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Tag Archives: critique

events

“Real Costs” with Michael Mandiberg

May 10, 2007; 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm.
Eyebeam - 540 W21st Street, New York
real cost

Upgrade! NY
May 10, 2007

Eyebeam Resident Michael Mandiberg presented a talk and workshop about his new project Real Costs. Attendees were encouraged to bring a laptop to play along. Programming knowledge was useful.

This hybrid talk/workshop included a 30 minute presentation of the project, and how it related to Michael’s previous work, followed by guided modding of the script. Michael provided a focused walk through of the code, and then set everyone free to make some modifications and provided feedback for the project.

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events

kanarinka

September 14, 2006; 7:00 pm;
The Change You Want To See Gallery - 84 Havemeyer Street, Brooklyn
3_sep2006

Upgrade! NY
September 2006

Mapping impulses, locative media projects and psychogeographic investigations of place and community have proliferated over the past decade.

There is a rich, interdisciplinary field of practice and new strategies.   Tactics and tools are being invented all the time. However, there is also the need for critical evaluation and discussion of the relevance and impact of these cultural projects. Read On »

Uncategorized events

We Passion Power and Control – the dark desires of art under surveillance

August 29, 2006; 7:00 pm;
Eyebeam - 540 W21st Street, New York
International Little Feet Bureau

Upgrade! NY
August 2006

This time the Upgrade event attempted to take on the dark desires beyond the basic art/privacy/surveillance discourse.

Through three projects exercising different modes of surveillance we discussed artists jealousy of authoritative powers and the desire to posses these powers themselves. Read On »

events

Surajit Sarkar

March 30, 2006; 7:00 pm;
Eyebeam - 540 W21st Street, New York

8_march2006

Upgrade! NY
March 2006

Surajit Sarkar discussed his work with the A Deep Fried Jam trio and the community art initiative in India the Catapult Arts Caravan in relation to the media consumption in India.

Surajit Sarkar lives in New Delhi, India. He has held positions as varied as photocopier salesman, bank officer, primary school teacher and developer of curriculum for primary school children and teachers alike. Since 1991, he has worked with video, at first in mainstream television writing and directing a highly successful weekly science & tech program on Indian national TV network. He moved to documentary film making, and has worked on subjects ranging from agriculture, education and the uneven costs of ‘development’. A number of these have been recognized nationally and internationally and have won prizes in film festivals in India and abroad. Read On »

events

microRevolt with Cat Mazza

April 30, 2005; 12:00 pm;
Eyebeam - 540 W21st Street, New York

16_april2005

Upgrade! NY
April 2005

April marks the Ugrade! anniversary.  We entered the sixth year with our annual brunch at Eyebeam. The Upgrade! opened a day of events to mark the completion of renovations at Eyebeam’s Chelsea facility.

Our guest speaker was Cat Mazza, the founder of microRevolt. Cat talked about the microRevolt projects that use knitting, machines, and networks to draw attention to issues of sweatshop labor. Among the web projects are knitPro, Knitoscope and the Nike Petition Project. Cat talked about logo subversion, craft hobbyist culture and the anti-sweatshop movement. Read On »

events

Michael Mandiberg

February 24, 2005; 7:00 pm;
Eyebeam - 540 W21st Street, New York
IN Network

Upgrade! NY
February 2005

A new media artist who uses the Internet, video and performance to explore subjectivity, labor, and commerce.

Michael Mandiberg spoke about his web and video projects which explore subjectivity, technological mediation, and (public) performance. He also previewed a new project made in collaboration with Julia Steinmetz entitled IN Network.  IN Network is a cell phone, life art performance, which launches March 1st.  IN Network is commissioned by Turbulence.org.

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events

Upgrade! Anniversary Brunch w/Jennifer & Kevin McCoy

May 1, 2004; 12:00 pm;
Eyebeam - 540 W21st Street, New York

Soft Rains

Upgrade! NY
May 2004

Jennifer and Kevin McCoy are Brooklyn-based artists who make projects about how our thoughts, experiences and memories are structured through genre and repetition. In order to focus attention on these structures, they often reexamine classic works of science fiction or television narrative, creating sculptural objects, video projections, or live events from what they find. The McCoys discussed their new projects Eternal Return, Soft Rains, and Second Date, the latter two of which opened at Postmasters Gallery on May 8. These were part of a new cycle of work that made narrative video projections with miniature cameras, motors, and fragments of tiny film sets.

Uncategorized events

SWIPE

April 29, 2004; 7:00 pm;
Eyebeam - 540 W21st Street, New York
SWIPE

 

 

 

 

Upgrade! NY
April 2004

Brooke Singer, Beatriz da Costa,and Jamie Schulte discussed their ongoing collaboration.

SWIPE began as a performance and installation that focused on data gathered from driver’s licenses—a form of data-mining that businesses are starting to practice in the United States. Bars and convenience stores were the first to utilize license scanners in the name of age and ID verification. These businesses, however, admit they reap huge benefits from this practice beyond catching underage drinkers and smokers and fake IDs. With one swipe—that often occurs without notification or consent by the cardholder—a business acquires data that can be used to build a valuable consumer database free of charge.

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events

Ricardo Miranda Zuñiga

January 29, 2004; 7:00 pm;
Eyebeam - 540 W21st Street, New York

NEXUM ATM documentation

Upgrade! NY
January 2004

From ice-cream cart to grocery cart to ATM, Ricardo transforms elements of urban life into vehicles for interaction and discussion.

Melding new media, sculpture, public display and performance, Ricardo Miranda Zuñiga investigates current and historical issues by framing his research into works that mediate temporary public commons. At this month’s meeting, Ricardo discussed Vagamundo, NEXUM ATM, the Public Broadcast Cart, and works in progress. Read On »

events

Zhang Ga

June 26, 2003; 7:00 pm;
Eyebeam - 540 W21st Street, New York

Upgrade! NY
June 2003

Zhang Ga is an artist and the co-director of agent.netart, a joint public program by NETART INITIATIVE and INTELLIGENT AGENT.

Zhang Ga’s interest lies in a recombinant construct of the analog and the digital, the real and the surreal, which manifests itself in both the ambiguity and unpredictability of imagery with regards to speed and time, and the dynamics resulting from such tension between the inability to control and the anxiety of grasping the ephemeral.

His recent online body of work deconstructs and rebuilds from cultural iconography new interpretations and examines the dilapidated humanism in the age of technological sublime. Read On »