The World in My Hand explores the smartphone as both object and aesthetic inspiration for artistic creation. It comments on public debates surrounding the many uses of smartphones: from always-on media consumption to digital detox, from swiping and matching to ghosting and blocking, from language atrophy to information overload, from resource depletion to status symbol.
The curators, Dr Jörg Garbrecht and Katharina Wenkler, have chosen a narrative approach to the exhibition. In eight chapters, they summarize various aspects and debates surrounding the smartphone, ranging from the launch date of our daily digital companion to its characteristic touchscreen and the contractions of time and space it enables. Deeply personal moments – such as Ai Weiwei’s selfie at the moment of his arrest or Sergey Melnitchenko’s photograph of his son during a blackout in Kyiv – appear alongside themes of perception and presentation of the self, as realized in the glass sculpture Stability by Julija Pociūtė. Other subjects include: looking for love online, as in Ariane Forkel’s Casanova’s Kabinett or John Yuyi’s Tinder Match; the complexities and pitfalls of digital communication, for example in the works of James Akers or Alejandra Seeber; and the smartphone as a means of staying in touch during pandemic lockdown isolation, for instance in the work of George McLeod. Edward Burtynsky’s photograph of lithium mines in the Atacama Desert calls attention to the topic of raw materials for electronic devices.
With works by:
Tornike Abuladze, James Akers, Ai Weiwei, Kate Baker, Aram Bartholl, Tillie Burden, Edward Burtynsky, Yvon Chabrowski, Julia Chamberlain, Rachel Daeng Ngalle, Erwin Eisch, Ariane Forkel, Shige Fujishiro, Valentin Goppel, David Horvitz, Artem Humilevskyi, Gudrun Kemsa, Zsuzsanna Kóródi, Brigitte Kowanz, George McLeod, Sergey Melnitchenko, Jonas Noël Niedermann, Julian Opie, Cornelia Parker, Katie Paterson mit Zeller & Moye, Julija Pociūtė, Rebecca Ruchti, Karin Sander, Jeffrey Sarmiento, Alejandra Seeber, JanHein van Stiphout, Jolita Vaitkute, Sascha Weidner, John Yuyi, Jeff Zimmer
Die Ausstellung Decoding the Black Box bringt Künstlerinnen und Künstler zusammen, die Licht in diesen dunklen Raum und die Prozesse werfen, die sich in ihm ereignen. Sie legen dabei nicht nur die Funktionsweisen digitaler Technologien wie beispielsweise von künstlicher Intelligenz offen, sondern visualisieren zugleich die Auswirkungen, die sie auf unsere Wahrnehmung von Realität und unser In-der-Welt-Sein haben. Während sie die ökonomischen und machtpolitischen Strukturen der digitalen Technologien und insbesondere des Internets transparent machen, zeigen sie Gegenentwürfe für eine dezentralisierte, humanere und demokratischere Nutzung ebendieser auf.
14:00 – 16:00
Killyourphone is an open workshop format. Participants are invited to make their own signal blocking phone pouch. In the pouch the phone can’t send or receive any signals. It is dead! This workshop was run for the first time at the Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg end of 2013.
Monday 25th of March, 7:00 PM at Web Cafe, Eptanisou 40, 113 61 , Kypseli – Athens
with:
!Mediengruppe Bitnik with Selena Savić & Gordan Savičić , Ingrid Hideki, Joanna Bacas, Kyriaki Goni, Maria Mavropoulou, Marina Gioti, Marsunev, Nadja Buttendorf, Theo Triantafyllidis
Curated by Aram Bartholl & Socrates Stamatatos
Speed Show lands in Greece, the country of souvlaki, the sun (yes we can claim that they originated a celestial body), ouzo, feta, an enormous financial debt. Currently, Greece is also trending for all the wrong reasons namely, gentrification, queerphobia, state crimes and more dystopic incidents.
As 2024 unfolds, we find ourselves amidst a whirlwind of confusion, bombarded with a cacophony of online horrors to consume, an attention span further abbreviated by TikTok’s algorithm and the barrage of incoming stitches.
Stitches Incoming serve as a conduit for creators to engage and converse, traversing from one topic to the next. They have evolved into a new social fabric, weaving connections within an ever-shifting digital and physical landscape while also serving as a testament to personal and collective traumas, both past and present.
