Monthly Archives: February 2008

David Rokeby @ Art Gallery of Windsor

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David Rokeby: Plotting Against Time
Discussion and exhibition tour
3pm Friday March 7 @ Art Gallery of Windsor

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Canadian artist David Rokeby is an internationally-acclaimed pioneer in digital media arts. In works that include video images mediated through software, he compares the way people and computers interpret everyday experiences. His installations demonstrate that computers, which are unrestrained by human attributes like memory, emotions and social conventions, process and manage information in remarkable and unexpected ways.

David Rokeby: Plotting Against Time includes five major installations created by the artist over the past 15 years. In a new version of his seminal early work Watch, 1995, he has included live images of the activity surrounding the new Windsor bus terminal using a camera mounted on the south side of the Art Gallery of Windsor.

Rokeby presents what is familiar in a manner that is foreign to our way of seeing. He makes us acutely aware of the significant difference between what we actually see and the many ways visual information can be interpreted.

An acknowledged innovator in the field of interactive art, David Rokeby has seen the technologies he develops used internationally in both the arts and sciences. Born in Tillsonburg, Ontario in 1960, Rokeby graduated with honours in experimental art from the Ontario College of Art, Toronto. His best known work Very Nervous System, 1986-90, which was shown at the Venice Biennale in 1996, won the first Petro-Canada Award for Media Arts.

Several of his works deal with digital surveillance. Watched and Measured, 2000 received the first interactive art award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, while Guardian Angel, 2001 was named best installation at the 2001 Toronto Images Festival. Other works by Rokeby look at the differences between human and artificial intelligence. For example in The Giver of Names (begun in 1991) and n-cha(n)t, 2001, computers formulate and utter sentences based on objects or speech they perceive.

Rokeby, who lives in Toronto, has exhibited and lectured internationally since 1986. He has won Austria’s Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction twice and recently received Canada’s Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.

Curated by Peter Ride, David Rokeby: Plotting Against Time has been organized by the Art Gallery of Windsor and Media City 14 International Festival of Experimental Film and Video Art.

David Rokeby is represented by Pari Nadimi Gallery, Toronto, where a solo exhibition of his work opens at 2:00 P.M. Saturday, March 1st, 2008

For more information, contact James Patten, chief curator, jpatten@agw.ca (519) 977-0013 ext. 125

Art Gallery of Windsor

Cocaine Cowboys

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This penetrating and sometimes harrowing documentary from director Billy Corben pulls out all the stops to explore the many dimensions of Miami’s cocaine-trafficking boom of the 1980s, from how the drug was moved and the financial impact on the city to the havoc and violence that followed in its wake. Told by the smugglers, cops and average citizens who were there, this film is an unflinching study of Miami’s most notorious and lethal vice.

Sadashi Inuzuka – Artist Lecture

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February 28, 2008
RCVA Lecture Hall, 2nd Floor
5:30 pm
Sadashi Inuzuka

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Inuzuka has been living in North America for over 25years (Born in Japan). Examining the life lived between two cultures Inuzuka’s installations explore the intersection of human society and the natural world, traditional and non-traditional forms, as well as art and science. The work explores a range of subjects – ecological imbalance, the impact of invasive non-native species, and water consumption and conservation.

Plus 3 Ferris Wheels | February 25 – 28, 2008

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Brian DeLevie, Re-remembered; video palimpsests #1, 2007

Plus 3 Ferris Wheels is a curated video loop that will feature 25 videos by 26 artists, including 3 photography and Intermedia students here at Western. Unlike the last video loop in the spring of 2007, Ritual and Repetition, the submissions were not restricted to a theme within the work. The name of this video loop was inspired by 3 of the chosen videos, which each contained a Ferris Wheel somewhere within the video. The 3 videos were very different works and this was only realized after the work was selected. Plus 3 Ferris Wheels was curated from an international open call for video, curated by Adriane Little.

The selected artists for Plus 3 Ferris Wheels are: Dave Ball (London United Kingdom), Megan Berner (Iowa City Iowa), Valerie A. Brodar (Colorado Springs Colorado), Anna Campbell (Grand Rapids Michigan), Jenna Caschera (Kalamazoo Michigan), Christopher Cassidy (Greensboro North Carolina), Brian DeLevie (Denver Colorado), Celeste Fichter (Brooklyn New York), Michael Gamble (Gallup New Mexico), Matthew Garrison (Downingtown Pennsylvania), Jodi Hays (Nashville Tennessee), Daniel Kariko (Tallahassee Florida), Jacek J. Kolasinski (Miami Florida), Karie Kupier (Kalamazoo Michigan), Ron Lambert (Andover New York), Brian Lauch / Petra Pokos (Pittsburgh Pennsylvania / Ljubljana Slovenia), Gary Lindgren (Somerset New Jersey), Lucinda Luvaas (Hemet California), Lilianne Milgrom (Fairfax Virginia), Esther Maria Probst (Syracuse New York), Blake Shirley (Manchester Connecticut), Evelin Stermitz (Austria/Slovenia), Heather Stratton (Kalamazoo Michigan), Thanh Van Vo (Muncie Indiana) and Vonda Yarberry (Springfield Missouri).

