Ecological concepts of continuity and interdependence are renegade forces. They not only transform existing patterns of material consumption and production, they destabilize social values and disrupt aesthetic conventions. Even the notion of beauty is overhauled by the ecological mandate to embrace all aspects of the life cycle – decay as well as growth. Artists who demonstrate radical beauty are renegade aestheticists. They demonstrate that the greening of society depends as much upon revising human values as reforming human behaviors.
Linda Weintraub is an artist, curator, educator, and the author of Avant-Guardians: Texlets in Ecology and Art (2006 - ongoing) and founder of Artnow Publications. She wrote In The Making: Creative Options for Contemporary Artists (2003) and Art on the Edge and Over: Searching for Art’s Meaning in Contemporary Society (1995). Weintraub served as Henry R. Luce Professor of Emerging Arts at Oberlin College from 2000-2003. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Rutgers University. She lectures frequently on contemporary art and its intersection with ecology.
South African photojournalist Gideon Mendel is working simultaneously on two large bodies of work, one dealing with climate change and the other with the HIV epidemic around the world, including a UCLA-based project called "Through Positive Eyes." Mendel will share these two projects and discuss his unique take on social justice and art-making.
Mendel’s Art + Activism Lecture
Monday February 2, 2009
Kaufman Hall: Room 208 4 - 6 pm
Opening Reception: Thu, January 29, 5-7pm
Exhibit Dates: January 29 - February 20
UCLA CN(S)I, ART | SCI Lab, Suite 5419
Public Secrets
There are secrets that are kept from the public and there are "public secrets," secrets that the public chooses to keep from itself-"don't ask, don't tell." The trick to the public secret is in knowing what not to know. This is the most powerful form of social knowledge. Such shared secrets sustain social and political institutions. The injustices of the war on drugs, the criminal justice system, and the Prison Industrial Complex are public secrets. Public Secrets provides an interactive interface to an audio archive of hundreds of statements made by current and former prisoners, which unmask the secret injustices of the war on drugs, the criminal justice system, and the prison industrial complex. Visitors navigate a multi-vocal narrative that links individual testimony and public evidence, social theory, and personal statements, in an effort to engage the public in a critical dialogue about crime and punishment.
Interactive, database-driven website with audio navigated with Wii controller
Blood Sugar is a "new media documentary" that examines the social and political construction of poverty, alienation, and addiction in American society through the eyes of those who live it. Blood Sugar provides an interactive interface to an audio archive of conversations with 24 current and former injection drug users recorded at the HIV Education and Prevention Program of Alameda County and in California state prisons. Since addicts must fear encounters with regimes of enforcement, they are afraid to be seen-but they do want to be heard. Theirs are the most important voices in the discourse around addiction, public health, poverty and belonging in America. Through the stories of those most affected by addiction, Blood Sugar challenges us to address question such as, what is the social and political status of the addicted? Is the addict considered fully human, diseased, possessed or wholly "other" and thus rendered ideologically appropriate to her status as less than human?
Sharon Daniel is an artist whose research involves the use and development of information and communications technologies for social inclusion. Daniel engages in the production of “new media documentaries”-building online archives and interfaces that make the stories of technologically disenfranchised communities available across social, cultural, and economic boundaries. Daniel's work has been exhibited internationally at museums and festivals including Transmediale 08, the ISEA/ZeroOne festival, the Dutch Electronic Arts Festival, Ars Electronica, the Lincoln Center Festival, the Corcoran Biennial and the University of Paris I, as well as on the Internet. Her essays have been published in books and professional journals, such as Database Aesthetics (Minnesota University Press, 2007), the Sarai Reader, and Leonardo. Daniel is a Professor of Film and Digital Media and Chair of the Digital Arts and New Media MFA program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she teaches classes in digital media theory and practice.
