Joseph Farbrook addresses the audience

On Tuesday, March 9th, eight artists from the current exhibition “Collision 15:findings”, organized by William Tremblay and Yuri Stone, and which runs through March 27th, spoke about their work at Axiom. Works discussed range from an antique glass head with an internal video screen of thoughts, to a 9′ tall unfurling mechanical fiddlehead, to a digital print that displays its own code.

I am always amazed by these artists; they come to the Collision Collective from the engineering and computer science worlds, and use their (seemingly unlimited!) knowledge and skill sets to create works of art that are at the same time unbelievably crafted and unbelievably thought-provoking.

John Goodman explains his timekeeper

Joseph Farbrook spoke about the baffling concept of “locating oneself” inside the body- where DO we live? Is it in our head, or, as one talk attendee suggested, behind our left toe?

John Goodman has figured out a gear ratio that moves a sundial type apparatus in perfect motion with the turning of our blue planet, but in order to have it displayed in a gallery setting, he upped the speed to create perceptible movement. Was this necessary- do we need to SEE something moving in order to believe that it works?

Georgina Lewis and Ben Bray both touch on issues of clandestine government operations. On the idiosyncrasies of covert operations involving prisoner transport, and how we are secretly surveilled and analyzed.

Ben Bray's "Extraordinary Renditions"

Chris Fitch and Mark stock both blow my mind: these guys have no problem with algorithms that define natural processes- the unfolding of a fern on a spring walk through the woods and the path that fluids take become jumping off points for their artwork.

Rob Gonsalves questions our ideas of abstract expressionism (can anyone  paint in this genre following a standard set of rules?) and Dave Gordon makes us chuckle as we are surprised by whale song and video of fish seemingly swimming in our toilet (no cameras involved!) – and while we may crack a smile, we might just have more to ponder as we close that restroom door…

If you haven’t seen this show yet, you’re in for a treat. And bring your brain, whether its located in your cranium or, behind that little, left toe.

More info at www.axiomart.org

click here to see festival poster

Festival Schedule

All screenings at 730 pm, Axiom Center for New and Experimental Media
Tickets $10, $8 ATNE Members
Limited tickets available at the door buy advance tickets at

http://newmediacuriousfest.eventbrite.com/

Thursday April 8 The 29th Annual Black Maria Film and Video Festival
Since 1981, the annual Black Maria Film and Video Festival which takes it’s name from that of the world’s first motion picture studio built by Thomas Edison in 1893, has been an international juried competition and award tour, has been fulfilling its mission to advocate, exhibit and reward cutting edge works from independent film and videomakers. The festival is known for its national public exhibition program, which features a variety of bold contemporary works drawn from the annual collection of 50 or more award winning films and videos. The program will include work by Roslindale filmmaker Katherine Ramey. More about the Black Maria can be found at http://www.blackmariafilmfestival.org/

Thursday April 15 INtransit V.6: Scientific American
INtransit is a twice yearly curated video journal of art and technoscience produced by media arts collective AstroDime Transit Authority. This edition looks at the history and representation of “American” science within and without the United States, using as a metaphorical framework, the magazine Scientific American. What is a scientific American? Artists and scientists examine this question through the lens of their disciplines. Astrodime Transit Authority will introduce the event and take audience questions.http://www.astrodime.org

Thursday April 22 Experimental Moving Images from the Art Technology New England Community
ATNE, a program of Boston Cyberarts, launched in 2009 is a quickly growing consortium of people working at the intersection of technology and the arts. Members of the free ATNE portal were informed of a call for work with a deadline of March 22 2010. Short work in any genre including narrative, non-narrative, documentary, experimental, that challenges obvious conventions of the medium makes up the program. More info and call for entries see arttechne.ning.com . More info about ATNE is at http://www.atne.org.

Thursday April 29 What If? 60×60x60
Media artist Gene Gort and composer/sound artist Ken Steen of New Media New Music New England bring us an audience participatory experiment in audio and video called What If? 60×60x60.  The project uses 60 video clips and 60 sound compositions that are 60 seconds in duration each. Contributors of the clips were selected from a call to New England mediamakers. During the event, audience members select one number each from a video and audio designated list. These selections will determine the evening’s program of 60 works, resulting in a 60 minute screening. What If? 60×60x60  investigates the serendipitous relationship of sound and moving image in terms of coincidence, shifting context and potential meanings that result. More info at http://www.nmnmne.org Gene Gort, Ken Steen and Boston mediamakers will discuss the experimental project following the screening.

