CANCELLED: Panel Discussion 4/25

PLEASE NOTE: Unfortunately, the panel discussion planned for Wednesday, April 25 has been CANCELLED.

Object Agents lecture: John Roloff, Wed 4/4, 7pm

Object Agents lecture: Marek Cecula, Thurs 3/29, 7pm

Object Agents lecture: Anna Von Mertens, Thurs 3/15, 7pm

View recent work at: http://www.annavonmertens.com

“Prosumerism” or, designing our own graves

Last week I mentioned an article questioning if the “DIY” spirit of sites such as YouTube and Flickr are a true experiment in democratic creativity or a means for corporations to accumulate “cultural capital.” Here’s the link to the article, plus a snippet from it:

http://www.designobserver.com/archives/015582.html

“The design-your-life mindset is part of a wider cultural and economic phenonemon that I call prosumerism — simultaneous production and consumption. The confluence of work and leisure is common to a lot of hobbies, from scrap-booking to hot-rodding. But what was once a niche market has exploded in the last decade. Prosumerism is distinctly different from purchasing the tools for a do-it-yourself project. The difference can be seen most clearly in online products like Flickr and Wikipedia. These products embody an emerging form of inverted consumerism where the consumer provides the parts and the labor. In The Wealth of Networks, Yale Law School professor Yochai Benkler calls this inversion “social production.” and says it is the first potent manifestation of the much-hyped information economy. Call it what you will, this “non-market activity” is changing not just the way people share information but their definition of what a product is…”

“Object Agents” Lecture: Jacob Dahlgren, Wedn 2/28, Timken

“Object Agents” Lecture: Simon Starling, Tuesday, 2/13, 7pm, Timken

SIMON STARLING
Tuesday, February 13, 7pm, Timken lecture hall
Presented in conjunction with the Graduate Fine Arts Program

Based in Copenhagen and Glasgow, Simon Starling is a consistently interesting, inventive, and incisive working artist. Starling’s practice involves reframing, reconfiguring, or remaking objects with profound attention to both the context and consequences of this process. For “Tabernas Desert Run,” Starling built a hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered bicycle and rode it across Spain’s Tabernas Desert in an eco-friendly homage to Chris Burden’s infamous motorbike trip across Death Valley. He then used water produced from the fuel cell to make a watercolor of an Opuntia cactus, a species introduced into the Tabernas from Death Valley.

Starling has presented solo exhibitions at Neugerriemschneider in Berlin and the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, among other venues, and was the recipient of the 2005 Turner Prize, Britain’s most prestigious award for contemporary art.

Globalization primer

Thanks to Lea who forwarded this PDF file of a primer on globalization. For those of you who are interested in a quick brush-up on the subject!

globalization_primer.pdf, 4.3MB

“Object Agents” Lecture: Libby Black, Thursday 2/1, 7pm, room GC1

(Note: GC1 is located in the graduate studios building, directly across the street from the CCA San Francisco campus)

Known for her handmade paper replications of prized consumer goods such as Hermes Hustler King Roller Skates and Louis Vuitton luggage, Black has co-opted symbols of consumerism and style by focusing her imagery on pet objects such as the Hummer, a Chanel surfboard, and a custom Burberry Skateboard with Powell-Peralta emblem. Mixing high style with low-end materials, she created a doppelganger Kate Spade store within the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for Bay Area Now 4, and opened up her own handmade Louis Vuitton boutique at Manolo Garcia Gallery in San Francisco. Part consumerist critique and part loving homage to “the good life,” Black’s drawings and paper sculptures reference fleeting wants and objects of desire that, in the end, are just objects.

Libby Black was born in Toledo, Ohio, and raised in Plano, Texas. She received her BFA in painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1994, and MFA in painting at the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1999. Black has shown her work in the California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art, as well as at Stephen Wirtz Gallery, Manolo Garcia Gallery, Gallery 16, Spanganga, Cherry and Martin in Los Angeles, and is represented by Heather Marx Gallery, San Francisco.

More info at:
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/interview_with_.html
Heather Marx Gallery, SF

Poster/flyer:

1/26 Class: Swedish artists at 3pm

Ted Purves is having an interesting group of visiting artists from Sweden speak about their art/activist practice (”Valand Migration Group”) at 3pm for his Social Practices Class (meets right after our class), and has invited us to join them. It would be great if everyone could stop in for a bit and see their work, as it could relate to some of the topics we’ll be covering in the future. I think it’s in GC1 but will be confirmed on Friday.

See links below:

activities_from_valand_s_.doc

small_part_of_swedish_asylum_politics.pdf