#Dana made so many little drawings like this on her Twitter back then

[hkthatgffan]

I found this in one of my archives. A screenshot I took of an old long deleted tweet from Dana back on September 24, 2019, of her favourite drawing of Dipper and Mabel.

While the tweet was sadly deleted back when Dana deactivated her Twitter, some fans did save the original drawing. So, we still have it :P

[lilydalexf]

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with Piper Sargasso

Piper Sargasso has 25 stories at Gossamer, but don’t miss her website where the fics each have cover collage art. If you are a fan of Mulder/Scully romance, there are a lot of MSR fics to read that are set in different seasons of the show. But like the show that never stuck to one type of story, Piper’s stories have variety, so you can also find AUs and /Other.  Big thanks to Piper for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

It does, but I love that people are still into it! Writers back in the day put so much work and love into their writing, and it's nice to know that the stories are still being appreciated to this day. As for my own stories, it puts a huge smile on my face to know there are still people out there checking them out and hopefully enjoying them.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

It was such a positive period of my life. I made some amazing friends who became something like older sisters (and some brothers) to me, even though I was a little ridiculous when I was in my early to mid-twenties. It was also a much-needed confidence booster. I was a pretty shy person and loved writing, but never had the nerve to show anything to anyone. My first fanfic was completely horrible, but because of it I made my first XF friend and super beta, Mimic117. Between her guidance and the encouraging words from my Yahoo group I was able to do something I really loved and felt great about myself and my abilities for the first time. That will stay with me forever. That first story was truly atrocious, but it was a catalyst for great things in my life when I needed them the most.

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

I remember trying this cool new thing called an AOL chat room, but they were more interested in perving on each other than talking about the show. Once I knew about fanfiction I kept seeing that some of my favorite authors kept mentioning IWTBXF in their notes, a Yahoo group named I Want to Believe. I looked it up, joined, and with great trepidation made my introductory post. Everyone was so warm and welcoming, and talking to my favorite authors in the group was a little like meeting a celebrity and finding out that they're awesome in real life. After IWTBXF fell apart, an off-shoot called Beyond the Sea was created with almost all of the original group transferring over. I stuck to my little family there and didn't branch out into much else, other than the rare dip into Haven. Ephemeral and Gossamer, of course.

What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?

Mostly the overwhelming feeling of acceptance and confidence to write, something I was sorely lacking before in my life. I fell in with the best group, that's for sure! They made me feel like being a professional writer could be an achievable goal.

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

The commercial advertising. The pilot spoke to my supernatural-loving, angsty 15 year-old soul. I watched it religiously every week. There was nothing like it. It was off-beat, but serious (most of the time) and fulfilled my insatiable craving for the paranormal and weird. You just couldn't get that from Melrose Place and Beavis and Butthead, you know? It definitely helped that David Duchovny was adorable and the character of Scully was the strong and intelligent icon we needed in the 90's and beyond.

What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

In high school I had a friend who was as obsessed with the show as I was. Maybe more, since she once had a slumber party that was exclusively to binge watch her taped episodes (the other girls who wanted to mess around with spells and the Ouija board weren't thrilled that she couldn't be swayed away from it) and she often drove me from play rehearsals in her convertible with the top down and the theme song blasting to the heavens, much to my delight and mortification. A couple years after we graduated she told me about the piece of fanfic she wrote. Insert a record screech here. What?! You mean there are thousands of stories dedicated to my favorite show? And hundreds more get added every month?! I was obsessed. If I could've stopped working and slept at my computer desk I would have.

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

Sadly it's nonexistent these days. I have great memories and it holds a big piece of my heart, but I haven't been active in a long time. I would love to see a huge revival, and would definitely want to be involved in that in some way, were it to happen.

Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

I read a lot of Harry Potter fanfiction for a while, but I never could expend the kind of energy and time I did for the X-Files fandom. It came at a perfect time in my life, and so far nothing else has measured up to it.

Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why?

Besides XF characters? Off the top of my head I really love Hermione Granger, Buffy Summers, Elizabeth Bennet, and Claire Fraser for their sass and strength of character, Severus Snape for his complexity, and Christina Ricci's version of Wednesday Addams for her pure awesomeness. She's pretty much my spirit animal.

Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?

I do occasionally. I watched the series from season 1-7 so many times that I started to burn out, but I get on my X-Files kicks sometimes and binge it again.

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

Like with the show, I'll get nostalgic and need to consume all the fanfics my greedy little eyes can behold until I move on to something else. It can feel a little lonely though, if you'll excuse the drama. We're not in the heyday anymore, so it feels a little like walking through a ghost town. Many of the stories out there are suspended in time because the show ended, or people stopped writing.

Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?

I know I have dozens, but I'm drawing a blank. My ultimate favorite is any well-written MSR casefile with UST finally resulting in RST. Those are my unicorns!

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

I have a silly one called Baby, It's Cold Outside that I sometimes read around Christmastime. It was a fluffy song-fic, but I can see the scene so clearly in my mind when I read it and it's just pure fun. I also like my Donnie Pfaster series. I can see the potential in my writing with those, which makes me feel I could really write something special someday. Plus, he's such an interesting little slimeball to write and read about. Bless his heart.

Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?

I still think about the two WIPs I haven't finished. I wrote myself into a corner with This Mortal Coil, and honestly I think it needs a total overhaul. I think Dana Scully's Diary would be a fun one to finish. I hate that I never finished them.

Do you still write fic now? Or other creative work?

I think about writing fanfic now and then and I've had a couple original novels sketched out, but there are so many other demands on my time that I haven't gotten very far. I still plan to see the novels through, even if no one but interested friends and family read them.  

Where do you get ideas for stories?

I used to watch an episode and really study the actors' expressions and actions, always trying to find new angles to the stories we all know. A lot of times things would just come to me and I'd get so excited I couldn't sleep until I wrote a good chunk of it down.

What's the story behind your pen name?

The friend who introduced me to fanfic told me the best way to choose a pen name was to make sure it derives from the show. For a couple days I looked at the titles and summaries of episodes and agonized over just the right name. Finally Piper Maru and the summary from Triangle, which mentions the Sargasso sea, stood out and just clicked.

Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?

My now husband always knew, and he thought it was cool that I had a hobby that made me so happy, but he was never a reader. My parents found out when I was about 24 and my step-dad would tell EVERYONE about it, much to my horror. Most reactions were of the bland, "Oh yeah? That's nice." variety but I definitely got some weird looks from others. The worst was when I found out how much of my racier MSR stories my parents read. My step-dad thought it was hilarious and teased me a little. My usually open-minded mom was uncomfortable, but tried to be supportive. It's all fun and games until your daughter starts writing psuedo-erotica for anyone to see!

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

Circe Invidiosa very generously hosts a page for me at http://pipers.invidiosa.com.

