Visarts-Drupal - Review

Tijuana/San Diego Cooperation and Confrontation at the Interface - A Review by Alum Katherine Sweetman for SDVAN News - Nov '09

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:04:10 -0800

Tijuana/San Diego Cooperation and Confrontation at the Interface
(http://www.sdvisualarts.net/sdvan_new/pickedrawpeeled.php#Katherine8)

by Alum Katherine Sweetman for the San Diego Visual Arts Network, November 2009

Tijuana/San Diego: Cooperation and Confrontation at the Interface opens on Oct 15 from 5 to 7 with a panel of artists preceeding at 4 pm at the UCSD/Calit2 Gallery at Atkinson Hall on the UCSD La Jolla campus. For more info: Trish Stone

Emerging artist Jesse Mockrin at Oceanside Museum of Art - A review by Keli Dailey for the SD Union-Tribune 112009

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:08:47 -0800

Emerging artist Jesse Mockrin at Oceanside Museum of Art
(http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/nov/20/emerging-artist-jesse-mockrin-and-art-party-oceans/)

By Keli Dailey for the San Diego Union-Tribune, November 20, 2009

Something we have in common – besides having access to a computer to write/read this blog – is that we’re all poseurs. We’ll shuffle up when Group A’s called at the airport, knowing we’ve got a late check-in slacker’s letter. We’ll smile real seductive for cameras even if we’re at a swine flu party.

And the sitters in artist Jesse Mockrin’s portraits are no different. Take her haughty, young, hedge fund manager, the latest in her “Young Professional” series.

That guy in the portrait seemingly has the advantage, looking down on the viewer, leaning against a faux-finished, marigold wall and giving a self-satisfied, “I know you want me” smirk that overpowers the docile big cat next to him. And what’s with that tiger painting, anyway?

It’s kitsch, Mockrin explained the other day while hanging the giant portrait, which is on display at the Oceanside Museum of Art in the UCSD “San Diego NOW” group show. He looks like the privileged sitter, but this isn’t historical portraiture that plays up the subject’s heroism, beauty. Perhaps it’s Mockrin’s over-saturating use of unflattering orange shades, but the joke is on dude. His self-importance is laughable -- his real dominance an illusion. His power and presentation are a front.

Lev Manovich: Studying Culture With Search Algorithms-Review by Chris Castiglione for Masters of Media, Univ v. Amsterdam 112009

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:30:57 -0800

Masters of Media

Lev Manovich: Studying Culture With Search Algorithms
(http://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/2009/11/20/lev-manovich-studying-culture-with-search-algorithms/)

By Chris Castiglione, University van Amsterdam, November 20, 2009

New media theorist Lev Manovich summarized his latest contribution to the field of software studies: cultural analytics. The idea of cultural analytics was first presented by Lev Manovich in 2005, and in 2007 he released a paper at CALIT2 entitled “Cultural Analytics: Analysis and Visualization of Large Cultural Data Sets.” In his talk today Manovich routinely made comparisons between cultural analytics and cultural analysis, and so it was necessary that audience members understand the distinction between these two (similarly sounding) terms: whereas traditional cultural analysis relies on real-world resources (human interpretation and physical storage), cultural analytics relies on the computer and search algorithms in order to discern and interpret culture.

Ricardo Dominguez: 'Is new GPS tool illegal immigrant aid?' - A Review by Cindy Carcamo for the Orange County Register. 112009

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:48:50 -0800

Ricardo Dominguez, Brett Stalbaum, Micha Cárdenas, Elle Mehrmand, Chris Head

Is new GPS tool illegal immigrant aid?
(http://www.ocregister.com/news/border-220422-people-desert.html)

BY CINDY CARCAMO for The Orange County Register, November 20, 2009

There seems to be a mobile phone application for just about everything these days -- even illegal border crossing.

An application still in the testing stages is designed to point border-crossers to nearby water, show them safer routes and provide them with a series of poems to make them feel welcome along their way.

Individuals trekking north may soon be able to download the program into an inexpensive web-enabled cellular phone that is supposed to help them safely navigate the treacherous desert crossing between Mexico and the United States, known as the Devil's Highway.

"The point of the project is to offer multiple spaces of sustenance," said Ricardo Dominguez, who led the creation of the tool. Dominguez, an associate professor of visual arts at UC San Diego, leads a team at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology where he is a principal investigator.

The team -- which involved a collection of researchers from different disciplines of study -- is hoping to have the application, called a Transborder Immigrant Tool, officially up and running by mid-2010 after a series of test runs in the desert to adjust the kinks and make necessary tweaks. For now, the invention is in its beta stage.

