sarah searson

2012-01-15T16:52:00.001Z

Once I had an empire, wanderer,

upon the billows of the salty sea;

I was moved by the wind and well-respected,

to southern lands I forged an opening

Quevedo

Jean-Marie Le Clézio, a bit about who we are..

2012-01-15T16:40:00.002Z

2012-01-15T15:29:00.000Z

2012-01-06T16:16:00.000Z

Nathan Englander talks with Zadie Smith at the Matawi Fundraiser from Guernica Magazine on Vimeo.

2011-12-11T21:14:00.000Z

Follies

View more presentations from Harriet badger.

2011-12-11T18:59:00.002Z

“We begin to live said W.B Yeates when we have conceived life as tragedy, and if that is indeed the case, Ted Hughes’s true life began early on, and suffering of that sort, as John Keats said, is a schooling in the course of which intelligence, said Keats, is transformed into a soul”

Heaney on Hughes

Archive on 4 Saturday 10th December

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0183glm

The Mike Wallace Interview

2011-11-23T22:51:00.000Z

The Mike Wallace Interview

Part 2

2011-10-18T19:24:00.001+01:00

This is water - living a compassionate life by Foster Wallace 1

2011-10-18T19:16:00.004+01:00

A conversation with David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, and Mark Leyner

2011-10-18T18:52:00.001+01:00

2011-10-10T15:47:00.002+01:00

Liberals and libertarians must confront the unpalatable thought that oppressive [political] power flourishes by enlisting our impulse to freedom rather than by brutally extinguishing it. Terry Eagleton LRB 30 april 09

Daniel Soar
You can’t get away from Google
This spring, the billionaire Eric Schmidt announced that there were only four really significant technology companies: Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google, the company he had until recently been running. People believed him. What distinguished his new ‘gang of four’ from the generation it had superseded – companies like Intel, Microsoft, Dell and Cisco, which mostly exist to sell gizmos and gadgets and innumerable hours of expensive support services to corporate clients – was that the newcomers sold their products and services to ordinary people. Since there are more ordinary people in the world than there are businesses, and since there’s nothing that ordinary people don’t want or need, or can’t be persuaded they want or need when it flashes up alluringly on their screens, the money to be made from them is virtually limitless. Together, Schmidt’s four companies are worth more than half a trillion dollars

London Review of Books, Vol. 33 No. 19 · 6 October 2011
pages 3-6 | 3885 words

Dr Brian Kennedy's - Dreams and Responsibilities

2011-09-28T18:59:00.002+01:00

In 1991, a history of the relationship between the State and the arts in Ireland, Dreams and Responsibilities, was published by the Arts Council. The author, Dr Brian Kennedy, inclined to the view that the credit for initiating Aosdana belonged with a former director of the Arts Council, Mr Colm O Briain, rather than with Mr Cronin.

After initially publicising the book with great enthusiasm, the council's then director, Mr Adrian Munnelly, told his officers that he had given Mr Cronin an assurance that he would no longer actively promote it. Mr Cronin has always denied seeking or getting such an assurance, but Mr Munnelly subsequently had the book displayed for sale with Mr Cronin's version of events attached to it by a rubber band, a device which was christened "the intellectual condom".

Mr Munnelly shredded some 200 copies of the book, without informing the author. This was an unprecedented action by a director whose personal integrity was highly respected. Mr Munnelly reaffirmed his belief in the book's value and accuracy when challenged to account for his action by the resignation of one of his officers, Ms Emer McNamara, but it was not republished under his directorship. That the book also recorded the less-than-happy relationship between Mr Haughey and the council in the early 1980s inevitably created speculation that the Taoiseach himself would not have been displeased to see the book drop from view.

Sourced from:http://www.irishtimes.com/focus/haughey/ITstories/story5.htm
Author Paddy Woodworth

2011-09-28T16:33:00.001+01:00

Claire Bishop's "Participation and Spectacle: Where Are We Now?," Presented as part of Living as Form from creativetime on Vimeo.

Small Solutions - water light bulbs

2011-07-27T11:11:00.000+01:00

Dr Inge Kaul

2011-06-29T15:37:00.001+01:00

2011-06-23T08:30:00.001+01:00

2011-06-22T16:22:00.001+01:00

Post-Industrial Dystopias: Richard Sennett from Granta magazine on Vimeo.

2011-06-21T18:14:00.003+01:00

Investing, Advocating, Promoting... strategically

www.variant.org.uk

Andrew Dixon, Chief Executive of Creative Scotland, interviewed by Daniel Jewesbury

Daniel Jewesbury: I suppose the most obvious question is, how is Creative Scotland different from the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, its predecessor organisations?

Andrew Dixon: Well, in a number of ways. Firstly, we’ve taken on the combined responsibilities for TV, the arts and creative industries, also the responsibility for stimulating cultural export; secondly, we are very committed to not just being a funding body. We are a funding body, or investment agency as we call it, but we are much more of a promotional body and much more of an advocate for the cultural sector that can give something money. We are not about just monitoring what happens to that money, we are about getting behind the cultural organisation, getting behind the artist and trying to shine the spotlight on him and to package things together in a way that tells a story of what’s happening in the cultural sector in Scotland.

I use the analogy, we’re not just a cash machine in Edinburgh that dishes out grants but we will dish out a lot of grants but, whilst we are a supporting organisation, the support doesn’t stop, we have to move on and find how we can help promote them. It kind of manifests itself in a couple of examples already.

One is our artist residencies programme. I mean, when I arrived, everywhere I went in Scotland I found an artist in residence. You go to the Isle of Skye and there is a visual artist, writer, musician in residence, doing fantastic work, hidden away, nobody else would know that this is happening because their work is not shared more widely and they would be working in isolation from other artists in residency in Stirling and so on. So I came back from visiting the artists in residence that we had, at the time we had 57, and we put extra resources…READ IN FULL AT http://www.variant.org.uk/

Those who will can

2011-06-11T09:37:00.001+01:00

Saskia Sassen Cities, Civics and Conflict

2011-05-27T09:09:00.000+01:00

David Shields

2011-04-19T16:21:00.000+01:00

2011-04-14T08:53:00.000+01:00

Rebecca Solnit - talks about society and disaster

2011-02-24T13:24:00.003Z

Claire Bishop - Reluctant Cultural Commentator

2011-02-17T16:41:00.002Z

Sourced at http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/209
Claire Bishop Con-Demmed to the Bleakest of Futures: Report from the UK

In the last three months I’ve been organizing a series of public seminars at CUNY Graduate Center on “deskilling” in the arts since 1945, and in the article that follows I may have undergone some deskilling myself—from an art historian/critic who writes about art to a commentator on cultural policy. I apologize if the results are bland, bureaucratic and statistical; I’m finding my feet here. In what follows, I will argue that in the wake of the general election in May 2010, which resulted in a Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition—the UK’s first coalition government since 1945—the ensuing cuts to culture cannot be seen as separate from an assault on welfare, education, and social equality. The rhetoric of an “age of austerity” is being used as a cloak for the privatization of all public services and a reinstatement of class privilege: a sad retreat from the most civilized Keynesian initiatives of the post-war period, in which education, healthcare, and culture were understood to be a democratic right freely available to all.

