Rhizome | Blog Posts tagged "cyberpunk"

Videos from Gatekeeper's Giza by Thunder Horse Video and lenox-lenox

Ceci Moss | Tue Dec 14th, 2010 12:30 p.m.

These six music videos by the band Gatekeeper debuted last week on the blog 20jazzfunkgreats. The videos are a dark, hallucinogenic romp, featuring slick computer graphics and repurposed scenes from horror and anime films. The videos are directed and edited by Thunder Horse Video, with the exception of "Mirage" which features original computer animation by the team lenox-lenox. All the songs are off their new EP Giza on Merok Records.

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Chapter 1, the Discovery (2009) - Félix Luque Sánchez

Ceci Moss | Mon Oct 11th, 2010 noon

Chapter I: The Discovery is an impenetrable, geometric object and a series of videos restaging the moment of its discovery, as if it were a scene from a sci-fi movie, where the hero is suddenly confronted with an alien, slightly chilling figure.

The videos are broadcast in the first room. Images show the dodecahedron in places which are fictitious and devoid of any human trace. No matter the context, the alien entity reproduces the same light and sound animation, expressing a state of waiting by emitting a signal of presence. The sculpture itself waits for visitors in the second room. As the viewer gets closer, the machine detects the movement and "tries" to engage in communication made entirely of light and sound code. If the sculpture is surrounded on all its vertical faces, it will respond by releasing its maximum energy.

Chapter I: The Discovery questions the viewer's perception about the truthfulness of what is shown, right from the visioning of videos with synthetic images and ending up in an encounter with an interactive object which co-opts information flows, sound and light transmission.

-- DESCRIPTION FROM "CHAPTER 1, THE DISCOVERY" ON WE MAKE MONEY NOT ART

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50 Posts About Cyborgs

Ceci Moss | Wed Sep 29th, 2010 10 a.m.

Curated by writer Tim Maly of Quiet Babylon, the tumblr blog 50 Posts About Cyborgs assembles links to material on the cyborg in celebration of the term's 50th anniversary this month.

Originally via BLDGBLOG and Bad At Sports

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Soviet Sci-Fi Animation in the 1980's

Math Wrath | Tue Apr 20th, 2010 12:30 p.m.

In the years leading up to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, several of its animation studios were releasing experimental short films based off short stories penned by prominent, American science fiction authors. This post assembles some of these futuristic and otherworldly animations.

Здесь могут водиться тигры, 1989
Here There Be Tigers (Based on the story by Ray Bradbury)
Director: Vladimir Samsonov
Studio: Ecran

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A Photo Essay of Brody Condon's "Case"

Kristianna Smith | Wed Dec 2nd, 2009 noon

Organized by the artist Brody Condon, Case is a deadpan reading of the classic cyberpunk novel Neuromancer by William Gibson in a rehearsal-like atmosphere. Combining Gibson's 1980s dystopian techno-fetishism with early twentieth-century abstraction, faux "virtual reality" scenes will unfold via moving Bauhaus-inspired sculptural props accompanied by the Gamelan ensemble Dharma Swara.

Case premiered at the New Museum on November 22nd. It will also be performed in summer 2010 in a small outdoor community theater in rural Missouri. The actors for the November 22nd performance include Ray Radtke, Sasha Grey, Lionel Maunz, Sto, Tony Conrad, Sindri Eldon, Peter Segerstrom, Melissa Baxter, Rachid Outabia, Emily Mahoney, Brandon Stosuy, Jee Young Sim, Guil R. Mullen, Brody Condon, and Mallory Blair. The script was prepared by the writer Brandon Stosuy, with sound design by Peter Segerstrom, and graphic props by Breanne Trammell. The event was commissioned and presented by Rhizome and Performa 09.

Below you will find a photo essay of the six-hour long performance, that documents the performance, musicians, and actors at various stages of Case. All photographs were taken by Kristianna Smith.

