Eat!
This is my third year film at CalArts and the one I’m most proud of! Just postin’ this so the tumblrs can see more of what I’ve done!
Check out more at https://vimeo.com/user1178915
“One of the most fascinating archeological finds in Russia has been the discovery of hundreds of “birchbark documents” (messages written on the bark of birch trees with a sharp stylus) that were created from the 11th to the 15th century.
The birchbark documents of Novgorod are a major source for information about life in Medieval Novgorod because they are not the writings of church theologians or political leaders, but rather, personal messages, IOUs, love letters, shopping lists, and so on. One of the most fascinating items, in my mind, is a collection of children’s drawings that have been unearthed.
Children’s drawings in the Middle Ages?! Even if such things were created in period, how could they have survived to the present day? After all, finger paints, magic markers, and crayons were not yet in use, paper was far too valuable of a commodity to waste on children, and refrigerator doors were unavailable for the display of Junior’s artistic genius. Most of the products of childhood inspiration probably were expressed on the ephemeral canvas of dirt or sand.
But birchbark was a different story. The bark was widely available (although there are indications that excessive use of the medium caused a decline in the local birch population) and easily cultivated. Anyone could use it. When one was finished with the message, it was simply thrown into the mud, where the presence of water and clay created an unusually bacteria-free environment which preserved the documents. So, we have the ideal medium: cheap, easy to come by, and (thanks to unique geology) preserved for hundreds of years.
The drawings from Novgorod that we have found appear to all come from a Russian boy named Onfim, who lived at the end of the twelfth century or beginning of the thirteenth century in the city of Novgorod. By the estimate of the archaeologists who unearthed his works, he was around seven years old at the time that he made these drawings.
Onfim was being taught to write, but he was obviously restless with his lessons and when he could get away with it, he intermixed his assignments with doodlings. In this first example, he started to write out the first eleven letters of the alphabet in the upper right corner, but got bored and drew a picture of himself as a grown-up warrior impaling an enemy with his spear. To remove any doubt about the identity of the warrior, he even labeled the person on the horse as “Onfim.”
Fantasies of becoming a mighty warrior were not the only things that Onfim thought up though. In another example, he took the piece of bark that he was practicing on (left), turned it over (right), and drew a picture of himself disguised as a wild beast (which he identified by writing “I am a wild beast” [Ia zver’] over it). The beast, with its long tongue (or fiery breath), is apparently still a friendly beast as it is carrying a sign that reads “Greetings from Onfim to Danilo” [Poklon ot Onfima ko Danile]. Danilo (i.e., Daniel) was probably a friend, perhaps even a schoolmate sitting next to Onfim.
Onfim liked to draw people and while his artistic aptitude may have been lacking, he was prolific.”
have you seen rebecca sugar’s thesis film? it’s so good
RUN COMPUTER RUN
Art and Tech festival held at RUA RED gallery, Dublin, opens this Friday 24th to July 13th.
RUN COMPUTER RUN @ GLITCH 2013 is an arts festival focused on examining artistic responses to cultural, economic and social factors that currently affect the evolution of the Internet. The festival features four exhibitions, eight workshops, a symposium featuring leading thinkers and curators in the field of New Media Art, and a showcase of short films.
One show, ‘Examining Aesthetics’ features creatives and groups in the top of the field: FIELD, Pixel Noizz, Casey Reas and Marius Watz.
Another show, ‘Economics + The Immaterial’, is an augmented reality exhibit by design to explore the value of immaterial goods:
How do we give value to immaterial goods? How do we buy and sell digital images? What is the relationship between economics and digital aesthetics? How can curators and artists create new platforms and models for the creation of economic exchange? These are some of the questions that this show attempts to answer. We are currently accepting artwork (video, jpg, gifs, 3d models or HTML content) that will feature in a unique gallery-based exhibition. The exhibition is composed of two parts – a gallery-sited virtual show, and the online production and distribution of materially-realised limited-edition goods.
A collection of great creatives have contributed here: Francoise Gamma, Yoshi Sodeoka, Lorna Mills, Benjamin Gaulon, Rollin Leonard, A Bill Miller, Emilio Gomariz, Andreas Nicolas Fischer, Emilio Vavarella, Debbie Guinnane + J. M. Bowers, Pinar & Viola, Chiara Passa, Reed + Rader, Daniel Rourke + Alex Myers, Alain Vonck, Jonas Lund, Emilie Gervais, Raquel Meyers, Benjamin Berg, Eutechnik, Andrew Healy, Linda Kostowski and Sascha Pohflepp, Geraldine Juárez, and … err … me …
If you have a smartphone with the Layar app, you will be able to see the submissions when the corresponding AR markers for each artist will be available from the website.
The third show, ‘Beyond The White Cube’, looks at art outside the gallery space and on the internet:
The goal of Beyond The White Cube is to explore and question how artworks made for Internet and mobile platforms can be transformed and reconceived for the gallery. Taking work that was originally conceived for other platforms of viewing and interaction and placing within a gallery context raises questions about the relationship between the digital and the physical.
It features works from Constant Dullaart and Evan Roth.
The fourth show, ‘Remaining Anonymous’, looks at artist works looks at the connection between online + offline life:
As the Internet increasingly embeds itself within our everyday lives, our online identities have begun to connect to our offline lives, making public information and our activities. The Internet is a space where data is archived, indexed, and often made publicly available. With the rise of identity-centric social networks like Facebook, it is increasingly difficult to remain anonymous online. The inherent sociality and default to public nature of these platforms leave our digital traces freely available to be collected and manipulated beyond our control. As our online data fuels commercial concerns how much of our digital identities do we really own, and what is the true price of giving away our access or control? How can we circumvent the policies these platforms put in place to regain the rights to our privacy? Are our rights to anonymity slowing fading? As part of our online exhibition, the curator has selected work by Paolo Cirio, Benjamin Gaulon and Martial Geoffre-Rouland. These works serve to highlight how traces of digital data left online can be commodified and re-appropriated questioning privacy online.
You can find out more about the exhibitions, artists and events at the official website here
