Video Takeover
Borna Sammak's debut solo show "Best Buy" took place last night for an exclusive two hour stint in the Soho location of electronics mega-retailer Best Buy. Thirteen of his vibrant and hallucinogenic high-definition "video paintings" were displayed on every single television on the lower level floor, making for an incredible (and gloriously surreal) sight. I snapped a few photos of the installation, below. To read the full backstory behind the show, check this interview with Borna Sammak and curator Thomas McDonell, conducted by artist Kari Altmann.
-->
Heaven (2009) - Tabor Robak
Tabor Robak's "Heaven" is originally from Internet Archaeology's Guest Galleries. Internet Archaeology discovers and archives graphic artifacts from earlier Internet Culture, and their Guest Galleries features work sourced from some of this material. As described in the mission statement, "[t]he purpose of the Guest Galleries is to create a dialogue between old and new; enforcing the belief that digital artifacts should be preserved and showcased for their cultural, historical and aesthetic value."
Untitled #100 (Fantasia) (2009) - Josh Azzarella
Michael Jackson’s iconic music video for “Thriller” stripped entirely of its dancers and music, instead the artist presents an emptied set, accompanied by an ambient soundtrack.
World’s First, Possibly Only and Probably Last iPhone Drum Circle (aka IPDC) (2009) - MTAA and Mike Koller
The Basic Plan - On Sunday September 20 at 2pm, MTAA, Mike Koller and anyone else who wants to join us will set out a brightly colored blanket surround by a circle of chairs at McCarren Park, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They will have amplified iPhones on which they have downloaded touchscreen drum and bongo applications. They will have open amp jacks that you can plug into. For the next hour we will attempt to "jam."
As explained by Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead "The main objective (of a drum circle) is to share rhythm and get in tune with each other and themselves. To form a group consciousness. To entrain and resonate. By entrainment, I mean that a new voice, a collective voice, emerges from the group as they drum together."
As explained by M.River of MTAA "The main objective of the iPhone Drum Circle is to get a total stranger to do a little dance on our blanket. That and hopefully enjoying the last summer Sunday in the park this year for an hour."
prototype for an infinite array of semi-autonomous percussive devices (2009) - Kenny Marshall
prototype for an infinite array of semi-autonomous percussive devices is a group of small robotic sculptures, each connected to its immediate neighbors via wires, that together form a net of robotic life that spreads across the Garden at the Mattress Factory and over nearby structures. These twenty-five mechanical crickets fill the garden with sound as they listen to their neighbors and act accordingly during Pittsburgh's Robot250 festival. Using Dr. John Conway’s rules for The Game of Life, each robot activates when a preset number of his neighbors is active and deactivates if too few or too many of his neighbors are active.
-- FROM THE ARTIST'S STATEMENT
marc garrett