The Cookie

by Celine Mikahala Grouard

You Can't Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

Video Documentation

by Celine Mikahala Grouard

Michael Light gets interviewed!

I called Michael Light to interview him a few weeks back. My recording device didn't decide to kick in until about most of the way through the fourth question so here is some text-based conversation covering how it starts:

Michael started off talking about how he is working on redoing his website, and welcomes this interview as a nice break from that tedium. He asks me about the impending interview and I give him the basics (with which you are all familiar). I ask him what show he was just installing in Warsaw (he told me this in the emails preceding the interview). He said he was just installing 100 Suns, promoting old work, never resting, et cetera. I ask him what his favorite project was to date. He talked about how he likes all his projects, and can't just decide on one in particular, He says he will complete a project and grow into a different person. We go on to talk about something I've been curious about. I say I'm never satisfied with my images, and ask if he ever has the desire to change his old work. He responds with more elaboration on his previous answer, saying he never wants to change anything because he feels like a different individual, stating that, if anything, he would only change minor technical things. He says the concepts never warrant a need for change, to which I ask whether he develops images or concepts first. The audio comes in as he is talking about going out shooting, and having his ideas informed by that shooting.

Zines!

I found that website with a whole bunch of amazing zines. They are located in Copenhagen, so you can imagine all that fun stuff going... or something. Here's what they say about themselves:

ABOUT TTC GALLERY:

Since 2006 TTC Gallery has distributed, promoted and exhibited zines and artists releated to this culture.

TTC is also a creative art collective consisting of 3 members who publish graphic and photographic zines and books and make various art projects.

TTC is:
Simon Højbo Hansen
Emil Alsbo
Magnus Clausen

The website is http://www.ttcgallery.com/ so go check out some awesome publications.

Miller and Rodeen

Hrafnkell Sigurdsson

Untitled from Vivid Tents series (2000)

Hallgerdur Hallgrimsdottir: I, like others, am very fond of your Vivid Tents pictures but feel its difficult to put in words what it is that makes them so mysterious and magnificent. What is the idea behind the series?

Hrafnkell Sigurdsson: I was traveling trough Fjallabaksleid in summertime a few years ago, where I was photographing landscapes. But it wasn't until I saw a yellow tent glowing in the black dessert that I felt I had found an interesting focus. I crept up to the tent, afraid I would disturb the travelers inside, not knowing if anyone was indeed there, and took one picture. After that a process began nothing could stop. I don't really know why myself, I simply thought it extremely interesting to pair different tents with different surroundings and conditions. This series also comes right after the snow piles, which were mountains of sorts within the village and the tents are like a village on a mountain. But the tent can also represent a body in the landscape, an abstract body which the viewer can identify with.

Untitled (Mountain 4) (1998)

HH: You seem to comment on the man vs. nature or "nature and culture"
like someone put it. Why?

HS: This dualism has always appealed to me. Putting these together as separate phenomena produces a certain dynamic. Maybe I have more faith in that the dualism will dissolve and the two concepts merge together in the viewers mind, rather than showing the him how everything is intertwined into one whole. I also think these two concepts can work as a gate that
you can walk through. I don't impose my conclusion on you but invite you to enter and find your own.

HH: Transience also comes to mind; tents, snow piles and trash... Is that a correct interpretation?

HS: Yes, it must be because that's how life itself is.

HH: Why are you so drawn to the working class man, the fisherman?

HS: I was just wandering about this, because it was so unconscious. Masculine presence fascinates me and I can see how that comes from my childhood. But this is something you think about afterwards, after the work is done. Maybe it's because I come from a working class family? If my background was the world of the upper class, university education and diplomats I would be working with ties and suits? But in the end I think the reason is not that personal even though everything comes from somewhere. And if the work has these roots it they give it a certain purpose and power.
To me it's exciting to try to create a presence with these down to earth elements. A solid foundation is important if you want to build high.

Crew 1 (2006)

HH: How is it in your experience to work as an artist with fishermen and other working class heroes?

HS: People never fail to be curious and helpful. I would probably never have photographed in the junkyard if one of the truck drivers wouldn't have offered me a ride there one cold winter morning while I was photographing the garbage collectors in town on a cold winter morning.

