it would be humorously ironic that an organization that did so much to galvanize thinking about the internet as an artistic and political medium has no functioning legacy online. I think that a proper and academic archive could potentially happen, but it will take a long time and a great deal of work. The nature of academia is to quest after a kind of perfection, to create a source of objective authority. Great! That would be awesome. In a few years it will be something we can all be proud of. I think something different needs to be planned in the interim. What about creating a subjective archive? What about creating a nexus for the stories and narratives of THE THING. It could be a relatively simple interface, something like a data or tag cloud full of links to various stories, where the only hierarchy might be determined by font size. People with a story to tell or an event to document could create their own HTML page, with the only standard requirement being a ‘back to home’ button of some kind. The advantage is that this would allow each person’s ‘history’ to be acknowledged without necessarily privileging one or the other. One link might be called ‘eToy war’ and could be an account of those events while another might be called ‘Justin Berry’ and include simply my own experiences. These pages don’t even have to share styling, though we could certainly provide a CSS sheet for people to use if they chose. One person’s page might be a video, while another person could choose to simply write an essay; an event might be documented with only a series of contextless pictures. Something like this embraces the history of THE THING as a forum and a platform. This does not have to exist in opposition to a formal archive; it can be an accompaniment to that project. It also requires less energy to happen. Once a stable and functioning interface is set up it can be left to individuals to create pages as they wish. Each contribution can be considered on its own terms. It does not have to be ‘finished’, it can be an ever evolving project as new pages are added. Perhaps this is only a selfish wish. I would like to hear the stories and see the history and I would like to have that kind of experience sooner than later. There should be an online presence of THE THING’s legacy. In my experience every time people attempt to create an authoritative history of something there are a whole lot of histories on the table and it takes a long time to negotiate which ones stick around. Justin Berry -- Justin Berry (713) 302 9599 www.waymakergallery.com JustinBerryArt(a)gmail.com Waymaker(a)WaymakerGallery.com

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attention - last minute notice
by w 20 Dec '11

20 Dec '11

Tonights screening will take plavce NOT be at Pink Pony but at White Box! http://www.whiteboxny.org/info/info_index.html Jon Rafman (Montréal, CAN) will introduce his video work in person. "In this series of narrative shorts, the real confronts the ideal, the ironic challenges the romantic as the line between celebration and critique is blurred. Each film explores the relationship between identity and memory, both historical and personal; yet memory is unreliable and so anonymous narrators have difficulty distinguishing memories of dreams from memories of reality." - J.R. Ad-Vice for a Prophet DU3L City Girls News from the Madhatter You the World and I + A SURPRISE FILM

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CFP for Occupations: new conference dates and deadline
by Erika Biddle 20 Dec '11