What unites the participating digital artists? Perhaps everything and nothing simultaneously… Departing from the traditional Speed Show setup, where artworks are carefully stacked inside internet cafe computers, and drawing inspiration from the structure of TikTok stitches, each piece seems to propel the conversation forward, or perhaps uses the next as a springboard for its own narrative.
Stitch this and stitch that, we have everything you ever wanted (maybe) ! Are we stuck in an infinite loop of sh*tposting, valuable content, the highlight of social issues, personal and interpersonal experiences?
Maybe! Come and find out…
More info on Speed Shows at https://speedshow.net/stitch-incoming/
14:00 – 16:00
Killyourphone is an open workshop format. Participants are invited to make their own signal blocking phone pouch. In the pouch the phone can’t send or receive any signals. It is dead! This workshop was run for the first time at the Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg end of 2013.
14:00 – 16:00
Killyourphone is an open workshop format. Participants are invited to make their own signal blocking phone pouch. In the pouch the phone can’t send or receive any signals. It is dead! This workshop was run for the first time at the Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg end of 2013.
Greenscreen Arnsberg
performance in public,
Aram Bartholl
2016
Greenscreen Arnsberg is a performance in public space which took place during the show „Remind me later“ at Kunstverein Arnsberg in July 2016. The idea is to ‚catch‘ random pedestrian in public with a portable green-screen. The by-passers become unwittingly actors of an imaginary movie set. The green-screen background represents unlimited layers of augmentation in a post social everyday life.
The internet revolutionized information sharing, allowing people all over the world to post content and distribute it among networks. But as the internet has grown, surveillance on the web has exploded as well. So one artist is encouraging people to forget the cloud and share information in a totally anonymous way.
In 2010, Berlin-based media artist Aram Bartholl started “Dead Drops,” his participatory file-sharing art project, by cementing a USB drive into a brick wall in New York City.
„Speculative Privacy: Practical and impractical things you can do to your phone“ is a lecture-workshop-performance format I presented at the Datapolitics conference track during the annual International Summer festival, Kampnagel, Hamburg on August 20th.
First the audience got stickers on their smart phone cameras at the entrance (in true Berghain manner) and then was instructed to do a few tests and look up settings on their devices during the talk. In the second half of the presentation everyone was invited to the stage to test different tools and materials on their phones while we kept discussing todays privacy questions. Some of the ‚mini workshops‘ are useful others don’t really make sense but offer a strong therapeutic moment to ‚grill‘ your mobile phone in a non destructive way. You always wanted to flush your phone in the toilet or bury it in cement? This is your chance! Have it vacuumed in a plastic bag and dip it in paint or through it in other actions!
All slides of the talk and related links here! : http://datenform.de/talks/kampnagel/
Aram Bartholl, 2016
…more pictures on flickr!!
How to cement in your phone in a non-destructive way!
Aram Bartholl: Speculative Privacy
Aram Bartholl ist Konzept- und Medienkünstler. Im Mittelpunkt seines Interesses steht die kritische Auseinandersetzung mit der zunehmenden Digitalisierung unseres Alltags. In seinen oft humorvollen Arbeiten überführt er Items aus der Netzwelt ins Analoge, um bspw. die Allgegenwärtigkeit von Internetunternehmen wie Google sichtbar zu machen. In seinem performativen Workshop TRANSPARENCY zeigt er welche digitalen Spuren bei der Benutzung von Smartphones entstehen und welche Möglichkeiten es gibt, diese zu verwischen.
Thanks to the Kampnagel team for making all this possible!
http://www.kampnagel.de/de/programm/datapolitics/
20. August 2016, 18:00 – 19:30 (Halle P1)
Kampnagel, Hamburg
The ‚DeafenYourPhone‘ tube is a mobile, low-cost, DIY sound dampening solition to prevent supposedly hacked phones from eavesdropping on its owner.
The Matryoshka tube in a tube concept works well to isolate a phone sound proof from its environment.
To avoid impact sound transmission the tubes are isolated with foam. Add another tube if you want to increase the sound proofing quality.
