There are very few artists that I meet who would delve into the nerdiness that is spending any length of time discussing Linux, but then again, there are few SXSW Interactive visitors that would care to dissect the finer points of Jeff Koons’ Inflatable Hulk installation at the Lever House (pictured right). So where in the social Venn Diagram do these disparate groups meet? For some, it will no doubt be the philosophy of the GNU/Linux project. For others, it will be the price (free) and the ability to recycle old computers into digital art projects. And for still others, the meeting point at which the Art world meets the Linux world will be when Linux can provide the platform through which exhibitions can have supplementary material more easily presented about more traditional forms of art.

Regardless of those potential incentives, I believe Linux will become integral to the exhibition of software in contemporary galleries as we move forward, if for no other reason than the fact that Linux can emulate almost all the operating systems that have come before it. For archival purposes alone, Linux is an attractive endeavor for the future digital curators among us who seek to present exhibitions that include older digital works that no longer function correctly on current machines. Many early net.art pieces relied on early web technology that simply won’t run on the latest crop of high-powered machines.

Is it just a Kiosk, then?

My talk will be very brief, as I do not have the experience of artists such as Zach Booth Simpson, Joshua Davis or Jared Tarbell. The focus of the talk will center primarily on my experience working with Ubuntu Linux to create a kiosk designed for the traditional art gallery environment to adequately convey the digital experience of the High Five project proposal (pictured at right). Namely, I will cover:

Technical Concerns

• Art is always difficult economically, Ubuntu allows for computer re-use, dedicated computer that is not the artist’s primary computer
• Free Software, so entire project is therefore available for redistribution, re-deployment, no license fees to sell it, exhibit it
• Show proper setup of wireless router / computer combo to insure access to web
• Show the proper configuration for a boot immediately into Firefox
• Firefox plugin that locks onto a single webpage, kiosk-like operation
• Firefox resets every 10 minutes, insures experience begins at correct place, removes possibility of excessive shenanigans
• Proper screensaver settings
• Uninterruptible power supply, automate the turning on of the work
• Linux has a strong track record of sustained uptime - used on many webservers for his reason

Gallery Ritual Concerns

• Art is predominantly Mac market - it will not replace this currently
• Wireless access is key, negotiations with gallery
• Proper concealment, locking down of computer
• Have slanted screen, or projector - more comfortable than flat-on-the-wall screen
• Have a mouse but no keyboard

If I have left something out or you would like to share your experience with software in the gallery and its failure or success, please add a comment, or send me an email. I am most interested in how the presentation/orientation/interface of the work effected its experience, and how to improve the presentation of digital works in traditional gallery spaces.

Exhibiting Software
July 22 2008 : 4:20 - 5:10p
Ubuntu Live - Oregon Convention Ctr - Rm 2
Portland, Oregon

tags: portland, oregon, ubuntu, linux, contemporary-art, software, kiosk, ubuntu-live

If any of his clients would rather work with a real web designer you should contact me. Most of the proof is in the code itself, but it is not hard to spot visually either. He is stealing all of this code from my original css/xhtml/php work at okaymountain.com which he recently took my name off the copyright (i think that might even be illegal). As expected though, the lazy Kaz Raad still left my name on the footer of the front page and the mailing list page. Here are the examples…

• okaymountain.com
• msieben.com
• handmadeaustinwomen.com (now changed)

Homepages

Here he at least changed a few font sizes and modified it from my more contemporary div-based layout to a table-based layout that would work with his Dreamweaver install. Notice they all follow the same news format (in the code it is exactly the same), News Headline, then “posted on 12/23/2008″, and then the paragraph. By keeping my stylesheet and css class definitions, Kaz was able to easily modify a few font-sizes and typefaces. The main menus and news items all use the same WordPress generated code that I created from templates.

Inner Page

Whether its the copied left-side navigation, the square thumbnails with captions that float, or the headline, it is pretty clear to me that some serious borrowing occurred here. Maybe I should be flattered?

Mailing List

I installed my customized version of web-insta mailing list for Okay Mountain, an open source software. He copied this installation, which the license allows for handmadeaustinwomen.com and msieben.com. It just bugs me how similar they are though.

If it weren’t obvious yet

I left the saddest example for last. In this screenshot of handmadeaustinwomen.com’s contact page (it’s on the about page also), you can clearly see that the title of this page still says “About OKMT”, which is stolen from the okaymountain.com page. I mean, come on Kaz, check for errors when you copy!