While U.S. Border Patrol officials say they are not worried by the invention, which they see as more of a nuisance, the news has already made its way into anti-illegal immigration Web chat rooms, enraging members of that movement.

Ricardo Dominguez: App Could Aid Migrant (and Illegal) Workers Crossing the U.S. Border - A Review by Matthew Zuras for Switched

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:05:54 -0800

Ricardo Dominguez

App Could Aid Migrant (and Illegal) Workers Crossing the U.S. Border
(http://www.switched.com/2009/11/19/new-app-could-aid-migrant-and-illegal-workers-crossing-the-u-s/)

By Matthew Zuras for Switched, November 19, 2009

Cell phones -- and for that matter, app-enabled smartphones -- have typically been aimed at the middle class, containing software designed to help balance meeting agendas, check a flight's status, and the like. But what about the potential for cell phone apps to help a notoriously under-served section of the population?

Well, there's an app for that. The 'Transborder Immigrant Tool,' which is currently in development, aims to aid illegal immigrants crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S. This month, the app's creator Ricardo Dominguez, who works in the Visual Arts department at the University of California - San Diego, did a long interview with Vice Magazine, in which he spelled out the purpose of this potentially illegal software and the probable public anger it will cause:

"I would imagine [anti-immigration militias] won't be too happy with us, but again we're not trying to hide. It's a safety tool. It's not trying to resolve the political anxieties of these communities or resolve the inadequacies of a fictional border for a so-called free-trade community. Again, our position is that it's not a political resolution; it's a safety tool. That, at the core, is what we're attempting to do."

Using the cheapest cell phones possible (specifically the under-$30 Motorola i455, which comes with a GPS applet), Dominguez and his team were able to create a hack that added navigation functionality and the ability to locate water and highways. Although the app is still only in the alpha phase of development, Dominguez hopes to roll it out soon.

Read the whole interview for more information. [From: Vice Magazine, via BoingBoing]

Similar story on BoingBoing at:
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/13/transborder-immigran.html

Ricardo Dominguez/B Stalbaum/M Cárdenas/E Mehrmand/C Head: 'Follow the GPS, Ése' - An Interview by Alex Dunbar for VICE Magazi

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:18:01 -0800

Ricardo Dominguez, Brett Stalbaum, Micha Cárdenas, Elle Mehrmand, Chris Head

IN THE MAGAZINE

FOLLOW THE GPS, ÉSE
The Transborder Immigrant Tool Helps Mexicans Cross Over Safely
(http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n11/htdocs/follow-the-gps-225.php)

Interview by Alex Dunbar for VICE Magazine

Over the past two decades, Ricardo Dominguez has been utilizing electronics and the internet to piss off just about every high-level administrative authority in the US. In the late 90s, his performance-art-cum-activist organization the Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) set up a participatory website-jamming network called the FloodNet system, which allowed anyone with an internet connection to gum up the official sites of the US Border Patrol, White House, G8, Mexican embassy, and others, rendering them inaccessible. The Department of Justice retaliated with an electronic attack on the EDT that aimed to destabilize the group and interrupt their online meddling. As any conspiracy wonk can tell you, it’s illegal for the government to use military force against civilians without declaring martial law; that’s the job of cops and FBI agents.

Dominguez, a Zapatista sympathizer and close friend of Subcomandante Marcos, claims the various forms of online mischief conducted by the EDT were experiments in electronic civil disobedience rather than true acts of sabotage. Their work led to massive virtual and physical sit-ins protesting the Mexican government between ’98 and ’99, attracting more than 100,000 participants. But his current project—the Transborder Immigrant Tool—is poised to enrage a much broader spectrum of the North American populace. By augmenting a low-cost Motorola phone with GPS and a battery of applications, Dominguez’s goal is to help illegal immigrants complete safe border crossings without being sent back by the Border Patrol or getting shot in the face by American “patriots.”

The primary goal of the Transborder Immigrant Tool is to increase safety during border crossing by directing heavy-footed immigrants to safe routes, shelter, food, water, and friendly sympathizers. With the recent surge in militia membership and the Obama administration’s announcement that they will be reducing the number of Border Patrol agents next year, it looks like we’re getting ready to witness a showdown for the ages. And Dominguez couldn’t be happier about the level of shit he is about to seriously disturb.