20 Dec '11

FYI: The date for “Occupations,” the 11th Annual Graduate Conference in Communication and Culture at York University and Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario has been changed from March 23-25, 2012 to April 27-29, 2012. Please see information on the revised deadline for submissions in the CFP below. Also of note, Edu-Factory’s “Our University! A Conference on Struggles Within and Beyond the Neoliberal University” will be held in Toronto the same weekend. We will be working in collaboration with the Edu- Factory organizers on some events over this weekend; stay posted for details. For more information on the Edu-Factory conference, see http://www.edu-factory.org/wp/the-university-is-ours/ + + + INTERSECTIONS / CROSS SECTIONS 2012: OCCUPATIONS 11th Annual Graduate Conference in Communication and Culture at York University and Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada April 27-29, 2012 (new date!) http://thecomcult.wordpress.com Abstracts due: February 1, 2012 (revised deadline) Email submissions and questions to: intersections.occupations(a)gmail.com Occupy but better yet, self manage…. The former option is basically passive—the latter is active and yields tasks and opportunities to contribute.… To occupy buildings, especially institutions like universities or media, isn’t just a matter of call it, or tweet it, and they will come. It is a matter of go get them, inform them, inspire them, enlist them, empower them, and they will come. – Michael Albert, “Occupy to Self Manage” (http://interactivist.autonomedia.org/node/33609 ) The unfolding events at Occupy Wall Street and elsewhere present possibilities for new politics, and new forms of learning from, living with and engaging each other. Occupations are attempts to build the social compositions that are the precondition for action. They are the working through of a problem that politics-as-usual works to suppress— the massive exploitation that is capitalism and the emergence of politics adequate to address it. At this stage, occupations are the connection of people, ideas and machines—the cumulation of assemblages that might build something. What happens next depends on what is being built now. We invite graduate students from all related disciplines to submit proposals for academic, artistic and activist presentations and workshops that explore and otherwise critically engage occupations. Please send a 250-word abstract to occupations.intersections(a)gmail.com. Proposals should list paper/panel title, name, institutional affiliation and contact details. Workshop facilitators: Please provide a timeline indicating the duration and one or two general learning objectives of your session, along with space and technical requirements. Artists: If sending creative works by email, please limit attachment size to 5 MB or less, or direct us to a URL. Include viewing instructions, comments and titles if applicable. If submitting creative works by post, please mail the proposal, a copy of the work and viewing instructions to the following address: Intersections / Cross Sections 2012 Conference c/o Graduate Program in Communication and Culture 3013 TEL Building, York University 4700 Keele Street Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Occupations is presented by and for graduate student scholars, artists and activists through the organizing efforts of the Communication and Culture Graduate Students Association (GSA). For more information about the Joint Graduate Program in Communication and Culture at York and Ryerson Universities: http://comcult.yorku.ca & http://www.ryerson.ca/graduate/programs/comcult/

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CFP for Intersections/Cross Sections 2012: Occupations
by Erika Biddle 23 Nov '11

23 Nov '11

Below is the CFP for the annual graduate conference hosted by the Joint Programme in Communication and Culture at York and Ryerson Universities, Toronto. Please distribute widely. + + + CFP for INTERSECTIONS / CROSS SECTIONS 2012: “OCCUPATIONS” (March 23– 25, 2012) 11th Annual Communication and Culture Graduate Conference, York University/Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario Abstracts due: December 23, 2011; notification by January 23, 2012 Conference date: March 23–25, 2012 Please email submissions and questions to: intersections.occupations(a)gmail.com Occupare: (Latin.) To seize, capture Occupy but better yet, self manage…. The former option is basically passive—the latter is active and yields tasks and opportunities to contribute.… To occupy buildings, especially institutions like universities or media, isn’t just a matter of call it, or tweet it, and they will come. It is a matter of go get them, inform them, inspire them, enlist them, empower them, and they will come. – Michael Albert, “Occupy to Self Manage” (http://interactivist.autonomedia.org/node/33609 ) I think that our political structures are corrupt and we need to really think about what a democratic society would be like. People are learning how to do it now…. This is more than a protest, it’s a camp to debate an alternative civilization. – David Graeber, “The Man Behind Occupy Wall Street,” interviewed by Seth Fiegerman (http://interactivist.autonomedia.org/node/33897) This is a critical moment, as “Occupy everywheres” present possibilities for new politics, and new forms of learning, engaging and living with each other. From the recurring occupations of the squares in Greece and Italy to the UK’s winter of discontent and the Arab Spring, to the summer of protest in Spain and the North American autumn—at general assemblies around the globe, people are running their own lives, influencing the media and discussing what is to be done without politicians. The recent occupations are an education in direct democracy and the solidarity necessary for action. Occupy Wall Street, and the occupations around the world, are attempts to build the social compositions that are the precondition for action. They are the working-through of a problem that ‘politics-as-usual’ works to suppress—the massive exploitation that is capitalism, and the emergence of politics adequate to address it. At this stage, the occupations are the connection of people, ideas and machines—the cumulation of assemblages that might build something. What happens next depends on what is being built now. As it was written upon the recent expulsion of OWS from Zuccotti Park: “You can’t evict an idea whose time has come.” We invite graduate students from all related disciplines to submit proposals for academic, artistic and activist presentations and workshops that explore, celebrate, analyze and otherwise critically engage with the ideas emerging from occupations. Possible areas of engagement include: politics and aesthetics, movement research and performance studies, humanities and digital humanities, critical disability studies, labour studies, social theory, social movement theory, policy, political economy, communications studies, media, culture, pedagogy, technology, artistic practice and activism. Please send a 250-word abstract, as well as a brief biographical note (100 words) to occupations.intersections(a)gmail.com by December 23, 2011. Proposals should list paper/panel title, name, institutional affiliation and contact details. Workshop facilitators: Please provide a tentative timeline highlighting the duration and one or two general learning objectives of your session, along with a clear indication of space and technical requirements. Artists: If sending creative works by email, please limit attachment size to 5 MB or less, or direct us to a URL. Include viewing instructions, comments and titles in your email if applicable. If submitting creative works by post, please mail the proposal, a non- original copy of the work, and viewing instructions to the following address (well before the submission deadline): Intersections 2012 Conference c/o Graduate Program in Communication and Culture 3013 TEL Building, York University 4700 Keele Street Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Intersections / Cross Sections 2012: Occupations is presented by and for graduate student scholars, artists and activists through the organizing efforts of the Communication and Culture Graduate Students Association (GSA): http://thecomcult.wordpress.com For more information about the Joint Graduate Program in Communication and Culture at York and Ryerson Universities: http://comcult.yorku.ca and http://www.ryerson.ca/graduate/programs/comcult/