Dimensions: 12 x 12 x 30 cm ; weight: 1 kg ; material cost: 24,- €
The problem
Once targeted a standard mobile phone can be hacked by an attacker and easily be modified to record sound at any time. This might sound like a farfetched spy story to you but in the year 3 after Snowden politicians, lawyers, NGOs or journalists have to deal very much with these kind of questions. Recently Edward Snowden & Bennie Huan presented the project „Introspection Engine“, a hardware modification for iPhones that monitors and signals radio traffic on a hardware level to make sure the phone is ‚really off‘. Different voices in the hacker community pointed out that this device cannot prevent phones from listen to a conversation and to relay the data ‚later‘ to the ‚attacker‘. It is generally advised for i.e. journalists who are meeting a ’source‘ to leave their phones ‚at home‘ or in a sound dampening closet like a fridge nearby. However, depending on the local situation this is not necessarily a practical solution. You might need the phone to plan the meeting and maybe the place where you meet has no fridge or similar appliances accessible.
How does it work?
Like a russian Matryoshka doll the phone is locked into a foam isolated plastic tube with screw cover, which again is placed in an isolated plastic tube. After a series of tests with different containers it showed that a round tube of hard plastic provides good properties to block sound. It is very important to disrupt direct contact of the phone case and plastic tubes to avoid impact sound transmission. The double layer tube in a tube approach can be improved with a 3rd or more layers of plastic tubes. Surprisingly it is quite difficult to prevent a phone microphone from ‚hearing‘ something. Try it yourself! I did tests with pouches, boxes, kitchen containers, glass containers, pelican cases and so on. Often there the recorded sound is already very low but always good enough to listen to a conversation once you pull up the volume in post-production audio software. Heavy high density material would work best to block sound waves but to walk around with a concrete block seems not very practical. However if you find out other better solutions please share your ideas!
Tutorial:
Disclaimer!
Make sure to test your setup! Put your phone to record audio and lock it in the tubes. Try different sound sources in a variety of distances to the DeafenYourPhone tube and check the results in audio software on your computer. In a normal medium sound environment, with a distance of 1-2 meters and normal voice speaking level I wasn’t able to extract any usable audio from the recordings. Only rely on this proposal for a sound proofing capsule if you have tested and proofed its function properly. Tips and recommendations from audio/eavesdropping experts are welcome! 😉
History
I presented this sound proof tube concept along with the killyourphone.com pouches workshop end of 2013 at the #30C3 conference, the annual congress of the CCC (Chaos Computer Club) but haven’t documented it properly since then. This blog post is dedicated to Linus Neumann and Tim Pritlove from Logbuch Netzpolitik.org. ;))
Audio test!!
This is an audio test with the above shown setup. „Logbuch Netzpolitik“ #190 is running at a decent volume (normal voice level). The tubes are closed and then placed ca. 1m away from the speaker. If you are able to extract the conversation of Tim and Linus while the phone (iPhone 5) is in the tube please let me know!
AV / DV
intervention & object
rubber, metal, 40x5x2cm, video 1:49 min
AV /DV is a customized 40 cm pressure hose – AV Auto valve / DV Dunlop valve adapter – to balance pressure between a car and bicycle tire. First tested and shown at Remind me later solo show at Kunstverein Arnsberg.
Aram Bartholl, ‚Aluthut Workshop (tinfoil hat workshop)‘ 2016. Display view. Courtesy Kunstverein Arnsberg
Aram Bartholl, ‚Remind me later‘ 2016. Exhibition view. Courtesy Kunstverein Arnsberg
Aram Bartholl, ‚Remind me later‘ 2016. Exhibition view. Courtesy Kunstverein Arnsberg
Aram Bartholl, ‚Remind me later‘ 2016. Exhibition view. Courtesy Kunstverein Arnsberg
Aram Bartholl, ‚5 min, 1h, tonight, tomorrow…(Remind me later)‘ 2016. Display view. Courtesy Kunstverein Arnsberg
Aram Bartholl, ‚Aluthut Workshop (tinfoil hat workshop)‘ 2016. Display view. Courtesy Kunstverein Arnsberg