The backstory

This all started in 2006 when I designed okaymountain.com for the local Austin gallery upstart as a favor to Nathan Green and Michael Sieben, two really amazing Austin artists. Michael Sieben did most of the graphic design and came up with a really good look and logo. I spent time coding it out and working it into a WordPress template. They needed to be able to edit themselves, so I worked hard to make it easy to edit through WordPress. Then, I poured in the content they had, setup a custom mailing list php-based application. There was a lot of content because every artist involved had their own portfolio page. It took about 60 hours all-told, a full-time gig as far as I’m concerned, and a donation to the arts community in the hopes that another alternative space would thrive in Austin, Texas. I was taking a clear paycut for this work, as I passed up several freelance jobs to get it completed.

The agreed upon compensation for this site was a work from the opening exhibition by Jason Villegas. How cool is that right? The site was a bit slow because Okay Mountain had to host with really awful and unreliable Dreamhost to save money, but it worked and they were able to edit it, it looked like Michael Sieben’s designs, had a functioning mailing list and integration with flickr. Not bad for a first draft, and I was committed to making changes and updates throughout the year to make it better.

So I went to the preview for Jason’s show, picked out my piece (pictured below) and told Sterling Allen. Jason’s work is so elegant, I loved the little drawing and the details on the whale. I had to have it.

Sterling said the piece was too expensive at 1400, or maybe it was 1600, I can’t remember. Instead, he was willing to offer me $500 store credit…erhem I mean gallery credit. I was completely dumbfounded. Really? Even though we agreed to it? Even though I told you my expectations were for a piece with a market value over $3000, as I had done in previous trades? Even though my 60 hours were already done and you had a functioning site on time? Even though I would have charged you a lot more if you paid me hourly? What a fool I was to trust you bunch of schmucks.

I looked around to salvage the deal and discovered the brilliance of Sterling Allen’s business acumen. Okay Mountain doesn’t sell anything for $500. It was $100 or less, or $1000 or more. So I could either have 5 things of questionable collecting value, or I could pay the mountain another $700 for something that was really worthwhile. Genius, get your workers to buy stuff from the company store like them olden days. So I decided better just to grab the cash and maybe buy 1 item for 100 just to have a little memento of the whole thing, nevermind the updates that would have been made during the year as needed, and as part of the collective spirit I thought I was engaging in.

Then, they hit me again with it. Sterling couldn’t give me $500 in cash, because it was store credit and the store had to pay the artist 50 percent, so he offered me $250 bucks. So I said Okay mountain, you win, I’ll take the hush money. $250 for 60 hours of work. Thank you for respecting me as an artist and for supporting my work. Well played sir.

So what, why am I crying about it?

I have a problem with holding grudges. I do it rarely, but when I feel that someone has been a real asshole, and gotten away with it, it is always hard for me to shake. The Austin arts scene is sort of a walk-on-eggshells kind of scene, though, so noone really speaks in public about those things, although in private I hear differently. I have been so privileged with the opportunities I have received to exhibit in Austin, so it just comes with the territory I guess. You take your lumps and move on, and try to do better the next time. However, with everyone desperate for opportunity, any criticism is marginalized as an attempt to derail the potential success of some future austin arts market. My story about Okay Mountain will probably be included in this, we’ll see.

After reading the following article in the recent Austin Chronicle that essentially begged people to buy Austin art, or in more palatable and egalitarian terms “support” austin artists, I was struck by The Sterling Allen’s quote:

Not to reduce art-making to monetary terms, but an artist getting paid for his work translates to more studio time and other resources for making better art. No artist I contacted would stop making art for lack of sales – no one is an artist for the money – but having someone buy work can be the ultimate compliment and motivator to keep on working. And as your career gets more serious, it helps you pay for supplies, studio space, rent, life. As Sterling Allen explains: “[Getting paid] didn’t used to matter. I liked showing, and it was a bonus to sell. In the past few years, it has become more important. I respect my own work that much more, and it simply isn’t enough to have someone like it. I want to be rewarded for it. I also would like to get to the point where I wouldn’t have to go to work and sit at a computer all day and instead just focus on art. I will always make stuff no matter what, but it is very encouraging to sell work. It keeps you going. As we get more mature and ambitious in our practice, the cost of making work also goes up. I didn’t used to need a studio. I also didn’t used to worry about safely shipping work. The more serious and dedicated you become, the more expensive life gets.” Show And Sell by Clayton Maxwell, Austin Chronicle, May 14, 2008, Vol.27 No.28

It just breaks my heart that Sterling isn’t rewarded for his work (image at right) and that he has to sit in front of a computer all day to make art. Welcome to the elite club of privileged college educated kids who are lucky enough to have jobs in this economy working on a computer. Don’t take it for granted!

