This month’s ARTnews includes an extensive feature by veteran arts writer Barbara Pollack on social media art. This is a fascinating read for anyone interested in understanding the emergence of social media art and how artists are using the medium to create work.
When I caught performance artist Man Bartlett around 4:30 pm EST yesterday, he had been in New York City’s Port Authority Bus Terminal for 23 and a half hours straight. Beginning on Wednesday, May 25 at 5 pm and continuing through 5 pm on May 26, the “#24hPort” performance saw the artist occupy both virtual and physical space, wandering through Port Authority and asking visitors where they were going, at the same time tweeting about the experience and asking Twitter participants about their memories of where they had been.
This week, Creative Time Tweets begins on Wed, March 25 with Man Bartlett’s “#24hPort” (2011) performance at Manhattan’s Port Authority bus terminal. The project is the first of three commissions, and I spoke to curator, Shane Brennan, about the project and why Creative Time is commissioning Twitter-based art works.
Can’t figure out how to fill up your culture diet this weekend? We’ve got your back, with Williamsburg Gallery Night going down tonight and Man Bartlett’s 140 hour-long Berlin performance streaming all weekend, plus Su Friedrich’s MICROSCOPE Gallery opening and the Seven on Seven art-tech collaborative event on Saturday.
Liveblogging performance art is a little like tweeting a dentist appointment. You go in with some anxiety about the experience, and in the case of the former, you wonder how you will be able to capture all of what you are experiencing but also remain in the moment and engaged even though your mind can wander, distracted by noises, conversations, your own thoughts, and interruptions. When you’re liveblogging you can’t look away, not even if the performer cuts their hand (happened last time and she needed 20 stitches), or pulls out a hypodermic to inject some clear liquid into their cheek (happened this time, thanks Zhennesse). It is an imperfect thing, liveblogging, but I will say it is an exhilarating way to experience performance art.
Maximum Perception was one thing first and foremost: a lot of fun. As a coming together of performance artists, the crowd at the English Kills event packed the gallery on both evenings, with a noticeable overlap between nights, as well as between performers and spectators. Artists helped fellow participants set up, carry out and document their performances, spectators got in on the action once in a while and Hyperallergic editor Hrag Vartanian, myself and Daniel Larkin attempted to document the whole thing live, an experiment in itself. The vantage from our little blogging table wasn’t ideal, but thankfully I was in a pretty good place to see most performances. Here are my thoughts, five days later, on this year’s Maximum Perception.
Come out this Friday and Saturday night — 7pm to 12am each night — for the Maximum Perception Performance Festival at the English Kills Art Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn
Curated by Peter Dobill and Phoenix Lights, the 2011 Maximum Perception Festival will take place over two nights and showcase 17 national and international performance artists, focusing on presenting a dynamic range of contemporary performance practice from the best emerging artists in performance. Hyperallergic is a media sponsor of Maximum Perception and will be there both nights to liveblog the performances.
Earlier this month, I sent out a call for comments on #Rank, a project created by artists William Powhida and Jennifer Dalton, who were the masterminds behind #Class (Winkleman Gallery, February 2010).
The following are the responses we received from across the country and around the world. Some are by event participants, while others from observers (both in Miami and remotely). They represent various perspectives on#Rank (with minimal editing and in no particular order).
Also, tonight there is a post-Miami #Rank discussion (6-9pm) at Winkleman Gallery for those who would like to continue the discussion.
The Brooklyn Museum has posted an archive of its 1st Fans Twitter art. The Twitter Art Feed was a benefit for @brooklynmuseum‘s 1stfans (formerly @1stfans) members from December 2008 to December 2010. The feed featured tweets by contemporary artists every month, including Joseph Kosuth, Tracey Moffatt, Mike Montiero, Duke Riley, and names familiar to social media art fans, such as An Xiao, Man Bartlett, Lauren McCarthy, Nina Meledandri, and Joanie San Chirico.
Man Bartlett’s “Kin” during the last day of #TheSocialGraph exhibition. We will have a photo essay tomorrow and there are a few more podcasts on the way, but last Saturday we threw a closing party for the show, which featured livestreaming of Man Bartlett’s “#24hKith” performance for the first hour of the event (the final hour of his performance) and a listening party for the Sound of Art album. Also, in a few weeks we will be announcing the publication of the #TheSocialGraph catalogue, which will include essays, photos, explanations and other texts to reveal a few more facets of the world of social media art.
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