Aram Bartholl – Blog

I like Marc Owen work a lot. Nice transgender suit.

A study by psychologists at Nottingham Trent University has found that 54 percent of all males and 68 percent of all females “gender swap”–or create online personas of their opposite sex.

A real life manifestation of that practice, the Virtual Transgender Suit replicates the aesthetics of the typical virtual female form and catapults them within a real world context. The piece was specifically designed for men to wear in the real world, creating a bridge between real (where cross-dressing is not really socially accepted) and virtual.

via WMMNA

This one I also found at M50 gallery area Shanghai. I like the kind of multi layered sign: 3D letters in perspective view plus perspective distortion!?!? The name of the gallery is great anyway ;-)
( And of course there is a bit WoW in there.)

(found at Hackescher Markt, Berlin)

V2 Lab Rotterdam invited Daan Roosegaarde and me to run each a four day workshop track during the eARTS festival Shanghai 19.-22.10.2008. The title of the workshop setup by V2 was “Urban Space. Time to Play.” The idea was to develop with chinese students a work wich would be presented in public space at the end of the festival. During these 4 days we had a lot of lectures, introductions and discussions. The students came from different schools of Shanghai and had different backgrounds, but mostly design and media design. After I introduced my style of work and a range of materials the Students were invited to develop their own concept. After four intense days of working, discussing, translating and testing my workshop track resulted in two different public space interventions. “Jump’n Run Shanghai” and
“QQ PaperChat”. Although the police intervened and we had to stop our public action we had a lot of fun and lot’s of reactions from the public audience.

I think it was for all of us (especially eARTS) quite an experiment to do this kind of public intervention in China. The people in the street were very curious and totally not used to it. I was told Shanghai plays a special role in China (yes, the city is quite special ;-) and that it was not possible to do these kind of interventions i.e. in Beijing. But let’s just try. :-) There is a lot to learn about China. There are of course strict rules in this country but it seams to me that these rules are quite flexible (to a certain extent). I got quite different feedback from chinese people on how they rate what you could or could not do in public space. Let’s join them to work on that and to extend that fuzzy border … ;-)

Thanks to all the participants. You were a wonderfull group and I hope you had a good time.
Thanks to the eARTS team: especially to Iris Huang, Xuan Xuan and Chen.
Thanks to V2 Lab: Michel, Simon, Anne and Alex.

I had a very good time and I am looking forward to learn more about Asia.

Workshop and public performance movie doucmentations

Jump'n Run Shanghai from Aram Bartholl on Vimeo.

“Jump’n Run Shanghai” is an adaption of the video game Super Mario reenacted in front of the South Railway Station Shanghai on 22.10.2008.

QQ PaperChat from Aram Bartholl on Vimeo.

“Jump’n Run Shanghai” and “QQ PaperChat” movies are as well online on Youku.com the Chinese Youtube

M50 gallery area in Shanghai is expanding.”No.100 Moganshan Rd” has rented a space in between all the little shops.

It is quite difficult to find coffee to go in Shanghai except some real and fake Starbucks in the city centre. This ‘french’ backery had a 50% offer on a hot coffee (cold coffee, full price).
;-)

Recently I gave an interview for the colombian magazin on arts and electronics “Elniuton“. Start to read on page 43 of the beautifully designed, paper like but flash/web realized mag. I assume they are trying to go for print soon and it is interesting to see how they turn their digital presence into a phisical feel. I got a ‘thank you’ gift today by email. ;-)

Thx to the Elniuton team and to Lucia Ayala!

Shanghai will host the Expo 2010. A site of 400 ha (4 km²) is under development. It’s going to be huge. It seams like small scale projects are just not possible in China. Or maybe we have to get used to a different scale…

There has been a lot of discussion on how we can reclaim, revive and engage Public Space in Europe/West. It was very interesting to see how Public Space is still naturally used in Shanghai, China. The picture shows a kind of public marriage market wich takes place once a week (month?) in the very centre of Shanghai on People’s Square. Parents advertise their grown up kids by short notes and try to find a good match for them. A very classic offline social network, serious dating platform. :-)

(Graffiti artist at work, Near M50 Art area. The only spot where you can find streetart in Shanghai)