(Posted by Lilydale on January 26, 2021)

[ukulelekatie]

The Sappy CarmillaCon Appreciation Post You’ve All Been Waiting For

It’s been a week since CarmillaCon, so now that I’ve had some time to relfect, it’s time to share my recap of the convention. Buckle up, creampuffs—this is gonna get long and emotional. 

Wow, where do I even begin with this? Perhaps at the beginning would be ideal. I remember, over a year ago, when CarmillaCon was just a hypothetical. A simple “We need a Carmilla con.” Watching it unfold over time was such a journey, and it’s incredible to look back on that moment and know how things turned out. 

Last weekend was a weekend of firsts for me. As a convention newbie, all my previous knowledge of how conventions worked was all learned through secondhand accounts of other cons. It was also my first time planning an entire trip and traveling by myself. And let me tell you, I was nervous. But my trip to Toronto, especially CarmillaCon, turned out to be such an overwhelmingly positive experience. And from the people I’ve spoken to, that sounds like a common theme. Everyone involved in the planning process should be very proud of their achievements.

And now is the part where I give some shoutouts to the people who made CarmillaCon the spectacular time it was.

Natasha Negovanlis. I don’t know anyone who puts as much love and care into getting to know their fans as much as Natasha does. And she remembers so many details about each of us! I’m always impressed by that. She truly makes everyone feel special and loved, whether she’s meeting you for the millionth time or the first.

Elise Bauman. I’ve heard dozens of people talk about how easy it is to interact with Elise, but getting to experience it for myself was an entirely different level. Her meet & greet felt like chatting with a long-time friend. She’s so genuine, quirky, and downright hilarious.

Kaitlyn Alexander was just as excited to meet their fans as we were to meet them, and that is so beautiful. I also really admire them for working through social anxiety and talking openly about it, because it was nice to know that I wasn’t alone in feeling anxious. They deserve all the good things.

Annie Briggs is absolutely SAVAGE. She goes from talking profoundly and professionally to dropping the most absurd and crass quips. Quite literally the embodiment of the “hi sir nice to meet you”/“your daughter calls me daddy too” meme.

Nicole Stamp is an incredibly sweet person, and I admire her so much for her friendliness and ability to make everyone around her feel appreciated. We ran into her in passing a few times, and even when she was in a hurry to get somewhere, she still stopped and said hi.

Matt O’Connor is a real sweetheart, and during my autograph we talked about his trip to Boston last year. I love being able to connect with the actors over personal details like that! Also, his Carmilla impression in the cast panel was hysterical!

Sharon Belle’s ability to just be goofy is so precious! I would totally watch a spin-off of Danny solving petty crimes and returning lost library books. 

Aaron Chartrand seems so nice and thoughtful, and an all around cool guy. I wish I had interacted with him more during the con!

The Carmilla Creators. Jordan, Ellen, Steph, and Melanie (and Spencer, in spirit) are legends, y’all. Everything they said in the Creators Panel was super empowering, and I left feeling inspired to create and tell my original stories to the world.  And of course, getting to chat about fandom and fanfiction with Steph and Ellen at the Fanfic Meetup was wonderful! The thing that makes Carmilla so unique is that its creators are privy to the world of fandom, having participated in it themselves, which allows them to really know their audience and tell us the stories we want and need.

The Moderators: Dana, Belinda, and Angie made the panels so entertaining and so unique! They are an integral part of this fandom, and I loved getting to witness their shenanigans in person.

The CarmillaCon Staff and Volunteers were just lovely! I applaud them for how smoothly everything ran, and for how much thought the organizers put into the logistics. I swear they thought of everything! Writing down your names on sticky notes before autographs so the guests can spell your name correctly. Ensuring that the convention was accessible. Making sure none of the panels coflicted with autos, photos, and meet & greets. Placing the vendor tables right outside the panel room to get us as much exposure as possible. It’s one thing to listen to feedback from your own convention’s attendees after the matter, but it’s another to listen to the greater fandom community’s experiences with other cons and be proactive. Any time I had a question or issue leading up to and during the con, I was assisted quickly and compassionately. Everyone was also extremely generous! Several staff members gave out extra autographs and photos to attendees throughout the event, which I loved.

The Vendors—I greatly enjoyed spending time with them! This was my first ever convention both as a fan AND as an artist, so I really appreciated learning from them and being able to support each other. I’d also like to give a shoutout to @learntodefygravity for becoming my assistant and running my table when I was participating in other parts of the con.

Everyone who stopped by my table! Whether you were there to get something or just to chat, you really made my weekend. I’m still so full of feels from all the sweet things everyone said about me and my art last week. Sometimes it’s difficult to take myself seriously—I often feel like I’m not a “real” artist because I draw primarily fanart, and for such a tiny community of people at that. But my CarmillaCon experience proved to me that there is an audience for my art, and I want to thank each and every one of you for supporting me over the past 4+ years. And yes, there will be more art in the future! I’m working on setting up an Etsy store as well as researching how to print my own lenticular bookmarks since the ones I brought were so popular! I’ll keep you all updated.

All the friends I spent time with. Some of you I’ve spoken to online every day for the past year. Others, I’ve interacted with occasionally on twitter or discord. A few of you I had never spoken to directly until the con. No matter what category you fell under, it was a pleasure to get to spend time with you, and I miss you all so much. Why do you have to live so far away from me? Why isn’t teleporting a thing yet?! (What I wouldn’t give for another minty group hug right about now.)

And lastly, thank you to everyone. Despite how much I fangirl about it online, I’m not one to talk openly about Carmilla and how much it means to me outside of the internet. I’m afraid of being judged for loving it too much. But this past weekend I got to meet several hundred people who are just as passionate as I am about the little webseries that could, and I’m so grateful for that opportunity. I’m not alone, and I never was. This fandom has helped me step out of my comfort zone in so many ways. I may be outgoing and outspoken online, but take me our from behind a screen and I’m very shy and self conscious. Just two years ago, taking public transportation alone in my own city seemed scary to me, but last week I had the courage to travel on my own and experience new things. I thought I would be overwhelmed and anxious all through CarmillaCon, but the second I found my people, I felt comforted and energized. I’ve grown so much over the years, and I owe a lot of that progress to the fandom and the encouragement I’ve received. You’ve all been by my side and helped me grow up and grow into myself. Here’s to Carmilla, and here’s to the creampuffs!

[skullgruntdana]

Dana’s Headcanons

Trigger Warnings Apply

Headcanon #1

          Dana really doesn’t like fire. The child has been scared of fire for a long time because she once saw a house burned to the ground by an accidental fire. Because of this Dana only has a few Fire Types. While they smell nice, Dana refuses to allow her mother to bring candles into the house. Dana fears the house will burn down so she cries and throws a tantrum when her mother attempts to bring a candle into the house. The only fire Dana seems okay with is the little fire coming out of a lighter. Other than that she can’t go near campfires without either fainting or crying. 