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JAM SESSION party
by w 19 Nov '11

19 Nov '11

Massive 24-hour DRUM CIRCLE and JAM SESSION party starting tomorrow, Sunday at 2pm, outside Mayor Bloomberg's personal townhouse: 17 East 79th Street. Tie-dye, didgeridoo, hackeysack welcome! No shirt, no shoes, no problem! And if you don't have talent, don't worry: FREE DRUM LESSONS offered! Also on offer: collaborative drumming with the police! Even though this is a 24-hour drum circle, don't be late! The mayor loves evictions. Who knows what'll happen? In any case, there'll be an afterparty in world-famous Central Park right afterwards. Please spread this announcement (www.yeslab.org/drumcircle) as far and fast as you can!

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"Blind Barber" by Alterazione Video
by w 09 Nov '11

09 Nov '11

PERFORMA 11 PRESENTS THE NEW CINEMA EVENT BY ALTERAZIONI VIDEO Saturday, November 12, 7:00 pm — 9:00 pm @ The Blind Barber (339 East 10th Street) Get a hair cut and mystical truths will be revealed. No cover charge. The last Turbo Movie by Alterazioni Video Starring: Wolfgang Staehle Raganr Kjartansson Mike Egan Uri Aran Viola Yesiltac Adam Kleinman Live sound track by: Alterazioni Video produced by: Dispari&Dispari Project

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ETC Grants Program Changes & Other News
by sherry miller 10 Oct '11

10 Oct '11

The Experimental Television Center is happy to announce that our electronic media arts grants programs have been given new homes. The *Technical Assistance Program*will be managed by free103point9 <http://www.free103point9.org/>. The *Presentation Funds* and *Finishing Funds* Programs will be administered by The Arts Council of the Southern Finger Lakes <http://www.earts.org/>. ETC has been administering the Presentation Funds and Finishing Funds Programs since 1989, and the Technical Assistance Program since 1998. It has been an honor and a privilege to have had the opportunity to work with all of you over the years. ETC would also like to thank Electronic Media and Film at the New York State Council on the Arts which has steadily supported our efforts to help the media arts flourish. ETC isn't going away, but rather refocusing our programs. We have redesigned the ETC website <http://www.experimentaltvcenter.org/>, so if you haven't visited in awhile, please take a look. We will be spending more time on the development of the Video History Project and working on preservation activities with our partner organizations at Migrating Media <http://migratingmedianet.org/>. /Experimental Television Center: 1969 -- 2009 /(5 DVD set with catalog), is an anthology of video art works created through the Residency Program since its inception in 1969 and includes the works of about 100 media artists. The collection was featured in 2011 at Anthology Film Archives. It was named top 100 DVDs for 2010 by LUX, the influential arts organization in London, UK. In 2011 the collection was named by LUX as one of 50 essential moving-image artists DVDs <http://www.lux.org.uk/blog/50-essential-artists-moving-image-dvds>in publication. The collection is available through the well-known distributor of contemporary art Electronic Arts Intermix <http://www.eai.org/artistBio.htm?id=13107>. The complete library of artists' works at ETC is being archived at the Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media <http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu/special/etc.php>. Under the sponsorship of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections at the Carl Kroch Library at Cornell University, the archive is curated by Dr. Tim Murray, Director of Graduate Studies in Comparative Literature and Director for the Society for the Humanities at Cornell. The mission is to digitize the collection and provide multiple levels of access to the works and study materials for people internationally. We are excited about the future and look forward to staying in touch with all of you. Ralph, Sherry, Hank and Dave --