Clearly, the larger point that artists in Austin need to be paid for their works is correct, and they need to help educate the public on new forms of art and art experiences that they may not yet know about. But, we have been witness to an unprecedented boom in art prices and an unprecedented boom in the very very rich. This can not be over-stated so our expectations have to weathered with this knowledge. In addition, I think it is a little naive to think that you would be making a living as an artist after only 5 years out of college without an MFA from a major arts school in a major arts market, but every little bit of editorial coverage of the matter helps, i guess. If Austin wants to be a successful visual art market then we need to stop thinking that the work going into behind-the-scenes gallery work can all be volunteer. The incentive to make the arts market great will be driven by the potential profits, not just the not-for-profit grants which get sucked into new buildings instead of new works anyway.

Open Doors Expansion opened this past weekend. These are a few photos of my installation, Stairway followed by pictures of the work in progress and the original scale model. The work features a 20-foot steel staircase with a 6-inch cement base that surrounds a pre-existing wall and is covered in over 6500 collected/donated trophy statuettes.

Stairway will be on view at the Dallas Contemporary until January 12, 2008. I will continue updating this site with new photos, videos and text as it becomes available.

This installation would not have been possible without the help of my family, C+J Services, Martisa Asghari, Iraj Asghari, Alma Asghari, Leslie Connally, Joan Davidow, Benjamin Feldt, Till Richter, Arturo Palacios, Tristan Rhodes, Maximilian Toth, Jeremy at Austin MacFab, Myron at the Meadows Foundation, Cruz Reyna, Eagle Forklift, all the artists of Open Doors Collective and the hundreds of trophy donors who I have communicated with over the past two years. Photos by Shaune Kolber (1-3, 5,7), Hunter Cross (8,9) and Paul Abbott (4,6).

tags: dallas, open-doors, exhibition, dallas, contemporary-art, site-specific, large-scale, art, sculpture, installation, austin, dallas, events, news

Reception: November 17, 2007, 7 ~ 9:30p

Dallas Contemporary announces its upcoming exhibition Open Doors Expansion, is viewable Saturday, November 10 through January 12, 2008. Open Doors Expansion features large-scale, site-specific installation works by Open Doors Collective, an Austin, Texas based group of artists. A members’ opening reception, to which the public is invited at a $10 entry, is set for Saturday, November 17, 2007, 7 ~ 9:30 pm.

Co-curated by Texas artists Hunter Cross, Terra Goolsby, and Jacob Villanueva, Open Doors Expansion comes to Dallas for its first showing as another dynamic project of the Open Doors Collective.

Six artists will showcase new large-scale, site-specific installations that are multi-sensory, spatial, material inventions: Nancy Brown [Dallas] graces the wall with delicate assemblages; Hunter Cross [Austin] constructs a two-story steel stairway covered in collected trophy statuettes; Terra Goolsby [Austin] builds an environment of suspended acrylic spheres and discs decorated with nail-polish; Eduardo Navarro [Buenos Aires] sets up a bank of fax machines to fill the gallery with daily transmitted drawings; Maximilian Toth [New Haven] draws a large mural in his signature style; and Jacob Villanueva [Austin] combines cellar doors and video projections challenging the viewer’s notion of space and locality.

Six large-scale installations

Terra Goolsby manipulates translucent spheres injected with nail polish and suspended in arcing organic shapes to create an environment whose beauty compels the viewer into its formal grasp. Goolsby exposes the organic qualities of her hand-picked and deftly manipulated synthetic materials.

Hunter Cross has collected once coveted, but now unwanted, trophies from all over the United States and Canada. These golden statuettes cover his 20-foot ascending Stairway. The mini figures set in contrast to the black painted steel hardware deal with contemporary American culture’s complicated relationship with competition. The strangely beautiful collection of discarded memories becomes an abstract representation of a population connected by competition and collaborating with contributions.

Nancy Brown uses thousands of tiny pins to create representations of the many poses of a wild fox. Brown’s visual language communicates the movement and mischievousness of the fox. In her previous works, Brown explored the symbolism of animals in Grimm’s fairy tales and the figurative possibilities of “wall-stickable” materials.

Eduardo Navarro will draw directly on his recent experiences within the international art world. Working from his studio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Navarro will transmit daily drawings to the gallery via a bank of 8 installed fax machines. In the tradition of deceased artist Felix Gonzales-Torres, these drawings will be available to visitors of the gallery for free. Navarro’s work is about building a relationship with space that involves exchange. Visitors who experience his work inevitably complete the work by choosing to leave or take the drawings, giving shape to his work.

Jacob Villanueva’s previous sculptural video work has been leading to this installation of three cellar-like constructions that contain high definition LCD screens. The screens will be populated with new videos during the exhibition’s run that will show residential and industrial sites important to Villanueva. The artist continually challenges himself to incorporate the latest video technologies into his process while at the same time keeping his installations accessible and austere.