Headcanon #2

          Dana almost drowned when she was three years old. When Dana was three she wandered away from her parents when they were shopping at the supermarket. She was only gone for a second but in that second she fell into a river which had a strong tide. Dana sunk to the bottom of the river and swallowed a bunch of water. When she was under water she panicked and fainted because of lack of oxygen. Thankfully Dana was pulled out by her mother who had jumped into the river. Upon waking up, Dana threw up water. This traumatized her so much that Dana refused to go near any body of water. Dana still will not go near rivers, but she does like walking around the ocean or the lake. She just doesn’t swim. 

Headcanon #3

          Dana is on the spectrum. Dana is on the spectrum and has been diagnosed since the age of three. Her mother wanted to make sure Dana got the benefits she needed so Dana was tested for numerous disabilities including ADHD, ADD, and OCD all of which Dana has. Dana’s mother took Dana out of the local school in Akala because it did not have the programs Dana would need to be successful. Dana gets one on one tutoring with a curriculum that benefits her and is easy to follow. 

Headcanon #4 

          Dana is very picky about what she wears. Dana does not like wearing scratchy clothes are anything that would distract her. Elise, Dana’s mother, makes most of Dana’s clothes. Dana used to wear hand-made clothes because at the time her parents were too poor to afford buying their daughter clothes. Dana prefers handmade clothes but will wear factory made clothes if the material isn’t scratchy and if she likes the clothes/designs on the clothes. As for her headband, Dana never takes it off. Not even when she’s asleep. Her Drifloon headband is her favorite, but Dana will wear other headbands as long as she likes them. Her headband is handmade. 

Headcanon #5

         Dana does not like Spearow or Murkrow. The hearts on Dana’s headband are shiny and it attracts the attention of the two bird Pokemon. These Pokemon attack her frequently in an attempt to take her headband. When Dana is attacked, she attacks back with her Hydreigon. 

Headcanon #6

          Dana was experimented on by her father. Rick Sanchez, Dana’s father, stole a vial of liquid which would give a human the power of Pokemon. He was kicked out of the scientific community when he left Rocket, but he wanted to be admitted back in so her experimented on his daughter when she was three. The liquid gave her electrokinesis, but she lost her pupils as a result. But the experiment was a failure because Dana was not as powerful as she should have been. Dana can only drain small electronics of their energy and charge batteries. 

Headcanon #7

Dana is right handed. Dana can’t write whatsoever with her left hand and she favors the right one for basic tasks. Elise is trying to get her to use her left hand more because it’s getting to the point where Dana is having a hard time carrying things back and forth. 

Headcanon #8

Dana doesn't want to go to school. Dana doesn’t have pupils and her mother Elise was afraid the child would get made fun of. Because of this, Elise doesn’t want to put her daughter through school until Dana is comfortable to make that choice by herself. Dana is tutored by a man that comes every other day to teach Dana. Dana is very hard to teach because she can’t sit still for five minutes. Luckily, Dana is an average student and does well in her studies. 

Headcanon #9

Dana has an easy time falling asleep. Though she is very hyper, Dana gets tired out easily from strenuous tasks or just running around in general. All Dana’s mom has to do is to let her daughter run around outside before going back inside to collapse on the couch. It’s so easy that Dana often falls asleep at the dinner table or on the couch while she is watching t.v. This is good for Elise who has to deal with Dana’s twin Diana. Diana does not like to fall asleep and often throws tantrums. 

Headcanon #10

Both Dana and the writer love the band Sleigh Bells. The guitar in that band is the best sound in the world, according to Dana. The Voidz are a close second, but Dana and the writer share similar music tastes. Songs like Rill Rill, Infinity Guitars,and Demons are Dana’s favorite songs from the Sleigh Bells. Dana seems to like metal and rock music with a bit of hip hop and rap. She has no set genre. 

Headcanon #11

Dana loves Kantonian candy. Plum milk flower kiss candy is really good and she loves that kind of candy. Other candies include milk candies, bubblegum, candy corn, honey candy, strawberry candy, and watermelon candy. Dana also enjoys taffy and other chewy candies. Dana’s mother tries not to buy Dana too much candy, but Dana often buys (or steals) her own candy. Dana also really likes caramel. 

Headcanon #12 

Dana has a twin sister. Dana’s twin sister’s nickname is Diana. Diana for a time was living at Dana’s aunt’s house. But she has since moved back in with Elise and Dana now that Elise has a stable home life for her. Unlike Dana, Diana does go to school and is an average student. Nothing out of the ordinary. 

Headcanon #13

Dana loves taking vacations. Dana goes on frequent vacations because she has the means to. By using her Drifloon, she can drift off to faraway places and chill there till she flies back on one of her Pokemon. Though it’s usually to other regions. Being suspended in midair over the ocean is really stressful. That is what makes vacations dangerous. Other than that, it’s just really fun. 

Headcanon #14

Dana tries her best to be brave. There are instances where Dana has to run away. But it’s really hard to knock her down without a fight. Dana can and will fight you even if she is smaller than you. This child runs off pure sugary rage. Dana is brave because she believes in herself and she tries her best in those kinds of situations. 

Headcanon #15

Dana doesn’t own that many dolls. Dana’s sister, Diana, is more or less into dolls. Dana doesn’t have a lot of dolls because she lacks that want to baby and coddle something that isn’t a Pokemon. Dana is more into video games and Pokemon figurines. She also likes RC cars and marbles. Legos are also fun. Dana actually doesn’t really play with toys unless she’s playing inside. Outside, she uses toy cars and basic sandbox toys. Not to mention kites or skipping stones. 

Headcanon #16

Dana doesn’t have any pupils. While she was born with them, an experiment made them disappear so she only has an iris. The iris is blue and Dana can still see. But her eyes have a hard time when it comes to bright lights. Because of this, Dana has to wear special contacts to help her filter light in her eyes. The contacts act as a sort of pupil or like sunglasses that keep the sun from hurting her eyes. Without those contacts, Dana’s eyes will hurt when she’s outside. Sometimes Dana forgets to wear those contacts. If she forgets, she always has sunglasses on her at all times. If she forgets those sunglasses, her eyes could be damaged. 

Headcanon #17

Dana can whistle pretty loudly. Dana is able to whistle pretty loudly when she calls her Pokemon. The Pokemon know she is calling them when she whistles. The child has scared numerous people with her ability to whistle. She, of course, finds this really funny and whistles when she feels like messing with a crowd of people in public places. Dana’s mother does not find this funny. 

Headcanon #18

Dana doesn’t really use the internet. Dana has a Twitter and Instagram and that’s about it. She uses Spotify and YouTube for music. Dana doesn’t spend more than an hour a day on the internet. She prefers to play video games, watch t.v., and play outside. Dana likes going to parks and the beach even though she can’t swim. Dana’s mom is relieved that Dana isn’t one of those kids that are glued to their phones. 

Headcanon #19

Dana likes drawing. Dana has her own sketchbook and often likes to doodle in it. The child keeps every drawing she has and gives some to her mother. Dana doesn’t understand in- depth yet or proportion. Sometimes her drawings are made fun of by mean hearted people. When this happens, Dana takes it to heart and sulks for days, refusing to draw anything. It takes a while for her spirits to bounce back if somebody makes fun of or hates her art. 

