Political Equator 3: Conversations On Co-Existence — Border Neighborhoods as Sites of Production :: June 3-4, 2011 :: San Diego / Tijuana.

Political Equator 3 is a 2-day cross-border mobile conference that engages pressing regional socio-economic, urban and environmental conditions across the San Diego – Tijuana border. Following the format of previous Political Equator meetings, PE3 is a nomadic event, an itinerant conversation traversing the border landscape itself bringing participants to the actual sites of conflict. This time, the participants will oscillate between two marginal neighborhoods on both sides of the border known as creative urban laboratories for re-imagining the border region, San Ysidro in the US and Los Laureles Canyon in Mexico. Continue reading

Field_Notes – Cultivating Ground :: September 26 – October 2, 2011 :: Kilpisjärvi Biological Station in Kilpisjärvi/ Lapland/ Finland :: Call for Collaborators — Deadline: June 30, 2011.

Field_Notes – Cultivating Ground is a week long field laboratory for theory and practice on art & science work at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station of the University of Helsinki in Lapland. Five working groups, each hosted by an expert (Oron Catts, Marta de Menezes, Anu Osva, Tapio Makela and Terike Haapoja) together with a team of four, will develop, test and evaluate specific artistic approaches based on the interplay of art & science. The outcome of Field_Notes will result in a publication published by the Finnish Bioart Society in 2012. Continue reading

ISEA2012 Albuquerque: Machine Wilderness — Re-envisioning Art, Technology and Nature :: Conference: September 19 – 24, 2012 :: Exhibition: September 20, 2012 – January 6, 2013 :: Regional Collaboration: September – December, 2012 :: New Mexico, US :: Call for Proposals — Deadline October 1, 2011.

ISEA2012 Albuquerque: Machine Wilderness is a symposium and series of events exploring the discourse of global proportions on the subject of art, technology and nature. The ISEA symposium is held every year in a different location around the world, and has a 30-year history of significant acclaim. Albuquerque is the first host city in the U.S. in six years. Continue reading

[Yasmin_discussions] Art Agency and its Constitution (register here) :: Moderator, G. H. Rabbath, Doctor of Philosophy, Human Sciences, and Associate Professor at Universite Saint-Joseph, Beirut, Lebanon.

This year the Venice Biennial promises to be the most successful ever with a record of national participation despite the last minute withdrawal of some Middle-Eastern countries like Lebanon. One of the 5 questions that artistic director Bice Curriger asked all the participating artists is: “If art were a nation, what would its constitution be?”

The current turn of events in the MENA countries will change the face of the region for ever. New media is viewed as the critical factor in creating political and social change. Continue reading

Recent Locative Media Workshop, Nairobi by Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum:

“Without tubes of paint, there would have been no Impressionism.” – Pierre-Auguste Renoir

There is a beautiful story about how in painting the style of impressionism was fuelled by the invention of the tube. When John G.Rant in 1841 invented the paint tube, artist where freed from their studios: they could bring easel, canvas and paint with them in the field and became mobile painters. This resulted in a totally new style: the image needed to be produced in just a couple of hour?s and could relate to direct change of light conditions on location. It revolutionized visual style but also deeply influenced the thematic focus in landscape depiction. For us this is a very outstanding example of how technology can bring about the emergence of new a style and focus of content in art. Continue reading

Upgrade! Paris: Anne Laforet — on the occasion of the publication of Le netart au musée – Stratégies de conservation des Å“uvres en ligne (Questions Théoriques) :: June 5, 2011; 6:00 pm :: Les Douches, 5 rue Legouvré, 75010 Paris.

With some museums acquiring net art works in the recent years, issues of preservation and exhibition have arisen. On the one hand, the digital materials of these works are fragile and continually on the verge of obsolescence. On the other hand, these works have to be online and activated by their audience to be full works of art. Preservation is both related to the material dimension of the artwork but also is a dialog with the artist and the museum. Continue reading

Resources.11 — Just Grounds: Cape Town — Post-graduate course in Architecture and Urban Planning :: Royal Institute of Art, Mejan Arc/ Architecture, 103 26 Stockholm, Sweden :: Deadline for Applications: June 13, 2011.

Urban Africa: Africa is rapidly urbanizing. 40% of the continent’s population is now urban, but despite Africa’s extensive natural resources and strong economic growth, neither international nor local investments find their way to the cities. In post-colonial Africa the City is still consider an exception. Basic infrastructure is still lacking and urbanization is occurring primarily in the form of slums, as silent encroachments. However, African urban researchers note that the African city should not be considered simply incomplete versions of their western counterparts. Indeed, the African city is following its own route with a very different map. Continue reading

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The Workers: Precarity, Invisibility, Mobility :: May 29, 2011 – March 15, 2012 :: MASS MoCA, 1040 MASS MoCA WAY, North Adams, Massachusetts.

We all know what Rosie the Riveter looked like, and what she stood for. Ford-era production line labor — and the rise of powerful unions — left us indelible portraits of work in mid 20th century America. Before that, Dickens created searing portraits of labor in the proto-industrial era, as Millet and his followers recorded a vivid picture of agrarian labor in mid 19th century Europe. But what does work look like today in a global economy marked by outsourcing, rapid migration, disruptive economies, and a state of labor that seems fractured, precarious, and almost invisible? Continue reading

101010zzz – A net.art exhibition by Jodi from Videotage Unlimited on Vimeo.

(I wish he would let her speak)