HH: Your work is usually very beautiful, a word that seems almost off limits when art is discussed these days (at least when it comes to photography). Is that something you aspire to or is it simply something you do instinctively?

HS: If it is then it is because I can't help it, and I have tried. It's a handicap if you will :) But maybe I find it interesting because it's a little naughty.

HH: What are you working on now? Has the recession inspired you in any way?

HS: I am preparing a few projects for next year, in Russia, Britain and France. I think the recession has influenced me indirectly. I want to rethink a few things, which is very exciting, I'm exploring unknown territory ;)

HH: How does it feel to hear or read what other people have to say about your art?

HS: It's always a treat. And remarkably there is seldom any misunderstanding.

HH: What do you think about Icelandic landscape photography?

HS: It's like the landscape is not enough, as incredibly beautiful as it is. A lot of ambitious and well made photographs leave nothing behind.

HH: Do you have any good advice?

HS: Be curious, passionate and work hard.

More info an pics on:
http://www.hrafnkellsigurdsson.com

Interview with Jason Fulford

1) Your images looks like found circumstance and chance encounters

with the bizarre, portrayed in a banal way can you speak to your way

of looking at the world around you?

(see 4 and 5)

2) Do you ever re-shoot?

I'll shoot something a few different ways, but I don't go back and re-shoot.

3) I read somewhere that you compared shooting to building a

vocabulary and editing to writing. Could you say more about your

process in these terms? What do you read? How do those texts inform

your visual vocabulary and influence your work?

I'm not sure if I can analyze the influence on my work, but I can tell you

that I love when a writer takes on a serious subject with a sense of humor

-- Sergei Dovlatov, Victor Pelevin, Kafka, Kierkegaard, Lydia Davis. I

also love absurdist writers like Daniil Kharms and Robert Walser. I love

the layers in Robbe-Grillet and Perec and Thomas Mann. I love the

curiosity you feel when you read Darwin's journals. Flannery O'Connor is

in her own category.

4) From where do you draw your influences? What other mediums

influence your work?

Well, music is another big one. The Pixies, Sonic Youth, The Fall. King

Tubby. Raymond Fairchild, Japanese garage bands. Pylon, LiLiPUT, Michael

Hurley, Raymond Scott, Hasil Adkins. A few years ago I was interested in

polyphony, so Ligeti, Webern, Nancarrow. The influences all seem to

overlap in different ways. I guess if you could find those points where

they overlap, then you could analyze the effect.

5) What is the most beneficial thing you have done for your practice?

Have you made sacrifices for your practice?

I'm happiest when I'm inspired, so I travel and read. I talk to my friends

and students about their work, so there's a dialog. I eat three meals a

day. I try to use my brain in different ways

6) What do you do when you get stuck?

It's a classic crossword puzzle problem. One thing that works is to put

down whatever you're stuck on and do something else for a while, then come

back to it. If I'm stuck on some personal work, I'll stop and work on a

J&L book, or build something out of wood, or letterpress, or do a magazine

assignment, or plant something, or clean the bathroom.

7) How would your describe the affects of over-saturation of images on

art photography, for example, the internet? Do you feel this affects

you much as a working artist?

Sometimes it's a little depressing -- why does the world need any more

pictures? Then I remember how important and subtle context can be, and I

feel better about it.

8) Do you ever feel dictated by the art world?

No.

9) Do you have any advice for young artists of today?

We're all so different. I mean we all care about different things. It's

hard to generalize. I guess I'd say customize your life as much as you

can.

Jason Fulford / J&L

Article from December 2009 Harper's Magazine

Interesting use of narrative text with photo essay. 12/09 Harper's

Artist Interview :: Sonali Sridhar

Maria Watts interviewing Sonali Sridhar

AIM IM with sonali.
Sonali, what and when did you begin thinking about art and design as a career that you would pursue ? What did you do to when you figured out what you wanted to do?
It started when I was in the 6th or 7th grade. I was interested in Architecture and Furniture Design. Very aesthetic in my approach to what I wanted to do with my life. By the time I was in the 12th Grade I moved away from Architecture as I thought it had too many boundaries and all conceptual work in architecture stayed unmade. At this point I applied to design schools as I was still interested and had a mind for problem and solution approach to life. Design unlike fine art for me addresses exactly that.
I studied for two years at Srishti School of Art Design and Technology in Bangalore India and then moved to the Atlanta College of Art.
Here I did Graphic / Communication Design as well as Printmaking

As a student who were some of your influences and what were some projects that inspired you to continue in that field ?
Influences by category:
Design:
Tomato Project
Saul Bass
all the classics...

hmm i am blanking a bit

art:
Saul Lewit
Bill Viola
adbusters
Vito Acconci
Nan Golden
loads of people!
MC Escher
I had a lot more art influences vs Design.