Headcanon #20

Dana loves Ghost and Fairy Types. Dana loves Drifloon. And though she doesn’t have a lot, she really likes Ghost types. Dana’s teams are of mixed types. She has no set type of Pokemon that she collects. Fairy types are her close second. Because most Fairy types are really cute. But Dana dislikes Fire types.

Headcanon #21

Dana has frequent nightmares, but she can’t remember her dreams. Dana sometimes remembers her dreams, but mostly they are basic things like being trapped someplace or big scary creatures going after her. Dana has a lot of dreams where it feels like she is falling. 

Headcanon #22

Dana has a lot of hope in people. She is not cynical yet, though I can see her becoming cynical as she grows older. Dana believes in the world and thinks everybody (including her father) is a good person, but there are times where she thinks badly of somebody. Overall, Dana has hope in people and in the world. Nothing but age and experience on this Earth can change that. 

Headcanon #23 Dana doesn’t really understand promises. Because sometimes they are broken by adults. Why make a promise if you’re going to break them? Dana is becoming wary of people who tell her to trust them. But, of course, she’s a child and in the end she will always trust somebody even if she just met them. This isn’t so good because it means Dana can be taken advantage of. Hopefully she grows out of this. 

Headcanon #24

Dana’s texting style isn’t like the way she talks. Dana doesn’t use slang, nor does she use emojis. Dana uses emoticons and full sentences when she texts, so her texts look like this: There is a party going on. You should come over. (＾▽＾). Dana rarely calls anybody and mostly texts people, but she doesn’t IM anybody, nor does she use the internet to text anybody. Only rarely will Dana call anybody and when she does, the calls aren’t really ones that last for a long time. Dana only calls when she is in danger or when giving directions. 

Headcanon #25

Dana wears her portal ring on her left ring finger.  When Dana was seven, she was given her own portal ring by her first best friend Yuki. Dana now has the ability to go to other dimensions. 

Headcanon #26

If Dana were in the Pokemon game, these would be her quotes:

Challenging the player: "With Drifloon, I can defeat'cha!" "Battle me? Ya gotta say yes!" "Peekaboo! I see you!" (while doing Team Skull gang signs) "for Skull!"

Greeting the player: "Hey! I can't let you in. Boss won't like that!" "Guzma is a super strong bug trainer. I'll be strong like him!" 

Winning a battle: "We did great, Drifloon!" "Hah! I knew I was strong!" "Boss'll be proud'a me!" 

Losing a battle: "NO!" "Boss won't be happy wit' me-" "No-" (said while stomping her feet) "It's not fair!"

Extra after a battle: "Aren't Drifloon great?" "Do you wanna meet my Drifloon?" "Sometimes my Drifloon drags me away." "You're strong!" “Can I pet your Pokemon?!” “Do you want to be my friend?” 

Headcanon #27 

If Dana were in the game, her battle theme would be the 8-bit version of the Team Skull battle theme with the vocals over it. She still has the Team Skull emblem and spray paint opening sequence at the beginning of the battle to show she is in Team Skull. 

Headcanon #28 

Extra: If Dana were in the game and you interact with her 20 times, she will give you her phone number. Dana will text you whenever there are Drifloon around. She will text you the Route you can find them in too. Dana’s messages are all very energetic and in all capital letters. 

Headcanon #29 

Dana is often dragged away by Drifloon. Because she is so tiny, Drifloon have an easier time dragging Dana away. This stresses her mother out, so Elise keeps a close watch on the Drifloon as best as she can. 

Headcanon #30 

Dana is challenging the Galar gyms, and her challenger number is 425, which is Drifloon’s number in the PokeDex. So far, Dana has defeated four gyms, but lost against Bede. 

Headcanon #31

Dana has a very complex opinion of her late father. Some part of Dana really loves him and wants him to love her, but the other part of her is very mad at him for hurting her. Dana feels like she was robbed of something because of her dad’s death, and she wishes she could go back and tell him how much she hates him, or make another attempt to win his love and affection. At some point, Dana has deluded herself into thinking he’s alive. However, one day she will learn that he is not coming back. 

Headcanon #32

Dana has anger management issues. Dana has been known to lash out when she gets upset or frustrated. Sometimes she gets violent when she sees people with blue hair like her father. Lately, Dana has been using calming techniques to calm herself down when she gets too upset or frustrated. So far, it seems to be working. 

Headcanon #33

Trigger Warning! 

Dana’s Injury History: A scar on her arm from being attacked by Dee’s Hydreigon. Her pupil-less from her father’s experiments. Temporary nerve damage from being frozen by Lusamine. 

Headcanon #34

TRIGGER WARNING 

Dana joined Team Skull to get away from her dad. Dana’s dad liked to experiment on her, and the experiments sometimes scared or hurt her. Dana ran away the first time because her parents were fighting, but since then she had gone back to Po Town to get away from her father. Dana likes to tell people she joined because she was a badass, but the real reason she joined is very sad. 

[makingscipub]

CRISPR culture

CRISPR is a way of changing and replacing parts of DNA using enzymes like a pair of molecular scissors (of course things are more complex than this!). This new technology for ‘editing’ DNA, genes or genomes began to attract public attention between around 2012 and 2015. When I started to write about metaphors used to make CRISPR public (for example, here and here and here), in around 2015/16, I was surprised by how little resonance CRISPR and gene editing seemed to have in wider culture (which was, one has to admit, just then engulfed by other major preoccupations). This was, I thought, quite different compared to what happened during the emergence of, say, cloning or nanobiotechnology, which caused something of a cultural ‘effervescence’ after 1997 and after about 2003 respectively, with lots of stories and images circulating widely.

CRISPR novels

Things seem to be changing now. To see what’s going on, the first thing I did was google. I searched for ‘CRISPR novels’ and got this (11 March):

I was somewhat surprised, as I had not regarded A Crack in Creation (Doudna and Sternberg, 2017) as a novel, despite the use of some fictional characters, such as unicorns. And Modern Prometheus (Kozubek, 2016) was not a novel by Mary Shelley. These two books are written by scientists/science writers not novelists. They deal with reality, not fiction and I have written about them here and here.

I then searched for ‘CRISPR scifi’. That proved more fruitful. I found a very useful webpage on CRISPR in movies and on TV. I’ll come back to movies in a minute. I also asked on Twitter whether people knew of some CRISPR inspired novels. At first, people were a bit stumped, but then I got a few hints.