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Today
by w 04 Oct '11

04 Oct '11

The Thing @ White Slab Palace presents Robert Boyd: Single-Channel White Slab Palace 77 Delancey St., NYC 10002 (South East corner of Delancey and Allen St.) Tuesday October 4, 2011, 8pm The Thing @ White Slab Palace presents a selection of Robert Boyd’s recent single channel videos. Included in the screening will be never-before-seen, single-channel versions from his new series of video installations collectively entitled, TOMORROW PEOPLE, as well as the single-channel mix of Xanadu. This will be the first time this version of Xanadu has been shown outside of the Sundance Film Festival, where it was an Official Selection in 2008. SCREENING: TIMETRAVEL_0, In Progress, 15min. *The video will be shown in installation form shortly before the screening. “TimeTravel_0” cinematically reinterprets Online posts culled from archived logs of Internet chat rooms shortly after the turn of the new millennium, to present a textual narrative about a gay visitor from the future. The work stages a one-sided dialogue as only the protagonist’s writings are shown. By leaving viewers to imagine the forum members’ questions and responses, the work engages them as participants in the narrative as it unfolds. XANADU, 2006, 28min. Culled from hundreds of hours of archival footage including that of doomsday cults, iconic political figures and global fundamentalist movements, the videos that comprise Robert Boyd’s “Xanadu,” tweak, condense, and re-frame modern events into seconds-long image bites, representing a history of apocalyptic thought as a series of MTV-style music videos. In Order: Heaven’s Little Helper (2005), Patriot Act (2004), Judgment Day (2006), Xanadu (2006), Exit Strategy (2005). TOMORROW PEOPLE, In Progress, 32min. In an era uncertain of its outcome, does dreaming of the future help us create a better world - or is it a reactionary escapism we have devised to alleviate nervous fears regarding a current global state of affairs? Videos from Robert Boyd's TOMORROW PEOPLE, explore the role that fantasy plays in human self-determination. Taking its title from a children's science-fiction drama created in the 70s for British television, TOMORROW PEOPLE combines archival footage from an array of sources that, when viewed together, forms a snapshot of the social landscape of our time. This footage includes excerpts from science-fiction dramas, news reports on historic and contemporary political events, docudramas about UFOs, the paranormal and conspiracy theories - as well as excerpts from educational programming related to String Theory and Time Travel. In Order: TOMORROW PEOPLE Trailer (2008), Conspiracy Theory (2008), The Man Who Fell To Earth (2009), Autumn Changes (2010). ROBERT BOYD is an interdisciplinary artist working in the areas of video installation, photography and sculpture. His work has recently been presented at C/O Berlin, Berlin (2011); Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2010); Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong (2009); Sundance Film Festival, Park City, UT (2008); MoMA/PS1, LIC, NY (2008); Pinchuk ArtCentre, Kiev, Ukraine (2008); Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indianapolis, IN (2007); Context Galleries, Derry (2007); Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT (2007); and Participant Inc, New York (2006). His work is included in several public collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la Création in Paris.