Undergraduate Alum Daryl Smith: The sculptor behind Jimi - Review by Katie McCourt-Basham for the Seattle Univ Spectator-111109

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:03:50 -0800

Undergraduate Alum Daryl Smith

The sculptor behind Jimi
(http://www.su-spectator.com/entertainment/the-sculptor-behind-jimi-1.895760)

By Katie McCourt-Basham for the Seattle University Spectator, November 11, 2009

The Jimi Hendrix statue on Broadway Avenue and East Pine Street is usually a sign of good things to come. These things may be wonderful records at Everyday Music, a delicious Thai meal farther up Broadway or one’s proximity to campus—which usually leads to either a toasty classroom or a warm dorm room.

Ruben Ortiz Torres: Mid-career artists find a place to be seen and heard - Review by Roberta Fallon - Philadelphia Weekly-111009

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:34:04 -0800

Ruben Ortiz Torres

Mid-career artists find a place to be seen and heard.

By Roberta Fallon for Philadelphia Weekly, November 10, 2009

"...Three artists make work focused on ethnic identity, and of those, Ruben  Ortiz-Torres’s video performance of Hi ’n’ Lo (2008) is the most unexpected and pleasing. Ortiz-Torres tricked out a standard-issue industrial scissors lift with bling at the bottom and new platform capabilities at the top and then choreographed the machine to do hip-hop dance moves. Drawing inspiration from the Mexican-American car culture in Los Angeles as well as the caliber of infrastructure jobs that employ Latino workers, the piece is wry and knowing..."  

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For complete story, please visit the Philadelphia Weekly website at:
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/arts-and-culture/art/Village-Voices.html

Alum Julia Westerbeke: Art Walk Preview Review -November 2009

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:01:09 -0800

Alum Julia Westerbeke

Art Walk Preview Review
(http://blogdowntown.com/2009/11/4834-art-walk-preview-november-2009)

November 2009

Alien Organic: Thursday is one of the last days to see this installation of sculptures and site-specific works by Julia Westerbeke. It's the first Los Angeles solo show for the recent University of California, San Diego, MFA grad. The statement goes on to say "In her obsessively detailed works, Julia Westerbeke creates terrains that are by turns organic and curiously alien, quiet yet chock-a-block with information. These abstract sculptures covered in crops of cilia-like drawings invite associations that run the gamut from microbes and scientific diagrams to Dr. Seussian flora and fantastical illustrations." The homage to natural forms is offered as a "specific visual vocabulary that has been influenced by cultures of fantasy and science fiction." I think San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art contributor Michelle Tea liked it. Open for Downtown Art Walk. Closes November 12th. compactspace / 105 E. 6th

Dallas Art News: Recent Work by Jennifer Pastor at Museum of Fine Art, Houston - Nov 12 '09

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:27:49 -0800

Recent Work by Jennifer Pastor at Museum of Fine Art, Houston
(http://www.dallasartnews.com/2009/11/recent-work-by-jennifer-pastor-at-museum-of-fine-art-houston/)

November 12, 2009

Dead Landscape
Museum of Fine Art, Houston
Opens December 11, 2009

The Glassell School of Art’s Core Exhibition Program presents the most recent body of work by Los Angeles-based artist Jennifer Pastor. Opening on December 11 with a lecture and reception, the exhibition Dead Landscape is an installation of some 40 drawings and photographs that juxtaposes archival materials from wars involving the U.S. with Pastor’s drawings and photographs of culturally sanctioned, organized fights (from cage fighting and gladiator events to the Ultimate Fighting Heavy Weight Championship). Exhibited at Greengrassi in London earlier this year, the Houston showing will be the first presentation of Dead Landscape in the United States. An additional element to the exhibition—a large-scale sculpture titled Endless Arena and inspired by the same line of inquiry as the Dead Landscape installation—will be shown later this year across the street from the Glassell School, in the MFAH’s Caroline Wiess Law Building.

Cardenas/Zuniga/Kester/Dominguez/Trigilio: 'I HAVE NOTHING TO SAY' - Digimag 49, November 2009

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:56:06 -0800

Alum/Lecturer Micha Cárdenas, Alum Felipe Zuñiga, Visual Arts Chair Grant Kester, Ricardo Dominguez, Michael Trigilio, and Bill Kelley Jr.

I HAVE NOTHING TO SAY
(http://www.digicult.it/digimag/article.asp?id=1625)

For PDF in English please click here: http://bang.calit2.net/tts/i-have-nothing-to-say.pdf

by Micha Cárdenas and Felipe Zuñiga for Digimag 49, November 2009

How do we deal with broken promises? How can artists work to enhance agency among participant audiences who are anonymous, migratory and in transition? Can the museum become a space for Habermasian democratic dialogue under a state of exception? These are some of the questions that guided the project Emergencia – Agencia Emergente // Emergency – Emergent Agency by the Lui Velazquez collective, which was part of the Proyecto Cívico: Diálogos e Interrogantes (PCDI) public programming developed by Bill Kelly Jr. as part of the Proyecto Civico show curated by Lucia Sanroman and Ruth Estevez, at the Centro Cultural de Tijuana (CECUT) in the fall of 2008.

