Emery C. Martin

“This is not about random()” is a new and very small text piece done in processing for the Rhizome/OpenProcessing 200 Character Tiny Sketch challenge. Having seen too many works made in Processing that have relied on random functions for no other reason than, “it makes things look pretty,” I decided I would not use/make anything like this. I also wanted to try and do work outside of the normal stage environment. So, I opted for doing an animated text loop down in the browser’s status bar about the over usage of random. It was a rather interesting challenge but quite fun in the end to try and condense my thoughts on random into around 80-100 characters. I think a few other short 200 character sketches might be in order or possibly larger ones but still residing in the status bar. Check out the sketch here http://openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=4464

Currently Pitzer College is taking submissions for a rather large site specific text piece for the staircase in the Nichols Gallery.  Having really enjoyed the little staircase or nook gallery, as I like to call it, that is at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, I wanted to make sure to submit something.  Now, I misread the requirements as 400 words rather than 400 characters.  What started off as a long discussion about the design, function and social conventions of staircases, with attention to typographic layout has resulted in what I’d almost call the twitterized version of itself.  That result being an abbreviated end user license agreement for using the staircase itself.  Which makes me think that I may have a new guerrilla public art project on my hands.  It might be fun but we’ll see what happens.  Until then please observe the following when you are climbing the stairs.

Death, Destruction, and the Weather Coming Up Next, is now traveling to Nantes, France to be screened in the, Juste à côté de L.A. : CalArts Video, 2005-2007, a collection of video art coming out of CalArts between 2005-2007, curated by Audrey J. Chan.  I will be on hand for the screening in Nantes which is tonight.  Details and press release below.

The Contrechamp series presents a carte blanche to Audrey Chan, American artist and writer, currently in residence at l’école régionale des beaux-arts de Nantes (Nantes School of Art). As a parallel program to her exhibition at the school’s gallery, “Notes Toward an Exhibition”, she is presenting a program of videos made by young artists who studied at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), where video is employed as a fluid medium that engages with such practices as performance, painting, sculpture, writing, socio-political critique, and racial and gender deconstruction. Program duration: ~60 minutes + discussion with the artist.

PROGRAM
CamLab (Anna Mayer & Jemima Wyman), Critical Field Craft: Apex Cryptophores, 2007
Audrey Chan, Untitled: Soliloquy in Blue, 2005
Bianca D’Amico, Moneyshot, 2006
Trulee Hall, For Snowball, 2005
John Hogan, Give Thanks, 2004/5
Elana Mann, Embroid, Embroil, 2007
Emery C. Martin, Death, Destruction, and the Weather Coming Up Next, 2006
Theresa Masangkay, May Your Days Be, 2007; Untitled: Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn, 2007
Akosua Adoma Owusu, Revealing Roots, 2007/8

Contrechamp is a monthly program dedicated to art, film, and video, organized by artists Patrick Bernier, Christine Laquet, Olive Martin, and Stéphane Pauvret.

http://www.lecinematographe.com/programme/films/contrechamp_mai09.html

I just read Clay Shirky’s essay/post, “The Failure of #amazonfail,” which discusses the failure of the twitter-activism of #amazonfail.  Rather interesting piece surrounding the whole amazon adult content tagging debacle.  However, what struck me was the potential that Twitter’s constrainted limited communication system could be designed perfectly for ill informed reactionary positions.  So, here are my quick reactionary thoughts in response to Shirky.  Also, more updates in general hopefully coming soon.

The specificity of this amazon instance aside I think one very interesting aspect of the essay is the potential embedded reactionary nature of things like Twitter and what it means for activism.  The framework of twitter is built to provide an outlet for instant communication to a large mass of people on any errant thought.  You have to do this in 140 characters or less so you are likely not going to be filling your tweet with every nuance or potential detail that maybe needed to really address the topic or thought at hand.  This framework can hence close down conversations that need to be had before we all begin pounding out another 140 characters on our keyboards of activism that will hopefully assail a stunning blow to the “them.”  So, is Twitter simply a tool for short sighted reactionary positions?  No not necessarily but it sure can be conducive to them.  Do we need to place warnings such as “Tweet Responsibly,” “Think Before You Tweet,” or maybe “Don’t Drink and Tweet.”  Not sure, but the idea that the designed limitations of a communication system can be directly conducive to uninformed reactionary thought is interesting to say the least.  At least to me that is.