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Today: Robert Boyd: Single-Channel
by w 04 Oct '11

04 Oct '11

The Thing@White Slab Palace presents Robert Boyd: Single-Channel White Slab Palace 77 Delancey St., NYC 10002 (South East corner of Delancey and Allen St.) Tuesday October 4, 2011, 8pm The Thing @ White Slab Palace presents a selection of Robert Boyd’s recent single channel videos. Included in the screening will be never-before-seen, single-channel versions from his new series of video installations collectively entitled, TOMORROW PEOPLE, as well as the single-channel mix of Xanadu. This will be the first time this version of Xanadu has been shown outside of the Sundance Film Festival, where it was an Official Selection in 2008. SCREENING: TIMETRAVEL_0, In Progress, 15min. *The video will be shown in installation form shortly before the screening. “TimeTravel_0” cinematically reinterprets Online posts culled from archived logs of Internet chat rooms shortly after the turn of the new millennium, to present a textual narrative about a gay visitor from the future. The work stages a one-sided dialogue as only the protagonist’s writings are shown. By leaving viewers to imagine the forum members’ questions and responses, the work engages them as participants in the narrative as it unfolds. XANADU, 2006, 28min. Culled from hundreds of hours of archival footage including that of doomsday cults, iconic political figures and global fundamentalist movements, the videos that comprise Robert Boyd’s “Xanadu,” tweak, condense, and re-frame modern events into seconds-long image bites, representing a history of apocalyptic thought as a series of MTV-style music videos. In Order: Heaven’s Little Helper (2005), Patriot Act (2004), Judgment Day (2006), Xanadu (2006), Exit Strategy (2005). TOMORROW PEOPLE, In Progress, 32min. In an era uncertain of its outcome, does dreaming of the future help us create a better world - or is it a reactionary escapism we have devised to alleviate nervous fears regarding a current global state of affairs? Videos from Robert Boyd's TOMORROW PEOPLE, explore the role that fantasy plays in human self-determination. Taking its title from a children's science-fiction drama created in the 70s for British television, TOMORROW PEOPLE combines archival footage from an array of sources that, when viewed together, forms a snapshot of the social landscape of our time. This footage includes excerpts from science-fiction dramas, news reports on historic and contemporary political events, docudramas about UFOs, the paranormal and conspiracy theories - as well as excerpts from educational programming related to String Theory and Time Travel. In Order: TOMORROW PEOPLE Trailer (2008), Conspiracy Theory (2008), The Man Who Fell To Earth (2009), Autumn Changes (2010). ROBERT BOYD is an interdisciplinary artist working in the areas of video installation, photography and sculpture. His work has recently been presented at C/O Berlin, Berlin (2011); Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2010); Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong (2009); Sundance Film Festival, Park City, UT (2008); MoMA/PS1, LIC, NY (2008); Pinchuk ArtCentre, Kiev, Ukraine (2008); Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indianapolis, IN (2007); Context Galleries, Derry (2007); Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT (2007); and Participant Inc, New York (2006). His work is included in several public collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la Création in Paris.

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Peter Fend at White Slab Monday
by w 22 Sep '11

22 Sep '11

dear all, peter fend is in town, so i thought we would give him the white slab platform next monday to show some videos and update us on his latest plans to save the planet: POST-PETROLEUM AND POST-DAM ENERGY PRODUCTION PETER FEND THE THING at WHITE SLAB PALACE 77 Delancey Street (at Allan) Monday, September 26 8 pm Back Room more info at http://post.thing.net/ hope to see you there, wolfgang

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Favorite post
by Jee Won Kim 05 Sep '11

05 Sep '11

I think this is the right time. It is motivation about enriching a culture not about enriching a purse/wallet. You are right in this. This is the only way we will advance as a society without fighting each other. Collaboration is the only way we can escape from our calculated path of destruction. I know for my self I would like to live in a society that the motivation is about the cultural good. Not driven by monetary greed for our situation. It is tragic that young people are not able to find affordable housing in NYC. Why does Austria provide a better service to the people. This is a shame on our existence. Jee Won Kim Architect 217 Centre Street 5th floor New York, NY 10013 jeewon(a)jwkarchitect.com Sent from my iPhone On Sep 4, 2011, at 6:39 PM, w <w(a)thing.net> wrote: > if you are in new york next week, come on saturday, september 10. > i'll be there in the afternoon. > > http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/ney/en8045185v.htm > > this is my favorite list now. nobody posts anything anymore. > > wolfgang > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > thingist mailing list > thingist(a)mailman.thing.net > https://mailman.thing.net/mailman/listinfo/thingist Jee Won Kim Architect 217 Centre Street 5th floor New York, NY 10013 jeewon(a)jwkarchitect.com Sent from my iPhone