Maximilian Toth’s paintings use multiple layers of meaning and symbolism to depict images from personal experiences, his friends’ stories, ancient mythology and gossip from his childhood town in Massachusetts. His images are raw, arresting and filled with the sinewy stress of excess, aggression and unfiltered loss. This mural of white lines on black ground is the largest work Toth has yet to complete, covering an entire wall of The Dallas Contemporary.

A history of installations

Site-specific installations have been an essential element in Dallas Contemporary’s exhibition history: including works in Building Blocks, Wall Power, Siting Sculpture, Constuctions & Architecture, and New Art in Austin: 22 to Watch. Mix! Artists such as Luz Maria Sanchez, Alejandro Almanza Pereda and Jose Krapp add spice to our site-specific history.

Showing concurrently with Open Doors Expansion are two exhibition series: in Hallworks, Sara Ishii presents paintings of faces emerging from poured paint, and in 3 D on Swiss, Jorge Misium creates an outdoor, site-specific piece of tensioned wire and bent shapes.

Dallas Contemporary publishes a color brochure to accompany each exhibition. The German art historian, independent curator and critic Till Richter is the guest essayist for Open Doors Expansion. Richter holds a Master’s degree from the Sorbonne, Paris and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in contemporary art history at the University of Texas at Austin.

tags: dallas, open-doors, exhibition, dallas, contemporary-art, site-specific, large-scale, art, sculpture, installation, austin, dallas, events, news

Work is steadily progressing on my trophy-covered stairway to be installed in November as part of the Open Doors Expansion exhibition at The Dallas Contemporary. With the help of many generous individuals and Texas’ thriftstore abundance, the trophy count has topped 1,500. However, I need more trophies.

If you or your family members have any old trophies boxed up in the garage and would like them to be re-used and digitally archived, please consider donating them to this project. If you know of any trophy-makers liquidating old stock or athletic organizations freeing up store-rooms, please don’t be afraid to contact me to arrange a pickup. I am willing to arrange shipping if neccessary.

Focused Re-Use

I feel that the process of collecting trophies is a key element of the work and began in earnest in mid-2005 as part of the develoment of Arch for Open Doors’ In Between. This work focuses on re-using these golden statuettes en-masse, each representative of a particular person at a particular moment in time.

In effect, each statuette represents a datapoint from someone’s competitive life and through their individual choices for co-operation, something larger is created. The distinct impulses for competition and co-operation are brought together. Further, the work’s construction and reliance on recycled material expresses well the concept of “small pieces loosely joined” and supports ideas of a more sustainable art practice that need not look like nature or feel like garbage.

Often, I hear trophy donors say that they wanted to free up space. Your donation of these trophies requires an implicit acknowledgement and acceptance of the shifting priorities in your life as new objects, priorities and memories lay claim to the importance once held for the trophies and competitions they represent.

Population Representation

Each trophy is to be photographed and archived online. This trophy archive is a mass of individual’s metadata, a representation of a participatory population and document of the changing styles in the last 50 years of American trophy-making. The work contributes to the digitally knowable identities of the individuals involved. In this way, the memories of the trophies are honored while their physicality becomes part of a larger more communal form.

Here are links to the online portions of the project, still very much in development. I look forward to everyone experiencing the installation in Dallas, TX in November 2007:

Trophy Collection, 2005-2007

• Arch
• Stairway (Maquette)
• Trophy Collection (Archive)
• Project’s Flickr Photos

tags: recycle, cooperation, competition, crowdsourcing, trophies, trophy, collection, trophycollection, archive, art, sculpture, installation, austin, dallas

Social Behavior and Organization Among Vertebrates

Serving as a thorough introduction to evidence gathered by his zoologist buddies, William Etkin describes animal society as a structured web of interactions created by individuals co-operating and competing in response to species-held signals and intra-chemical reactions. The compact volume is filled with useful discussions for sorting the contradictory nature of the human animal.

My copy’s dust jacket is missing, its spine water-stained and its condition poor. Despite this, the sharp black letterforms left-aligned and embossed on its canvas cover caught my eye. Inside, the heady discussion of topics such as social rank, aggressive behavior and shifts in adrenal cortex weight are held together equally by justified paragraphs and illustrated vignettes. Each page rational, humble and optimistic by design.