There seems to be one real CRISPR thriller, namely Change Agent, by Daniel Suarez (2017). As one preview said: “It’s a sci-fi thriller about a topic few non-nerds would normally consider thrilling: Crispr (short for ‘clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats’).” It engages with the science, summarised on the first few pages, as well as with upcoming ethical dilemmas, also flagged up, in a relatively unsubtle way, on the first few pages. Here goes:

We are introduced to a couple trying to produce a genome edited child. They talk to a counsellor: “The husband again placed his hand on her knee. She shook her head. ‘It seems against Nature.’ The counselor spoke softly. ‘This is the very same process Nature follows to eliminate viral DANA in bacteria. The same process used under the UN’s Treaty on Genetic modification.’ ‘Yes, but to cure deadly genetic defects, not to tailor-make a child.’ The husband shook his head. ‘We are not tailoring our child. We are correcting genetic weaknesses. Is not a weak memory fatal to a future doctor or attorney?’ ‘Where does this sort of thinking lead us, Neelo – eugenics?'” And so on…

Other novels mentioned by my Twitter correspondents were: Helix by Marc Elsberg and Intrusion by Ken MacLeod. There are probably more out there. Netflix is currently looking into turning Change Agent into a movie.

CRISPR movies

Many movies have dealt with genetic engineering, and some are listed on the webpage I mentioned above, such as GATTACA, of course. However, it seems that only one movie so far has taken up the CRISPR challenge directly, and this is Rampage (2018), directed by Bad Peyton. There is also a TV Show Luke Cage (2016-present), which engages with CRISPR and, the, perhaps better-known, series Orphan Black (2013-2017).

Many of these movies and series pose thought-provoking questions about human nature and personhood. However, there is also the temptation of using facile ‘TV tropes’, one of which is called, by some observers, ‘LEGO genetics’: “With LEGO Genetics, you can fiddle with DNA wherever you like, intentionally or accidentally, and all the cells will change overnight (if that). Just wake up and presto! Wings! Fur! Gills! Hulking muscles! Giant brain! Stem cells! You don’t even have to eat the equivalent of your entire body mass to create all those new body parts; the old cells and the new ones are just cobbled together like LEGO bricks.”

Audiences, players, consumers etc. will probably be well aware of such tropes and know how to deal with them; and if they are not, there are fictional characters that tell them how to. For instance, Prokhor Zakharov, a character in a computer game, says: “”Remember, genes are NOT blueprints. This means you can’t, for example, insert ‘the genes for an elephant’s trunk’ into a giraffe and get a giraffe with a trunk. There are no genes for trunks. What you can do with genes is chemistry, since DNA codes for chemicals. For instance, we can in theory splice the native plants’ talent for nitrogen fixation into a terran plant.”

Before exploring documentaries, where one would expect such lessons, I have to mention, of course, Captain Marvel – with her marvellous superpowers… Here is a great blog post about Marvel and CRISPR. I only quote one paragraph: “Films about the Marvel universe are all the rage right now, showing off characters with truly amazing abilities that humans can only dream of having. The introduction of the CRISPR gene editing technology has left people wondering if they could gain ‘superhuman’ powers. From a scientific standpoint, CRISPR researchers have made it quite clear that the scientific community does not support creating humans with enhanced abilities. ‘The talk about designer babies is ultimately a big distraction,’ says Carl Zimmer, science journalist and award-winning New York Times columnist.”

Well said! We all welcome debate, but the debate should at least be well-informed. Can documentaries provide that information?

CRISPR documentaries

A feature documentary about CRISPR was released on 10 March called “Human Nature”,  and other documentaries are in production. Grant Jacobs wrote a quick blog post about it and points out that: “The film features a star cast of scientists working on genome editing. Alongside them are experts representing law, bioethics, environmental and commercial interests. The listed cast includes Jill Banfield, David Baltimore, Rodolphe Barrangou, Alta Charo, George Church, Jennifer Doudna, Antonio Regalado, Fyodor Urnov, Luhan Yang, and Feng Zhang. (If I had a criticism, it’d be that the cast is very USA-oriented, but then it’s produced in the USA.)”.

Watch the trailer! I haven’t seen the documentary, but some say it strikes a good balance: “It’s hopeful about CRISPR’s ability to help us fix diseases that have plagued humans for millennia, while also questioning if we’re ready to make genetic changes that’ll affect us for generations to come.”

One of the more gang-ho voices heard in the documentary is George Church. If you want to know more about his views, you can look at this interesting piece entitled “Five conversations with biology’s Captain Marvel, George Church”! The subtitle of the article brings us back to LEGO genetics: “When it comes to tinkering with the stuff of life, George Church is the equivalent of a Lego master builder.”

CRISPR and popular science writing

Nessa Carey has just published a popular science book that brings the CRISPR story up to date (after Modern Prometheus, 2016, and Crack in Creation, 2017). She uses more conventional metaphors in her book title: Hacking the Code of Life: How gene editing will rewrite our futures (2019). Having just read the book, I can say that Carey uses the hacking metaphor really creatively in the book to draw readers in and hook them. If you want to be well-informed and ready to debate CRISPR knowledgeably, this book is a great start.

Of course, popular science writing doesn’t only happen in books. Au contraire! One should also look at newspapers, podcasts, blogs, journals, twitter and more! …

CRISPR art

And finally, there is also CRISPR inspired bio-art, some of which has been surveyed in this blog post under the title “Who is afraid of CRISPR art?”. There is an article in Nature entitled: “Love, death and CRISPR: An artwork”. There is also an artwork that I actually saw, by Anna Dumitriu, and an article on CRISPR art I couldn’t see in The Crispr Journal. I bet there is more….

CRISPR the board game

And, before I forget, there is even a board game based on CRISPR on the horizon! “Players are members of a team whose missions entail delivering specific CRISPR-edited products to users. To succeed, players must: solve puzzles; communicate about their work to indispensible [sic] support professionals and the public; overcome obstacles; foil would-be underminers; and recover from setbacks. See more detailed game features here.”

Cultural horizons

Discussions about CRISPR, like discussions about cloning or stem cells for example, happen against a well-established cultural horizon. When studying the issue of ‘designer’ or ‘donor’ babies in the year 2000, I called this ‘cultural precognition.

I pointed out that new developments in genetics throw up fresh ethical questions almost every day. Doctors, scientists, policy makers, the media and the public are ill-equipped to find answers to these questions on scientific, legal or moral principles alone. They therefore often take recourse to metaphors and narratives to fill this ethical void. Popular culture talks about space-rockets before there are space-rockets, clones before there are clones and artificially created babies before there are artificially created babies. When scientists do anything new, there is often a ready-made public perception of how good or how bad it is going to be, derived from social, linguistic, literary and cultural preconceptions.

So, when genetically edited or ‘crispred’ babies happened (if indeed they did), I was not surprised to find the following observation about popular culture in the context of Rampage, Change Agent etc: “A scientist in China has dominated headlines this week with the claim that his research team has successfully created the world’s first genetically-edited babies. If true, the experiment raises a lot of difficult ethical questions—ones that mainstream films and TV shows have been exploring for decades. The topic of genetic engineering is so prevalent in pop culture that it’s practically a genre unto itself. At the heart of these science fiction depictions is the issue of whether the benefits of genetic engineering—that is, potentially curing diseases—outweigh the colossal risks, which range from eugenics to unintended mutations.”