Notes

2011-01-20T21:33:00.001Z

20th Jan 11 - Whats Next

View more presentations from Harriet badger.

2011-01-19T21:26:00.000Z

My workshop is located in an old storefront with a big window facing towards the street. In an attempt to create more privacy inside, I’ve decided to install a small but smart curtain in that window. The curtain is smaller than the window, but an additional surveillance camera and an old laptop provide it with intelligence: The computer sees the pedestrians and locates them. With a motor attached, it positions the curtain exactly where the pedestrians are.

The whole setup works really well. But in the end, it doesn’t protect my privacy at all. It seems that the existence of my little curtain is leading itself ad absurdum, simply by doing its job very well. My moving curtain attracts the looks of people which usually would never care about my window.

2011-01-07T16:58:00.003Z

'Grow Your Own' - from the Policing Genes Project from Thomas Thwaites on Vimeo.

Policing Genes
Pharmaceutical companies are experimenting with pharming – genetically engineering plants to produce useful and valuable drugs. Currently undergoing field trials are tomato plants that produce a vaccine for Alzheimer’s disease and potatoes that immunise against hepatitis B. Many more plant-made-pharmaceuticals are being developed in laboratories around the world.

However, the techniques employed to insert genes into plants are within reach of the amateur…and the criminal. Policing Genes speculates that, like other technologies, genetic engineering will also find a use outside the law, with innocent-looking garden plants being modified to produce narcotics and unlicensed pharmaceuticals.

The genetics of the plants in your garden or allotment could become a police matter…0
This project was done as part of the EPSRC's IMPACT Project.

It was inspired by research on pollen forensics at the Centre for Security and Crime Science at University College London.

2010-12-22T11:38:00.000Z

Interview with David Brown from Greg Baeker on Vimeo.

Recognizing the new economic realities facing them, a growing number of municipalities across Canada are turning to municipal cultural planning as a powerful tool to support economic development and community building. These represent municipalities of all sizes and circumstances – from large urban centres to mid-size cities to rural areas and small towns

http://mappingauthenticity.com/2010/08/david-brown-video-interview-for-rediscovering-the-wealth-of-places/

Literature, fact, fiction and science of philosophy

2010-11-25T12:25:00.001Z

Paulina and the Truffle

2010-11-11T12:32:00.001Z

The Truffle is a piece of nature built with earth, full of air. A space within a stone that sits on the ground and blends with the territory. It camouflages, by emulating the processes of mineral formation in its structure, and integrates with the natural environment, complying with its laws.

We made a hole in the ground, piling up on its perimeter the topsoil removed, and we obtained a retaining dike without mechanical consistency. Then, we materialized the air building a volume with hay bales and flooded the space between the earth and the built air to solidify it. The poured mass concrete wrapped the air and protected itself with the ground. Time passed and we removed the earth discovering an amorphous mass.

The earth and the concrete exchanged their properties. The land provided the concrete with its texture and color, its form and its essence, and concrete gave the earth its strength and internal structure. But what we had created was not yet architecture, we had fabricated a stone.

We made a few cuts using quarry machinery to explore its core and discovered its mass inside built with hay, now compressed by the hydrostatic pressure exerted by concrete on the flimsy vegetable structure. To empty the interior, the calf Paulina arrived, and enjoyed the 50m3 of the nicest food, from which she nourished for a year until she left her habitat, already as an adult and weighing 300 kilos. She had eaten the interior volume, and space appeared for the first time, restoring the architectural condition of the truffle after having been a shelter for the animal and the vegetable mass for a long time. http://www.ensamble.info/actualizacion/projects/truffle

Budrus - a film of non-violent protest

2010-11-04T16:45:00.000Z

UK Culture Minister Ed Vaizey talks cuts with Mark Lawson

2010-10-21T08:45:00.007+01:00

Mark Lawson talks to Culture Minister Ed Vaizey about the Spending Review and a panel of arts professionals respond to yesterdays announcement of cuts for the arts in the UK

Chomsky and Foucault Debate 1 and 2

2010-10-15T23:31:00.002+01:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0SaqrxgJvw&feature=related

The Art of Time, Talk by Katherine Waugh

2010-10-08T15:23:00.004+01:00

Thanks to Katherine Waugh filmaker and philosopher for showing her film (with Fergus Daly) The Art Of Time at the Mermaid Arts Center last night - as part of the Unbuilding Project and for introducing a new audience to the films of the Brothers Quay among many many other brilliant speakers -The Art of Time is a film not to miss.

"At least one Garda had to jump out of the way"

2010-09-29T10:57:00.004+01:00

Todays Times:

"It appeared the driver escaped through a hatch on the roof before being arrested at about 7.15am. The man is being questioned at Pearse Street Garda station under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984. No one was injured in the incident and minor damage was caused to the gates of Leinster House.

Recovery crews initially attempted to reverse the truck from the gates but it would not move. It is understood brake lines and electric cables had been cut.

Gardaí removed the truck from scene using a large recovery tow truck.

Kildare Street and Molesworth Street have now reopened to traffic.

Onlookers said all the windows on the lorry were covered in metal grids and had been smashed, with the doors of the cabin welded shut.

Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Dowd revealed that at least one garda on duty had to jump out of the way of the truck".

What If

2010-09-28T14:05:00.002+01:00

Grow your own greens in a bag video here

The first Vacant Lot allotment garden was started in May 07 with the construction of a water tower that projects above the boundary walls of the site and announces a small change to this inner city housing area in Shoreditch. Flyers were distributed to the surrounding housing inviting residents to become involved and take ownership of a 1m2 plot of land. With the help of the local community a total of seventy 1/2 tonne bulk bags were subsequently arranged and filled with soil to form the allotment space. The building process together with the distribution of flyers and a newsletter attracted many residents to become part of the project. 63 interested households from the surrounding housing estates were given ownership of a VACANT LOT plot and were handed a key to the gate for a one-off fee of £3.50. Since June 2007 local residents are carefully tending a spectacular array of vegetables, salads, fruit and flowers in their individual plots. As well as the local community, insects and birds have moved in and thrive in this new natural habitat. Plot holders take care of their individual plots and tend to visit the garden on a regular basis to sow, water their plants and to collect their harvest. Produce during the first two years included tomatoes, a variety of salads, beetroot, spinach, radishes, courgette, cucumber, carrots, different kinds of beans, corn, cabbage, peppers, squash, potatoes, herbs, strawberries and flowers.