For example, a male tern brings a fish to his “intended” mate. At this time the mate is perfectly capable of fishing for herself and this attention seems superfluous. After toying with the fish for a while the female may discard it. Clearly, hunger played no role here. Yet all along the shore in the spring, terns may be seen presenting pieces of fish to others and doing it, furthermore, with elaborate, precise, and formal ritualistic movements. p9 Social Behavior…

Collaborative production

Social Behavior and Organization Among Vertebrates was published in 1964 by the University of Chicago Press right before Morris Philipson became director in 1967. It remains a classic example of collaborative production with its prescient blend of anecdotal summary and rigorous observational data. Clocking in at 306 pages, these 6 scientists link mammalian behavior and reproduction to the social, chemical and global climate cycles. By working together, they create a book strengthened by the hard-binding of a well-regarded press but powered by the soft-binding of their personal friendships, shared interests and pooled resources. Each is given their own space to work within, therefore each is given responsibility to the whole. This co-operation gives their ideas the best chance at survival.

Further, these scientists were aware of beauty’s power to persuade and decided to take the presentation seriously. As much as we would like to believe that our decisions are based on rationality over emotion, we must concede that many decisions are outside our complete control. Put plainly, we want what we want when we want it. Therefore, the acceptance of ideas, just as the incorporation of gene mutations into a species population, depend on certain rituals of presentation.

Standardized courtship

FIG. 7.9 documents intricate courtship movements of surface-feeding ducks, frozen into distinct poses over time. Once documented, these movements can be observed in all members of the species from a particular locality. [Originally from K. Lorenz] It is this standardization, this signaling of intention, that unites a species. Animals raised in isolation, will not exhibit this learned behavior. I find it interesting that we can observe such clear standardization in other vertebrates and not corellate it to contemporary human society. Humans are products of their social structure and the opportunities available within that structure and continuously balance their dual nature to compete against and co-operate within their society.

Even Andy Warhol, noticed the standardizing aesthetic of photobooth picture strips and resulting allure of his birds posturing over time. Notice Edie Sedgwick’s turn of her face in the first and third strip from the left. These two poses are almost identical, and appear unconsciously copied. Further, Warhol’s portraits in drag were in fact copies of these poses, direct implementation of learned behavior.

Social Group or Aggregation

But surely, our socializing is more complex than knowing when a girl is flirting with you and when she has a crick in her neck. We can recognize signals, but to what end?

It is clear that our organizations are built on shared signals and insider vocabularies define group boundaries and knowledge of the group. But do all social groups require the same amount of commitment to be included?

“a flock of sheep is a social group, since it is maintained by the social responses of the animals to one another; but the massing of insects around a light at night is an aggregation, since it results from their common attraction to the light.” p24 Social Behavior…

I’m interested in this distinction especially when applied to human socialization. When considering Longhorn fans, a megachurch, rock band or austin art scene, which are aggregations and which are social groups? And since both aggregations and social groups exist within human society, how is each useful?

Art y fact

Social Behavior and Organization Among Vertebrates was clearly conceived as a cultural artifact, in the same class as other gestures created when scientists and artists share common interests. Etkin compiled the book in the late fifties during a time of sustained economic growth, returning soldiers and technological expansion, when science was too important to be left to the scientists. I imagine purchasing a copy after turning up a Stubborn Kind of Fellow 45 or on my way home from seeing 2001: A Space Oddyssey.

Experimental tests have supported the modern view that natural selection operating on the genetic system of higher organisms can effect rapid and delicate adaptation of these organisms to the changing demands on the environment. Dobzhansky 1951

Further, Etkin’s evolution-supporting edition refutes Creationism’s biblical estimate of a 6,000 year old Earth. This could lead you to believe that his book trashes religion, but instead his observations support notions that organized religion might actually serve civilization best as a potential stabilizer.

The human animal can be driven towards faith in all manner of situations. But, left unchecked this faith can develop into a challenge to our species’ survival when given control over government and the military. When any majority belief excludes humanity’s tech-assisted evolution from primates and our inherent and embraceable similarities to other mammals we are choosing to break with ancestors. We walk upright among the vertebrates, and we must teach this critical path.

With difficult, untaught content, the old guard scientists refactored their stories into simplest form, but none simpler, before presenting. Having bore the intellectually bankrupt permutations of a generation of social darwinists, these experimental archives were finally fit to print.

And print they did

Nothing reveals a deep-seeded Bauhaus love and serious fontnerd involvement more than essay titles such as The Evolution of Signaling Devices rigorously typeset in Paul Renner’s Futura. In this spirit and in the spirit of opposing those wrong-headed social darwinists, we should remember that Renner’s letterforms were produced in opposition to his participation in the German ranks. It is my faith, that Futura was produced in hope for the triumph of rationality and scientific balance.