Aram Bartholl, ‚Aluthut Workshop (tinfoil hat workshop)‘ & Shooting Your Film With Quality‘ 2016. Display view. Courtesy Kunstverein Arnsberg
Aram Bartholl, ‚Shooting Your Film With Quality‘ 2016. Display view. Courtesy Kunstverein Arnsberg
Aram Bartholl, ‚AV/DV‘ 2016. Performance in public, video still. Courtesy Kunstverein Arnsberg
Aram Bartholl, ‚AV/DV‘ 2016. Display view. Courtesy Kunstverein Arnsberg
Aram Bartholl, ‚AV/DV‘ 2016. Performance in public. Vdeo 1:49. Courtesy Kunstverein Arnsberg
Aram Bartholl, ‚The Internet‘ 2015 & ‚Shake it!‘ 2015. Display view. Courtesy Kunstverein
Aram Bartholl, ‚Atlas Shrugged‘ 2016. Display view. Courtesy Kunstverein
Aram Bartholl, ‚Atlas Shrugged‘ 2016. Display view. Courtesy Kunstverein
Aram Bartholl, ‚Greenscreen Arnsberg‘ 2016. Performance in public, video still. Courtesy Kunstverein Arnsberg
Aram Bartholl, ‚Greenscreen Arnsberg‘ 2016. Performance in public, video still. Courtesy Kunstverein Arnsberg
Aram Bartholl, ‚Greenscreen Arnsberg‘ 2016. Performance in public. Video 3:47. Courtesy Kunstverein Arnsberg
Aram Bartholl, ‚Phone Zone‘ 2016. Display view, installation in public. Courtesy Kunstverein Arnsberg
Aram Bartholl, ‚Phone Zone‘ 2016. Display view, installation in public. Courtesy Kunstverein Arnsberg
Aram Bartholl, ‚Touch screen to begin‘ 2016. Display view, installation in public. Courtesy Kunstverein Arnsberg
Aram Bartholl, ‚Touch screen to begin‘ 2016. Display view, installation in public. Courtesy Kunstverein Arnsberg
Thanks to the whole team of the Kunstverein Arnsberg!! It was a crazy good week putting this together with a lot of help of many people, thank you everyone! THX to Vlado Velkov making all this possible! :))
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Pressrelease:
ARAM BARTHOLL
Remind Me Later
8.07. – 28.09.2016
Kunstverein Arnsberg e.V.
Königstraße 24
59821 Arnsberg
www.kunstverein–arnsberg.de
Perhaps you are reading this text on your mobile device?.
Do you have your phone under control or does it have a grip on you in its grip?
The consequences of technological developments on our social lives and relationships is a central theme in the work of Aram Bartholl.
In the current exhibition, Bartholl looks into the digital everyday live. ‚Remind me later‘ is a very well known term for us instantly recognisable to us as users. As a form of reflex and self-defence against the constant stream of new automatic updates, we immediately the click tap othe ‚Remind me later‘ button has become a habitual immediate reaction.
Digitalisation can undoubtedly connect us, but can also produce alienation. Meet with friends? Spend time outdoors in nature? Remind me later. Often, the mobile phone is more captivating of attention than the person sitting opposite. The limitless possibilities of communication have more to offer than real life? Really?
Aram Bartholl investigates the social side effects of digitalisation, and examines their influence on our analogue lives. In doing so, his work often incorporates outdoor space and blends perceptions of the real and the virtual. His work in Arnsberg continues in this vein, with humour and great sensitivity.
Aram Bartholl was born in Bremen in 1972 and lives in Berlin. He is guest professor at the Kunstakademie in Kassel and at UCLA in Los Angeles.
All pictures -> flickr.com/photos/bartholl/albums/72157670961661206/with/28305068065/
‚
KUNSTVEREIN ARNSBERG
ARAM BARTHOLL
Remind Me Later
8.07. – 28.09.2016
Eröffnung der Ausstellung und Sommerfest im Garten des Kunstvereins
am Freitag, 8.07.2016, 19 Uhr
Kunstverein Arnsberg e.V.
Königstraße 24
59821 Arnsberg
www.kunstverein–arnsberg.de
The workshop night at Machine Project in L.A. with Crypto Nails by Nadja Buttendorf and KILLYOURPHONE.COM was very much fun! Thx to Machine Project for hosting this event!! & thx to the people for stat-us.org for inviting us!! Also thanks to Simon Steiner from Otis for this super cool handmade screen print poster!!
http://machineproject.com/2016/events/kill-your-phone-crypto-nails/
Saturday, April 30, 8:00pm–10:00pm
1200 N Alvarado St, Los Angeles, CA 90026, USA
ALL PICTURES on flickr!!
‚
Teaching at Design Media Art UCLA has been really fun so far!! Documentation of the undergrad Form class can be found here classes.dma.ucla.edu/Winter16/22 and more pictures here flickr.com/photos/bartholl/sets/72157666722216946
Cool student projects for this Spring quarter are already on the way!
