I am about to return to the UK, leaving Edmonton, Alberta and Latitude 53’s wonderful hosting of Visualeyez.
It’s been an extraordinary ten days of a hybrid of residency and festival during which I have seen and experienced some remarkable work by artists based here in Canada and had also made three almost entirely new works in response to the thematics of this years Visualeyez - Justice.
The blog written by Shawna Dempsey presents a succint and insightful commentary accompanied by photographs:
http://visualeyez2008.blogspot.com/
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July 29th, 2008
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Visualeyez 2008
The ninth annual Visualeyez… festival of performance art taking place from July 18-28, 2008 in the downtown core of Edmonton, Alberta with the curatorial theme of Justice.
Focusing upon the broad interpretation of Justice, this theme has deliberately been left wide open to the interpretation of artists and collectives. This will include such aspects as social justice, ecological, racial, economical, retributive justice, distributive justice, justice as virtue, and justice as harmony.
Karen Spencer
Margaret Dragu
David Khang
Alexis O’Hara
Robin Brass
Paul Couillard.
Kira O’Reilly
Visualeyez happens over a period of ten days and all invited artists should be prepared to attend for the entire length of the festival. Artists experience the work of other artists, engage in discussion groups, panels and other activities that enhance the work of individual artists and the performance art community within Canada and beyond.
Visualeyez is supported, in part by Canadian Heritage, Canada Council for the Arts, Imperial Tobacco Canada Arts Council, The City of Edmonton and Latitude 53.
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July 14th, 2008
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Please help support this unique artists led event:
Resonate/Obliterate performance/benefit Thurs. July 24, 8:30 p.m. Los Angeles, CA
Solo performances by
Ron Athey
Julie Tolentino
Julianna Snapper
Franko B
All proceeds benefit
PRAXIS Mohave Performance Art Bootcamp
which Athey/Tolentino and Snapper are conducting in Joshua Tree August 2008
*10pm
Then comes the “new-school” after-party: RADIATE/INTOXICATE, hosted by Wu Ingrid Tsang and Zackary Drucker, our Praxis scholarship artists, who are organizing an evening of hi-NRG performance, video, and disco dancing. There’s also a garden, a spiral staircase and valet parking.
If you are unable to be there you can make a donation via Paypal, for details contact:
praxismohave@gmail.com
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July 12th, 2008
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See The Scientist.
British biologists have received government approval to create the world’s first human stem cells from hybrid embryos, part pig, part human.
The Warwick Medical School team, led by Justin St. John of the Clinical Sciences Research Institute, was granted the country’s third animal-human embryo license from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which goes into effect today (July 1).
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July 2nd, 2008
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Sensual Technologies
I.C.A. London
Ermira Goro as live avatar in 3D Game
27 June 2008
A one day international symposium from The Brunel School of Performance, Sensual Technologies, led by Stelarc, Johannes Birringer, Susan Broadhurst and Jo Machon, features theorists and practitioners of performance, dance, music and electronic media arts. It will explore alternate and aesthetic uses of technology that extend artistic practice beyond the expected, into realms of unusual and heightened experience. The contributors to this event are leading practitioners and theorists offering diverse perspectives to the debate. They include Roy Ascott, Roger Malina, Jill Scott, Gary Hall, Rachel Armstrong, Paul Brown, Louis-Philippe Demers, Marta De Menezes, Kira O’Reilly, Kathleen Rogers, Paul Sermon, Theodore Spyropoulos, Atau Tanaka and Andrea Zapp.
£50 / £47 Concessions / £45 ICA Members.
Includes tea/coffee, lunch and post-symposium drinks.
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June 26th, 2008
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Well not for me this time anyway, unfortunately scheduling and the organisers needing to juggle several peoples diaries means that the intended performance is now not happening on the 5th. However there is a superb consolation which is that Joshua Sofaer is presenting at Performer Stammtisch on 2nd June.
Hopefully I’ll get back to Berlin to do a little something another time. Last time I was there was in 1991, staying in a huge and rather glorious squat in Kreutzberg staying with the always fabulous Lisa Verdekal. I don’t recall much of it, reading Venus In Furs, and hitting the tequilla.
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May 22nd, 2008
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It’s all to tempting to place a bitter and sad rant here about money, or rather the lack of. This year has been terrifying financially, despite making work that I feel incredibly proud of and strong about. I’ve found myself sobbing out of pure hard, cold fear at not been paid by art organisations and higher education institutions with no recourse, back up.
Doubtless much of this is due to my own lack of professional practice, savvy and knowing skills that can negociate a decent fee and get it paid I am happy to engage with my ongoing learning curve.
But I am no longer happy to be told my lack of payment is due to any revenue funded organisations’ inability to locate the funds for work they have already contracted me to do and seen me do. I am not happy to have to justify my fees or to accept huge reductions of them or for that matter for them not to be taken seriously. Neither am I happy to continue to give talks, presentations, teaching or other works for free for Higher Education Institutions or Arts Organisations, or at least not until I have an income I can live on and therefore afford to be generous with my resources. Neither can I afford to continue to do research and development and not pay myself. Generousity is important, doing something for nothing is important, and doing something for the love of it, but not when it prevents me from being able to earn a basic income.