“In Renner’s view, the taste for large volumes, which equated weight with prestige, betrayed a potential flaw in the German character: ‘the fatal desire for greatness,’ by which Hitler was also notoriously motivated.” Art of Typography

So, in a continued state of war, religious fervor and outright barbarism is it any wonder that Futura, the papadopoulous, and its inspired son, Neutraface, born from the architecture of Silicon Valley, now seem to show themselves everywhere: from bricks to billboards, and monograms to grammies? Our idealism and its aesthetic remain, as we seek to embed both in creations that outlive us.

Until they ran out

Social Behavior and Organization Among Vertebrates is available, although not directly. Here are a few used book resellers to try if interested and a few high resolution scans from my archive if your public library’s copy has gone missing.

• pp. ii, iii
• p. 1
• pp. 6, 7
• pp. 10, 11
• pp. 50, 51
• pp. 78, 79
• pp. 94, 95
• p. 194
• p. 195

tags: cooperation, competition, evolution, futura, science, social, behavior, typography, warhol, zoology, art, religion, books, science

This is the passing glance, the war seeping into the daily reading. The rendered fighter jet strafes into the audience’s crosshairs, then the hero shoots, filling the screen with a flash of red. How clinically cartoon of you. Is this distilled war-profiteering for the arm-chair general? Or is it good ole’ fashioned learn-from-mistakes Journalism? Surely there exist international policies that can bring about less of this footage for the History Channel’s stellar line-up.

Election - Nov. 7

Speaking of international policies, it seems like forever since we started staying the course with the never-so-great Decider and his Republican Party. As a willing participant in the globalized free market, isn’t it time to change the course? Early Voting is available at local schools and grocery stores but ends this Friday, Nov. 3. If you are in Travis County (most of you Keeping it Austin), then you can vote at any of these early voting locations (pdf). Of course, that is if our benevolent electronic voting machines are working properly. Bring your driver’s license, Texas ID card or voter registration. Not sure what’s up for grabs? Check the Chronicle’s coverage.

If you miss the early voting convenience, please please please make time on Election Day - Tuesday Nov. 7. So there, you got everything you need, rock the vote.

Studio 107 - Nov. 5 (3-6p)

On the smaller scale, I have four new works to show you. A series of intricate remote control button networks and a glass stack built with emerging shapes of purple, magenta and sea green 3M brand arrow flags.

You can see them starting this Sunday, when Studio 107 has its Holiday Punch opening reception featuring works by Candace Briceño, Nancy Brown (part of Open Doors Expansion), Jason Buchanan, Hunter Cross, Sarah Nix Ginn, Terra Goolsby, Baseera Khan, Leona-Scull Hons, Simeen Ishaque, Deborah Roberts, Takako Tanabe and Jessie Tong. The exhibition runs until January 1, 2007. 906 E 5th St, Austin, TX - Map and directions.

Blue Theater - Nov. 9 (10.5p-1.5a)

In addition to the recent works, I’ve been organizing an evening of music for the Complicate Everything Fall Review. The Nov. 9 music show starts at 10:30 following the night’s performance of The Assumption by Refraction Arts. Thursday is pay-what-you-can at the Blue Theater, and our show is no exception. 916 Springdale - Map and directions.

Special guests this year include San Fran’s own Marco Panella and Roger Thomasson who will perform songs from critically-hailed 2006 release Dark Side of the Cop. The Always Already start the night off, Mediums subdue with jazzy bombast and Aaron and I give you some Randy-Newman-learns-to-love-his-laptop crooners to finish. Did I mention it’s practically free? It’s also the closing night for Mass Gallery’s 20MB video show curated by Aaron Dubrow (Austin) and M.F. Tichy (NYC), so get out there and do it all in one night. Bring your extra cash to support the musicians by purchasing their CD’s.

Nov. 9 Schedule:

• 10:30 - The Always Already - mp3
• 11:30 - Dark Side of the Cop - mp3 - on tour
• 12:30 - Mediums - mp3
• 01:00 - Cross and Castillo - mp3, mp3

Moving In

My new place is cozy. Cacti for a fence and two small holes in the screen from when it swings open snagging on the mailbox. The band next door stays up nights whooping bluegrass while the red-lit house across the street throws parties. A drunk fratdaddy kicks over trashcans, while a boy dressed in drag screams on his cellphone in the middle of the intersection and a girl driving her BMW skips the stop sign. What’s not to like?

tags: election, art, austin, music, moving

I no longer program from scratch what others have perfected. I am a gatherer, an installer, a customizer. My process grew simpler. It should come as no surprise to those in the industry, that I rely heavily on free website engines such as WordPress combined with custom templates and plugins. By using free software, I can spend more time creating beautiful layouts, discussing client goals, researching cost-effective hosting and ensuring that updates are not a pain in the neck.

