A bit of Sound for an old lady

So as a single parent with a full time job, delusions of Art Grandeur and a stomach bug I headed off the the Sound Walk in Long Beach.
Did I have a partner to go with - NOT!
Did I have a friend to go with - NOT!
Was I disappointed to be by myself - NOT!
Thank god there was access to a toilet.
I have been several times - even crashed it with my own art work - Portable projections
http://www.awillcocks.com/PP/PP.html and enjoyed it every time.
Firstly, my favorite experience was an interactive piece in a small shop sandwiched next to the Hyperpollution exhibit. As the participator you could place a 3D card board cut-outs of parts of a city that are to be placed on a lit table. An image is on the bottom of the cut-out, so a computer can track the position and speed of the object. As it is moving data is collected then converted into sound. BUT it was made in collaboration with high school music students - Yup no vast mind expanding, highly educated, arrogant Computation Wizzard or Engineer - simply a fantastic music teacher and his students.
Better still he was willing to share all his programming knowledge with a smile!! What a delight!!
Better still I understood what he was saying???
His sources - reacTIvision, OSCulator, source forge..... I think.

Isn't it funny how some of the best things are very simple:
A regular tape recorder was stuck on a wall at the back of a cafe and was relaying the sound of someone writing a love letter ... scratch scratch scratch...

So I didn't meet my match of the night but I did figure something out - If I see another Hawaiian shirted man, slightly balding, with a pregnant, distended belly, shorts and perhaps socks, I think I will puke!..... AGAIN.......

When less is not more. Whatever happened to this old fart

Watching videos is somewhat of a hit or miss experience ... but to watch something and desperately look for a connection while standing in a dark, stark, cool room is another thing.

About 10 years ago I went to the Whitney Biennale, you know, the huge exhibit, at least 3 floors thick, in New York - They shows all the most bestest, exclusively contemporary selection of artists that exist in America today. As I waded through a deluge of visuals my desire to rush and go shopping in NY put on hold, I started quickly looking for something that was going to catch my eye. I believe I found one object, and it has remained with me for years, a fabulous little video, no more than about 6” (or was it just the LCD screen of a portable video camera.) Done by this young MAN who had digitally removed and repeated basketball images (and I hate Sport on tv) This video had an historical resonance and emotional resonance. Because I am a good educator this led to do a bit of research, and I found The Long Count, his erased or camouflaged animations of Mohammad Ali removed from the rink.. His name is Paul Pfeiffer - … he has now win lots of awards that I have no chance of getting – if you can find his videos LESS IS MORE...

Following this line of thought in the mid 2000’s at Orange County Museum Lounge a fabulous space in the South Coast Mall , Southern California ( that has now shut down) I saw another MALES work. He had taken the Road Runner, Coyote and other objects out of the landscape of the Road Runner Cartoons. What was on display was a very beautiful series of graphic landscapes… As a website states (sorry I lost the link) Mungo Thomson –has videos that are “fat free”. I did a bit of a Google and here is a fantastic critique of his work “ Thomson once more excludes the charismatic logotypes at the center of the action, leaving the screen an ostensibly narrative-free wall of dancing color, silent but for the occa­sional roar of a train or the tinkle of pebbles after, presumably, an invisible Wile E. has slammed into the base of a gorge. On some primal level, this scene—with its absent narrative that cannot be entirely effaced—calms, delights, and calls up memories of sunlit romper rooms of yore.” Totally appropriated from the internet. Is that wrong? Cause there is no way I could have written that descriptively. They did a dam good job eh? LESS is MORE

Mungo Thomson The American Desert (for Chuck Jones), 2002

32-minute dvd video projection

Less is more? Or is my old age showing simply revisiting my past, conjuring up memories, when I was stuck in a chair, glued to the Saturday morning TV.

This year was the death of Michael Jackson and the showing of Untitled #100 (Fantasia) I saw this video at Michael Moore Gallery, Santa Monica. Yup, I am a sucker. I had enjoyed Alison Schulink's experimental video sooo much, that I had virally shown it in my classes, to any friends that would listen and watch, as a result, I went back to the same gallery expecting MORE.

Unfortunately, Josh Azzarella slow, lethargic video and sound played in the side room. I slid around the corner after quickly viewing the newspaper drawings. I stood, I cocked my head, I walked up close, I walked back. I looked for the description. I tried to get into the feeling of the distressed imagery and thought about the sound. Eerieishish? What the heck was I missing…? . I stood, I cocked my head, I walked up close, I walked back. Why am I just seeing a dark building or back street? Boring...... Yet another MALE artist had erased again. Michael Jackson and other figures had disappeared from the Thriller video – stupid me? I shold have known …. But I didn’t know? Does that make me an old fart or is the video just CamelBacking on Michael Jackson’s death? You decide? Perhaps I was a bit distracted?

So let me CamelBack on this idea of LESS IS MORE. I live in Southern California and have been thinking about the loss of teachers across the counties. Out go the teachers in go smart boards. Less is more?