Additivism Manifesto by Morehshin Allahyari & Daniel Rourke
Speed Show LA: Manifesto
http://speedshow.net/manifesto
7:00-10:00 PM, Thursday, February 18, 2016, fb-event
at iPC Bang Internet Cafe, http://www.yelp.com/biz/i-pc-bang-internet-cafe
401 S Vermont Ave, Koreatown,
Los Angeles, CA 90020
Statement:
A manifesto is a published verbal declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus and/or promotes a new idea with prescriptive notions for carrying out changes the author believes should be made. It often is political or artistic in nature, but may present an individual’s life stance. [Wikipedia]
Manifestos have always played an important role in art movements. The tutorial for how to become a successful artist could be „Step 1: Write a manifesto!…“ Sometimes the manifesto itself becomes the art work, or in other cases the opposite happens. A kind of unwritten manifesto is in place, an art scene influencing and quoting each others‘ work with their own set of rules and aesthetic ideas. It also happens that an art work has strong manifesto qualities itself or that a single piece represents a whole generation of art. Computer code is by definition a manifesto, a set of rules which are interpreted by the machine. While we’ve been looking at screens and talking about the Internet, the physical manifestation of art work has played a particularly important role over the last ten years.
The very first Speed Show took place in Berlin in the summer of 2010. Six years later, after many Speed Shows world wide and a couple years break, I am very pleased to present the first Speed Show in Los Angeles. More than 20 artists, international and local, from LA, will present a wide range of art from classic works to brand new pieces. It is again an interesting moment (like in 2010) to take a look at the different generations of net artist, Internet artists, art under the influence of the Internet etc … A lot has happened since 2010. Different art scenes developed and moved on, the art world got closer to the Internet and Snowden drained our comfortable bath of naivety. LA 2016! Time for a new manifesto?
Aram Bartholl 2016, Los Angeles
Participating artist:
Morehshin Allahyari & Daniel Rourke
Nadja Buttendorf
Petra Cortright
Caitlin Denny
Constant Dullaart
Kate Durbin
Joel Holmberg
JODI
Ann Hirsch
Parker Ito
Yung Jake
KATSU
Guthrie Lonergan
Sara Ludy
Jonas Lund
Michael Manning
Signe Pierce
Casey Reas
Borna Sammak
Alexei Shulgin & Natalie Bookchin
Eddo Stern
Merav Tzur
Curated by Aram Bartholl
Borna Sammak 2016
What is a Speed Show?
The SPEED SHOW exhibition series was conceived by the artist Aram Bartholl in June 2010. The basic idea of this exhibition format is to create a gallery like opening situation for browser based internet art in a public cyber-cafe / internet-shop for one night. The exhibition format is free and can be applied by anyone at any place.
The SPEED SHOW exhibition format:
Hit an Internet-cafe, rent all computers they have and run a show on them for one night. All art works of the participating artists need to be on-line (not necessarily public) and are shown in a typical browser with standard plug-ins. Performance and live pieces may also use pre-installed communication programs (instant messaging, VOIP, video chat etc). Custom software (except browser add-ons) or off-line files are not permitted. Any creative physical modification to the Internet cafe itself is not allowed. The show is public and takes place during normal opening hours of the Internet cafe/shop. All visitors are welcome to join the opening, enjoy the art (and to check their email.)
All shows at http://speedshow.net
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UPDATE! (23.2.2016)
The show was a great success! Thx everyone for joining last thursday! Please find below all descriptions and links to the art works!
All pictures on flickr!! https://www.flickr.com/photos/bartholl/albums/72157664287535699
Morehshin Allahyari and Daniel Rourke
The 3D Additivist Manifesto
2015
The 3D Additivist Manifesto blurs the boundaries between art, engineering, science fiction, and digital aesthetics. We call for you –artists, activists, designers, and critical engineers – to accelerate the 3D printer and other Additivist technologies to their absolute limits and beyond into the realm of the speculative, the provocative and the weird. Morehshin Allahyari is a new media artist, art activist, educator, and occasional curator. She was born and raised in Iran and moved to the United States in 2007. Her work extensively deals with the political, social, and cultural contradictions we face every day. Daniel Rourke is a writer/artist and academic based in London. His work exploits speculative and science fiction in search of a radical ‘outside’ to the human(ities).