JONATHAN YOUNG: "The Search for Meaning" Lecture
15 JANUARY 2009
EDA, UCLA BROAD ART CENTER
Location: Broad Art Center, EDA Room 1250, Parking in Lot 3
In this lecture we will uncover the common stock of symbolism related to quest stories. Consciously or unconsciously we are contributing to the evolution and emergent fabric of this linguistic device in which complex, culturally specific meanings are communicated simply. Psychologist-storyteller Jonathan Young will draw on his work with Joseph Campbell to explore the symbolism in the Legends of the Holy Grail, the architecture of quest stories and the subterrain of nonverbal communication.
Jonathan Young assisted Joseph Campbell at seminars and served as founding curator of the Joseph Campbell Archives. As a professor, he created and chaired a department of mythological studies. His books and articles focus on personal mythology and the creative process. As director of the Center for Story and Symbol in Santa Barbara, Dr. Young lectures widely on uses of symbolic imagery and consults for content creators in film, visual art, advertising, and writing.
UCLA ART | SCI Center + Lab in collaboration with Summer Sessions and CNSI cordially invite you to attend the quarterly North South Mixer. No agenda - just come and meet and greet colleagues from across disciplines and geographies!
Opening Reception: Wed, January 14, 6-8 pm
Exhibit Dates: January 14- February 4
UCLA, CN(S)I Lobby, Parking Lot 9
*partcicle group*, Particles of Interest: Tales from the Matter Market (2006 - )
*Particles of Interest* is an interactive installation of poetic meditations from around the world that allows visitors to encounter the global chorus on nanotechnology, culture, and property. The installation creates a *sonic-simulation* of particle data scanning gestures:
Nanotechnology involves the manipulation of materials and the creation of structures and systems that exist at the scale of atoms and molecules. A nanometer (nm) is one billionth of a meter. By way of comparison, a DNA molecule is roughly 2.5 nm, a red blood cell 7,000 nm and a human hair cell a whopping 80,000 nm wide. The existing body of toxicological literature indicates that nanoparticles have a greater risk of toxicity than larger particles. The *particle sniffer* prototype by the Particle Development Team is a sniff-scan technology that captures nano-scale elements, such as nanoparticles of carbon 60, titanium dioxide and zinc oxide that have clustered on or beneath the skin of individuals who have unknowingly been using nano-based particle products ranging from transparent suntan lotions, a large number skin care products, and a wide variety of makeup products to some types of fabrics.
The *Particle Sniffer* sonic-simulation installation is based on a nano-sized surface acoustic wave chip, which works by measuring disturbances in sound waves as they pass across micro-quartz crystals. This “dog on a chip” sensor is coated with a thin layer of cloned antibody proteins that bond to specific particles, such as carbon 60. The sound waves passing through that sensor can then be compared with an uncoated control crystal: differences in the waves mean the chip has picked up trace amounts of the target particles. Each time an individual passes through the installation and a particle is captured, the installation alerts the individual to the level of trans-patented particle traces that have been found on him or her; and to the toxicity tales of others that have had nano-clusters found on them or in them.
*particle group* is a collective consisting of Principal Investigators Ricardo Dominguez and Diane Ludin, as well as Principal Researchers Nina Waisman (Interactive Sound Installation design) and poet Amy Sara Carroll, with a number of other collaborators participating temporarily (since 2006). The collective draws from sonification, poetry, and the hard and social sciences to develop installations that are critically engaged with the politics and poetics of nano-science and its market. Their aim with the installation Particles of Interest is to shed light on both the lack of regulation of nanoparticles in consumer goods and the emergence of the nano-sublime. The group combines digital technology, investigative research, and multimedia formats into works that forge a subversive relationship with the newest frontiers of nano-science. The *particle group* exhibited at ISEA 2006, House of World Cultures, Berlin; San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA, 2007; Oi Futuro (Brazil) and Gallery@CALIT2 in 2008. The *particle group* is funded by Calit2 and the UCSD Division of Arts and Humanities.
The UCLA Art|Sci Center+Lab announces the 2008 Symposium exploring unique perspectives on the theme BODY ART DISEASE featuring presentations, exhibitions, installations, workshops, roundtables, social gatherings and two curator’s talk/tours from the vaults of the History and Special Collections Louise Darling Biomedical Library, we hope to challenge traditional aesthetics and explore the symposium from a multitude of viewpoints.