A sub-genre of the genetic engineering genre is ‘biopunk’, to which some of the CRISPR movies and novels belong. I bet there will be more biopunk in the future. Another cultural tradition that holds a mirror to science and society and there to be explored.

Keeping an eye on CRISPR culture

Future work on the language and culture of gene editing should chart changes and shifts in social and cultural perceptions of genome editing over the last two decades or so from around 1998 (Dolly, BSE, GM, stem cells etc.) to now. Such a diachronic analysis could be based on comparing two books, published twenty years apart.

In 1998 José van Dijck published a book entitled Imagenation: Popular images of genetics, in which she explored the crucial role that cultural images played in the popularisation of genetic knowledge, especially cloning.

In 2017 Everett Hamner published a book entitled Editing the Soul, in which he stresses that we need to pay attention to the “cultural mythologies” by which we frame our public debates about genome editing. The stories we tell are shaped by science and culture alike, including the metaphors created by scientists themselves: “We should consider carefully how these mutual narratives double back and colonize the research and applications that find private and public financing.”

Science always happens against an established cultural horizon, but it also feeds into and transforms it. This then also changes social and ethical perceptions and actions. If ever we manage to establish something like a ‘global observatory for gene editing’ (a rather ambitious project!), this needs to include the observation of cultural developments! Only then can we grapple with ‘public engagement’ in a well-informed way.

Acknowledgement: I’d like to thank the second referee of an article for making me dig deeper into the cultural ramifications of CRISPR!

Image: Pixabay

    The post CRISPR culture appeared first on Making Science Public.

via Making Science Public https://ift.tt/2CjT6je

[promomagazine]

GLAM4GOOD Drives Social Change through Fashion & Beauty

By: Julie Tsai

Coming from a traditional fashion editor role to building a digital platform to drive social change, we’re excited to present to you our third panelist from the second annual FCD Unconference. By driving social change through fashion and beauty, Founder & CEO at GLAM4GOOD, Mary Alice Stephenson, is truly empowering and impacting thousands of lives while helping raise awareness for many real social causes. Today she joins us at Launchmetrics to share with us her journey and her advice to those who are inspired and want to make a difference in their communities.

 Can you tell us a bit more about Glam4Good and your role at the foundation?

I am the Founder and CEO of GLAM4GOOD.  After 15 years of working in the fashion and beauty industries, I started GLAM4GOOD as a way to use my love for style to honor courage, raise awareness, bolster self-esteem, dress people in need and empower women and girls.  What began as a personal mission has now become a thriving movement, community, empowerment platform and 501 (c)(3) that creates and celebrates fashion and beauty making a social impact. In just a few years, whether through our self-esteem enhancing initiatives, #shoppingspree4free pop-up shops, or confidence building makeovers, GLAM4GOOD has helped over 20,000 disadvantaged women and girls and raised awareness for a large group of diverse causes.

My team and I have used fashion and beauty to empower women who have lost children from gun violence, lost limbs at war, lost breasts from cancer, lost their homes from a natural disaster or lost their way because of substance or domestic abuse.  We have witnessed first-hand, the tremendous healing power fashion and beauty has to shine the human spirit, promote wellness and effect positive change.  

We have witnessed first-hand, the tremendous healing power fashion and beauty has to shine the…

What was the transition like from being in a traditional fashion editor role to becoming the founder of a fashion platform based on driving social change?

It was a brutal transition only because I had very little money and a tiny team. Sometimes following your heart and your truth takes a lot of courage. I have come up against many obstacles and there were times when I thought I would not be able to continue GLAM4GOOD. There was a day I remember thinking there is no way I could continue doing out empowerment initiatives. This was before I was a 501(c)(3) and was able to accept donations and grants. I had sold my jewelry, my clothing, and my art to continue to do GLAM4GOOD initiatives. I remember sitting at my desk trying to get people to donate clothing and accessories for 200 girls in need and thinking why does this have to be so hard. Why don’t I just go back to being a fashion director or editor-in-chief and do something that has more stability and financial rewards. Then the doorbell rang, it was a massive shipment of jewelry from Dana Lorenz of Fenton Fallon. When I opened the boxes there were 100’s of beautiful pieces that I knew would make the girls we were empowering so excited and happy. There was so much joy in those boxes. I just stood there and cried like a baby. Somehow I knew at that moment that even when I had doubts, and felt frustrated that I did not have the tools I needed for the amount of people reaching out for help, that the universe would deliver something like this package of treasure and give me the faith to keep on track.  There have been many moments like this where the universe says…. “Girl you have to keep going with this!!!”

There have been times when I was in a shelter, in a hospital room, in a domestic violence safe house and a woman or a girl came up to me with such a look of happiness, relief, and love. The looks on their faces when they feel pampered, validated and most importantly, good about themselves, is worth it all. Clothing, toiletries, and beauty products are essential in life. GLAM4GOOD provides the tools to help people feel confident to go get that job, to fight that illness, to start a new path, to empower courage to go after their dreams, to help their kids. The fashion and beauty industry has the ability to change lives with the excess it produces and the platform it has to raise awareness. I will keep going with GLAM4GOOD because at the end of the day, what is truly important in life but service? People told me I was crazy when I started GLAM4GOOD because what I was doing would take away from my life. Yes, I have made sacrifices to GLAM4GOOD, but what I have gained in my life and what my son has learned about love and service is far greater than any sacrifice. The lives that the GLAM4GOOD Foundation as touched and the incredible organizations we have been able to support makes it all worthwhile.

The fashion and beauty industry has the ability to change lives with the excess it produces and the…

Glam4Good empowers individuals through harnessing the healing power, joy, and attention that fashion and beauty can bring. How has Glam4Good empowered yourself personally and what is your biggest takeaway so far, since starting the organization?

GLAM4GOOD has worked with over 20,000 women, girls and families in need and distributed over 1 million donated products. And we have just gotten started! There are many unfortunate reasons women and young people often connect self-worth with how they look, but when people are given the tools to permit themselves to feel and look their best it propels their confidence, bolsters their self-esteem and that often helps them deal with far more serious things. At our GLAM4GOOD events, we have witnessed teens battling life-threatening illness get up from their wheelchairs and hospital beds with recharged resilience. We have worked with women to reclaim their femininity and re-enter civilian life after serving our country, and had them say, “Today was the first day I feel truly feel beautiful and it’s liberating.” We witness impact at every event we do but it’s most evident when GLAM4GOOD does initiatives in hospitals, homeless and domestic violence shelters. In these initiatives, we style, pamper and create wardrobes for women and girls for a variety of reasons. Whether we are inspiring hope, health, second chances or a confidence or moral reboot, we see the meaningful impact of our mission in many ways every day. 

How would you describe your overall experience working with First Lady Michelle Obama? 