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Tonight, May 2, 8 PM: The Thing @ White Slab Palace presents Swinging Poland in the 1970's
by christoph draeger 02 May '11

02 May '11

Please join us for an evening with films related to the idea of Swinging Poland in the 1970's, at The Thing @ White Slab Palace 77 Delancey Street at Allen St This Monday, May 2nd, 8 - 10 pm Swinging Poland in the 1970's An evening with Zuzanna Janin and Jozef Robakowski, curated by Christoph Draeger Majka from The Movie (The Madness of Majka Skowron), Zuzanna Janin (PL, 2009-2010, several episodes, Total running time: 78 min) courtesy of LOKAL_30, Warsaw From My Window 1978-1999, Jozef Robakowski (PL, 2000, 30 min) courtesy of LOKAL_30, Warsaw. With many thanks to Ludlow 38/ Goethe Institut New York At its basic level, the Majka From the Movie project is a series of videos whose structure resembles that of a television series. Like episodes of a single soap opera, all the works have the same trailer and an identical ending, with autonomous episodes taking place in between. From this starting point and from the idea of shooting an “art” series that resembles the format of TV productions, Janin’s project develops into a multidimensional enterprise. Combining the discourse of collective and individual memory, it is an attempt at telling a story from the point of view of an individual, a reflection on the entanglement of fiction and reality in contemporary culture. Last but not least, it provokes reflection on the indelible mark stamped by cinematography and popular culture on our image of the world and of ourselves. Stach Szablowski From My Window was filmed over more than twenty years from Robakowski’s apartment. Looking down onto the public square below, his witty pseudo-documentary observes the daily activities with biting of his neighbors and mass gatherings such as the annual May Day marches. Zuzanna Janin will show several Majka from the Movie episodes in The Last Analog Revolution at the Venice Biennale 2011 and in the show Particolare at Signum Foundation in Venice (opening 3rd June). Don’t miss Jozef Robakowski’s great solo exhibition at Ludlow 38 in New York, through May 15! Beer on tap. ==================================================================================== Still from: Majka from The Movie (The Madness of Majka Skowron), Zuzanna Janin

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spring collection
by w 29 Apr '11

29 Apr '11

announcing the thing spring collection. now open at https://auctionthing.net/spring-collection/ this is a preview, we will be adding more work as it comes in. pass it on! the spring collection is a benefit event for the thing, but https://auctionthing.net is open to anyone who wants to buy and sell art works. if you have anything you want to auction off on auctionthing, let me know and i will send you an invitation code. greetings from berlin, wolfgang

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Shelly Silver at The Thing @ White Slab Palace, Tue April 26th, 8-10 pm
by Heidrun Holzfeind 25 Apr '11