My installation "Gestation" explores the tensions that are implicit in social contracts between individuals and institutions, and how these 'agreements' form our identity.
Only a fine line separates nurture and control. I see the potato as a metaphor for the human being for several reasons: one, the potato is the lowest common denominator of vegetables; two, as a basic staple food, its consumption transcends social boundaries; three, the potato holds energy within, enough to power a radio; and four, its form resembles that of an organ.
When I wrap the potato in latex, I ward off the germs, as would a surgeon when exposing the interior of a human body. I hold the object as I sew the protective pouch and I feel like I'm nurturing it, but at the same time I'm confining the object within this simulation of skin. When the potato hangs suspended from the thread, and with the passing of time, disturbances in the clinical begin to germinate. As the latex either melts with the potato skin as it rots within the pouch, or is stretched and punctured by the roots of a growing potato, the latex sheath becomes an index of the often indistinguishable gradations between artifice and nature, decay and life.
Rebeca Méndez was born in 1962 in Mexico City. She graduated from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena in 1984 (BFA) and in 1996 (MFA). She has participated in numerous exhibitions worldwide and her work is represented in public and private collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The National Design Museum, New York, Denver Art Museum, and Museo Jose Luis Cuevas, Mexico City. Recently her work was exhibited at the Pompidou Centre in Paris as part of the exhibition ‘Morphosis: Continuities of the Incomplete.’ She currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
Her research and practice are transmedial and interdisciplinary-as an artist, through her photography, videography and installations, Méndez explores the dialogue between the weather and the landscape as a way to address issues of time and space in relation to human physicality. Considers the journey as medium and travels to Iceland regularly. As a designer, her research and practice focuses on critical reflections on visual communication practices, in particular on brand identity and consumer culture, to encourage formation of independent opinion and participation. Méndez’s art and design research intersect in her study of architecture as interface and interface as a kind of architecture connecting people through immersive spaces, physical objects and systems to local and global networks.
2008 Body Art Disease Symposium: Exhibitions
Organized and Curated by Stefanie Adcock
Location: Bermant Gallery, Broad Art Center
“A neoplasm is an abnormal mass of tissue, the growth of which exceeds and is uncoordinated with that of the normal tissues, and persists in the same excessive manner after cessation of the stimulus which evoked the change."[Willis RA: The Spread of Tumors in the Human Body]
Using crochet, I simulated some of the behaviors of tumoral and cancerous cells, such as abnormal excessive replication and metamorphic appearance. The knitting mimics the way healthy tissue, metaphorically illustrated by the regular stitches, appears disfigured when the disease infiltrates its weaving.
Silvia Rigon is an Italian artist and designer. She has a background in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts of Venezia (Italy), and an MFA from the Department of Design| Media Arts at UCLA. Silvia’s artistic investigation combines elements her deep training in traditional fine art techniques and education, and her professional experience as a graphic and digital designer. The content of her pieces often refers to the notion of “monstrosity”, especially manifested in historical iconography and myths, as a way of unveiling the ambivalence and paradoxes underling our perception of the time in which we live. Her work has been exhibited in such venues as: The Metropolitan Museum of Photography in Tokyo, Japan; The Center for Contemporary Art in Tallin, Estonia; Lamec: Laboratorio per L’Arte Contemporanea in Vicenza, Italy; Lamparna 93 in Labin, Croatia. www.silviarigon.com
A hybrid lattice topography will be assembled at the California NanoSystems Institute, during the UCLA Art | Sci Center 2008 Symposium: Body Art Disease. The work will be composed of a lightweight sculptural field housing arrays of organic batteries. acting as a primitive 'geotextile' that might reinforce new growth. This system will support a dense series of very thin whiskers and low-power miniature lights, pulsing and vibrating in slight increments. Weak electrical charges are generated by copper and aluminum electrodes immersed in vinegar within latex bladders, working in concert with miniature microprocessors. The 'life' of the organic system will shift and erode during the symposium event. In installation workshops participants will work together in preparing the Endothelium sculpture. The work will include assembly of lightweight wood, paper and metal elements combined with miniature microprocessor and mechatronic components transported from the studio in Toronto. No prior experience is required.