Nadja Buttendorf
Nadja’s magnetic Nail Art Studio
2015
“In Nadja’s magnetic Nail Art Studio we do magnetic Nail Enhancement. Instead of implants, we are doing EXPLANTS! Feel Electric Magnetic Waves! It makes your life easier and more beautiful!” Nadja Buttendorf is a Berlin based jewelry artist specialized in questions of cybernetic enhancements of the human body, alien speculative scenarios and posthuman jewelry. She is a founding member of the Cyborg eV Berlin and is known to have coined the term ‘explants’. Get your nails magnetic tonight at the Speed Show!
Petra Cortright
office_depot
2008
“What do you do for a living? Do you think your job relates to your art practice in a significant way?” “uhh can i skip this one lol. when i worked at office depot i had an office depot twitter account. the account was suspended, but it scraped it together in a gif.” (Rhizome artist profile interview) Petra Cortright uses a range of mediums, both digital and analog, to explore the aesthetics and performative cultures of online consumption.
Caitlin Denny
jstchillin
2009 – 2011
Jstchillin.org served as an online art gallery for a large community of net artists between the years 2009 and 2011. Co-creator Caitlin Denny published several essays, web works and manifestos to accompany the monthly exhibitions, as well as a primer to the site before exhibitions started appearing. The open tabs via browser represent archived and live versions of these net-manifestos, speaking to the link rot and obsolescence issues surrounding born digital archives today – especially those of online art communities. Caitlin Denny (San Diego, 1986) is a California based filmmaker, artist and archivist. She is currently attending UCLA’s Master of Library and Information Science program with a focus on media archives. ,
Constant Dullaart
Balconism
2015
http://tinyurl.com/tnx-flashart, http://tinyurl.com/tnxfriezz, http://tinyurl.com/tnx-artf, https://soundcloud.com/constantdullaart/balconism-mixdown https://www.google.com/search?q=%27on+balcony+with+phone%27&biw=1333&bih=668&source=lnms&tbm=isch&
A new “-ism” calls for sovereign expression in the 21st century, acronyms, typos, leetspeak, and kaomoji included. The manifesto was published by Dullaart through website error message of the art magazines frieze.com, flashart.com and artforum.com in fall 2015. Constant Dullaart is a former resident of the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, living and working mostly in Berlin. His work often deals with the effects and affects of contemporary communication and mass media, both online and offline.
Kate Durbin
The Supreme Gentleman
2015
The Supreme Gentleman is a performance of Isla Vista shooter Elliot Rodger’s final YouTube address, where he states that he will destroy all “you girls” who have ignored him and treated him “like a mouse.” He claims he will become “like a god.” Not long after filming the video and uploading it to the Internet, Rodger killed six people and injured fourteen others, before killing himself. Like the Oracle of Delphi, I wanted to channel “the god” and transmit/transmute his sick words through my body, the type he had objectified in life (blonde, white). Kate Durbin is a Los Angeles based artist and writer whose work deals with digital media, gender, and popular culture. Recently she was the Arts Queensland 2015 Poet in Residence.,
Joel Holmberg
Anything in here will be replaced on browsers that support the canvas element
2015
With a search and documentation of ‘Anything in here will be replaced on browsers that support the canvas element’ Holmberg deconstructs the classic web 2.0 animated tag cloud in macro lens vision with the precision of a wild life TV documentary of an almost extinct species. Joel Holmberg combines and manipulates existing material to make witty and evocative works in a variety of media. He also creates sculpture, video, books, and Web-based projects, including an archive of responses to questions on Yahoo! Answers (yahoo.answers.com). Holmberg is a founding member of the Internet surfing club Nasty Nets.
