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Tag Archives: popular culture

events

Jillian McDonald and Jamie O’Shea

February 22, 2007; 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm.
Eyebeam - 540 W21st Street, New York
celebritism

Upgrade! NY
February 22, 2007

A celebrity-centric Upgrade! with artists Jillian Mcdonald and Eyebeam Resident Jamie O’Shea.

Jillian McDonald, famous for “Me and Billy Bob,” presented old and new work which focuses on the subcultures that drive the celebrity and horror film industries. She showed a DVD, some quicktime files, a data-driven web project and more dvd. Jamie O’Shea performed an extraordinarily efficient art experience at precisely 8:22:22 on 2/22. An entire performance, narrated by Corey Sullivan, took place within 1/5 of a second. Jamie’s automated memory process created an indelible, and effortless, impression of this instant.

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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

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.

events

Marie Sester

February 26, 2004; 7:00 pm;
Eyebeam - 540 W21st Street, New York

ACCESS documentation

Upgrade! NY
February 2004

Marie Sester presented three recent works based on the notions of transparency, visibility, and access.  Her  work explores ways that societies implement forms. 

Marie Sester’s work questions the perspective of the West, and the meta-state of a New World Order.  She employs archetypes and referents as starting points. For several years, Marie has been committed to working with already-existing data or phenomena, including airport and large scale x-ray imagery, architectural ground plans, elevations and sections, vehicle plans, city maps, aerial views, and historic, archeological and art documents. Marie has also been creating immersive installations using technologies from both the Hollywood and surveillance industries. Together these propose a connection between individuals and wider forces, or larger scales, or longer time-bases. And thus reconsider what a society or a community is engaged in, and therefore the individuals, in their everyday life. 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 »

events

Peter von Brandenburg

June 26, 2002; 8:00 pm;
Eyebeam - 540 W21st Street, New York

Upgrade! NY
June 2002

 
upgradeny.blip.tv

Blackhawk brought a multifaceted history of his experiences in the art world to this month’s Upgrade!

The four decades presented were complete with anecdotes, projects, and theories conceived during his varied career and forays in the visual arts. Over the course of his presentation he depicted three stages of his art world career and how they contributed to his opinions of meta-trends, as well as the status of artists, curators, and critics today.

As an introduction to provide a frame of reference for his experiences in and strong views regarding the current art world and genres, Blackhawk began his presentation with a description of his childhood with artist parents. To further the understanding of his beginnings, he provided those in attendance with a review of the work generated during the late 50’s and 60’s and explained the impact and significance of growing up and developing with exposure to and awareness of such revolutionary work.

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Uncategorized events

Eric Zimmerman

June 20, 2001; 7:00 pm;
Eyebeam - 540 W21st Street, New York

 

 

Upgrade! NY
June 2001

Eric Zimmerman talks about his work as a game designer.

Eric Zimmerman started out his presentation with an impromptu game, engaging the audience with a few simple rules for interaction; no board, no props and/or tools. With this example, Eric demonstrated the simple constructs for game development, which one builds upon to create more complex interactivity and ultimately—”meaningful play.”

The first few examples of work Eric demonstrated were not digital, but rather an office card game called Suspicion as well as an interactive book entitled In the Garden. Both examples highlighted his strategy regarding the development of interactivity that is meaningful in terms of a game experience. Eric described creating moments of choice-and-outcome and decision-and-action for the participants of his games. This method for constructing a game with these moments of decision was likened to building with LEGO blocks, with the goal being meaningful play. Read On »