Claremorris Open

2010-09-21T09:57:00.003+01:00

Claremorris Open Exhibition
Till 25th September

This year curated by Lisa Le Feuvre curator and writer based in London. Senior Lecturer in the Department of Art at Goldsmith. This years winners are

Fionna Murray (Newquay) for Light Floater and Faith in Wordless Knowledge

Paraic Leahy (Thurles) for Girl on Grain

Seamus McCormack (Mullingar) for his video projection Galatea

ethical prophet Jeremy Rifkin investigates the evolution of empathy

2010-08-18T13:56:00.001+01:00

super heros

2010-08-07T17:22:00.002+01:00

MyBrain.net

2010-08-03T18:21:00.003+01:00

MyBrain.net

The colonization of real-time and other trends in Web 2.0

The neurological turn in recent web criticism exploits "the obsession with anything related to the mind, brain and consciousness". Geert Lovink turns the discussion to the politics of network architecture, exploring connections between the colonization of real-time and the rise of the national web.... read article

Commonage 31 July - 8 August 2010

2010-07-28T18:18:00.003+01:00

Architects and Artists Explore the Meaning of 'Community' in Contemporary Rural Ireland

2010-07-28T16:45:00.003+01:00

Create, and Common Ground Launched thier new book and DVD on mentoring practices in the arts.

The programme was supported by an advisory group and the overall research was informed through a range of discussions with partners, artists, educators and those who work in community and social contexts. The Connect Mentoring Programme took place over an eighteen month period, concluding in 2010.

The Connect mentors were Elaine Agnew, Paul Roe, Jay Koh and mentees were Nick Roth, Pia Dunne, Fiona Whelan, Anne Maree Barry and Mark Ellison. The mentees were based in the community contexts of Fatima Homework Club; Dolphin House Homework Club and the After Schools Programme of the Family Resource Centre St Michael’s Estate, Inchicore Dublin.

The Connect mentoring model is applicable and responsive to the unique conditions of collaborative arts, and drew upon community partners and participants as active learning partners in shaping the Connect programme and findings.

The DVD and accompanying Booklet, was written by Sarah Searson and DVD edited by Kilian Watters. For more information http://connectprogramme.wordpress.com/

LRB - Author in the age of the internet

2010-07-09T17:56:00.001+01:00

Empty Spaces

2010-06-30T16:08:00.002+01:00

The Secret Powers of TIme

2010-06-29T11:59:00.001+01:00

Public art and literature practices

2010-05-18T18:21:00.002+01:00

Some links about project and ideas that might be useful

Poet in the City
826 and the Pirate Shop
Spread the word
Opening Spaces: Poetry as public art - Sue Hubbard

Public Art at the Lab - Literature Practices in Public Art

2010-05-18T17:13:00.000+01:00

Lit And Publicart

View more presentations from Harriet badger.

Alice Lyons - Interview.

2010-05-18T16:59:00.001+01:00

Galway City Council Draft Strategy

2010-05-18T16:46:00.001+01:00

Gcas Compressed

View more presentations from Harriet badger.

2010-05-05T15:48:00.003+01:00

Presentation notes from Dublin City Councils Public Art Development Day

Theatre and public art

View more presentations from Harriet badger.

when you find a lone nut doing somthing great ....

2010-04-21T22:27:00.003+01:00

2010-04-21T18:03:00.001+01:00

Liberals and libertarians must confront the unpalatable thought that oppressive [political] power flourishes by enlisting our impulse to freedom rather than by brutally extinguishing it

Terry Eagleton LRB 30 april 09

2010-04-21T16:18:00.000+01:00

Theatre and public art workshop, 27 April, The Lab

As part of the Dublin City Public Art Programme, The Arts Office and Theatre Forum are collaborating to present a development day focusing on theatre and public art. This day will combine presentations of previous theatre work in public art, focus on practicalities and a briefing on the Dublin City Public Art Programme to be announced later in the year. The even takes place in The Lab Foley Street on 27 April from 11.00 - 3.00.

Further Information
Booking is through Theatre Forum - Email: theatreforum@ireland.com
or Tel: 01 874 6582
Web: www.theatreforumireland.com

Artists using vacant spaces in Irish City Centers

2010-03-12T13:29:00.005Z

Image sourced from the Irish Times Sean Lynch's Delorean Car is at the non-car showroom in Smock Alley Theatre. Photographs: Jimmy Fay, Kevin Kavanagh Gallery

Kicking off a St Patrick’s week series, BRIAN O’CONNELL explores a visual arts trail of vacant prime retail spaces temporarily colonised, in ‘a moment between culture and commerce’

FROM THE OUTSIDE, it looks like the fit up for any commercial retail space or boutique in the capital. Through the display windows, two workers can be seen sitting having a tea break. Scattered around the floor are old window displays, mannequins and electrical fittings. Passers-by press their flesh to the glass, keen to find out what shop is coming in next.

Situated under a large “To Let” sign at the corner of Cow Lane in Dublin’s Temple Bar area, the unit is on a pedestrianised shopping route and would have been prime retail space up until relatively recently. Last week, a Polish national knocked on the door and asked if he could lend a hand with the carpentry work. Yet the two “workers” in this case are artists Aoife Casey and Sharon White, and there isn’t a till, product or price tag in sight. Both artists are in the last stages of preparing their contribution to this year’s visual arts programme of the St Patrick’s Day Festival, which sees three former retail spaces in Temple Bar colonised, temporarily at least, for artistic purposes. For the first time, international artists will also contribute to the visual-arts offering, which incorporates sculpture, installation, painting and digital medias.

Mentoring practices in the arts

2010-02-22T13:58:00.005Z

Create and the Common Ground will be publishing a research project about arts mentoring practices, as part of the research an number of interviews and exchanges took part at Create

Sean Taylor, artist and lecturer spoke with Megs Morley, artist and curator, about formal and informal mentoring process - exchange and learning in dialogue practices, and current public art practices in Ireland, Megs Morley references The Paraeducation Project and United Nations Plaza

http://www.themetropolitancomplex.com/files/texts/parabook_FINAL.pdf
http://www.unitednationsplaza.org/

Dr John Bisset, Community Development, St Micheals Estate spoke with Mark O Brien Development manager at Axis Ballymun
They spoke about incidental mentoring practices and the future and stress on current arts practices in the current economic climate, John make reference to the recently deceased Howard Zinn

http://www.howardzinn.org/default/index.php

Paul Johnson Director of Dance House and Dr Paul Roe, Musician and Composer
Spoke together about their experiences of being mentors and the process and meaning of mentoring with particular reference to their respective artfroms - but also its potential pitfalls

The research findings and outcomes will be published in March and edited interviews can be found on the create website then

'Art Works' – Cultural Labour Markets: A Literature Review

2010-01-04T17:47:00.001Z

The Creativity, Culture and Education Literature Review Series has published its eighth volume entitled 'Art Works' – Cultural Labour Markets: A Literature Review.