25 Apr '11

Please join us for an evening with Shelly Silver at The Thing @ White Slab Palace 77 Delancey Street at Allen St Tuesday April 26th, 8-10 pm program: 37 Stories About Leaving Home (52 min, 1996) 5 lessons & 9 questions about Chinatown (10 min, 2009) What I'm Looking For (15 min, 2004) (and maybe a surprise!) Under Silver's direction, video becomes a tool to ponder life's meaning, to create parables about the conundrums of existence. Her videotapes prod, query and confront the way we construct our world and ourselves. (Sally Berger) Don't miss this program! Best, Heidrun 37 Stories About Leaving Home (1996, 52 min, color, sound) 37 Stories About Leaving Home provides a rare and personal view into the lives of Japanese women. This beautifully constructed and complex video weaves stories told by a group of Japanese grandmothers, mothers and daughters, ranging in age from 15 to 83. The stories recount each woman's personal journey from child to adulthood—their experiences of leaving home. It points to the enormous societal changes that have occurred in Japan over the last few generations, showing how these women are both influencing and coping with these changes in their own different, individual and creative ways. "Subtle and insightful... highlighting the competing demands of tradition and personal freedom. Silver presents a remarkable portrait of a culture about to experience seismic social change." (Steven Bode, Film and Video Umbrella, London) "A beautiful film." (Margarethe von Trotta) In 37 Stories about Leaving Home (1996), Silver's view becomes intimate and lyrical, as she creates a portrait of a group of mothers, daughters and grandmothers living in the Tokyo area. These women encompassing three generations, recount childhood memories, dreams and the small daily moments that make up their lives, to build a picture of the strong and complex relations existing between mothers and daughters. Silver, in typical fashion, layers the narrative by weaving in fiction with the documentary material in the form of a traditional, but shocking Japanese folktale of a mother and daughter caught in the grasp of an awful Oni, an ogre who is half-human, half-monster. (Sally Berger) What I'm Looking For (15 minutes, 2004) A woman sets out to photograph moments of intimacy. On an Internet dating site she writes: 'I'm looking for people who would like to be photographed in public revealing something of themselves...' What I'm Looking For, a 15-minute high definition video, documents this adventure; the connections formed at this intersection between virtual and actual public space. The video is a rumination on the nature of photography and the persistence of vision. It is a short tale of desire and control. 5 lessons and 9 questions about Chinatown (10 minutes, 2009) 10 square blocks, past, present, future, time, light, movement, immigration, exclusion, gentrification, racism, history, China, America, 3 languages, 13 voices, 152 years, 17,820 frames, 9 minutes, 54 seconds, 9 questions, 5 lessons, Chinatown.... You live somewhere, walk down the same street 50, 100, 10,000 times, each time taking in fragments, but never fully registering THE PLACE. Years, decades go by and you continue, unseeing, possibly unseen. A building comes down, and before the next one is up you ask yourself 'what used to be there?' You are only vaguely aware of the district's shifting patterns and the sense that, since the 19th century, wave after wave of inhabitants have moved through and transformed these alleyways, tenements, stoops and shops. more info: www.shellysilver.com

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The Thing @ White Slab Palace, April 11, 8 – 10 pm
by w 07 Apr '11

07 Apr '11

Documentary Night with David Gray & Katie McQuerrey http://post.thing.net The People vs. Betty Gooch (2011, 57 min) David Gray (Call it SNEAK PREVIEW, we call it WORLD PREMIERE) The true crimes and punishment of Betty Gooch, alleged grandmother con-artist of the Northwest suburbs of Chicago. An in-depth look at confidence crime, collective guilt, and the role of the media in the dispensation of justice. In 2004, an elderly grandmother is arrested in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago and Betty Gooch becomes an instant tabloid media sensation. But who is Betty Gooch? Just another little old lady struggling with ill-heath and low income? Or an unhinged criminal sociopath using rubber checks to scam car dealerships? With exclusive access to Ms. Gooch, this provocative documentary examines the old-boy connections among her "victims," investigates an outrageous ethical failing of her lead attorney, and looks beyond conventional notions of right and wrong to suggest that judgment itself comes with its own moral risks. Interview subjects include Ms. Gooch (filmed while incarcerated at the Cook County jail), her car dealer victims, the police, her lawyers, and her daughter (and possible co-conspirator). A missed court date, a politically driven prosecution, and a media circus add up to a three year prison sentence, and, ultimately, a tragic and unsettling end. Never Say Die (2003, 53 min) Katie McQuerrey and David Gray 5 years in the life of the world's greatest Black Sabbath tribute band, Never Say Die has its first NY screening since 2004. Tom, Joe, Danny, and Scott play Bill Ward, Ozzy Osbourne, Tonny Iommi and Geezer Butler with heart, soul, and consequence. When a dream to go on tour overseas comes true (albeit to Puerto Rico), newfound success forces the members of the band to finally face their interpersonal demons. Also featuring appearances by Black Dog and Ozmosis. "An engaging non-fiction account of the longest gigging, hardest working Black Sabbath cover band in...let's just say the history of the world." - Ann Hornaday, Washington Post The Thing @ White Slab Palace April 11, 2011, 8 – 10 PM 77 Delancey Street (corner of Allen) New York, New York http://post.thing.net/node/3375