JODI
:-(^.^)
2016
Joan Heemskerk and Dirk Paesmans, collectively known as JODI, are rightfully venerated for their countless contributions to art and technology, working as an artistic duo since the mid-90’s. Generally referred to as pioneers of “net.art,” that oft-misunderstood “movement” combining the efforts of artists using the internet as a medium circa 1994, JODI is revered not only for their artistic meditations on the increasing presence of new technology in our daily lives, but also for their fuck-if-I-care attitude toward both the establishments of the technology and art worlds. JODI’s famous five-word “acceptance” speech—if you could call it that—for their 1999 Webby Award in art, simply read, “Ugly commercial sons of bitches.” (Rhizome)
Ann Hirsch
MANIFESTO
2015
MANIFESTO is the video that introduces the series of 30 short screengrab videos from my online project hornylilfeminist.com. Ann Hirsch is a video and performance artist who examines the influence of technology on popular culture and gender. Her immersive research has included becoming a YouTube camwhore with over two million video views and an appearance as a contestant on Frank the Entertainer…In a Basement Affair on Vh1. She was awarded a Rhizome commission for her two-person play Playground which debuted at the New Museum and was premiered by South London Gallery at Goldsmiths College.
Parker Ito
images 2005 – 2015
2005 – 2015
An image archive from 2005 – present. Parker Ito is an American artist whose work primarily consists of painting, installation, and web based imagery. Ito is one of many YIBA. His internet-influenced approach to art results in large bodies of work produced in short amounts of time. He has exhibited in the United States, Europe, and notable cities worldwide. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
Yung Jake
Both
2015
Yung Jake’s music video for “Both” recalls a night at the club through two interacting Snapchat stories. Each screen gives different perspectives as viewers follow Yung Jake through his night at the club. Viewers need to line up two phones to watch the video in full. The title “Both” refers to the fact that Jake wants to make both: art and hip hop. Jake, who got his BFA from CalArts, turned to the rap world due to frustrations with the art world’s inability to avoid talking about race. “Everytime I made a painting it was about being black all da sudden,” he explained to LA Weekly. “So I started making raps about pretty-hoe-bitches and suddenly blackness wasn’t an issue anymore.”
KATSU
Drone Drawing
2015
The video ‘KATSU Drone Drawing 2015 on Kendall Jenner’ documents the first to a large audience known drone graffito intervention in public space by the artist KATSU. Location: Kendall Jenner’s face, Calvin Klein Jeans billboard, East Houston St, NYC.2015. KATSU is an artist, vandal and hacker who works in Brooklyn, New York. He works with technology, vandalism, and includes commentary on commercialism, privacy and digital culture. As a result his work includes traditional graffiti, digital media and conceptual artwork.
Guthrie Lonergan
California License Plate Text Editor
2016
“The California state automobile license plate is arguably the sexiest form of unique alphanumerical government identification. I’ve created a simple text editor which places text typed via the user’s keyboard onto California state license plates, 7 characters at a time. …”Text editor” is probably too flattering a label for it, but it does have a blinking cursor and wraps words at the edge of the page. You can create sentences and paragraphs of license plates. The return key works, too.” Guthrie Lonergan’s work has been exhibited internationally, including the New Museum in New York and MOCA in Los Angeles and the first Internet Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He is a co-founder of Nasty Nets Internet surfing club and is participating in the upcoming 2016 “Made In LA” biennial at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.
Sara Ludy
Low Prim
2012 – 2016
“Low Prim is a growing collection of low-resolution found images (real estate ads, product photography, webcams, Google similar images, etc) that I group together to create a sense of place.” Sara Ludy’s practice investigates the confluence of the physical and virtual. Her works include websites, animation, photography, sculpture, and audio-visual performance. Previous exhibitions of her work include among others the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago; Berkeley Art Museum, California; Honor Fraser, Los Angeles; bitforms gallery, New York; Postmasters Gallery.
Jonas Lund
Investment Advice
2016
Investments are hard; Stocks, Mutual funds, Index funds, Prospectus, Up, Down, Long, Short, Hedge, Execute, Sell, Arbitrage, Leverage, Convergence, Reinvestment risk, Prepayment, Straddle/strangle, HFTs, the Boston Shuffler, Dark Pools. Each financial system or trade follows a pattern, a preset selection of rules and options all adhering to and aiming for growth. These patterns can also become material for other more fluid automated investment advice as depicted in this piece. Jonas Lund is a Swedish contemporary media artist who creates paintings, sculpture, photography, websites and performances in which he incorporates data he extracts from studies of art world trends and behavior.
Michael Manning,
Things That Are The Internet in Apple Casual
2012
“Things That Are The Internet in Apple Casuall’ is a j-query slide show of texts that people submitted to an email address regarding the question ‘What is the Internet?’ Michael Manning is a Los Angeles based artist who explores alternative approaches to producing and distributing traditional art objects using technology and social networking. Most recently he has had solo presentations at Retrospective Gallery, New York, American Contemporary, New York, Bill Brady KC @ NADA Miami 2013 and Smart Objects, Los Angeles.
