Archive for June, 2008Let there be wallsTuesday, June 24th, 2008I’ve spent the past few days building walls for my studio, and am starting to be very curious about what’s waiting for me in Google Reader. Now that the initial shock of C-61 has subsided, I’m ready to think about a less emotional review of its contents. I’m not quite sure when I’ll find time to do that, especially because I want to read all the responses firstly. I’m not seeing any time to do that until late July… Don’t steal? No, don’t devalue artWednesday, June 18th, 2008Passing through Union Station, you’ll sometimes come across stores offering samples of their goods. The commuters understand that this is something the stores are offering as part of a marketing strategy, giving you a literal or figurative taste of what they have to sell before you commit to a purchase. This practice has parallels in art, with galleries where you can view work prior to purchase (and some even have loan programs where you can borrow a work for a period of time to ensure that you want to make the full investment) and the dying music store and its listening booths/stations. In these instances, most reasonable people understand the purpose of the sampling strategy being used, and what is considered an acceptable use of the system. Someone who takes enough bagel segments in one visit to make up a whole bagel is obviously abusing the system. Likewise, someone who serially borrows work from a gallery without any intention of a purchase is abusing the loan program. When I compare the brick-and-mortar practice of samples with the myriad of ways people are using the internet for marketing and exposure, I notice two things. The first is that when physical samples are provided, the party offering the sample is not reprimanded for trying to protect against the offerings being abused. The second is that with physical samples, both the giver and receiver have a consistent and, typically, matching understanding of what constitutes abuse. So why do neither of these things happen where the internet is concerned? Somehow, in internet land, artists are framed as either greedy or clueless for trying to prevent their work abusive uses of the work they put online. And now that the idea that “everyone is an artist” is not merely more widespread than the emergence of contemporary art, but it is also being met with mixed reactions. I think it’s great that so many people are creating work. But the use of “artist” as a label for anyone who has every made anything is diluting the value of the creative, administrative and physical effort required to “make for a living”. Art and artist appreciation is already a problem, with art education continuing to be cut from public education in favour of the three Rs. But the devaluation of the artist is a serious issue which is showing itself in the way people are talking about their entitlements to the use and access to art. What is more appalling to me is that I’m told that creators create because of reasons other than financial gain, as if that were a justification for creators not being paid for the work they do. Why is this logic not applied to chefs, lawyers, educators, social workers, or anyone else who has chosen a career for reasons other than income generation? Brief thoughts on C-61Wednesday, June 18th, 2008I’ve been quiet on this blog for a while because I’ve been returning my focus to the production of new work. After selling all but one of the sculptures I completed last year, and one of the two I completed since, I need to replenish my supply of sculptures so that I can take care of the traditional tasks of compiling a portfolio and seeking representation and/or shows. I have also moved all of my feeds from Akregator (which was randomly marking new feed items as read) to Google Reader so I can better control the amount of time I’m spending on trying to maintain something resembling a pristine inbox. This break from the online conversation about copyright, technology and the other things that strike my interest was what I needed to be able to read C-61 with a fresh mind. I have not yet read any of the responses by the usual suspects, although I can imagine what they are. I doubt that any of my online peers are happy with C-61, and I’m mostly upset at myself for believing that it could be anything less than distasteful. C-61 is obviously meant to help corporate rights-holders, and not consumers or the artists themselves. It reads more like a supplementary user guide for how you can technically use works than a set of guiding principles on the rights relating to acceptable usage of works. If the revisions in C-61 are made as they stand now, the Copyright Act will become more obscure and quickly obsolete than it is already. It shows a fundamental failure to understand either what the creators and consumers want and, more importantly, what is needed from a document which governs the rights relating to the use of works. I’m not going to bother with an in-depth analysis of C-61, because I’m sure the blogosphere is already overflowing with those. Mostly, I am balking at how overly specific the wording is and that the legislators don’t understand technology, internet culture, creators, users or the creative arts industries. Another rumoured copyright bill? Yawn.Wednesday, June 4th, 2008No, I’m not bored by copyright. But I am no longer experiencing any anxiety about the copyright bill which, again, may or may not be coming sometime in the near or distant future. I’m much more excited about my new studio, the possibility of working in new types of stone, planning for the 2009 Technology In The Arts conference, attending the Conference on Education, Culture and the Knowledge Economy this Friday, and attending and participating in the spOtlight festival this weekend. I’ll leave the copyright bill speculation to the others while I try to keep up with life:
