Amazing to see how people are taking Google’s image capturing technology and adapting it for their own art. Top, Aaron Hobson’s photo-stitched images taken from remote Google street views are both beautiful and haunting. Below, Jenny Odell uses Google satellite photos to create collages of related objects. There is something so satisfying about seeing objects grouped together. The photo above shows a collection of salt ponds.
Artist Lee Mingwei recently installed his latest participatory artwork, ‘The Moving Garden’, at the Brooklyn Museum in New York. Located in the museum’s lobby, the piece includes a 45 ft. long table filled with roses. The purpose of the piece is simple, and yet really powerful. Mingwei asks that if you take a rose, you fulfill two missions. One is to take a detour on the way to your next destination and the second is to give the rose to a stranger along the way. I love projects that get visitors interacting, but also extend beyond the gallery walls. Incorporating projects into the public realm is exciting and I see it is as a vastly untapped method for cultural institutions to reach new audiences and have an impact on their communities. Lee Mingwei is new to me and browsing through the amazing projects on his website is inspirational – take some time to explore his work.
You can follow participants’ stories of giving and receiving through Twitter at #mygardengift.
It may be snowing today in Denver, but this weekend there are promises of 70 degrees and marching bands. Artists Jon Rubin, (of the amazing Waffle Shop) and Lee Walton are teaming up with students from the local Bear Creek Marching Band to present Playing Apart. During two 30 minute performances, members of the 90 piece band will wander downtown Denver, walking independently, but playing a united song. At points, they may meet up, or just pass each other by. I will head down to see if I can get some footage to share.
I’m not usually into re-posting something from my other site, Designklub, over here, but this campaign is genius. Blu Dot, the cool furniture company from Minnesota, is hosting a Swap Meet on their website. People select an item from the Blu Dot collection that they would like to own and post a reasonable trade. If Blu Dot likes the offer, they will swap them for it. Easy and awesome.
I would love to see a museum or cultural venue try this: why not swap some memberships for volunteer time, or art skills, or merchandising help in the shop, or landscaping assistance, or anything? Why not up the ante and swap off the deaccessions for some serious skills or goods (event planning services, chairs for your lobby)? Swap a day at the museum for you and 30 friends for carpentry work. Libraries always have book sales. Maybe they should try some swapping instead to encourage some civic engagement.
The Work Office, located in NYC, was a temporary art project, “disguised as an employment agency.” Organized by Katarina Jerinic and Naomi Miller, the project was inspired by the 1930’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) which employed thousands of people during the Depression. Jerinic and Miller translated the idea of “making work” by setting up an art gallery/work center to hire local artists to complete certain tasks.
Challenges such as ‘giving a concert for your houseplant’ or ‘recording an oral history’ were issued weekly to utilize the artists’ skills while offering them a small wage. For each completed task, artists were given a paycheck in line with Depression era salaries. At the end of each week, the Work Office hosted Payday parties that served to issue checks and share the artwork produced by each challenge.
This is the best kind of community art project, one that spins and spreads to encompass a web of participants. The project started in 2009 and ran again in 2010. I hope they get funding to continue their work this year as well.
Artist Credits
Top Image: Sarah Nicole Phillips: Curbside Object Status Tag, Challenge: Document a Need for Repairs
Bottom image: Lori Nelson: Souvenirs of a Recession, Challenge: Record and Oral History
I recently saw a headline about an upcoming project with the amazing 3-D printing machines called Makerbots. I got really excited about the story, then realized I completely misunderstood it after reading the actual article. The real story is that Makerbot is hosting an artist-in-residence to use the machines and make useful/beautiful/awesome things. That’s cool.
I had thought the Makerbot was the artist-in-residence and I was already imagining all the incredible opportunities for people (as in everybody) to learn about 3-D printing and design. After all, it may not be too long into the future before every home has a Makerbot to fulfill its household design needs. Why can’t a tool have a residency and let visitors become the artists/designers and activators? I would love for a museum, school, gallery or any public space to host Makerbot for a residency and let people interact and create with it. OK, there’s the idea, what institution wants to collaborate to host it?
On Saturday, Poesy & Praxis and Bean Again hosted the Mid-Winter Woolly Repair Shop at Novo Coffee’s roasting facility in Denver. We wanted to celebrate repair by patching up our moth-eaten, torn and over loved woolly goods. It was an unusually warm winter day, but the communal tables were still filled up with friends and families who stopped by to learn needle felting and enjoy a cup of joe (sometimes with colorful sugary syrups added in). It was a great day, and the first of many social design events we will be presenting. Thanks to Herb, the coffee king, for hosting!
On Friday Poesy & Praxis will help at the first Untitled event of the year at the Denver Art Museum. One activity we are really looking forward to is ‘Pledge Allegiance: Campaign Headquarters’. DAM is opening up the creative process for the first Untitled of next year, creating a 100% crowd curated event. From 6-7, visitors will be able to pitch their ideas for a theme on a giant post-it wall. DAM staff will select their top 3 choices and from there things switch into campaign mode.
Participants can join one of the three groups battling it out with letter writing campaigns, button making, poster waving and petitions. Each camp will offer suggestions for activities to go with the theme, along with related art works from the collections. At the end of the night only one campaign will prevail…
What do eggshells, lollipops of roving and candy crystals have in common? All will be revealed at the Mid-Winter Woolly Repair Shop on Saturday. We have been designing lots of tools and treats for the event, whoop whoop!
Here’s a project to watch: Santa Fe artist collective Littleglobe is preparing a mobile opera called Crosstown #5, which will be performed along city bus routes. These interactive multimedia operas will, “…employ live vocalists and musicians, recorded instrumental audio played over the radio, text/poetry (delivered as casual conversation pieces with audience riders), video (transfer station interactions), and movement.” The focus will be on stories and issues that are part of the Santa Fe community. The image above (right) is from a recent dress rehearsal; Littleglobe plans to start the live performances later this year.
(Image top right from the Santa Fe New Mexican)