Plus 3 Ferris Wheels will be screened continuously – from 10:00am to 8:30pm – for 4 days, February 25 – 28, 2008 on the plasma screens at the entrance of the Richmond Center.

Plus 3 Ferris Wheels will then travel to the University at Buffalo from March 4 – 7, 2008.

For more information: 3ferriswheels.wordpress.com

leave comments on Plus 3 Ferris Wheel blog, not here, please and thank you.

Wetback: The Undocumented Documentary

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Director Arturo Perez Torres’s award-winning documentary about undocumented workers chronicles the life-and-death journeys of Central American and Mexican migrants as they try to gain entry to the United States without going through proper government immigration channels. The subjects’ first-person perspective sheds light on individual motivations for the trek and the hazards encountered on their way to the American dream.

[dNASAb]

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“iPod ecosystem#FIOS D-5”, 2007 de-cased Ipod,directly sculpted onto, plastics [Polyethylene Terephthalate & High-Density Polyethylene],resin, acrylic,extruded polyethylene, aluminum, airbrush paints,12 v LED’s,fiber optics,custom video and video-playlist.__

[dNASAb]

Progression: The Evolution of Dance

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*** Event is Feb. 21 not Feb 19 as poster indicates.
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The event will feature the WMU student groups Ebony Vision and Hip Hop Connection. All of the students are either dance majors in the College and have a true passion for the art of dance. The program will trace the evolution of dance in the Black culture from the 1800’s until present. The students have worked together conceptualizing, choreographing and preparing for this event. The evening promises to be both informative and educational.

*** Event is Feb. 21 not Feb 19 as poster indicates. Event was rescheduled to Feb 21. Same time, same place.

Big Easy to Big Empty

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Thousands of New Orleans residents were forced to evacuate when Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005; filmed a year later, this compelling documentary shows how some of the city’s poorest residents were still trying to find their way home. Investigative reporter Greg Palast interviews scores of storm victims, from separated families to people who lost everything, and finds that the common thread is that they all just want to return home.

Photo Competition: Deadline 3/1/08

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Come to RM 2008 on Tues 1/22 at 5:30pm in the Richmond Center to hear the architects of the Richmond Center speak of how and why they created it for you – the students.

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The RCVA has provides new possibilities as a subject of photographic exploration for visual arts students at WMU. This competition seeks to identify and capture the student’s unique perspective on the building as occupied architecture and the way in which students interact with the building and the art it contains. The competition also intends to help promote the identity and recognition of the WMU School of Art and the RCVA through publication of the selected images in various journals.

Sponsor: SmithGroup

Open to: All Frostic School of Art Students

Timeframe:
January 15, 2008: Competition Opens
January 22, 2008: RCVA Design Presentation by SmithGroup (RM 2008 – Richmond Center)
March 1, 2008: Deadline for Submissions
March 15, 2008: Exhibitors Notified
March 30, 2008: Exhibition Installed
April 3, 2008: Award Ceremony Competition Winners Announced
Competition Exhibit Opens

Prizes:
(1) $750 award for First Place
(2) $125 awards as Honorable Mentions

Selection: A jury containing representatives from the School of Art and from SmithGroup will evaluate all submissions and select a winning entry. The decisions of the Jury are final.

Requirements: Photographs must include building elements, interior or exterior.
Photographs can be either black and white or color.By submitting an entry to this competition, the Entrant accepts the conditions as outlined on the Registration Form

Vote for WMU Design Center …

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The (Self)Promotion Show: apexart held an open call competition, challenging “creatives” of all stripes to produce a 30-second TV commerical about apexart. These submissions from the current exhibition, The (Self)Promotion Show, are on view in an innovative living-room installation until February 16, 2008.

apexart recently held an open call, requesting submissions of a 30-second TV commercial about us from individuals and collaborative groups. The commercials are available for viewing on a public-access site, where viewers are encouraged to visit and cast votes for their favorite. In addition, all commercials will be on view as part of an innovative living-room-style installation at apexart from January 9 to February 16, 2008. The winning entry will have their commercial aired on network TV.

The exhibition was conceived to examine creative practices in contemporary culture and to reconsider the current promotional model of the art world.

Until the exhibition closes, visitors to the gallery space and website are encouraged to vote for their favorite ad. The ad with the most votes will be aired on network TV in New York City, and the winners will receive a $1,500 cash prize.

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Vote Here until February 16, 2008

The N Word

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It’s one of the English language’s most inflammatory pejoratives and has lingered like a smoldering fire in America’s collective consciousness for more than 100 years. This illuminating documentary looks at the “n” word’s history and ever-changing usage — which runs the gamut from a repugnant slur to a term of endearment. A slate of celebrities and other familiar figures are interviewed, including Quincy Jones, Samuel L. Jackson and Chris Rock.