The benefits of this approach were so immediate, I feel compelled to share my notes about what works.

Planning

• Mockup Phase
  Use Fireworks, use pen and paper, gather content, talk alot to establish shared aesthetic language, discuss within boundaries of open source projects / hosted web apps to save cost
• Good Hosting
  Choose reliability and speed over cost and features. Always searching for that perfect host. Install roundcube for webmail.
• Backstage admin area
  WordPress, osCommerce, Drupal, Shopify, Django, Ruby on Rails
• Integrated Search
  WordPress, Yahoo, Google

Content

• Beautiful, unique character
  There is still no substitute for the emotional response to professional use of colors, space, author’s voice, multimedia and design elements, Embrace accordingly
• Easy image management
  Flickr, iPhoto-Flickr integration, WordPress, Auto-generated page icons
• No nerd needed
  Markdown Extra, Flickr Photo Albums, phpIcalendar, Custom WordPress plugins
• A bit of hi-fi
  Lightbox, SiFR-based typography, YouTube, Quicktime VR
• Accessibility constantly improving
  Alt tags for images, 508, Talkr, Alternative larger text, Hidden “skip to content” links, Video transcripts
• Cross-platform
  Looks great in IE 5.5+, Firefox, Opera (if possible) and Mac’s Safari, Degrades gracefully on older browsers

Structure

• Web craftmanship
  Nice typography, Effective writing, Simple URL’s, “Looking for Something” error page, robots.txt, Use 4 corners as natural areas of functionality, Use conventional interface elements to enhance usability, Favicon
• Contemporary code architecture
  XHTML and CSS-based, Use customized templates, RSS available, Microformats, Subversion controlled
• Secure
  Seperate development from deployment code, Input-filtering, XSS attack awareness, Daily backups, Strong passwords
• Reciprocal Development
  A proportional amount of custom code is contributed back to the open source projects that reduced client’s cost/time-to-market

A website is part newspaper, …

Often required to communicate the goings-on, while archiving past content and creating an intuitive yet beautiful experience, a contemporary website has many areas in which to fail. Perhaps the website represents only an individual, perhaps it represents an entire company. Both, on varying scales, must function like a newspaper, delivering recent news and establishing online credibility, and must do so within severe limits on typography, formatting, bandwidth and code. For many designers, these are new assumptions. So where do we turn to create the optimal web experience? For starters, the ephemeral nature of newspaper design is a good candidate for web translation because, as is often true for websites, newspaper development is distributed and continuous.

Fear not. With very few exceptions print layouts can be replicated online. However, these image-heavy sites, will be as hard to update as their prehistoric paper daddies. So it must follow, that contemporary website quality is based on how well the web developer chooses to build upon the web’s assumptions and within the web’s limits. In real terms, the design is not complete if it is hard to add content.

Therefore, web developers are responsible for knowing about new services that improve website management and integrate them appropriately. At minimum, site owners are empowered to update their text content. At best, site owners feel in complete control of picture-scaling, paragraph-styling, and page layout all while avoiding the majority of hand-coding. Newspapers call this workflow and your website needs it.

… part museum, …

Due to the web’s immediate affinity for delivering content regardless of age, a reasonable system of organizing your client’s content into a searchable archive is a responsibility not a feature.

Some clients will surely want to create some intentional mystery by diligently “cleaning house.” Question their intentions, but be open to the general idea while gearing up to preserve the high-grade older content. Having a well-curated archive is in your client’s best interest. As the global reliance on instant information continues to grow, each site must communicate the client’s present realities by organizing open access to their past. And it is an easy and reliable way to establish an initial level of trust. For the incessantly practical sitting in the cheap seats, however, a quick Alexa submission will satisfy this general notion, preserving some historical record for you automatically. Call it archiver-friendly.

… and part mountain climb.

Creating a solid backstage admin area makes updating less of a chore, allowing the website to function efficiently through sustained growth. Check.

But, with all the well-conceived templates in the world, browser-based editing, Flickr integration, new-fangled web engines and liberal use of Markdown in place, your well-built website remains unfinished until those responsible for the content walk through the updating process.

Adjustments will be made, new code will be written, but this is not a problem for technology alone. This can only be solved through real hands-on instruction, cheatsheets and an open phone policy when something goes wrong. Demonstrate how to create interior links, walk through image uploading and write down how to add pages. Be considerate of others that don’t speak the geek. A strong investment in education always yields the best results.

