ayearinbanff

[ayearinbanff]

I can only write about now so I will write about now. In the current moment, being racialized in Canada takes many forms and demeanours. Everyone is Canadian, until we are not. We are governed a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, until we are not. It remains a struggle for many minds to fathom...

[ayearinbanff]

Today, we explore what it means to miss the mark, to lose, to make false promises and refuse to give a rat’s ass. Because fuck it, we’re here and we hate ourselves and are disappointing everybody around us in the process. So, hop on and let’s do this.

[ayearinbanff]

Gosia Wlodarczak: 

"Why do I do what I am doing? I draw because I need the proof of my existence and that's what I believe I am doing by converting the life energy and the time, when the energy is happening into the material pigment of the line. I believe I am creating the most tangible proof of me being alive at all."

[ayearinbanff]

Lucy Lippard in 1976. It’s a coincidence, but a rather piquant one, that yesterday, just a few hours after a blackboard work by Cy Twombly sold for $30

[ayearinbanff]

Poetry by Indigenous artist Tanya Lukin Linklater.

(If not apparent already, today I am researching Indigenous Women artists)

[ayearinbanff]

Putting this here for later reading. Looks amazing!

[ayearinbanff]

I am so incredibly excited for Raymond's residency.

Here is us, hello (at The Banff Centre)

[ayearinbanff]

Suggested listening of upcoming In Kind Negotiations residency with Raymond Boisjoly.

Part one of my soundtrack for Wednesday.

[ayearinbanff]

The star of the show today: Restoring Indigenous Leadership book launch #NativeAwesome (at The Banff Centre)

[ayearinbanff]

Rebecca Belmore interviewed about her work Ayumee-aawach Oomama-mowan: Speaking to Their Mother (1991).

[ayearinbanff]

Caleb Larsen's art that plays with technology and transactions

A Tool To Deceive and Slaughter

This sculpture, a gloss black cube, exists almost entirely as a conceptual piece. It is always moving, always a part of a transaction, and is programmed to perpetually attempt to auction itself on eBay. 

"Every ten minutes the black box pings a server on the internet via the ethernet connection to check if it is for sale on the eBay. If its auction has ended or it has sold, it automatically creates a new auction of itself."

Interestingly, you can view the auction of this piece at http://atooltodeceiveandslaughter.com and although it's supposed to perpetually sell itself, when I just looked, the last auction had ended on June 12. Maybe someone unplugged it from the internet?

$10,000 Sculpture (In Progress)

This sculpture consists of a dollar bill acceptor, as you might find in a soda or snack machine if you're in the states, comparable to change machines here in Canada, since we'd be using coins for such small transactions. The only information provided to compliment this bill acceptor, plugged neatly into a white gallery wall is the project's title. The piece asks for money, offering no return, potentially, one day, generating a $10,000 sculpture. Interestingly, the money collected by the sculpture, up until it reaches this point, is always to be considered a part of the art project, never an addition to it's material value. 

Whose Life is it Anyway?

A program replicates individuals' twitter status updates as the artist's own, creating a feed that is a false identity/biography. A printer in the gallery space prints the statuses endlessly on a continuous piece of paper while on display. 

Thoughts: 1. Identity in a media run world where we are often finding new ideas and replicating them to share through the networks we follow and to our own networks. 2. Art that asks for money, asks viewers to create it through a function entirely dependent on financial transactions and interactions. 3. Art that relies on being a participant in technology, and when, seemingly, that technology must have failed at some point as the art is no longer properly fulfilling its programming.

[ayearinbanff]

Galleries are becoming spaces I sit in or pass through. But not for the art. I forget to even look at the art on display. All summer, I’ve been stopping into gallery spaces for catch ups and naps, for talks and readings, and that’s not even counting the openings and film screenings I am taking a...

[ayearinbanff]

Lost digital art by Andy Warhol

In April of these past year, a series of professionals specialized in working with older hardware uncovered digital works that had been created by Andy Warhol. "The works were obtained from hardware that was sitting dormant in the Warhol Museum." 

According to the associated press release, the works were produced on a commission from Commodore, a computer company from the '70s and '80s. "The Amiga is a family of personal computers sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities." (Wikipedia)

Original article here.

[ayearinbanff]

Mona Houtoom 

So goooooood. 

[ayearinbanff]

The toaster that leaves you if you neglect it

I recently did a great deal of research about the 'agency of objects' which led me in a variety of interesting directions and to a variety of articles. One of the most interesting objects I came across was an 'addicted toaster' from a design experiment. The toaster was recently named Best in Show at the 2014 Interaction Awards. It is also named Brad, by the way.

This toaster is one of a set of 5 that exemplifies and evaluates the way products can try to again our attention, and how our lives may drastically change with the continued growth of technology. The article I found explains, "As a connected toaster, he's in constant contact with other connected toasters like him -- and thus keenly aware of how much action they're getting. If he's not being used as much as his friends, Brad gets upset. He'll wiggle his little handle to get your attention, begging you to make some toast or at least to give him a reassuring pat on the side. Ignore him long enough, and he'll take a more drastic measure: pinging a network of potential owners to find a new home."

The implications of this toaster vary, first of all, I think it's a fun, hilarious, and exciting piece of design, secondly, I think it represents some of the ways in which we're already struggling to remove ourselves from the technology that is a part of the objects around us.

I may decide to take a day off of facebook, or to tone down my social media use - particularly if I'm really feeling like I want attention through these avenues, but then, when attention does come and my phone chirps to let me know, how do I ignore what I wanted all along? I wonder if that's how Brad feels when he hasn't been used in days, starts to think about leaving, and then is graced with a piece of bread. 

Read about it here.