Philip Beesley practices digital media art and experimental architecture in Toronto. His work in the last two decades has focused on field-oriented distributed sculpture and landscape installations.. In parallel with his sculpture practice he teaches architecture at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture in Cambridge, Ontario and is co-director of Waterloo’s Integrated Centre for Manufacturing, Visualization and Design, a facility combining high-performance computing, advanced visualization and digital fabrication. 2008-9 installations are slated for Montreal's Champ Libre, Pratt/Brooklyn, Linz Austria, CITA/Royal Academy Denmark and Surrey Gallery of Art, BC. His publications include North House (CDRN 2008), Maison Solaire (CDRN 2008), Mobile Nation (OCAD, 2007), Hylozoic Soil (Riverside, 2007), Ourtopias: Cities and the Role of Design (Riverside, 2007), Future Wood (CDRN, 2006), Responsive Architectures (Riverside, 2005), a chapter of Extreme Textiles (Smithsonian/Cooper Hewitt, 2005) and the cover feature AD Magazine Design through Making. (Wiley Academy 2005). Sculpture in upcoming publications include Interactive Art (Silver ed., Princeton, 2008), Digital Practice Now (Spiller, Wiley, 2008), Installations by Architects (Bonnemaison, Princeton, 2008), Persistent Modeling (Ayres, Architectural Design, Wiley, 2009). Beesley co-chaired the conferences Expanding Bodies: Art, Cities, Environment (ACADIA Halifax 2007), Responsive Architectures: Subtle Technologies (Toronto, 2006); Fabrication: Examining the Digital Practice of Architecture (Waterloo and Toronto, 2004), On Growth and Form: The Engineering of Nature (Cambridge, 2002). Distinctions for his work include the Prix de Rome in Architecture (Canada).
Hayley Isaacs is an associate of Philip Beesley Architect Inc. who has played key roles in conception and production of sculptures, books and buildings including Hylozoic Soil (Montreal, 2006), Ourtopias (Riverside, 2007), North House and Maison Solaire (CDRN, 2008). She holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Waterloo and her focus combines industrial design and exhibitry, graphic design and architecture.
Linda Weintraub is an artist, curator, educator, and the author of Avant-Guardians: Texlets in Ecology and Art (2006 - ongoing) and founder of Artnow Publications. She wrote In The Making: Creative Options for Contemporary Artists (2003) and Art on the Edge and Over: Searching for Art’s Meaning in Contemporary Society (1995). Weintraub served as Henry R. Luce Professor of Emerging Arts at Oberlin College from 2000-2003. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Rutgers University. She lectures frequently on contemporary art and its intersection with ecology.
The *Particle Sniffer* sonic-simulation installation is based on a nano-sized surface acoustic wave chip, which works by measuring disturbances in sound waves as they pass across micro-quartz crystals. This “dog on a chip” sensor is coated with a thin layer of cloned antibody proteins that bond to specific particles, such as carbon 60. The sound waves passing through that sensor can then be compared with an uncoated control crystal: differences in the waves mean the chip has picked up trace amounts of the target particles. Each time an individual passes through the installation and a particle is captured, the installation alerts the individual to the level of trans-patented particle traces that have been found on him or her; and to the toxicity tales of others that have had nano-clusters found on them or in them.
Rebeca Méndez was born in 1962 in Mexico City. She graduated from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena in 1984 (BFA) and in 1996 (MFA). She has participated in numerous exhibitions worldwide and her work is represented in public and private collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The National Design Museum, New York, Denver Art Museum, and Museo Jose Luis Cuevas, Mexico City. Recently her work was exhibited at the Pompidou Centre in Paris as part of the exhibition ‘Morphosis: Continuities of the Incomplete.’ She currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