In this review, Kate Oakley offers an overview of the literature surrounding the nature of work in the cultural industries, as it has permeated policy-making, public debate, and practice across many sub-sectors within the arts, and the cultural sector more generally; and in more academic writing by scholars and cultural commentators.

Chapters include:
- Is art work?

- Studies of artists as cultural workers

- Learning to love work

- geography and work organisation in the cultural industries (hanging out: work in the city, waiting tables: culture and the leisure infrastructure)

The publication may be downloaded in PDF format from www.creativitycultureeducation.org/data/files/cce-lit-review-8-a5-web-130.pdf

By Kate Oakley, London, Creativity, Culture and Education Series, 2009, 77 pp, ISBN: 978-1-907264-01-6

Arguments for Culture

2009-12-02T17:10:00.002Z

Culture: A Tool For Reversing Recession
Ten Arguments For Use By Ministers
Simon Mundy

This paper sets out ten arguments that Ministers of Culture can use in discussions with their colleagues – especially Finance and Prime ministers – when annual budgets come under scrutiny. It suggests reasons why cultural investment can be an important tool in combating the effects of recession and – perhaps more importantly – leading the way back to prosperity.The arguments also help Ministers of Culture make common cause with those responsible for employment generation, social cohesion, security and
education. Every country will have its own examples and statistics to back up the arguments. Similarly each can develop new proposals based on them for restructuring
and regeneration. The arguments are as useful at the intergovernmental, regional and local levels as they are at the national. Indeed they can be part of any municipality’saction plan.

1. Boosting Confidence
2. Rebranding
3. Attracting Mobility
4. Long-term Revenue
5. Transforming Spaces
6. Social Support
7. Employment Flexibility
8. Community Expression
9. Personal Empowerment
10. Value for Money

Public Art Dublin 2009

2009-11-11T20:13:00.001Z

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Public Art Dublin 2009

View more presentations from Harriet badger.

Proff Development Public Art

2009-11-09T14:00:00.001Z

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Proff Development Public Art

View more presentations from Harriet badger.

2009-11-09T13:59:00.001Z

2009-09-23T12:52:00.001+01:00

Portrait of the artist– this time with a pension

Read the full article http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/sep/19/artists-pensions#

When entrepreneur Moti Shniberg asked one of his artist friends how he expected to send his child to college, the artist responded by asking him to buy some of his work. "That's when he realised that artists don't do financial planning," says Pamela Auchincloss, chief executive of the Artist Pension Trust (APT).

Shniberg's exchange with his friend marked the birth of the APT, an investment scheme that provides artists – many of whom struggle to make a living, let alone plan for retirement – with some financial security in old age.

When the scheme was first set up five years ago in New York, its prospects were dim. Could the concept – a mutual fund in which artists invest in their own future – take off? Yet it has, and the APT now operates eight trusts in 60 countries. Some 1,100 artists have deposited 4,500 pieces, with a total value of about $50m (£30m).

From the outset it had some of the big guns of the art world supporting it. Former San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum director David Ross provided the art expertise, while Shniberg and economist Dan Galai ensured it had a firm financial footing.

To participate in the scheme, artists invest 20 works over a 15- to 20-year period. The artist remains the owner of his or her works, which are held in the trust's possession until they are sold. Once the artworks are sold, each artist receives regular annual payments: 40% of the net proceeds from the sale goes to the artist; 32% goes into a pot from which the artists receive a pro-rata share linked to their investment; and 28% is retained by the APT to cover its costs and distribute among its 120 financial backers (who have provided $10m in funding so far). The 28% equates to a 0.6% annual management fee over the 50-year life of the fund.

Aimed at emerging to mid-career artists, the APT has some high-profile artists on its books such as Jane and Louise Wilson, Mike Nelson, Goshka Macuga and Richard Wright, who have all been short-listed for the Turner prize.

Each trust must recruit 250 artists before it can sell any art but membership is not open to everyone, with participants hand-selected by the APT's art specialists.

Galai, an economist specialising in risk, worked out the basic return structure based on the Mei Moses Fine Art Index. Assuming an annual 15% increase in the art's value and an initial average value of $5,000 to $10,000 per piece, he estimates that payouts to artists could total $500,000 to $1.5m each.

The venture has reached a crucial stage: the New York trust is the first to close to new members and will start selling art next year. It's about time – Auchincloss admits she gets phone calls from artists asking when they are going to get their first cheques.

The trust does not worry about artists leaving when they become famous. Ross once said if that happens, APT would throw a party, because it would have accumulated several works whose value had suddenly jumped. Once invested, art cannot be retrieved.

The London trust has signed up 175 artists and is expected, along with Berlin and Los Angeles, to close by the end of 2010. The APT is already planning the next generation of trusts, with four covering Europe, the Americas and east and west Asia. For these the investment period is to be shortened to 10-15 years.

Read more through the link at the top of the article

2009-09-15T17:11:00.001+01:00

Artists Without Mortarboards
By Roberta Smith

The professionalization and academicization of the art world has been lamented for some years, but lately they have become epidemic. The recent inflated art market has created the illusion that being an artist is a financially viable calling. Meanwhile art schools and universities — which often provide tenure (safe haven) for artists who may be taken seriously nowhere else — expanded to accommodate the rising number of art students and are now thoroughly invested in keeping these numbers high.

In this context the growing interest among art schools and universities (mostly abroad so far) in offering a Ph.D. in art makes the blood run cold. It also seems like rank, even cynical commercial opportunism. It's too soon to tell, but I'd like to think that the economic downturn is doing serious damage to this trend and maybe even put budding artists off graduate school entirely.

This brings me to a project that could make the coming season especially exciting: the unaccredited, free art school that the artist collective known as the Bruce High Quality Foundation started Friday in a downtown Manhattan space lent by a benefactor it has declined, so far, to identify. Whoever shows up will have a hand in the formation of Bruce High Quality Foundation University, which is being made up as it goes along.

The Bruces, as the members of the five-year-old group are often called, guard their anonymity fiercely. But they are generally known to be a band of artists, all male, some of whom became friends while undergraduates at Cooper Union <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/cooper_union_for_the_advancement_of_science_and_art/index.html?inline=nyt-org> in the late '90s, when Hans Haacke, one of the fathers of institutional critique, was still teaching there.

Like any small group with a good idea, they benefit from the fact that the art world is in many ways one of the least regulated occupational spheres on the planet. As a result it is unusually susceptible, on a local level, to being altered and improved by the actions of a few good men or women.

This has recently been proved by started-from-scratch ventures as modest as Orchard, a Lower East Side collective-as-art-gallery, and Pocket Utopia, an alternative space of nearly two years' duration that the artist Austin Thomas oversaw in a Bushwick, Brooklyn, storefront until this spring.

More ambitious examples of proactivity include "Prospect.1 New Orleans," the new bootstrap international biennial willed into existence by the independent curator Dan Cameron last fall, and this summer's "Plot/09: This World & Nearer Ones" (on view through next Sunday), which inaugurated an international survey of public art that Creative Time will stage every four years on Governors Island, just off Manhattan's shores.