Consequently work is now a little slow for me and I have been trying to start my own digital media, interactive, technological, creative, critical and money spinning, timely, intelligent, cost free small business off the ground. So the other day I had coffee, in the sun with my older friend and mentor. My mentor was feeling a little out of touch, like an old codger. You know, that age thing that slaps youin the face when you you pass the late 40's. After being in yet another staff meeting, where the "Youngens" were extolling the benefits of the new $10,000 white/smart boards. “They are brilliant, they will save the children, who are a bit distracted. You can access endless information online ….. wooooo weeee, aahhhhh. Think about it you can match word beginnings and endings so interactive and engaging……”

My mentors response was a little weary .... “ While laudable this process has unfortunately, greater unintentional, negative implications….. Because of the emphasis only on the animating features of Computer-assisted activities, the Curricula offered are fixed on the lower levels of skills acquisition such as Recall and Matching Games or Fill-in the Blank Exercises….” (Is there a connection here to the Untitled #1 video piece?)

Does LESS mean MORE?

Why am I so disconnected? In the Arts and Humanities, In Science and Technology, in Medicine and Finance what ever happened to critical thinking and improvisation? Problem solving and critical thinking, is about alternate solutions. Alternate solutions to the same questions. Ideas can be refined through interaction, flexibility, imagination, and critique that collaboratively produce new solutions? Can a match and mix interactive game help cross disciplinary interaction? Think about it, the Smart Board could be seen as a regurgitation of programmed intelligence, handed down to us by monopolies and the government? Ohhhhh, ooooh that sounds a little irrational eh? How interactive is that, search for information, reconfigure and plop it together and “viola“ education?

Here is a challenge. Lets collaborate and educate and earn some monies…..

Our idea is to create critical thinking, interactive media that teaches a child to think – so here is the challenge. I am and artist designer, my friend has a PHD in early childhood education and we need a volunteer computer programmer and marketing specialist. We have some ideas…..

Contact me ..... angela@awillcocks.com

Disc_connect

- or simply not quite connected
take the time to click on everything you might get educated???

Ever felt you'll never quite make it? Or perhaps it's not you but the place you live? Or the fact that you don't like networking? Or you don't know the right people. Long Beach, Ca., just like Atlanta seems to sort of miss the boat. And that is where I live. Long Beach 20 miles South East of the very hip Los Angeles, a place where curators find it a little to far to travel, where performers can't quite make it to and the art, digital and cultural scene never quite makes it. 2 not quite connected events happened in the great Long Beach this last week!! Have you heard of Molaa?The only Latin American Museum of Art in America - Betcha you haven't!!! My sister in law visited and loves the Latin culture - you see in Australia we are sooo isolated that anything non-British is exotic and exciting. In southern California we are meant to be consumed, integrated and embracing the Latin culture - NOT!!!

A very bold new building lured us in, only to be mostly shut down due to installation. Of the tiny exhibit we were taken by 2 fish-eye videos of a man under a square of desks. He was moving the desk, like one of those small shuffle puzzles where the part images are shuffled to make a whole image - "Chucky Cheese" has them too. Chilean artist Amilcar Packar - video 11. Standing on the cement floor ee spent quite a bit of time discussing why he was stark naked crawling under the tables, and what a large penis he had. He does like being enclosed in box like forms - see other work? We came up with no great insight to the piece. But it was visually satisfying? Does that make good art? We liked the idea of moving desks - education? institutionalization? Adam? Claustrophobia? Never fear Javier Tellez video - The last supper was there.
We stood and looked, felt a little uncomfortable as we both tried to figure out if the people in the video were mentally disabled or not. I guessed yes, Jo was not sure until they were viewed close up. Yup we were watching adults sitting along a bench, eating and celebrating an event in a sanitorium somewhere in Latin America. A single female sang to all the men. I won - it was the several toothless grins that gave it away! Did you know he was in the Whitney in 2008?

Then TED came to town. Technology, entertainment, design.... Have you heard of this???? Street banners and all.....

Starving Artist or just a fucking idiot

Having degrees in technology and art does not necessarily equate to money and fame. I do digital media? Desperate for money to support me and my kids, a friend kindly gave me the opportunity to make a bit of quick cash. $200 for a short video - perhaps for the internet and promotional. Yup, I can do this, I have the camera, I can edit video and I need the money and can upload video.

The sunrise, palm tree, urban filming of exercise gurus looms, so I start to prepare. Retrieving my camera out of storage, not one of those big hulking professional cameras ( you know, with the external mic, square front etc -) mine is a small 6 year old hand-held Canon that has been repaired 3 times already. With a new mini DVD tape in hand and charged battery, I press the button to eject the old tape and ..... bing ........ no movement...... bing.... bing...bing...fuck! the tape is stuck again!! Do not push, slam or pry the tape out is in big letter on the under carriage - I have attempted all before so I know!!! Quietly and purposefully I keep pressing the button and praying. I doesn't budge. Shit I have a week to go and no functioning camera .....panic.