I was also recently told about Online Rights, another copyright advocacy website. Celebrate our artists this weekend!Wednesday, June 4th, 2008From the OAC: WHAT? :: Go backstage, step into a studio, and experience the artist’s creative process :: The festival is taking place in Cambridge, Guelph, Kitchener, Stratford and Waterloo from Friday June 6 to Sunday June 8. :: visit : www.spotlightfestival.ca or get a copy of the 20-page spOtlight: official festival Guide: at local downtown businesses and arts and cultural organizations : :OPENING NIGHT DETAILS: : Date: Friday, June 6, 2008 WHO? :: Hon. Aileen Carroll, Minister of Culture and MPP for Barrie, will launch the spOtlight: weekend :: Dan Secord, Anishnabe from the Mississauga Nation of New Credit, will open the festivities :: There will be a performance by Blue Stone Cloud Drum group and performances from Our World Festival of Music :: Carl Zehr, Mayor of Kitchener will unveil and dedicate The Luggage Project by artist Ernest Daetwyler :: Hon. John Milloy, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities and MPP for Kitchener-Centre, Leeanna Pendergast, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister Responsible for Women’s Issues and MPP for Kitchener-Conestoga, Karen Farbridge, Mayor of Guelph, Brenda Halloran, Mayor of Waterloo, Doug Brock, Member, Board of Directors, Ontario Arts Council :: KEEP US IN THE LOOP! :: :: Facebook: Throughout the weekend, post photos/links/commentsvideos, etc. on our spOtlight event page. Encourage your friends to do the same: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=18597630954 :: Don’t forget about Myspace!: Post links/photos, etc. on our MySpace page, and ask your friends to do the same: http://events.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.detail&eventID=431378.73108&indicate=1&Mytoken=40234A69-7491-44BB-85EF96ADD80A4A9A93901900 :: If you twitter (www.twitter.com) the event, please use this code so that we can join in on the conversation: spOtlight08 SEIZED exhibit presents art confiscated in FBI raidSunday, June 1st, 2008Press release: SEIZED June 7 to July 19, 2008 Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center is pleased to announce the exhibition SEIZED by Critical Art Ensemble (CAE) and the Institute for Applied Autonomy (IAA). The exhibition premieres Saturday, June 7, 2008 from 8–11pm and the opening reception is free and open to the public. The exhibition will remain on view through July 18, 2008. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 11am to 6pm and Saturday, 1–4pm. Following the four year long ordeal of CAE founding member and University at Buffalo Art Professor Steve Kurtz—accused by the Justice Department of “bio-terrorism” and later indicted on charges of mail fraud for procuring harmless bacterial cultures for use in an educational art project—SEIZED presents the artworks behind this case which has attracted worldwide attention and propelled an international arts community to rally to Kurtz’s support and on behalf of freedom of speech. SEIZED will center itself upon the works and materials seized by federal authorities, in particular the multi-media project Marching Plague, which was commissioned by the UK-based art-science initiative, The Arts Catalyst, and produced in consultation with scientists from the Harvard-Sussex Program on Chemical and Biological Weapons Armament and Arms Limitation. The project is comprised of an installation, performance, film, and book dedicated to demystifying issues surrounding germ warfare programs and the cost of their development to global public health. Additionally, project documentation and ephemera from the three other CAE projects confiscated by authorities will be on display. These works—Free Range Grain, Molecular Invasion, and GenTerra—utilize the framework of science and research to inspire informed dialogue about questions and concerns surrounding the new biotechnologies. SEIZED will also exhibit the physical artifacts of the 2004 FBI investigation of Steve Kurtz. Items seized from Kurtz’s home will be documented in photographs depicting the negative spaces remaining following their seizure: missing computers, books, notes, props from art performances, lab equipment, and an unfinished manuscript. In a curious—and unintentionally performative—gesture, the gaps left by seized items are filled in by the volumes of trash left behind in Kurtz’s home by federal investigators: hundreds of empty drink bottles, pizza boxes, Hazmat suits, and other assorted refuse, all of which will be on exhibit alongside CAE artworks. The resulting exhibition will offer a strange amalgam—part survey of CAE’s recent body of artwork, and part exploration of an attempted “bioterrorism” investigation. http://hallwalls.org/visual_shows/2008/show_seized.html Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center |
|