If the Bruce High Quality Foundation University thrives, it could prove an even more valuable addition. Until now the group has been best known for a sharp, well-aimed and unusually entertaining form of institutional critique. In 2005, when a shard of parkland was being pulled around New York Harbor — the posthumous realization of Robert Smithson's 1970 drawing "Floating Island to Travel Around Manhattan Island" — the members pursued it in a tiny skiff carrying a small model of one of Christo <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/christo/index.html?inline=nyt-per> and Jeanne-Claude's orange "Gates," which had filled Central Park earlier in the year. (The title of the Bruce piece, playing off Wallace Stevens <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/wallace_stevens/index.html?inline=nyt-per> , was "The Gate: Not the Idea of the Thing But the Thing Itself.")

In "Public Sculpture Tackle," a continuing work begun in 2007 and documented in video, one of the Bruces hurls himself against, clambers up or hangs from various pieces of public sculpture around Manhattan, all the while outfitted in quasi-Matthew Barney <http://movies.nytimes.com/person/237238/Matthew-Barney?inline=nyt-per> quasi-football gear. The foundation has also made a site-specific film, "Isle of the Dead," that charts the death and zombie-dominated resurrection of the art world and is one of the best works in "Plot/09."

These efforts are fine as far as they go, but now the Bruces are trying to add to a tradition of artist-initiated schools like the Art Students League, 134 years old and going strong. The group has cited as inspiration the Summerhill boarding school in Britain, founded by A. S. Neill in the 1920s, where children and teachers have an equal say in all decisions.

The Bruces' new direction was indicated last July when four of the group's members gave a lecture-performance called "Explaining Pictures to a Dead Bull" at the Harris Lieberman Gallery. The title paid homage to Joseph Beuys's famous performance, "How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare," while addressing a post-boom, dead-bull art universe. Although accompanied by a series of amusingly pertinent or impertinent slides, the lecture was entirely serious. It diagrammed the links among contemporary art, the market and the art schools producing M.F.A.'s who are burdened by debt but largely naïve about the workings of the art world. It ended with the question: "How can we imagine a sustainable alternative to professionalized art education?"

Bruce High Quality Foundation University is one such imagining. Whether it becomes "the thing itself" remains to be seen, but even as "the idea of the thing" it strikes a blow where one is seriously needed, against the big business of art schools. The university's first course, which is meeting weekly, is titled Bring Your Own University (B.Y.O.U.). In other words, all those present will "design and implement the administrative policy and curriculum." Whatever happens, this latest move by the Bruce High Quality Foundation adds inspirational heft to its motto: "Professional problems. Amateur solutions."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/arts/design/13roberta.html?_r=1

Moving House

2009-08-31T22:46:00.003+01:00

Mrs Badger is moving out of the woods! and into the light

she will be moving into a new web space soon, posts and general info of Irish arts interest is available on the new website www.publicart.ie for the moment. Her personal site time permitting will arrive late October / early november.

But i'll keep you posted...

2009-07-11T09:58:00.002+01:00

Public Art a new resourse for public art in Ireland went live this week here are some of the specially developed interivew that were commisioned for the site.

Here Theresa Nanigan - talks about her experiances

In other sections there are videos nominated worth checking out -http://www.publicart.ie/main/critical-contexts/videos/

Julie Merriman

2009-06-10T06:32:00.001+01:00

As part of the exhibition Public Gesture at the Lab
You are invited to a Conversation,
Between Artist Julie Merriman and Sarah Searson

Wednesday 10th June 5pm, The Lab, Foley Street, Dublin

The intention of the conversation is to discuss the artist's new work and research and a long-term commission The Carlisle Pier Project 2006-2010 from which much of her current body of work originates. Julie Merriman's long-term residency focuses on Dun Laoghaire Harbour area; she worked with Sarah Searson on the formation of the commissioning structure which is funded by The Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company, The Art Council of Ireland, the project is also managed and funded through the DLR Arts Office.

The artist is having an opening studio during the month of July with the intention of showing a larger selection of works to curators, inviting exchange and insight to this developing body of new work. To make an appointment or for futher information about the project please contact the artist at julienicos@eircom.net

Julie Merriman lives and works in Dublin and is currently studying on the MA Visual Arts Practices at IADT. She has exhibited in Ireland and England including: RUA 127th Exhibition; Eigse ’08; Let’go, Monster Truck Gallery; Eurojet Futures, The Anthology ’05 and Eurojet Futures ’04, RHA; West Cork Arts Center; EV+A (wining an open award in ’03); Temple Bar Gallery Atrium; The Mostyn Gallery, Wales; The Norwich Gallery. She has also participated in residencies and symposiums in Ireland and the UK.

Her work, which revolves around the practice of drawing, reflects her interest in architecture, in particularly the phases of construction and demolition. She is interested in the idea of shadowing an architect’s work, in bringing a building back to the drawing board. Line is what interests her most in drawing; how it quickens, slows, stutters, reinvigorates, fades, overlaps….. Line is at the heart of all mark making; it can be very simple but also incredibly complex. Drawing as a medium is not just used by artists but by many other professions; architects, engineers, scientist, cartographers, mathematicians… It’s a way of making all manner of information visible. She is currently examining how these other professions use line, and is interested in extending her idea of ‘shadowing’ to include them.

2009-05-17T16:40:00.000+01:00

16th May Art, the State and citiizen

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moving dublin

2009-05-14T17:28:00.001+01:00

2009-05-12T19:30:00.005+01:00

_unit writings

Padraic E Moore’s
essay The Other
Eden contextualises
Theresa Nanigian’s
Seeker Project

Sarah Searson writes
about the prison
context and Hope
Inherent’s research
Intentions

Cliodhna Shaffrey’s
essay Pantoffeltier
explores the imagery
in Vera Klute’s
animation trilogy

Sally Timmons and
Ruth Lyons (and)
converse about
research and working
on the project

launching next tuesday

Art, the state and the citizen 16 May 2009A

2009-05-09T07:55:00.001+01:00

Lockout Forum (Helen Carey)

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2009-05-09T07:36:00.000+01:00

Unit Invite A5 V3 (4)

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UNIT - Read more in May/June VAI Arts Newletter