MCC Adams Fund Award Ceremony, Pictured are the BRA's Carole Walton, Heidi Kayser, George Fifield, MCC's Anita Walker, Meri Jenkins, Christina Hogan

On February 9th, George Fifield and I attended an awards ceremony/announcement forum for projects funded through the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Adams Art Program. In 2004, Massachusetts Legislature created the Adams Arts Program, which funds projects that create jobs and income, revitalize downtowns, and draw cultural tourists.

From the MCC website:

“Adams-funded projects leverage the assets of the creative sector – artists, cultural organizations, and arts-related businesses – inherent in Massachusetts’ communities to generate real income. ”

The Boston Cyberarts Festival is cited, as an example of these type of projects, on the home page of the Adams Fund website.

This year’s MCC Adams Arts Awards Ceremony was held at the State House, so that Massachusetts legislators could be present, and both talk to and with constituents funded through the Adams Program. Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz, Boston Cyberarts’ local representative, gave emphatic remarks on the pride she takes in representing the non-profit cultural activities in her district, and also cited Boston Cyberarts as a big contributor to the cultural excellence of the Jamaica Plain/Roxbury area.

It was inspiring for me to witness direct support come from the mouths of people I never really think about, those high-ups whose names appear on ballots and with whom I never have any personal connection. These are the people who make state funding for the arts possible. It was evident that they are pleased with the cultural community throughout Massachusetts, and will continue to fight for funding for all kinds of arts and cultural programming.

Examples of types of funded projects and people I saw include Transcultural Exchange and the ever-talented Mary Sherman, Carole Walton at the BRA, organizing the upcoming Powering Up Conference, Catherine Peterson at ArtsBoston.org, and projects like the Cambridge Science Festival and the ArtsUnion program of the Somerville Arts Council. I felt in great company, the energy in the room was terrific, and we all left to get back to that grind- yet, with a bit of money, and a lot of support.

Conversations at Art Loves Science

Ten persevering people descended at Axiom this past Tuesday, the eve before the “snow emergency” that never happened, for Art Loves Science, Round 2- ATNE’s version of the speed-dating phenomenon!

After Round 1, which happened last fall, we at ATNE decided that, if we built it, people would come, so we planned for Round 2, and made this session a bit more structured and specific.  Participants, (after filling their wine glasses of course) were asked to introduce themselves to the group and give a bit of background on what brought them to speed-date, and where they consider themselves to fit in the art and or science world.

On the wall, on an obligatory “giant post-it” were a list of ice-breaking conversation starters for daters. They ran the gamut from “what’s your wish list for equipment/media or software?” to “do you think artists are scientists and vice versa, can they help each other and how so?”

We then had about an hour and a half of six minute conversations with one another, complete with iPhone timer giving the “half-time” alert and a strict “SWITCH” command at the end of six short (or long, depending on your conversation partner I suppose!) minutes.

More intense conversing...

At the end of it all, we took a wine break, and came into a circle to talk about issues, “aha moments” and potential “dates” that were made. ATNE Program manager Sarah Rushford, and myself, had been eavesdropping on conversations throughout the evening, and so read a list of interesting and funny tidbits overheard. The prize for the evening, a dvd issue of Aspect Magazine, was given to Eric, a phd student from MIT’s Media Lab, for his use of the word “tinkerability.”

What made this evening so interesting and special was the varied people who braved the impending non-storm to talk about art and science. Selected backgrounds ranged from a materials scientist, two international relations grad students, a few computer science guys, a writer, a dancer, a performance artist, a musician, a media lab PHD candidate – amongst others.

Several ideas came out of  this evening as well that ATNE will take under strong consideration: organizing a skill-share for artists and scientists, hosting collaborator-finding networking sessions, and holding more structured events for feedback on ideas and projects outside of an academic setting, for both artists and scientists/technologists. So, all in all, a fun event, and the only complaint I heard was “well, I thought this would be a place to pick up girls, but I was sorely disappointed, and yet pleasantly surprised.”

Stay tuned for Art Loves Science, Round 3- you never, know, maybe you’ll find a date.

Jeffrey Jacobson's Presentation on Virtual Reality at Axiom on Feb 2 2010

Jeffrey Jacobson's Presentation on Virtual Reality at Axiom on Feb 2 2010

Jeffrey Jacobson spoke to a full house at Axiom about the history and current state of virtual reality research and production, and gave a demonstration of his own Virtual Reality Project “Cave UT” www.publicvr.org on February 2, 2010.