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Interview with Brody Condon

Lauren Cornell | Tue Nov 17th, 2009 12:05 p.m.

Cover of William Gibson's novel Neuromancer

Scheduled for its New York premiere this Sunday, November 22, Case is an experimental adaptation of the 1984 novel Neuromancer by William Gibson. Considered a classic work of the literary genre cyberpunk, Neuromancer tells the story of Case, a fallen super hacker whose glory days have long since ended, leaving him in a drug-addled, regret-ridden state that lifts when a mysterious entity offers him a second chance. Charged, kaleidoscopic, and prescient, Neuromancer dilates on virtual reality, artificial intelligence and a globalized world through the intricacies of Case’s story. Case (2009), conceived and produced by artist Brody Condon, will be a day-long installation and performance that, in the artist’s words combines “Gibson’s 1980s dystopian techno-fetishism with faux ‘virtual reality’ scenes that will unfold via moving Bauhaus-inspired sculptural props accompanied by the Gamelan ensemble Dharma Swara.” I asked Condon a few questions in advance of the New York premiere so readers, near and far, could get a sense of how this ambitious work will unfold on Sunday.

Case is commissioned and presented by Rhizome and Performa 2009: the New York Biennial of performance art, whose theme this year is futurism. It will take place at the New Museum on November 22 from 1-6pm. Viewers may come and go; there is no set time required to stay. Advance tickets are available here: http://www.newmuseum.org/events/384.

Lauren Cornell: Why were you inspired to adopt Case's story in 2009?

Brody Condon: One core theme of Gibson's novel is addiction and transcendence, and is embodied by the hacker Case. The performance will feature Ray "Bad Rad" Radtke, an infamous Midwestern hell-raiser and activist, reading as the main character. This work started as a series of interviews with Ray, which I mashed ...

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AIDS 3D's "Digital Awakening" at K44 Gallery

Marisa Olson | Tue Sep 9th, 2008 1:20 p.m.

The artist statements written by Berlin-based American artists AIDS-3D read as simultaneously post-apocalyptic and utopian. They are primarily concerned with the unfulfilled promises of emergent technologies and the ways in which our daily lives revolve around these media. Alienation, self-preservation, reproduction (sexual and otherwise), and the construction of lifestyles are common themes in their work, which takes the form of performances, sculptures, and installations frequently employing lasers, electroluminescent cable, and relics from a recent past promoting the heights to which novelties of various origin will change the world. On September 20th, the duo will open the show "Digital Awakening" at Athens, Greece-based K44 Gallery, in which they will elaborate two radically different future scenarios, one in which Earth suffers "a disastrous energy crisis leading to war, famine and the breakdown of the global capitalist system" and an another where "humanity lives in a techno-utopia, where communication tools and futuristic technology fueled by alternative energy have allowed us to fully transcend into a scientifically maintained balance." Considering the potential impact of current directions in the field of energy production, these fictional accounts may not be the work of utter fantasy. - Marisa Olson

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A Spiritual Movement?

Marisa Olson | Fri Sep 5th, 2008 1:28 p.m.

Many of the artists recently covered on Rhizome have shared an interest in spirituality, particularly as it intersects with mythology and ethos. Call it new media three-point-something, this sect of artists is also significantly prolific and a new show at Prato, Italy gallery Project Gentili surveys very recent work by a handful of the most interesting, including Maurizio Bianchi, Brody Condon, Deva Graf, Shane Hope, Xavi Hurtado, Michael Jones McKean, Dexter Sinister, Damon Zucconi, and AIDS-3D. Entitled "Pole Shift," the show alludes to a recent resurgence in New Age attitudes and interest in the metaphysical; particularly the conjecture that the earth might undergo an axial adjustment, causing a relocation of its poles. (Some worry warts link this prediction with the fear that an expiration in the Mayan calendar in the Gregorian year 2012 signals not only a pending geographic shake-up, but also an apocalypse.) Appropriately, many of the works in the show combine technology and a keen interest in systems with an end-of-an-era, eleventh-hour-type fervency sure to keep viewers on the tips of their toes. After its preview in Italy, the show will be reincarnated in nearly the same shape at Art-Forum Berlin, October 25-December 15. Assuming the world hasn't turned upside down by then, the show's worth adding to your art tour itinerary. - Marisa Olson

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Rhizome 2009 Commissions: Announced!