I recently wrote to an individual in a Higher Education Institution
” . . . I am becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the reluctance higher education institutions demonstrate to pay self-employed and free lance artists to participate in these events [talks, panels, presentations, symposia etc.] . It has forced a decision on my part to no longer accept these invitations unless I am adequately paid for my time as well as expenses. I am certain you and others in your position will understand and as I imagine financial renumeration is an essential consideration in your own professional practice. I shall happily reverse this decision if my circumstances change and I find I have some institutional employment that can financially allow me to sustain such activities.”
The reply I received was unhelpful and entirely unsympathetic to say the least.
Be that as it may, this emerges from no longer being able to sustain being so broke and feeling so incredibly disempowered. Weirdly, and rather wonderfully, this apex of difficulty comes at a time when I feel hugely validated and supported by the individual makers and artists who not only understand but have made huge and practical efforts to be of help. This support means I feel huge and convincing optimism, roll up my sleeves and plod onwards and figure out the adaptions and alterations I need to make.
I have listed them in the Thank you page but I’m going to repeat the entry here:
There are a significant number of arts organisations and artists I would like to thank, undoubtedly missing out many in the process. However, for this very moment and time, which is Monday 19th May, 2008 at 19.19, I would like to make particular thanks to individual artists, comrades and confidants, who have been fantastic in their generous and no holds barred support of me this year on personal, practical and professional levels; ranging from lending me living space, working space, professional development advice, peer review, putting paid work in my way and general comeraderie and skull duggery.
Rebecca French & Andrew Mottershead, Frenchmottershead.
Oron Catts, Tissue Culture & Art Project/SymbioticA
Marisa Carnesky.
Robert Pacitti, Pacitti Company.
Domenic Johnson.
Fiona Wright.
Doran George.
Jordan McKenzie.
Traci Kelly, Hancock & Kelly Live.
Jennifer Willet.
Duncan Speakman - who made this blog site possible.
And most importantly last but by no means least to my teachers Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen, the lineage holders of the Aro Tér.
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May 22nd, 2008
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Figurations of Knowledge
European Conference of the Society for Literature, Science and the Arts (SLSA)
at the Center for Literary and Cultural Research, Berlin
June 2–8, 2008
Cellular Memorabilia
“A public proclamation was made pointing out how much more satisfactory it would be if worship could be made not merely to the charred bones of ones forebears, but to bits of them still actually living and growing.”
1926, Julian Huxley from The Tissue Culture King.
Julian Huxley foresaw a change and new ethical and philosophical tensions erupting around the practice of collecting human remains in the form of charred bones to that of wet and living tissue. The classification of human remains and the implications of collecting them must now be reconsidered in light of tissue engineering practices and new biotechnologies that grow and sustain living (and dying) cellular bodies. For example, taxonomies and classifications of human tissue are problematized by the merging of human and animal cell lines that have generated chimeras. As well, the micro-ecology of cells inclusive of viruses, bacteria and yeasts also points to a diverse complexity of life existing in a symbiotic relation to human tissue and human remains, yet they are often considered as elements of contagion and contamination that must be removed from the collection, display and preservation of human tissue. This panel looks at past, present and future implications of using, collecting, and displaying human tissue from the perspective of contemporary artists employing tissue culture in their performance-based art practices.
Tagny Duff.
Panel Members:
Tagny Duff (Chair) - Artist-researcher, Concordia University
Kira O’Reilly - independent artist. Crumpling Time abstract
Jennifer Willet - Artist-researcher, Concordia University.
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May 20th, 2008
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HYBRID MEETINGS
I’ve been invited to present at the following:
hYbrid meetings were created to gather artists, scientists, social scientists, philosophers, and the general public from around the globe to meet once a year in a public event to share ideas on the cross sections of science and art.
Each event has a central theme and the hYbrid team tries its best to gather an interdisciplinary group of people to share their thoughts and experiences on the subject.
Its current format encompasses one-day event held at Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis (MNSR), Porto, usually late Spring or early Summer.
These meetings are the result of the collaborative effort of the Associate Laboratory IBMC.INEB, especially the Office for Science Communication (OSC) team and the Ectopia project, and all the other partnerships we develop every year that help funding these events.
hYbrid: Reflections on Science and Art is the second meeting of a series of Science and Art meetings we are planning to organise. Last year’s meeting, Culturas de Fronteira ou Intersecções de Arte e Ciência, promoted the creation of an international network aiming to exchange experiences and know-how within these areas.
In this year’s edition, we are focusing on different ethical perspectives of Science and Art collaborations, particularly in relation to the Life Sciences. We have thought of 3 distinct moments of reflection to discuss the differences, similarities, cross sections, juxtapositions in artists and scientists’ objectives, sensibilities and background knowledge:
1) Hybrids will present some projects that deal with different subjects, a portrait of life, and human, animal and cellular interactions
2) Reflections will be centred on laboratory experiences
3) Boundaries, will focus on the impact of Art and Science interactions in society
Hybrid programme of speakers
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May 20th, 2008
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