2009-05-09T07:10:00.001+01:00

unit project – introduction – a project by Sarah Searson (Commissioned by Laois County Council Arts service 2008 -2009 )
Unit supported thinking, making and writing along-side the town of Portlaoise. It was also about mutually investing in each other. The Local Authority supported the artists, the artists had in-depth support with writers/curatorial thinking, and more fundamentally the artists and writers/ curators themselves made huge commitments of time, thought and worked into this project over the best part of a year.
Unit project was about cultures, art-making and place. Its also using public monies for the arts to support creative work, writing, research, and development of relationships in-conjunction with ideas, locations and other people. The project also was also conceived as opportunity to make a change, do something different within a structured context and support of the Local Authority. We chose to do this with those who are hugely committed to doing this kind of work as a life practice. At the time of developing this project the stirrings of economic stresses were emerging to splinter into the town. So it was from here, working along with and in relation to the people and place the work emerged.
Concentrating on the existing interests of people from this place – the broad and the deep things that are about us all ,emerged personal ideas of hope, home, paradise, freedom, time, health, education, imagination and faith and emerging. There is nothing of the spectacle to this work – although there are moments of the spectacular in the sensitivity, range, depth and beauty of what has emerged in the all the projects – but its not bling –not a festival – but about lots of types of happenings.
Ultimately the people of the project came together through the artist’s actions to talk, meet, connect and receive. The project was supported by people who work in Portlaoise, people with different specialism’s, generalisms and knowledge’s, who included the artists into the place, and into their own place.
There is a booklet to mark the end of the project, it contains writing about the project and artists by Cliodhna Shaffrey, Padraic E Moore and Sally Timmons. We were thinking and talking with the artists that we nominated, these are the writings about it, my sincere thanks for their fellowship and the artists for their consideration, time and generosity.
Sarah Searson
unit project lead

Presentation at NCAD

2009-03-24T20:24:00.000Z

on-line publishing projects

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public art lecture

2009-03-24T20:01:00.001Z

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

public art lecture

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‘The B Of The Bang’

2009-03-13T16:24:00.000Z

Work is continuing to de-commission Thomas Hetherwick’s sculpture ‘The B Of The Bang’ in Manchester, after safety concerns over the work’s structure could not not be resolved.

The B of the Bang was commissioned in 2003 and completed in 2005 for a site adjacent to the City of Manchester Stadium, to mark the city’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games. Its title refers to a comment by sprinter Linford Christie, who said that he began races at the very ‘b’ of the ‘bang’ from the starting pistol.

Problems were identified with the work when a section of one of the sculpture’s spikes became detatched from its support in 2005, and a whole spike fell from the sculpture in 2006 leading to serious concerns about the work’s safety. An out of court settlement was reached where the artists studio and the subcontractors with whom he worked agreed to pay Manchester Council £1.7m damages for breach of contract and negligence. The decision was taken earlier this month the remove the work from its permanent location and place it in storage until a suitable solution for its re-installation can be found.

The repairs and redesign neccessary to render the B of the Bang safe are believed to be in excess of £3m, comprising as they will a substantial re-construction in an alternative material. Manchester City Council is unwilling to fund the shortfall of £1.3m left after the damages settlement, although the £1.7 from the damages claim has been ring-fenced by the council to part-fund the sculpture’s rehabilitation. Manchester City Council have stated that they are still committed to the sculpture, and are unwilling to compromise it aesthetically. They will work with the artist to develop a solution acceptable to both parties – which at the moment may include remodelling the trademark spikes in an alternative lightweight material. To achieve this however, a substantial fundraising effort will need to be put in place.

2009-03-13T13:15:00.000Z

2009-02-20T14:11:00.000Z

Dit Studentfeb09

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Miwon Kwon - public art practices

2009-02-18T19:53:00.003Z

The three paradigms can be schematically distinguished:

(1) art in public places, typically a modernist abstract sculpture placed outdoors to "decorate" or "enrich" urban spaces, especially plaza areas fronting federal buildings or corporate office towers;
(2) art as public spaces, less object-oriented and more site-conscious art that sought greater integration between art, architecture, and the landscape through artists' collaboration with members of the urban managerial class (such as architects, landscape architects, city planners, urban designers, and city administrators), in the designing of permanent urban (re)development projects such as parks, plazas, buildings, promenades, neighborhoods, etc.; and more recently,
(3) art in the public interest (or "new genre public art"), often temporary city-based programs focusing on social issues rather than the built environment that involve collaborations with marginalized social groups (rather than design professionals), such as the homeless, battered women, urban youths, AIDS patients, prisoners, and which strives toward the development of politically-conscious community events or programs.

[This essay was originally published with the title "For Hamburg: Public Art and Urban Identities" in the exhibition catalogue Public Art is Everywhere (Hamburg, Germany: Kunstverein Hamburg and Kulturbehörde Hamburg, 1997, 95-109), organized by artist Christian Philipp Muller. Although my critique here of the conditions of public art and their relationship to urban reorganization seems outdated, reductive, and too strident now, I hope the text will nonetheless add to a richer understanding of the contradictory pressures that impact public art programs today. Miwon Kwon, 08/2002]
http://eipcp.net/transversal/0102/kwon/en

2009-02-18T12:50:00.003Z

INTERNATIONAL GUERRILLA VIDEO FESTIVAL DUBLIN 2009

19-20 February 2009

Time 5:00-10:00pm

Various sites in Dublin see www.igvfest.com for details

In association with Open Spaces, a Dublin City Council Arts Initiative The International Guerrilla Video Festival (IGVFest) is a mobile exhibition of video art that will be held 19-20 February in three unique areas of the Dublin: Talbot Street and Parnell Street (19 February), Rathmines (20 February). Using a converted rickshaw, the moving festival navigates the city stopping to project films directly on to buildings, monuments and temporary structures, illuminating the urban landscape with videos from over 50 artists.

www.igvfest.com

2009-02-17T05:17:00.000Z

2009-02-17T05:13:00.002Z

Labreformated

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Francis McKee, Director, CCA How do we define Public/Private?

2009-02-08T15:11:00.002Z

New website

2009-02-04T14:30:00.002Z

sarah searson & cliodhna shaffrey (editors) jenny brady (project manger/ researcher)
The Arts Council of Ireland and the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism have commissioned a website deicated to supporting and promoting the practice of public art. The editors aim to make connections and links to a broad range of agencies, practioners, commisioners and curitorol practices throughout Ireland and internationally. Publicart.ie will be launched in late spring 2009 through networks and infromation excahnge it will highlight public art practices and debates across disciplines in the field.
The site aims to

Build networks, links and partnership linking to and supporting information about public art.
Create a solid body of information and knowledge on public art practice
Contribute to debates around developing public art policy through best practice and review of Guidelines
.Place public art within a critical context – with reference to Ireland and international practices
Build over time audiences for public art information
Generate valid and highly useful information on practice along with procedures and issues arising throughout the commissioning process
Provide up-to-date information on commissions, projects, news from the field.

The site will include a sections with critical content, practical information, an archive, a news section, a section exploring different understandings and definitions of public art from individuals in the field, a blog section and an area featuring curated videos related to public art practice.

With the support of indivuduals, organsistions and agencies working the the arts and cultural sectors this site will grow and develop over time to become an important public art resource.

the state and culture (USA)

2009-01-31T13:37:00.007Z

Podcast Link - to Bill Ivey - the lock down on public access to culture - culture as public good
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10151.php

Bill Ivey was the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 1998 through 2001, was director of the Country Music Foundation from 1971 to 1998, and was twice elected Chairman of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He presently serves as founding director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University.

