In an effort to organize my life in the two and a half days before the New Year and in preparation for some new New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve been doing a little winter cleaning on my laptop. I’ve been out of the country a lot recently and files for work and pleasure have been accumulating and commingling like I don’t know what. Time to purge. Because I’ve been out of the country I also purchased a Skype number to make it easier to conduct business on the cheap when abroad. When you purchase a Skype number you get to pick any number that is currently available (area code included) and subscribe to it for as long as you see fit. I’ve subscribed to my number for three months. When I’m done with it, it’ll be released back into the pool of available numbers. I imagine many people like me subscribe to a number for a very short period of time, and then give it up. Perhaps because of this high number-turnover-rate, some people pick up and drop numbers without notifying those that they’ve been in contact with that their number is no longer their number. Therefore, it’s inevitable that my number and I are getting phone calls for people whom I am not. When I’m not online to answer, they leave voicemails. Here are a sampling of misdirected voicemails that will never get to their intended recipient. Marcel, Tom, I am sorry.
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It wasn’t but a few hours after I originally published this post that I got two more voicemails.
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And hey. Why not go ahead and leave your own misdirected voicemail. Get some things off your chest before the new year!(917) 720-3227
They just keep coming.
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Last week I was fortunate enough to be able to get out of the city and up to the artsy air of Adams, Massachusetts. The curators at Greylock Arts gallery asked me to give a performance as part of their artist salon and in conjunction with their previous exhibit, Wearable Expressions – “a group exhibition of wearable art, accessories, and technology apparel exploring fashion as a means for individuals to dynamically express themselves.” I had a great time performing and the local audience was absolutely amazing. I wish I had audiences like this in Brooklyn. Maybe my demographic has shifted to the over 50 set. An edit from the gallery is below.
You get 5 minutes to talk about whatever you want in front of a large audience. You get to use twenty slides. Each slide auto-advances after fifteen seconds.
Back in September of 2008 I was able to convince someone that it was a good idea to let me do an Ignite talk. Actually, no, I think Tikva Morowati convinced me that it was a good idea. In any case, I decided to use the unique format to talk about Experimental Devices for Performance. The video is now here!
The end of 2008 has passed. Rather than mourn the loss of a sublimely mediocre year, I’m choosing to look forward, project into the future, and set myself up for what will undoubtedly be a just ever-so-slightly better 2009. Happy New Year!
Thanks to Andy Jordan at The Wall Street Journal for doing this nice piece about some of my technologically augmented performance stuff.
A big thanks to everyone who helped make this happen including Kate Hartman (pictured in the poster-frame image), The Wooster Group for use of their space, and Andy Jordan of The Wall Street Journal.
I totally lied and did not come through with posting CHN01′s progress. We all know how it goes. Too busy making the thing to remember to remember how we’re making it. Anyway, now’s your chance to come see what I’ve not been releasing early and often. I’ve got a performance coming up tonight! Here’s some excerpts (from rehearsal) on video! You should(‘ve) come! I was part of the “interactive art” night so there were tons of great performances lined up throughout the night.
I showed a work-in-progess piece called “CHN01″ which is more or less “PLEASEURE” again. I used a bunch of the EDP set.
Artist Michael Arthur was at the festival all weekend and made some beautiful drawings of some of the artists. I’m honored that he was able to sketch some of CHN01.
If you had five minutes on stage what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds? Around the world geeks have been putting together Ignite nights to show their answers.
Ignite was started in Seattle in 2006 by Brady Forrest and Bre Pettis. Since then 100s of 5 minute talks have been given across the world. There are thriving Ignite communities in Seattle, Portland, Paris, and NYC.
Krikorian Raffi - holmz : open database for energy consumption Deb Schultz – Alley vs Valley Jennifer Pahlka – Technology Anxiety: Jello and Web 3.0 Sam Lessin – A very brief history of privacy in our data-deluged world Nichelle Stephens – Cupcakes: The iPhone of Desserts Don Carli – The Carbon Footprint of Banner Ads, Emails and Websites and why you should care Nate Westheimer – Magic at the Democratic National Convention Andrew Schneider – Experimental Devices for Performance Audacia Ray – Porn as a front runner in technology innovations… With a twist
I know that Kati London of team Botanicalls (the plants that call you on the phone when they need something project) will also be presenting.
Acting Stranger will hopefully screen in some form tomorrow at the Conflux FestivalHeadquarters in the Village. I’ll plan on being there around 1:00PM and staying until around 3:00PM. I’ll bring a couple pairs of headphones and some speakers, and most likely a slew of DVDs to hand out.
I’ve been able to shoot eleven new scenes this week, five of them just today. I’m becoming more at ease the more I have these stranger experiences with the participants. I have been too often worrying about lines, and making the other person comfortable, and hoping that they are in the frame of the shot. It can be hard to let yourself go and just be present in the moment which is ideally what the project is all about. Being there. Letting yourself invest totally in someone who you have never seen nor spoken a word to. I’m realizing a lot about the project as I go forward. Conflux has turned out to be a good play ground for Acting Stranger.
All the recently uploaded scenes can be found on the new video page of acting stranger here.
Acting Stranger, the project that involves complete strangers acting out short and intense scenes with me, will be featured in the upcoming Conflux festival, which will take place all around NYC from September 11-14 (next weekend!). You can signup directly at actingstranger.com or you can head down to festival HQ at the Center for Architecture in the Village (536 LaGuardia Place), where you can also check out these other psychogeographical projects from some of my friends:
Ignite NYC II: Energy, Cupcakes, and Alley vs. Valley