I did not “work” with the former First Lady, GLAM4GOOD and I were honored to be a part of Mrs. Obama’s #JoiningForces initiative and co-host an event with the former First Lady to pamper and celebrate military families at an Army base in Italy. I also had the honor of being a part of the former First Lady’s design summit at the White House and President Obama’s Social Impact Initiative, South by South Lawn. I respect the way in which Mrs. Obama has, and continues to, use fashion to draw attention to far more important issues. During the beginning of her time in office, people would often tune into Mrs. Obama’s empowerment campaigns, and learn more about them, because initially they were drawn in by what she was wearing and how great she looked. Fashion and beauty grab people’s attention and Mrs. Obama seems to understand that power and has always used style to lead people to other issues that matter more than fashion! 

What would your advice be for those who want to start a career in social entrepreneurship or make a difference in their communities?

I have so much advice, some of it I have learned from successes, some from my failures and most from doing this work day in and day out. I have tried many different formulas but the below are three truths I feel have helped me grow GLAM4GOOD both within the communities we are supporting and the people helping to support us!  

LIVE YOUR MISSION:  Eat, breathe and do the work every day. Over and over. If you don’t truly feel it is your purpose…DON’T DO IT. Success takes total commitment. Go big or go home. 

SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS:  People can’t help you if they don’t know what you need. Let people know in every way, every day, how important your work is to you and how and why they can and should support you! Remember, if you don’t care nobody else will. People can’t get behind something if they don’t understand and see it. Show them.

MAKE IT MATTER:  Emotion, honesty, spirit, purpose. When it’s real, people feel it and want to support it. If what you are doing makes them feel good they will come back for more.  A community will rise around your work when there is an emotional connection with them. So tell your story, your brand’s story, or the stories of the people you are helping in an authentic powerful way. Don’t fabricate, don’t amplify, don’t pretty it up. Be real, be raw and knock em alive. The truth is your best marketing tool.

Live Your Mission. Shout It From The Rooftops. Make It Matter.

How can people get involved with Glam4Good? 

People can reach out to us at info@GLAM4GOOD.com

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @GLAM4GOOD

Donate money and products at https://glam4good.com/donate/

Lastly, how did you get involved with FCD?

I love and greatly respect Simon Collins the founder of FCD. He is an incredible human! I think the conversation he has created with FCD is an authentic platform not driven by advertiser influence with some of the smartest thinkers/disruptors in our industry and that is a conversation I want to be a part of! 

For more from Mary Alice Stephenson, follow her on Twitter or check out GLAM4GOOD on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. In case you missed the second annual FCD Unconference, make sure you visit www.fashionculturedesign.com to find out more and stay updated! 

[nofomoartworld]

Art F City: This Weeks Must-See Art Events: The Art World Mobilizes for 2017

Farley Aguilar, “The Protest,” oil on linen, 2015. Aguilar has a solo show opening Sunday night at Lyles & King.

For everyone who has complained that the art world is too apolitical in the past month or so, take note of how 2017 is kicking off. We have a week of feminist exhibitions, the start of a month-long project about Trump’s America Saturday at Petzel Gallery, and shows that tackle topics from water contamination to the holocaust and the attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

Welcome to the art world in the Trump era. If the list of participants at Petzel’s event is any indication, the big guns are coming out.

W

T

F

S

S

Wed

The Callahan Center Gallery at St. Francis College

180 Remsen Street, Brooklyn, NY 5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Fred Terna: Processing Chaos, Recurring Echoes

Fred Terna has been making art for over 70 years. In 1946, one year after being liberated from the concentration camps where he had survived for four year, Terna went to art school in Paris. Since then, he’s experimented with abstractions that borrow from surrealism and cubism—with emotional undertones informed by his traumatic experiences. In this exhibition, we’ll see work he’s made since 1970. That would be an entire retrospective for most living artists—it’s humbling to think that represents just about half of Terna’s career.

Thu

Cheim & Read

547 W 25th Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Louise Bourgeois: Holograms

Who knew the late, great Louise Bourgeois made holograms? I sure as hell didn’t, and I’m a fan of both. In 1998, Bourgeois was approached by the holography studio C-Project and invited to produce a series. This is the first exhibition of the 8 plates that came from that collaboration. As one would expect, the press release promises they’re dreamy and full of “slapstick horror.” A definite can’t-miss.

  Cheim & Read

547 W 25th Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Tal R: Keyhole

Also at Cheim & Read, another show that looks great. Copenhagen-based artist Tal R has asked his friends in different cities to send photos of storefronts from their local red light districts. Tal R then translates these into whimsical crayon drawings and paintings—each depicting a colorful, stylized sex business from strip clubs to gay bars. These look like they’re going to be a lot of fun.

  Paula Cooper Gallery

521 W 21st St New York, NY 6:00 PM to 8:00 PMWebsite

Dan Walsh

    Nobody commands a grid like Dan Walsh. It helps that his paintings tend to be much larger than your average grid painting. (Many of the canonical minimalist paintings from the 70’s as well as those that hail from Bushwick don’t tend to exceed 35 to 40 inches. Walsh’s paintings are more frequently in the 70 inch range.) As we noted in our review of his 2012 show, they have a lot of weight to them as a result is needed in a cavernous space like Paula Cooper Gallery. Past that, though, it’s the fact that each painting seems so worked that makes them so compelling. This is the type of art that can easily look mechanical and robotic. Walsh avoids that at every turn.

Morgan Lehman Gallery

534 West 24th Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

David S. Allee: Chasing Firefly

Back in October at the Art Critical review panel nobody had very good things to say about Martin Creed’s billboard sized rotating sign “Understanding” located in the Brooklyn Bridge Park. Pretty much any interpretation had brought by the viewer and the piece really wasn’t that deep. Credit David S. Allee with a photograph of the sign that improves upon the public art work. In the nighttime photograph, the sign is surrounded by rings of light due to the slow exposure. It resembles the parenthesis people on twitter put around their name to express shock. In these dark times, Allee’s gesture seems right on the money.

The show will be filled with Allee’s night time photographs—a series he’s returning to after 10 years and we’re glad to see it. Night, through Allee’s lens, seems dramatic, bold, yet eerily still. It’s a good combination, and one that definitely should be seen in person.

Fri

Grady Alexis Gallery /El Taller Latino Americano at Artspace PS 109

215 E 99th Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Nor Any Drop to Drink

  As artists become more politically engaged, we expect to see more shows like Adam Zucker’s curated show “Nor Any Drop to Drink”. According to Zucker, the show is “a response to the global deterioration of water sources and the conflict between the synthetic and natural world.” Most recently, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s actions protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline have brought this issue for artists to the forefront, though the fact is we all need to be paying attention to the coming water shortage. This exhibition is just one attempt at raising consciousness.   

Participating artists: Vanessa Albury, Jacinto Astiazarán, Alli Miller, Jay Milder, Rifka Milder, Emilia Olsen, Michael Sheng

Chapter NY

249 E. Houston Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Ann Greene Kelly: May Not Be Private

Ann Greene Kelly’s assemblages mash-up references to the body, architecture, and just a little bit of consumer culture. They evoke a strange sensation of domestic and body horror, and given that the show takes its title from a women’s health brochure, have a political urgency as well.