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DEAR THICK & THIN at ME contemporary
by w 17 Mar '11

17 Mar '11

http://www.mecontemporary.com/exhibitions/dear-thick-and-thin.htm in the thing section: alterazioni video jan baracz vuk cosic christoph draeger rainer ganahl heidrun holzfeind joerg lohse craig kalpakjian wolfgang staehle caspar stracke sternberg press momyo torimitsu

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Keith Sanborn's greatest hits at Academy Awards Night!
by w 23 Feb '11

23 Feb '11

Bored to death by the prospect of lame insider backslapping in Hollywood, but still want a night out with friends, high-class art movies and a few drinks....? This Sunday, February 27, 2011, Keith Sanborn will be showing a selection of video work from the ever-popular The Artwork in the Age of its Mechanical Reproducibility by Walter Benjamin as told to Keith Sanborn by Jayne Austen (1936) to more recent forays into piratical transformative media history called Energy of Delusion. The program starts at 8pm and will last about an hour. I recommend the Krusowice on tap!

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Finishing Funds 2011 - Deadline March 15
by sherry hocking 08 Feb '11

08 Feb '11

*Please post, duplicate and distribute* *Deadline:**March 15, 2011*** *Finishing Funds 2011* The *Experimental Television Center* is pleased to announce *Finishing Funds 2011.* Guidelines and applications are available on the web at /http://www.experimentaltvcenter.org// *Finishing Funds*provides media and new media artists with grants up to $2,500 to help with the completion of diverse and innovative moving-image and sonic art projects, and works for the Web and new technologies. Eligible forms include film and video as single or multiple channel presentation, computer-based moving-imagery and sound works, installations and performances, interactive works and works for new technologies, DVD, multimedia and the Web. We also support new media, and interactive performance. Work must be surprising, creative and approach the various media as art forms; all genres are eligible, including experimental, narrative and documentary art works. Individual artists can apply directly to the program and do not need a sponsoring organization. Applicants must be residents of New YorkState; undergraduate students are not eligible.The application requires a project description, resume and support materials, including a sample of the proposed project. Selection is made by a peer review panel. About $25,000 is awarded each year. Announcement is made in early June. The program is supported in part by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a public agency. *Postmark Deadline: **March 15, 2011*** Guidelines and applications are now available on the web at /http://www.experimentaltvcenter.org//in the ETC News Section and the Grants area or by mail or email /etc (at) experimentaltvcenter.org/ --

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auctionthing
by w 31 Jan '11

31 Jan '11

after two years in the making we are getting ready to launch auctionthing at <http://auctionthing.net>. the idea came to me more than two years ago when i wanted to buy an armleder print in berlin, but didn't have the necessary cash to do so. i did have this armleder multiple sitting in my place in nyc <https://auctionthing.net/109/John-M-Armleder--Caprice>, but i had no idea how i could sell the bowling ball and get the print instead. so i thought, why not create some liquidity for this market? we all have prints, multiples, photographs and stuff sitting around, but they are really hard to sell when you want to. auctionthing is here to solve this problem. don't get me wrong, i love my collection, but sometimes you just want to consolidate, get something new or just make room in your apartment. at THE THING we pioneered online art auctions. the first one occurred in 1999 <http://auction99.thing.net> and actually some pieces that didn't sell back then made their way back into the new iteration. the difference is that the new site will stay open for business all year round, and you can become a seller too. if you are interested send me an email or request an invitation code on the site after you register there. we are also looking for people who want to offer their whole collection or curators who want to put a show together under its own heading. art spaces can talk to us about setting up their online benefit auctions, we just did one for whitebox earlier this month. auctionthing charges a 10% commission from the seller after a transaction has taken place. there are no membership fees, no placement fees and no buyer premiums. at least not at this time. ten to twenty percent of the proceeds from the commissions will go towards funding independent art and media projects, things like THE THING @ WHITE SLAB PALACE tonight: http://post.thing.net/node/3271 what you can do is to spread the word among other art junkies and help generate some buzz for this project. this is just the beginning of THE THING RELOADED. more soon... wolfgang

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