International Upgrade! organizations and their artists
will converge in Oklahoma City to present art and ideas to each other and the
community in the second annual international symposium. Included in the event
will be workshops on art and technology, audio/video performances and presentations,
and exhibitions of works by international and regional artists representing this
years theme: DIY (Do-It-Yourself). Upgrade! Boston will contribute the following:
DIY
or Die: An Upgrade! New York, Turbulence, and Rhizome Net Art Exhibition
In celebration of their respective ten-year anniversaries, Turbulence and Rhizome
collaborated with Upgrade! New York to present an exhibition of works that they
commissioned or presented over the course of their histories. The term D.I.Y.
(or do-it-yourself) expresses an independent ethos, one that encourages cultural
producers to create and distribute work outside mainstream or commercial systems
and often in direct confrontation with them. In this case, D.I.Y refers not only
to works in the show, many of which create alternate models for collaborative
artmaking, community building, and media distribution, but to the organizations
themselves whose missions--to commission and present digital art work--had no
tradition or cultural niche to call upon. Historically, net artists have included
audiences in their work; many created calls to action that compel their audiences
to intervene and contribute their own ideas, stories and histories. From re-purposed
commercial software to homegrown digital knitting applications and works that
offer alternative constructions of identity and nationality, D.I.Y. OR DIE presents
a cross-section of Internet-based art that, much like punk and grassroots activism
has the urgency and invention required to change existing standards of art practice.
Imaging Oklahoma City by
John (Craig) Freeman
Participants will go out
into the streets to produce the material for "Imaging Oklahoma City."
"Imaging Place," is a place-based, virtual reality art project that
takes the form of a user navigated, interactive computer program combining panoramic
photography, digital video, and three-dimensional technologies to investigate
and document situations where the forces of globalization are impacting the lives
of individuals in local communities.
Artist and educator John (Craig)
Freeman's work has been exhibited internationally including at the Kaliningrad
Branch of the National Center for Contemporary Arts, Russia; and Ciberart Bilbao,
Spain. In 1992 he was awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship from the National
Endowment for the Arts. Lucy Lippard cites Freeman's work in "The Lure of
the Local".
networked_performance:
participatory art by Helen Thorington
The
networked_performance blog (http://turbulence.org/blog) chronicles network-enabled
practice, discloses a wide range of perspectives, and uncovers commonalities.
Artists are utilizing technologies that are inexpensive, mobile and wirelessly
networked. Thorington will review works - from telematic and locative events to
wearables, and responsive objects and environments - and show how they use objects
and events from everyday life to create work that is characteristically hybrid,
performative and relational.
Helen Thorington is a writer, sound
composer, and radio producer whose radio documentary, dramatic work, and sound/music
compositions have been aired nationally and internationally. Thorington has created
compositions for film, installation and dance. She performed with the Bill T.
Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company at The Kitchen, New York City in 2003. Her articles
on networked musical performances are published in the December 2005 and February/April
2006 issues of Contemporary Music Review.
Participation,
Technology, and Musical Performance by Jason
Freeman
Jason Freeman breaks down conventional
barriers between composers, performers, and listeners, using new technology and
unconventional notation to turn audiences and musicians into compositional collaborators.
He will discuss "Glimmer", "N.A.G.", and "Graph Theory"
which connects composition, listening, and concert performance by coupling an
acoustic work for solo violin/cello to an interactive web site. There will be
a ten minute performance of "Graph Theory."
Jason Freeman
received his D.M.A. in composition from Columbia University. His music has been
performed by the American Composers Orchestra, Speculum Musicae, the So Percussion
Group, the Nieuw Ensemble, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, and Evan Ziporyn; and his
interactive installations and software art have been exhibited at the Lincoln
Center Festival, and the Transmediale Festival.
A
Day in the Life with Burak Arikan
Boston,
Istanbul, Munich and Oklahoma City will be connected via internet with simultaneous
live streaming video performances from each location.
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