Micha Cárdenas and Elle Mehrmand: 'Artivistic: TURN*ON' - A Review by Gabriel Menotti for furtherfield.org, 10.30.09

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:32:48 -0800

Elle Mehrmand, and Alum/Lecturer Micha Cárdenas

Artivistic: TURN*ON
http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=363

By Gabriel Menotti for furtherfield.org, October 30, 2009

Eventually, the investigation about systems of representation - be they semiotic, informational or political - might slip into the one psychoanalysis considers the most elementary and surreptitious of them all: sex. That's precisely where the Artivistic gathering got into in its fourth edition, which happened in Montreal from 15th to 17th October. To be exact, the theme under which the event tied the fields of art, politics and academia together was TURN*ON - according to its curatorial statement, 'a fragile bridge extending, over a valley of which the depth you cannot see, to a life centered on pleasure, consciousness, togetherness, understanding, and joy'.

Teddy Cruz: 'Globalization is shaping urban development' - A Review for the Budapest Business Journal, 102909

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:36:37 -0800

Teddy Cruz

Globalization is shaping urban development
(http://bbjonline.hu/index.php?col=1005&cat=&id=50620)

For the Budapest Business Journal on October 29th, 2009

“Space” is defined and shaped by social forces. A project at the Vienna University of Technology is presently investigating how current changes in these forces are impacting on urban development artists, architects and scientists are due to meet this weekend at an interdisciplinary symposium to discuss the initial results in Vienna, Austria.

Anya Gallaccio: Whitworth Art Gallery Announces Exhibition of Artist's Wallpapers - A Review for artdaily.org - Nov 3 '09

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:10:50 -0800

Anya Gallaccio

Whitworth Art Gallery Announces Exhibition of Artist's Wallpapers

Art Daily, November 3, 2009

"...The Whitworth Art Gallery will present the first ever major UK exhibition of artists’ wallpapers. Including work by Damien Hirst, Thomas Demand, UCSD visual arts professor Anya Gallaccio, David Shrigley, Michael Craig-Martin, Angus Fairhurst, Rosemarie Trockel, Martin Boyce, Robert Gober, Francesco Simeti, Niki de St. Phalle and Abigail Lane, this is a seminal show of rare works, allowing the viewer to re-evaluate the role of wallpaper in contemporary art. The Walls Are Talking, curated by Christine Woods and Gill Saunders, features more than 30 international artists and traces the development of their interest in wallpaper, demonstrating how they have played on wallpaper’s domestic and decorative associations to throw into sharp relief their shocking or subversive messages, appropriation of historic motifs, and political or cultural observations..."

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Complete story on the artdaily.org website at:
http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=34282

Mexican Omar Pimienta wins tenth Emilio Prados Poetry Prize - El Mundo (Spain) - Oct 30 '09

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:13:56 -0800

Mexican Omar Pimienta wins Tenth Emilio Prados Poetry Prize
(http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2009/10/30/andalucia_malaga/1256931414.html)

For El Mundo on October 30, 2009

Mexican Omar Pimienta has won the tenth International Poetry Prize Emilio Prados, endowed with 8,000 euros and the publication of his book "Escribo Desde Aqui" ('I write from here'), which was filed under the pseudonym "Benito Bonifacio." This award, sponsored by the Centro Cultural Generacion del 27 and aimed at young people of 35 years with an unpublished work in Castilian, allows young writers to break into the world of literature by publishing and distributing the winning work through publisher Pre-textos, as reported by the Province of Malaga. In this edition, we have received up to 60 works from all corners of Spain and Latin America, which makes this award one of the most consolidated in the Andalusian and nationalnational literature. One of the jurors, Josefa Parra, highlights that the winning work "is a different book from the usual in his generation, speaking of misfortune, poverty, disillusionment and hunger," and all "in a very natural manner, without any sentimentallity, starting from the narrative and catching flashes that disturb and shock." Omar Pimienta, a native of Tijuana, has to date two books of poetry, "Primera Persona: Ella" and "La Libertad: Ciudad de Paso"('The First Person: She' and 'The Freedom: Path City'), and an artist's book, "Libreria 2007" ('Library 2007').

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Original Story in Spanish on the El Mundo website at:
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2009/10/30/andalucia_malaga/1256931414.html