Rhizome | Wed Jun 25th, 2008 1:10 p.m.

Image: Angelos Plessas, Still from 'ElectricityComesFromAnother Planet.com' Proposal

We are pleased to announce the international group of artists who will receive grants through the Rhizome Commissions Program, this year.

Their projects will culminate in a variety of forms, from performance, to sound, to interactive websites and installation, to works that manifest across multiple disciplines. Each one pushes forward the field of contemporary art engaged with technology. All works will be completed by Summer 2009 or earlier, with information available on Rhizome.

The next call for commissions will take place in January 2009. Commissioned artists receive a grant and are invited to present their work at Rhizome's affiliate, the New Museum of Contemporary Art.

Marfa Webring, Jona Bechtolt, Claire Evans, Aaron "Flint" Jamison
In Marfa Webring, the artists Claire Evans, Jona Bechtolt and Aaron "Flint" Jamison will attempt to alter the Google search results for the town of Marfa, TX by creating a Webring and, then, (with the cooperation of the town's permanent residents) investigating the results of this action on the daily life of the town.

Case, Brody Condon
Brody Condon will re-create William Gibson's cyberpunk classic Neuromancer at a red barn theatre in rural Missouri with a local, former political activist in the role of the protagonist.

Untitled (Plate Tectonics), Andy Graydon
Andy Graydon explores sound as a building material. The project begins with field recordings taken at New York City arts institutions and manifests as phonograph records and a website where visitors are encouraged to add their own ambient recordings of installation and performance spaces.

Versionhood, Kristin Lucas
The artist Kristin Lucas recently changed her legal name from Kristin Sue Lucas to Kristin Sue Lucas and, thus, in her words, created "the most current version of Kristin Sue Lucas." In Versionhood, Lucas will consult ...

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The Tomorrow People

ed halter | Thu May 29th, 2008 9:16 a.m.

In his 1971 essay on post-Holocaust culture "In Bluebeard's Castle," George Steiner notes that in nineteenth-century Europe "an odd school of painting develops: pictures of London, Paris, or Berlin seen as colossal ruins, famous landmarks burnt, eviscerated, or located in weird emptiness among charred stumps and dead water." Comparing these visions to 20th century photographs of war-ravaged Warsaw and Dresden, he wonders "how strong a part of wish-fulfillment there was in these nineteenth-century intimations." Or self-criticism: Gustav Doré and Blanchard Jerrold's 1872 book London: A Pilgrimage depicts a dark metropolis teeming with the bodies of the poor, then ends with an eerily serene image of a future London, crumbling and overgrown like the remains of ancient Rome-- a urban memento mori. One recalls these European precedents while viewing the exhibit "AMERIKA: Back to the Future" at Postmasters Gallery in New York; the key to this tightly composed set of works lies in Jennifer and Kevin McCoy's Big Box (biosphere), a set of two miniature suburban landscapes. Each one depicts a typical American shopping mall, comprised of the facades of familiar chain stores and restaurants-- Chili's, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, The Sports Authority and so on-- reconfigured into a circular structure that slowly rotates on a mechanical table (the exact order of the businesses taken directly from a specific mall in Nyack, New York). Tiny cameras feed live images to screens above, enlarging the scale models to strangely lifelike dimensions. In one part of the installation, the mall includes a mesh-wire dome at its center, overgrown with green moss and trees, with small plots of vegetables and flowers planted outside. In the other, the same structure, now hollow at its center, is burned and crumbling, surrounded by bloodstained human figures; letters have been torn off of logos ...

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