Too late to fix the old camera, I convince myself, "not a problem", this is business! So on-line I go and start my research. I have a week to prepare. I am not phased my credit card isn't maxed out and I know what I am doing. After several hours of research and reviews I have my camera chosen. The Canon Vixia, HF 200. Not to cheap and definately not expensive, will work on all computers, this is not an educated guess. Cost $645 - and that is a good deal. But it has to be shipped over night ..... i'm time is running out ..... $35.

The Camera arrives the night before and now I have to quickly figure out how to use it. Not a problem I am a digitally savy, educated artist. Remember I have a degree in digital media. On goes the camera, I find the record button - stuff all the extra things like time setting and menu I have to see if I can film. I press the button and nothing happens. What the fuck is going on? I search the LCD screen No memory. But the guy on the phone said it had internal memory. No memory? $35 for an 8G HD memory disc and $49 for a new tripod. I had forgotten I sold my old one in a garage sale last Autumn ..... needed the cash. Not to worry only another $100 dollars.

The filming was a success, fantastic color, movement and a great performance by the exercise gurus. I left the performers with a huge smile saying "the video will be theirs within the week". Hunkering down in my studio that night I read the instructions, feed my computer the necessary CD's and start the transfer of data. Nothing happens??? I try all my software .... I try the camera software .... I scan the internet for suggestions ..... 4 hours later I am on the phone breathing heavily down the phone. Canon wouldn't and couldn't help, the problem is now mine. I sort of remember reading reviews about problems transferring the data but I know better? Desperate, I ring my computer people ....HELP ME..... "Oh I'm sorry Miss your 3 year old top of the line laptop is out of date you need new software. WHAT I NEED To update my software - are you out of your mind ..... $199 .... What the hell lets chuck in a new battery for my beloved computer ....$135...luckily shipping was free.

So one week later - my due date past. I am sitting in my bed, the rain is pouring down outside ...... waiting .... for the new software, in the hole for over $1,000. Sounds like good business to me.

Media Day Out - Playing Hookie

Visiting galleries is fun, especially when I feel like I am playing hookie from my responsibilities.(and let me tell you I am a responsible person!) Like a good middle aged artist, hoping to make it in the all tooo young art world, I sat through a talk on some totally out my my reach grant opportunity, thinking that by some fluke I might have a chance.

The big plus was the venue - the Santa Monica Museum of Art, in a back room, with no obvious windows and a dreary power point display I did my due diligence and luckily, I was forced to walk through several media exhibits to and from the talk. Yup, I actually stopped and looked f

or more that the a minute at all the pieces. Video art is a difficult medium for me to digest. I, for the most part, would like to be hold up in a dark movie theater, eating popcorn and blobbing out, instead of standing in a concrete room or slouched on a hard wooden bench.

I stood and watched a man in a tuxedo pull a rabbit out of his hat....oooh....why? I moved on quickly but the one that held my attention was the short

video, shorty film by Israel artist Nira Pereg. I plopped my butt on the end of a long thin bench, hoping my weight would not cause the very waif thin girl on the other end to flip into the air, or simply throw her onto the floor I began to become engage in the playful, ironic and informed glimpse of yet another border that we create to keep our selves separate and unique. half way through the piece an elder artist woman who I had seen in the talk came in standing next to me, so I scuttled myself myself into the middle, she placed herself on the end and we started to giggle at what we were watching. none of us had read the blurb on the wall and the only information we had was from the museum attendant who occasionally popped his head through the black curtains telling us how much longer the video would run.

Was this the west bank? I quietly thought to myself what a ridiculous statement - the West Bank was in the country this is a city position. Are these new jewish settlements the ones we hear about in the news? Is this Jerusalem? - we started chatting and all agreed yes because the architecture was so contemporary it would have to be in Europe- you would see nothing like that in the Bronx. Sitting on the bench, chatting and watching I got the feeling that this film was just as entertaining as a good film. By the way the little girl at the end of the bench had no idea it was even about Jews.

Taking the time to really play hookie I visited the rest of the open galleries.... knowing there wa

s a painting exhibit at Mark Moore's gallery that I had seen and enjoyed risked feeling the guilt of not being there to pick up my kids from school. As far as I am concerned the best part about painting is the paint - Marshall McLuhan - the medium in the message. ( does that make me sound intellectual) Goobs of thick paint that is wet and will probably crack as it dries were applied to faces, figures, landscapes and a vagina. Why must we have the red vulva be sticking out of a 1/2 naked woman's butt, or am I just a prude? Allison Schulnik what is the point? Back to New media. Recently I have seen tooo many artists doing imitation animations ala William Kentridge or just plain bad ones that are technically atrocious, so I crept around the corner to the side room, thinking not again. Surprisingly I found her very playful figurative blobs alluring, ugly, funning and painterly - is this a new form of painting? This was plasticine magic!!!

Artists to look at Rosmarie Trockel
Andrea Zittel
Rirkrit Tiravanija
Rebecca Horn
Jason Rhoades