Did vs. Done

You probably noticed the self-promotional screenshots accompanying this essay. These are the best of my summer work. I am sure that you are just dying to see how well I practice what I preach, so here are some handy links…

From top to bottom:

• Factory People
• Rupert Neve
• Auger Down Records
• Art Palace
• Shaune Kolber
• Okay Mountain (not pictured, spring ‘06 launch)

As always hit the comments with your feedback and thoughtful criticism, but please bear in mind, this is my house.

tags: wordpress, webdevelopment, freesoftware, webdesign, php, archivers

Initially, the proposal was a photoshopped version of the Google maps interface, that short-changed the interactive internet-accessible nature of the work’s experience. Instead, I imagine a person at home happening upon the project while using the mapping service to plan a trip to downtown Austin or scope out the fair city’s unstoppable loft culture. The single image was fine for a first draft, but not quite right.

This meant using the publically available Google Maps API to create a version of the proposal that could be used just like the real thing. Thanks to the work of intrepid developers and internet-posted code snippets, the proposal could take advantage of Google’s current satellite imagery. So, now you can play with the interactive proposal that is also available at Arthouse. And if you have an idea similar to this proposal, the source code is readily available for you to use for non-commercial purposes.

Technical Note: This proposal is formatted for the gallery’s 17inch flatscreen and has only been tested in Mac Safari and Ubuntu Linux’s Firefox.

Internet as Site…

I view this simultaneous presentation via internet and Arthouse as similar to the Non-sites of Robert Smithson, in which an earthwork is conceived in duality: inside and outside of the art space. High Five is to be made from the internet’s emergent informational systems just as some of Smithson’s earthworks were interventions made using the material of Earth’s naturally occurring processes. I think it is worth investigating this idea further because the contemporary art space’s role will be redefined by the internet and its globalized audience. Pictured: Smithson’s A Non-site (Franklin, New Jersey), 1968. © MCA, Chicago.

… And the kids are alright

“Juried group exhibits of new work are the art equivalent of ‘American Idol.’…Chang clearly has a pluralistic, democratic and inclusive outlook. Hence ‘New American Talent: 21′ is expansive, electric, even a little jumbled. It even feels a little messy, in a good way…”

XL Entertainment - Jeanne Claire Van Ryzin

nice take, a little too much ink spilt on the art world’s obsession with “best-of” exhibitions. really choice quote here though - “Like so much video work coming from young artists, what’s on those monitors is largely patience-trying, self-indulgent junk.” More at JCvR’s blog. - hc

“…[W]hat the show lacks in visual-fatigue space, it makes up for with sheer energy and a squeaky-clean installation….Hunter Cross, Rebecca Ward, and Michael Berryhill are among the standout artists from Austin. Cross contributes another proposal for an unrealized project, this time on Downtown Austin’s rooftops (he showed several more earlier this year with the artist collective Open Doors at the Dougherty Arts Center). He’d like to blanket the tops of four buildings that flank Arthouse, plus the exhibition space itself, with a field of bright violet color just long enough to be captured by a satellite and loaded onto Google Earth. Once Cross’ intervention entered the public record, High Five would disappear, leaving behind documentation accessible for around 18 months….At Arthouse, at least, you can catch a glimpse of what’s happening in the rest of the U.S.”

Austin Chronicle - Amanda Douberley

we noticed a lot of the same elements. your best-in-show was certainly a worthy piece, very nice and well made, but a love of minimalism has already gone so far…what’s her new work going to look like i wonder?…more by rebecca holland - hc

“One can also replace the word “newâ€? with “eidetic,â€? an impulse of pure visual manufacture, that, in this show comprised (mainly) of younger artists, can tellingly inform a viewer which established artists are on the kens of those exhibiting just as much as the inherent creativity resident in each of the younger artists themselves….But if you ask what this show actually means for the future, I can only tell you that I didn’t inhale.”

…might be good by James Bae

um…really? - hc

This interactive proposal would not have been possible without the help and encouragement of Leona Scull-Hons, Maegan Ellis, Justin Goldwater, Nathan Green, and Aimee Chang. Thank you.

Yeah, OK, but how long until the real thing appears?

Glad you asked. First, I need each building’s permission. One down four to go. After that, it’s up to the satellite imagery brokers. According to a representative at Digital Globe, “… it really depends on when a customer decides to have that area shot or we have an opening to speculatively shoot the area.” However, general net-stimates peg the time between satellite imagery updates at upwards of 18 months, so the tarp material covering each roof will need to be weather-proof and secure. Stay tuned and…

I’ll tell you ’bout what Google sees.

tags: googlemaps, software, google, maps, satellites, art, austin, texas, publicart, arthouse

The portfolio uses a WordPress plugin that I developed to dynamically generate thumbnails from images. I hope to release this to the public soon after some more testing.

In addition, the site’s updated design has a slimmer header to give the navigation less emphasis while retaining access to my recent web development and commercial design services.