In this impassioned and persuasive book, Bill Ivey, the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, assesses the current state of the arts in America and finds cause for alarm. Even as he celebrates our ever-emerging culture and the way it enriches our lives here at home while spreading the dream of democracy around the world, he points to a looming crisis. The expanding footprint of copyright, an unconstrained arts industry marketplace, and a government unwilling to engage culture as a serious arena for public policy have come together to undermine art, artistry, and cultural heritage—the expressive life of America. In eight succinct chapters, Ivey blends personal and professional memoir, policy analysis, and deeply held convictions to explore and define a coordinated vision for art, culture, and expression in American life.

Digital Space as Public Space?

2009-01-31T10:20:00.001Z

“In terms of the current discourse that’s surrounding web-based practice (and the ways in which the public is using the internet), I don’t think that you can really deny that the web and the internet are public spaces. They may be public spaces with limitations but, after all, very few regularly populated public spaces in the ‘real world’ are completely unregulated by laws, social mores, or physical barriers either.

“Online the format is basically the same for everybody in the sense that there’s a webpage that’s on a screen and the user has some kind of keyboard and some kind of mouse. But when you interact with cyberspace – a term I don’t really like – you as an individual make clear decisions. You can decide where you’re going to go (or where you’re not going to go) in much the same way as when you’re walking down the street you can make decisions about direction and behaviour. You can also of course encounter other people – some of whom will be jerks, and some of whom will be benevolent and nice. And in this sense the internet is absolutely a public space – because the public are in it, and they’re making decisions.

“One way in which the internet may still be exclusionary however is education: you still have to have enough technical know-how to be able to manipulate your browser. Maybe sounds ridiculous in this day and age, but there are still plenty of people who don’t have that knowledge. Like a lot of artists, I’m very interested in that process of learning. Some of the work I’m making at the moment is looking at how to develop machines that talk to other machines using the web, in an ongoing project called project2891.”

David Harding What have we learned about public art?

2009-01-31T10:15:00.001Z

That work which is intended to be permanent/long term remains the most difficult in terms of criticality, of sustained (or changing) meaning and of its physical survival, intact. It remains a target for casual attack.
That art and the urbs/city offers more possibilities to the artist than art and architecture.
That monuments continue to generate wide acceptability
That monuments can be counter monuments
That artists as members of design teams may end up making no evident or specific visual contribution.
That it is not part of the art market in that it cannot be bought and sold.
That commissioning briefs for it can actually be seen as offering a greater challenge to the creativity and inventiveness of artists.
That conceptual public art can say more about the city and its people than the fixed object.
That it has increased the opportunity for socially engaged practice.
That the demands of government for social inclusion have been dangerous for the quality of work produced.
That some of the claims made for it in terms of social and environmental change are fraudulent.

All of these are attempts at trying to define what public art is.

Then I got to thinking about something I wrote a long time ago and it is this – artists get on and make work – others write about it, worrying about what it is and trying to make sense of it.

Public Art -

2009-01-31T00:42:00.002Z

How do I - do with "the powers" – how do "they" do with me!

Most artists work as sole practitioners. For public art projects they find themselves linking in with structured non-specialist organisations over intense periods of time. They are often working under keen time pressures. Mostly, experienced artists are well used to linking in with a variety of organisations and funders to achieve/develop objects, projects, events or small organisations of their own. They get by navigating these systems.

Sometimes organisational systems, for the artist, can seem more daunting than is necessary. This can be true for loads of reasons for this but mostly its due to poor communication and failure to really "think-into" the process. The commissioning organisation can lack resources, expertise and confidence to support the artistic interaction with their organisation. You might have a fantastic strong and dynamic project manager who can navigate a project through the system, but sometimes organisations take on projects with the intention of supporting artists work – and they are stymied by their own organisational cultures. Frustrations then arise for everyone.

With more traditional organisations, after a public art work/project is selected, pass into or through systems which are about regularity, transparency and daily procedures. These factors need consideration at the brief and proposal stage and should be thought through by the organisation and the artist. Procedures designed to support ongoing management rather than one-off projects can be difficult to take on if it seems like a barrier to action. Sometimes the artists need for ongoing idea resolution and fluidity when working through ideas is misunderstood by the organisation.

Good communications is about more than goodwill -public arts projects within more traditional organisational contexts involve lots of negotiation. So its really important that unspoken expectations can be freely and fairly raised should issues arise.

Generally management of public monies veers towards systematisation as a methodology of transparency. Organisations who support public arts projects may be doing so very irregularly and often don't have the experience of cultural of fluidity that matches that of the artist. This shouldn't be translated into a lack of respect or deliberate obtuseness – but a two way understanding of very different work cultures.
For some artists as ideas become externalised and integrated within systems there can be a real sense of deflation. Ownership of their idea passes into a group. The original idea can seem diluted through negotiations. This feeling can be particularly strong when due to unforeseen circumstances there are decisions made that seem for the artist to reduce the ambition of their proposal/ vision. There is a sense that integrity of the project is being compromised by the organisation rather than supported by it. Sometimes artists find an unfair bias towards non-transparent organisational cultures, where there are assumptions about their understanding of organisations and processes.

Artistic disillusionment tends to manifest with far greater force for the sole practitioner because they do not have the same structures of support. For many artists work in these projects is more integrated into their lives and there is a greater blur between life and work. The emotional drivers/ motivation for participation can quite different from the organisation. The artists and the organisations need to be clear, set the scope, depth and temperature of their relationships. Artists need to be aware of the structured frameworks that form the organisations. The organisations need consider how best they can work with commissioned artists to achieve a mutually agreed outcome over a responsible period of time.

UCD - Re- Cap of Thoughts for Cultural Policy

2009-01-28T14:51:00.001Z

Local Authorities Re Cap3

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2009-01-24T12:33:00.000Z

Linking Arts Communities in the South East using Social Media

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2009-01-15T18:10:00.003Z

Insight Open

Artist Talks and Presentations
2.00pm – 4.30pm Saturday January 17th 2009
at Sligo Art Gallery
http://www.sligoartgallery.com/

About The Exhibition

In January 2009 Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership are holding a retrospective exhibition at the Sligo Art Gallery Insight. The exhibition has been commissioned by Sligo Art Gallery with Sligo Local Authorities’ Arts Service as part of the Primary Colours Arts & Education Programme. The exhibition is curated by Sarah Searson, a cultural consultant and curator. Insight celebrates twelve years of collaborative work by artists and young people and educations working together through technology-developed projects managed by Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership.

About The Event

Insight Open, a forum for discussion, coincides which this exhibition. Both the exhibition and talks are an exploration into current practice and creativity between children, artists, educators and technology. Insight Open is a forum by which we can exchange ideas and think together about artists' practice with young people with an emphasis on how creativity can be mediated through technology.