VICTORI + MO

56 Bogart St. Brooklyn, NY 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.Website

Phoenix Lindsey-Hall: Never Stop Dancing

Phoenix Lindsey-Hall has slip-cast 49 porcelain disco balls, one for each victim of the terror attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. This looks to be a powerful installation—each ball will be illuminated in the darkened gallery—in keeping with the artist’s practice of memorializing queer victims of hate crimes.

Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning

161-04 Jamaica Ave Jamaica, New York 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.Website

Closing Reception for Female Adapter: New Work by Faith Holland

We’ve frequently featured Faith Holland on the blog, whose singular brand of feminism-meets-web-savvy-meets-sexy-GIFs is right up our alley. Unfortunately, we haven’t had a chance to make it to Jamaica to see this show, the end result of Holland’s year-long New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Studio Residency Program at the center. Be sure to make it to the closing reception, where one can check out her site-specific “Queer Connections” installation, which spans 13 feet.

  Sat

Petzel Gallery

456 W 18th St New York, NY 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.Website

We need to talk...Artists and the public respond to the present conditions in America

  The staff of Petzel Gallery decided to devote the first month of 2017 to some much-needed strategizing about how the art world can respond to the disastrous results of November’s elections. They’ve divided this program into both an exhibition and a space for viewers to dialogue. From the gallery:

Participation in writing, through film, and in live discussions.

As visitors enter the gallery they will be invited to write down their reactions, thoughts, anxieties, hopes for the future, on a giant billboard on the wall.

The gallery will also devote one room to screening film clippings, shorts, vignettes that in some way tackle today’s issues. This part of the program is open to anyone who wants his or her concerns brought before an audience. Submissions* will be added to a loop and screened in the gallery as well as on the website.

Saturday Symposiums: on three Saturdays during the show, interested parties and the public will be invited to participate in symposium-style conversations, debates, and readings on different issues: Civil Liberties (January 21st), Immigration (January 28th), and The Environment (February 4th). Details to follow.

Artists Respond: A list of artists whose work will be on view in the main space is in formation, but at time of press, includes Yael Bartana, Judith Bernstein, Andrea Bowers, Troy Brauntuch, AA Bronson, Paul Chan, Mark Dion, Sam Durant, Rainer Ganahl, Hans Haacke, Rachel Harrison, Dana Hoey, Jenny Holzer, Jonathan Horowitz, Josh Kline, Barbara Kruger, Sean Landers, Louise Lawler, Glenn Ligon, Robert Longo, Allan McCollum, Joyce Pensato, Raha Raissnia, Peter Saul, Dana Schutz, Gary Simmons, Dirk Skreber, Slavs and Tatars, Andrew Tider/Jeff Greenspan, Wolfgang Tillmans, Rirkrit Tiravanija…and more to come. A percentage of sales will be donated to any organization that seems appropriate to artist and collector.

*Beginning January 1st, 2017: please send submitted video files titled “January2017” as downloadable links via WeTransfer, Dropbox, or Vimeo to video@petzel.com. If uploading via Vimeo, please ensure the video is downloadable and can be added to collections. Work should be up to 5 minutes in duration, with a max file size of 2GB, one submission per sender. Submissions will close January 31st. We reserve the right to omit videos with offensive content.

  La MaMa Galleria

47 Great Jones Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Lintel, Mantel, Module, Shelf

  Curated by Samuel Draxler, this show is intended to subvert the conventions of sterile, prefabricated domestic spaces. And if the press image is any indication, it should be a hit. GaHee Park’s oil painting “Drama” features a wine & cheese & sex party in a motel room. She’s the best. Full disclosure: we recently showed GaHee Park’s work in our exhibition Strange Genitals.

Artists:

Lauren Bakst & Yuri Masnyj, Elliott Jerome Brown Jr., Mary-Ann Monforton, GaHee Park, Isaac Pool

  CUE Art Foundation

137 W 25th Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

The Visible Hand

“The Visible Hand” is a term in economics for management, in opposition to the Invisible Hand of the market. So here, four artists and one collective present themselves as managers of sorts. Maureen Connor, for example, presents a more counterpoint to institutional critique—she investigates the HR problems of host institutions and then creates installation to help solve them. I’m not sure if that’s what’s going on in the above image, but whatever these things are, I want one for our office.

Artists: Chloë Bass, BFAMFAPhD, Maureen Connor, Devin Kenny, Jen Liu.

Sun

Whitney Museum of American Art

99 Gansevoort Street New York, NY 3:00 p.m.Website

Blade Runner—Autoencoded

  If there’s one benefit to living in the dystopian “future” we call the present, it’s that we finally know what androids dream of—and it’s usually weird as hell. Terence Broad has built an artificial neural network (which I imagine is somewhat similar to Google’s Deep Dream …or maybe one of those episodes of Star Trek where Data tries to make art) and shown his creation Blade Runner. He then tasked his AI to recreate the film, frame-by-frame, from memory. I can only imagine how weird the resulting movie, which is screening at the Whitney, will be. The event is free for members, or $12 for non-members. Totally worth it.

  A.I.R. GALLERY

155 Plymouth St Brooklyn, NY 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.mWebsite

Sinister Feminism

  This is our DUMBO neighbor’s 12th biennial, and just based on the name alone it’s gotta be good. We’re not familiar with any of the artists involved, but the press release sounds bad-ass:

“Sinister Feminism. We fortify veneer into armor. We appropriate from misogynist sources. We exceed the cinematic ideal. We vibrate the sound of the city. We endure. Our physicalizations we know are transgressive. We are a halation of line. We throw shadow across the page. We teach the tongues of the past. We mock the habit of metonymy. We transmit the sense of hysterics. We smell. We hurl what we are required to withstand: our bodies, our selves. We are trying to reach you. We wildly grin.”

Artists:Lucas Berd, Dora Budor, ceramics club (cc), Kerry Downey, Dolores Furtado, Nicolás Guagnini, Caitlin Keogh, Chelsea Rae Klein, Lizzy Marshall, Whitney Oldenburg, B. Quinn, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Torbjørn Rødland, Karin Schneider and Leigh Ledare, Bailey Scieszka

Curated by Piper Marshall and Lola Kramer

Lyles & King

106 Forsyth Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Farley Aguilar: Bad Color Book

Miami-based, self-taught painter Farley Aguilar’s paintings remind the viewer why paintings are fun, and sometimes frenetically anxious. They’re populated by expressionist figures in surreal tableaus. Clowns, wrestlers, religious figures, and other archetypes seem squeezed together in tense, brushy compositions. Traces of revisions and happy accidents dot their surfaces, and there’s a sense of playful horror in both subject matter and process. This is the definite highlight of Sunday night.

  from Art F City http://ift.tt/2iFWuft via IFTTT