Royoji Ikeda, Artist’s Reception, PRNMS, CRUMB & sleep…
Hi — a quick report on last night and today —
The Royoji Ikeda performance was held last night at the California Theater - an elegantly ornate old theater, long and narrow with high arched ceilings. The intensely dense and then alternately minimal work of Royoji, both in it’s use of image and bodily shaking sound, was it seemed well-received by the audience. Except of course the one lady at the beginning yelling “turn the sound down”, and then at the next quiet interval, “it’s not supposed to hurt your ears!” with a growing “SSHHHH!!” response each time. When a dumb type [OR] performance work which included his marrow-vibrating audio was held by the Walker they just plain supplied ear-plugs and gave warnings and so people knew ahead they were getting into something. As in the [OR] performance - these delicate and highly choreographed swings between focusing on the tiniest of details, to all-assaulting barrages of sound and image, were used to create a powerful tension. Only in this work the emphasis on the visualizing, manipulating of immense data sets of all kinds seemed to set a tone of being aware of the construction and manipulation of all aspects of our environments. Of the few people I talked to there have become yearnings for things more ‘fleshy’ and human - not so computer-exacting. Though as I felt it was giving some thoughtful consideration to the idea of our inability to deal with all the levels of infromation and complications being constantly thrown at us - for myself, I really enjoyed it.
I had the nice chance to catch up with several people I hadn’t seen since I left the Walker after the show and at the Artist’s Reception at a hotel a short walk up the road. The mood was happy and convivial, a good time generally had by all, including the Karaoke singing squirrel…
This morning Caro and I had a swim in the pool next door, and ended up missing the Solar/Polar Circuit brunch gathering in doing so. Checked out the Parkside Hall venue for the symposium, and it’s massive — as you open the door a strong wind of cool air rushes out at you from the great cavern… It is decked out with individual black swivelling office chairs and a variety of lounging areas and back-of-venue bar-type stools and chairs. Pretty suave.
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While there I got my registration stuff sorted out. Getting clear schedule information has been a problem for people generally here. There is so much going on it is hard to get clear, and there are various printed pieces around on individual events of programs series, but it has only been recently that the printed inserts that went into the local newspapers, have been more widely distributed around and so artists have been able to sort out main scheduled stuff. All else (evening events and things) have travelled by word of mouth. From what I saw, artist’s installations in Sth Hall seemed to come together generally well, though only by the struggles of many of them scrounging and begging for things needed as little was supplied for many but the venue space and power.
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I went from the symposium venue to see some of the Pacific Rim New Media Summit — the smaller, more focused pre-symposium gatherings going on here monday/tuesday. I wanted to catch the Raqs Media Collective, but as the sessions were running late, I also saw a series of curators talking about distributed curating and how it went for them on the Container Culture project. Sean Cubitt has posted notes on this, as he has been for all of the PRNMS summit, to the ADA list and which you can see here:
http://aotearoadigitalarts.org.nz/list/thread/1155151559
Guna had mentioned the valuable contribution of CRUMB (Curatorial Resource for Upstart Media Bliss), the discussion list and resource for curators that Beryl Graham and Sarah Cook have been developing, and as it happened it was to this that I planned next to go. A local SF friend arrived and so I got a bit way-laid (sp?), but once we found them (tucked away in the back of the convention center in a *very odd* “VIP Suite” room), my friend Badi, an Australian curator named Michelle, Beryl and I had a good chat, discussing and discovering our ‘crises’… 
I am trying to figure out how to develop audiences in NZ, Michelle how to ’survive’ and ’stay in the game’, and Badi how to keeping on making stuff as a part of his life. The quiet room, cups of tea and friendly & meaningful chats were great after these last days of pavement pounding with finding ’stuff’ needed for installations and in the South Hall also, which is massive, and is a tent built on a car park. Just what the curating doctors ordered. Thanks Beryl and Sarah, we will be back!
Michelle, based in Perth and works on an annual youth festival named “Awesome” amongst other projects, was talking about a project she did where people could ring up and order art like pizza. It was immensely popular, and by a more general audience than the usual gallery goers. They were sold for $19.99 like a typical pizza, and the art included sound art by Scanner, done specifically for the project and a oujia board that contacted the spirits of dead famous painters, amongst others. It was a surprise that the project was so popular and there was immense media coverage of it. Some for it being a waste of public money (that old common complaint, that I am thinking about lately as I’ve just heard it so much since returning to NZ), but which only garnered it more attention. It seems that the complaint arose from a general audience understanding of art as painting, and hence their expectation that there would be a little painting in the box, and instead receive a CD or other object. It seems anyway, a fun model that could be explored in other situations - especially if dealing already with issues of branding, packaging, marketing - especially within the context of the art world’s way of packaging up an artist’s work.
Well I better get to bed actually as I promised myself an early night and it is already 2am - aah! I might actually slip away up to San Francisco tomorrow to see some friends as it will be my last chance possibly while here, as I will be helping Adam Hyde do the re:mote symposium most of the day thurs/fri/sat. Will see if can get Zita to post about her Free Soil Tour today with Amy Franceschini which sounds like it was absolutely fantastic. It filled up fast. I might see if Amy can be talked into doing another one. I will be helping Caro at her (very popular - heaps of kids!) installation at the children’s museum shortly though, so am not sure when i’d be able to do it! But could maybe work it.
Anyway - I hope this dispatch finds you all doing well — g’night!