2008-12-13T18:39:00.002Z

hi - learn more about web - with this youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/jimmyrcom - really easy this one gives great tips for firefox - very good - s

The note book - as method for self organisation

2008-12-13T18:06:00.001Z

Warning - this is a little bit irritating -
but is a good tip for managing lots of tasks

thinking about doing and using time - David Allen - Getting things done

2008-12-13T17:38:00.001Z

Web 2.0 Summit 08: The Cloud:

2008-12-13T16:31:00.000Z

2008-11-23T22:04:00.001Z

The Debate - Reveal Interpreting the show

Posted by Minnie Scott
Assistant Curator, Interpretation
8 October 2008

I work in the Interpretation team, part of Tate Britain’s Learning department. We are responsible for in-gallery resources – captions and panels, interactive devices, audio tours, etc. – and work on every exhibition and display, varying our approach depending on the focus of each show.

For a historical exhibition, for example, we find ways of communicating relevant background information about the period to help visitors understand the context in which the works were made. Interpretation for an exhibition of contemporary art clearly needs to be thought about in a slightly different way. Historical insights may be unnecessary in this case, but giving a sense of the artist’s intellectual concerns and current artistic debates is often useful, especially with this year’s Turner Prize nominees whose works draw from such a wide range of cultural reference points.

The most exciting thing about working with living artists is the opportunity to have them comment on their own practice. At this year’s Turner Prize exhibition the artists’ reflections on their own work are available as text, on film and as part of our iPod Touch multimedia tour. For an audience to be able to hear or read about a work in the artist’s own words allows an unusual kind of intimacy between viewer and creator, I think. This can be a particularly welcome element for visitors new to contemporary art.

At the same time, we’d never suggest that there is or can be a single reading of any work, whether that comes from the artist or from a curator speaking as the voice of the institution. Implying that anyone can have the last word on a work’s meaning shuts out the possibility of viewers’ diverse reactions and readings. One way we dealt with this potential pitfall for the Turner Prize interpretation was to include additional voices on the multimedia tour. We asked Suzanne Cotter and Jennifer Higgie, two of the judges from this year’s panel, to provide their own commentary and explain why the artists were short-listed.

The Turner Prize has always generated discussion and debate. We set out to provide a space for this debate within the exhibition where people could share their views, discuss the works on display, or indeed the state of the art world in general, and leave a record of their reactions. Working with the exhibition designers, we developed a reading room/café at the end of the exhibition which includes benches and tables for chat and reflection, books on the nominated artists scattered around for further exploration, films on each artist and a giant cork board displaying visitors’ comments. This ‘blog on paper’ has so far elicited a brilliant range of written and drawn responses, both critical and appreciative.

As well as leaving comments, everyone who visits the show can pick up a badge naming their favourite artist. Wearing your artistic views on your sleeve could spark discussions, even arguments, among wearers of rival badges in the reading room and hopefully outside the gallery too.

http://blog.tate.org.uk/turnerprize2008/?p=67#more-67

Apolitico - Wilfredo Prieto

2008-11-18T19:01:00.004Z

Apolitico - Wilfredo Prieto
This work is composed of 60 national flags on flagpoles for which Wilfredo Prieto kept the exact design but replaced their appropriate colours with a greyscale. With this simple gesture, the artist questions the difference of identities and revokes the principle of belonging and recognition by national symbols.

This piece reveals Wilfredo Prietos approach and critical position. His work often results from discreet modification of mundane objects such as plants, plastics cup or fans. These subtle interventions are so minimal that they sometimes reach a mimetic image within which the artistic gesture is almost imperceptible, albeit it generates a reflection or an inherent contradiction contained in the everyday image of the object.

The most important to me is the link and the rapprochement between art and reality. The artist is more of a discoverer, an archaeologist who reaffirms or underscores symbolic nuances that are given in actual reality. (Wilfredo Prieto, La Habana, February 2006)

The Barcelona-based Cuban artist was the winner of the Cartier Award 2008

I hate public sculpture ...

2008-11-08T23:49:00.001Z

A life in art: Anish Kapoor
'I think we've gone totally public sculpture mad. I hate public sculpture ... Oh God, even the phrase makes me feel tired'
....Temenos, the first of a five-part installation known as the Tees Valley Giants, which will be the largest public-art initiative ever, the design for which was unveiled in July. Has public art become a clichéd response to the urge to regenerate post-industrial cities? "I think we've gone totally public sculpture mad," he says with vehemence. "I hate public sculpture." So why are you doing it? "It's really a problem, I've got to say it's really a problem. Public sculpture ... oh God, even the phrase makes me feel tired. Why I am engaged in it? Well, I think, as a sculptor, that is something of one's lot. Because scale is a tool of scultpure, and it needs to be worked with."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/nov/08/anish-kapoor-interview

Context Over Dogma - The fabric Car

2008-11-02T11:46:00.001Z

2008-10-29T18:44:00.004Z

Out Of Site 2008
in association with Dublin City Council presents

Promenade
Date: 8th November Time: 12-6pm

Alastair MacLennan, Amanda Coogan, Dennis McNulty, Gareth Kennedy, Frances Mezzetti, Dominic Thorpe, Alex Conway, Sinead McCann, Michelle Browne and Pauline Cummins.

Promenade, is a special, one-day event inviting 10 artists to respond to a specific setting: the Clontarf walkway in Dublin 3. Promenade will use the sheltered bathing and seating areas, the walkway and the sea along the Clontarf walkway to present multiple performances free to the public.

For Promenade, the Artane Band will occupy a bunker while performing songs by the 80's rock band, Tears for Fears. A scratch DJ sculpts sounds inside Tom De Paor's award-winning pumping station at Vernon Avenue A figure clings to a metal ladder that rises from the sea. Also in Promenade, the public are invited to join in a group performance, Synchronised Swimmers, dubbed 'the Alternative Spencer Tunick'. Participants are asked to bring their towel and swimsuit and get your limbs tangled as we don our suits as only the Irish know how.

Out Of Site is a series of live art that provides a platform for artists to create innovative new performative work in public spaces. Out Of Site offers the general public the opportunity to experience an exciting and challenging form of contemporary art practice. Out of site presents the possibility to re-experience urban Dublin through a series of live art performances in public spaces throughout the city.

Out Of Site was set up by Michelle Browne in 2006 to bring about the creation of new performative work, while bringing it to the reach of a wider audience than the traditional gallery goer.

Performance art creates vigorous, unexpected human contact that explores our condition in contemporary society. Out Of Site embraces chance encounters and outcomes, and relishs and revels in the unexpected and the spontaneous.

Kevin Kelly: Predicting the next 5,000 days of the web

2008-10-10T07:58:00.000+01:00

Alfredo Jaar | Gramsci & Pasolini

2008-10-09T01:30:00.000+01:00