Well, you seem to have a variety of artist from various mediums, how does someone from video or photography influence your work?
Very heavily. Design is a nice mix of typography, photography and message
the photo and the type form the backbone of good design

http://www.acconci.com/

The acconci site is still under construction.

So if you dont know how to direct a photographer or a video artist so that you are able to extract a perfect image its a lot of problem. So as designers
we need to be educated in multi medias and also need to have a fine eye for style.
Because every problem needs a unique and different solution

I understand, so where do we see some of those influences in your work? And what kind of work are you primarily making these days?
I have recently moved mediums. I have moved into electronics as a medium.
12:15 PM

I was saying I moved from Print design to Web and Interactive design this seems almost a natural transition as I was interested in people and problem solving - I moved mediums as people moved mediums it made no sense for me to design Billboards when all the conversation was occurring on the web.

As a designer, what was important to you - other than sending a message, problem solving, and style?
This is when Marshall Mcluhans Medium is the Message was a highly influential book and as a designer one has a lot of subliminal consumer power. One needs to understand this when choosing to implement something. the ethics and responsibility as a designer is huge.

What are your basic responsibilities? Your personal responsibilities?
I think they are deeply embedded in social politics.

When I was younger the two major values I had were:

1. corporate responsibility
2. environmental responsibility

These were the two areas that penetrated all my work from 1998 - 2003
From 2004 - now I am more involved with:

3. Data Transparency
4. Government and Social Responsibility - grassroots activism and movements

When you say government... explain?
A lot of the work i currently do has to do with design work for applications that help bring citizens and government together, for instance:

http://topp.openplans.org/
http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/

Tell me in your words how this works...
12:35 PM
There is a dire need for citizen involvement in a country like America here people are comfortable they are numbed by abundance of commodity people are not
used to rebellion or movements like people from poorer countries or people fro controlled countries this has led to the worst 8 years in America and we see the consequences now. It was still very hard to get people up and moving for this election but it happened only by the combined effort of grassroots mobilization groups and technology social networks for organizations, not to just socialize, but by mobilize platform/ framework. So for me design has moved into this.
The content is a significant shift.

It stops being about the way things look anymore Your goal is to educate or give the tools to educate organizations to effectively and efficiently?
Yes and bring government into this mix as well.
12:40 PM
http://nyc.everyblock.com/locations/neighborhoods/williamsburg/#tallermap

So now its more about information not design...
Yes! its a mix of the two. The web has become accessible enough that designers are able to play with it and make long tables of data into visual info
this is a beautiful crossover and the data is live and current and so relevant

So the example i give you with every block, you see that basic problems that citizens have are being recorded now people have the power to go to government
so this is one example

Awesome, so these are projects that you like to be involved with.
I think I have a better idea as to how you use design as your social and political activism.

Earlier in the interview you said that you use electronics as your medium... Can you explain how you do that?
As I came across the web as a design medium I got more and more curious about all the *content* in the *cloud*.

There were a number of things here that were key:

1. there was a lot of content
2. there were explicit instructions on how to code
3. there was a huge DIY culture building

This then made all the parts of my new work. I learned how to program and build electronic objects and contribute to the code community as well as take from it. Soon I was able to bring Narrative into every day objects Anthony Dunne was huge influence for me. I work with soft technology and wearable art,
if one could call it that.



Why were you drawn to these electronic objects? Wearable art?
How did it go from internet design to wearable art?
Well today if you were to empty anyone’s bag you would find keys, wallet, phone, camera, ipod, laptop and various other goodies. When you carry that much technology on you, there must be this psychic dependence on them. They can’t be left at home or work, they need to be on your body. That started to interest me a great deal, our *Second Skin *. The internet art was a short phase for me, I moved very quickly away from screen into real objects and digital influences on them. It was no big revelation, just an exploratory phase.
I work on screen for my day job and objects at night.