Signe Pierce
AMERICAN REFLEXXX
2016
American Reflexxx is a short film documenting a social experiment that took place in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Director Alli Coates captured performance artist Signe Pierce as she strutted down a busy oceanside street in stripper garb and a reflective mask. The pair agreed not to communicate until the experiment was completed, but never anticipated the horror that would unfold in under an hour. The result is a heart wrenching technicolor spectacle that raises questions about gender stereotypes, mob mentality, and violence in America. Directed by: Alli Coates. Signe Pierce (b.1988) is a photo, video, and performance artist uses who her body, her lens, and her surroundings to frame questions regarding the perception of actual reality within an increasingly digital society. She has notably exhibited and performed at the MoMA, the Metropolitan and the Palais De Tokyo among others. She is based between New York, Los Angeles, and the Internet.
Casey Reas
Century
2012
Century reflects, deconstructs and offers dialog with elements of well known iconic paintings of the 20th century “There is no reason that those need to be actual paintings” Manual: The image changes each second. Click to pause the image. Click and drag to modify the image. Press the left and right arrow keys to change the composition. Press “F” to go full screen. Casey Reas writes software to explore conditional systems as art. Through defining emergent networks and layered instructions, he has defined a unique area of visual experience that builds upon concrete art, conceptual art, experimental animation, and drawing. While dynamic, generative software remains his core medium, work in variable media including prints, objects, installations, and performances materialize from his visual systems.
Borna Sammak
Computers are gay
2016
“Been super busy moving out of LA and then in Puerto Rico (don’t ask- I don’t know why) I def won’t be able to swing making something for the speed show – which bums me out cuz I really wanted to. You can use the computers are gay thing if you’d like. But the way I see it – it’s an Aram Bartholl piece not a Borna Sammak piece 😉 Xoxo – we’ll get it right next time” (Borna) “Borna Sammak is a cutting edge contemporary artists I know but often struggles to deliver work on time. Therefore I show his strong quote above in lack of an actual piece.” (Aram)
Alexei Shulgin and Natalie Bookchin
Introduction to net.art
1997
Alexei Shulgin & Natalie Bookchin’s “Introduction to net.art” serves as a self aware, tongue-in-cheek manifesto for the net.art scene of the 90’s. The central component of the work is its text – a simplified beginners guide to net.art, followed by DIY instructions on how one can become a net artist. Steps are listed such as “Preparing Your Environment”, followed by potential modes of working and genres one might adhere to for the production of successful net.art. Other sections include “What You Should Know”, “Critical Tips and Tricks for the Successful Modern net.artist”, and “Utopian Appendix (After net.art)”. In 1999 this text was exhibited engraved in stone. This piece effectively embodies the transgressive, and humorously self-aware style of the 90’s net.art scene. (Rhizome)
Eddo Stern
Best Flamewar Ever
2007
A two channel 3D computer animation diptych recreating an online flame war about degrees of expertise around the computer fantasy game Everquest. The specific points of contention may appear recondite at first glance, but gradually the unfolding narrative acquires an unexpected pathos and reveals a glimpse into the shifting codes of masculinity. Eddo Stern works on the disputed borderlands between fantasy and reality, exploring the uneasy and otherwise unconscious connections between physical existence and electronic simulation. His work explores new modes of narrative and documentary, experimental computer game design, fantasies of technology and history, and cross-cultural representation in computer games, film, and online media.
Merav Tzur,
Confidential Parent/Unborn Child Agreement
2015
It is only natural that, without much reflection, humans continue to perform the functions which they were born to execute– producing new generations of children at a rate of 131.4 million births per year. But does anyone ever consider asking their children whether they want to be alive? Does anyone ever deliver a document stating terms and conditions, risks and benefits of being alive to their children? This Confidential Parent/Unborn Child Agreement will assure a fair disclosure of what is to be expected if one chooses to experience being alive. Born on a Kibbutz in Israel and immigrated to the US on her own when she was twenty-two, Merav Tzur received her MFA from UC Berkeley and BFA from California College of the Arts. Her work has been shown at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Kroswork Gallery, SOMArts Gallery, SFPAI, A Simple Collective, and Root Division and in Israel.