Curious how you got into wearable art and technology art does that have the same ethics involved with your design work?
Well for starters I moved to New York for a grad school program that introduced me to some of it and once I got into it, it became a conversation of medium and message again.
If you are carrying something on you 12- 18 hours and that is carrying a reminder of something - like home or death in the Middle East what are your politics?
What is your stance? Where do you see yourself in the current political spectrum?

Right... and how does this translate through these technologies?
Personally the way I have been playing with it is with embedded technology
little displays in jewelry, or embedded into sleeves and pockets. All my work is collaborative.

So with embedded technology, what do you hope to do?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/missmoun/tags/address/
This is a necklace with video art attached to it. Also we do bracelets with medical info inside it.

I think this is such a new and exciting medium
It is!
Even with the ups and downs I feel we are carving a community of people and fast!

Last question… Ready? Where do you see yourself in 10 years...
Oh no! 10 years! Currently I am all over the place
I am interested in Electronics as a communication medium as an art form, as a tool, as a language, as a standard of social operation, and as an energy harnesser. My interest still lies in design at the end how can these ideas develop into potential solution to problems? Problems we have with energy. Problems we have with communicating. Problems we have with socializing. Problems we have with education. Poverty, Capitalism and money grabbing!
In 10 years if I am in a place where I can make a difference in any one of the areas I would be happy to look back at today where all this story telling started.

Cheap printing

After extensive research, the cheapest place I've found for printing small editions of large scale color is Short Run Posters. If you are OK with their logo on the back, it's only $2 for an 18x24 color print, $4 without their logo. Only an extra $15 for rush production, it's amazingly inexpensive considering the next closest place I've found as far as cost is set somewhere around $4 a square foot, making it more expensive than the DFAS. Their "sister site" Xeikonprints.com is also pretty nice... more expensive, but they have a whole lot more options, as well as a 24 hour printing service (for 50% more).

Just keep in mind the more you get of a single edition, the cheaper each print will be. That's true with every printing place.

sunday class

:)

Innovation Salon VII: Follow the Yellow Brick Road: Interactive Mapping for Filmmakers

Innovations in interactive mapping have exploded recently: media artists all over the world are harnessing mobile platforms and geospatial technologies to tell stories in new ways. Visual analytics are more important than ever, and are being used to trace narrative arcs globally, to track audience participation, measure engagement, and assess the social impact of media. Documentary filmmakers are architecting new outreach models based in mapping code, semantic search functionality, and even computational linguistics.

At this Innovation Salon, come have your mind be blown about the future of public media and civic engagement through emerging mapping technologies. Experts from Google Earth, Ushahidi, and Radical Design join award-winning independent filmmakers to help us map some of the most exciting projects and new innovations.

Invited panelists:
Chris Blow, Interaction Designer, Ushahidi
Patrice O'Neill, Executive Producer, Not In Our Town
David Taylor, Founder, Radical Design
Tina Ornduff, Google Earth Education

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009, 7pm
at BAVC (2727 Mariposa Street, 2nd Floor, SF, 94110)

This event is free for current BAVC members. For non-members, there is a small $10 fee.

more here

Additional Book resources

booklyn.org -- has a downloadable guide for bookmaking, Brooklyn, NY
centerforbookarts.org -- in NYC
sfcb.org -- San Francisco Center for the Book
http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/artist_book/

Some online magazines, etc.

seesawmagazine.com
enfoco.org
unseenmagazine.com
makingroom.com
1000wordsmag.com
fstopmagazine.com
fractionmag.blogspot.com
layflat.org
foammagazine.nl
thesebirdswalk.com
nieman.harvard.edu/narrative/digest
biguglyreview.com
ahornmagazine.com
burnmagazine.org
visuramagazine.com
artpapers.org
smagazine.com
usefulphotography.com

some blogs

mvswanson.com
wipnyc.org
flakphoto.com
2waylens.blogspot.com
dariushimes.com
iheartphotograph.blogspot.com
nymphoto.blogspot.com
haveyouseenmydynamite.com
jmcolberg.com/weblog
subjectify.blogspot.com
kevinmiyazaki.blogspot.com
worldclassneworleans.blogspot.com
artleads.blogspot.com
prisonphotography.wordpress.com
amysteinphoto.blogspot.com
lostateminor.com
featureshoot.com
thephotographsnottaken.com
shanelavalette.com/journal
dailyafterthought.blogspot.com
magicalnihilism.wordpress.com
thefstopmag.com
tinyvices.com
afterphotography.org
bagnewsnotes.com
changeobserver.designobserver.com

We're very excited about our new website. It is very small right now, but we hope it will grow as we map out local communities in order to present a wealth of information for community safety and preparedness. Please take a look and tell every one of your friends. You can never be too prepared, after all.

C.O.P.E. with Emergencies at http://www.copeemergency.org

Bookmaking

Here's some illustrated steps from a book on bookmaking. Google books has a limited preview here. It pertains to hard cover only, but soft cover is much easier anyways. Also check out a video I found about a specific book. It's about the concepts behind the book, but also goes into detail about making the book itself as an object. Leather-Bound goodness.

Pictorial Webster's: Inspiration to Completion from John Carrera on Vimeo.

Jorge Macchi

He likes water. The lower one is called Ocean of Tranquility but dont know about the upper one. Makes you wonder if the ocean is a place...

Just a scan I found

I found this in my ever growing inspiration-collection, I must have scanned this a couple of years ago and totally forgotten about it. Its from a book on best of Tank magazine...

Andy DuCett

Check out the post I wrote for the website I am interning for. Andy DuCett has some amazing collage work, and some nice site-specific installations. http://dailyserving.com/2009/11/andy-ducett/

more cool stuff

explore this site:
http://number27.org/work.html

Check out:

1--http://www.anunnaturalhistory.net/
Unnatural History of Golden Gate Park--maps and audio tour



2--

Sublime landscapes, tranquil urban scenes, frolicking children; who would associate these images with Palestine? All too often the Western media show the country's gloomy side, and Palestinians as aggressors. It is this that makes identifying with them virtually impossible. If we are to relate to the Palestinians other images are needed, images seen from a cultural and more human vantage point.

The Dutch designer Annelys de Vet invited Palestinian artists, photographers and designers to map their country as they see it. Given their closeness to the subject, this has resulted in unconventional, very human impressions of the landscape and the architecture, the cuisine, the music and the poetry of thought and expression. The drawings, photographs, maps and narratives made for this atlas reveal individual life experiences, from preparing chickpeas to a manual on water pipe smoking, from historic dress to modern music. Pages containing humorous and caustic newspaper cartoons and invented Palestinian currency followed by colourful cultural diaries and moving letters from prisoners.

All in all, the contributions give an entirely different angle on a nation in occupied territory. In this subjective atlas it is the Palestinians themselves who show the disarming reverse side of the black-and-white image generally resorted to by the media.

3--http://handmaps.org/index.php

Maria, Celine, and Lee like Hatla's Neighborhood Guide

QUESTIONS ANYONE??????

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cool site

http://ffffound.com
Its a bookmarking site for photos and well... anything.

1020 53rd Street Oakland California (View from my window)

Home Street Home

Found this today under the freeway where San Bruno meets Division (in SF) and it reminded me of Lee´s adventure (its even under a freeway). Its actually embroidered into a piece of card board, gotta love homeless people with a sense of humor!

Postcards are ready!

So, my Potrero Hill guide in postcard-form is now neatly wrapped in envelops with a little map on the front so no one will get lost and it can be found at Christopher´s Books for $ 4.00. It´s at 18th and Missouri, not so far from the SF campus and it´s a really cute little store on a nice little street. Happy location hunting!

Interactive Mapping!

This video is of Daniel Rozen's wooden mirror project. Its an interactive map of your body using over 300 wooden chips and motors.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZysu9QcceM

Archive [dot] org

Check this site out yall! Its great! I wanted to share this map specifically because its a promotional video for Oakland, done in 1928!


The wonderful thing about this website is, not only because you can get so much information easily, but because lots of it you can download and use for your own work perhaps. Its great. Check it out.

http://www.archive.org

Friday's walks