geek update

it's been a while since i've written about the geeky goings-on at CIA studios. possibly because i've been so caught up in it, and because we had a couple of weeks' break there that i forgot to keep writing about it. sorry about that.

we're into the second term and are now really starting to get a rhythm with our little project - large projects are starting to take shape and the smaller ones are starting to have an effect, which is lovely.

some of these things may still make little-to-no-sense outside the bounds of the centre for interdisciplinary arts, but here's a bit about our work in progress

project socrates: the interdisciplinary arts wiki

one of the qualities of CIA that jumped out at me immediately was the importance of connections between practitioners that was facilitated by pvi and the CIA. as we were developing building each other the world, our strategic project, it became apparent that we could visualise and capitalise on the myriad of connections through using a wiki.

over the last 6 weeks, we have installed a dokuwiki wiki on our local server and begun to 'dig tunnels' connected to the building, each other and the world. 

the small picture is a helpful repository for practical information about having a residency here - network info, keys, security, emergency, maps and timelines.

the medium-sized picture is to provide a more-public place that residents can frame their practice, discuss their work and the works created as part of the residency, as well as highlighting the relationships and collaborations as part of that practice. it is also a site that unpacks the nature of the sector - information about our peers, publications, organisation and critical research.

the big picture is an interdisciplinary arts wiki that will serve the international sector. where anyone interested in interdisciplinary arts practice will come and find out more information about artists, research, practice, organisations and publications. it will be an archive for interdisciplinary arts practice across the world.

the langley screen

at CIA, there hasn't really been a place to check out what other residents are doing, researching or inspired by. we've started working on a 'channel' that uses web tech to make a navigable slide-show of works from the various places that residents post their works. 

we didn't really want to have to give people too many more places to hang out and get distracted, so we're streamlining and broadcasting on a screen in the CIA lounge. it will broadcast from residents' vimeo, twitter, instagram sites and their pages on the wiki.

the testing for that this week has been fun - playing movies on the projector and establishing the site as a space to watch stuff from. less about the tech and more about behavioural changes and 'placemaking'.

we're trying to raise some funds for CIA to be able to purchase a big screen for this project, so if you're reading this and have been wondering where to invest a lazy $1000 you've got kicking around, get in touch with the kids at CIA.

other fun stuff

-website

obviously we need to fix the website. the workflows are all out and the intergration with the blogging format of wordpress needs work. the nice thing is that steve berrick does website work with his eyes closed, so he's working on that with the pvi crew behind my back. it's great.

- the building entrance

this week i'm going to work on some not-online things related to the building. although the geek project is focused on arts in a digital era, part of being a geek is also focusing on that reference from online to real life and back again. you know - how we all love those 'no place like 127.0.0.1' mats, or '10 types of people in the world' shirts. well, i'm going to focus on the entrance of the building and making some works and installations related to CIA-aesthetic, a bit of technology and some fun things related to the residents in the building.

- stairwell cam

this is a little pet project of ours - a timelapse 1fp7s camera that is starting to capture the movement on the stairs. CIA is a two-storey studio space, with 3 studios, the CIA lounge, hub and the kitchen upstairs. the stairwell is a place that sees people out of their studios and either passing each other, or heading to the other space. it will become a fun reflection of what's going on in the building and a fun way to check out random happenings, especially when you're elsewhere.

- the isolat-o-meter

remember that crazy meter that i wanted to put in the building? well i think we're going to make it. we've started designing a combination of an iOS app, with an arduino-powered servo that turns on daily basis. it's gonna be way fun.

- movies in the lounge
we've borrowed ololo's mac mini to do some testing for the screen and in the mean time we've started showing cool movies. i've been having a jason bourne marathon. hey, so that i could get into the swing of CIA-style aesthetics! and we also checked out the arcade fire/spike jonze suburbia love fest. it's been pretty fun and has felt like the centre is active and alive.

sadly, not much time left

my role has been as a catalyst for the project, with steve berrick, who will stick around to implement the rest of the projects. i've only got 2.5 weeks left, which came around quite quickly. but, unlike the last geek project which felt unfinished after 3 months, i don't feel like i'm leaving an unfinished project behind. not only am i leaving our projects in capable hands, but the pvi crew and resident artists are all open to the things we've been doing, and i feel pretty confident that they'll continue.

i'll still keep in touch with the project occasionally, and will be coming back to perth in december to finish it all off and have a christmas party :) and i may even cross-post steve's blogs from here, so they anyone who has been following what's been happening can keep up to date.


links:
CIA studios facebook
CIA studios twitter

wired for sound

i haven't had a lot of time to blog lately - i'm trying to be very good with having time to make stuff and do my own admin, as well as come to the last 4 weeks of my intense residency.

and then this weekend, i'm squeezing in a quick trip to cootamundra (from perth) to participate in a very exciting workshop at the WIRED lab with joyce hinterding and david haines (you may remember me talking about joyce's work at ISEA in 2010).

i'm stupidly excited, feel wildly unprepared, but naive enough to be open to whatever the hell i learn. i'll probably be the least sound-specific nerd there, but i'm hoping to do some new listening and have a ball anyway.

a couple of things i'm interested in are the methods for listening to a non-urban, or even a non-earth-based space, and what the experience is of listening to the past - which is what stars are, really -  (extending this idea that sounds don't disappear).


I'll try and take some decent pics too - especially because the geek-in-residence project is now heavily into HTML land and very un-photogenic. :)

see you under the stars, kids.


image credit: turner_andi from flickr

was it successful?

so, the listening and being exhibition is over and to be honest, i don't really know how to assess it. which has prompted some interesting thoughts about how to value performative/experiential works.

so, how do i know if my work was successful?

i haven't come from a performance or even a contemporary art background, so a lot of what i'm learning through my arts practice is having to stretch over from tradition image-making and art-historical language. which, naturally, doesn't quite fit.

old-fashioned parameters of quality mostly include sales, or publishing. people's opinions matter too, but seeing as i was hardly available to to hear them, it's hard to say. and i haven't put in place a formal process for getting feedback by my peers yet (more on that later).

added to that, during an exhibition, as the work gets realised, and i spent time with it, the goalposts shifted slightly. i think i would have initially felt the work successful had people interacted with it, and a few of the catalogues had been taken.

but once i decided to perform the work myself, i realised that i also wanted to research more deeply the nature of listening reflectively and that set up new parameters. and then as i listened, i thought about the work even more, and built in even more ways in which the work could be meaningful and they added another layer of 'is it working'-ness to it.

so now i'm properly confused :)

in short, i think the work worked.

and yet it still has some life in it yet - as an object, as an 'instrument', as a set for more performances, and as a means of greater research. i think this might be what's called 'setting the bar higher'.

and i think this self-critical process is also good and perhaps a mark of my own maturing -  years ago i would have been crippled by the 'not enough-ness' of it all and not coped with the greyness of achieving success.

in fact, years ago, i'm pretty sure i just would have wanted you to like it and leave it at that.
how depressing.

now i think the greatest disappointment for an artist is to have completed everything that she wanted to say.






feedback etc.
all of these thoughts and some of these questions have actually fuelled a desire to create a better format for feedback for my work. and perhaps for others like it.

i've had the pleasure of being part of the feedback, etc group that has started up in perth and i really missed it when i was in melbourne. and, i became aware that the clubs model it uses works best for static, gallery-based, exhibitions that can be observed and discussed easily in real-time. this is not so easy for works like listening and being, or even the how to do things with words event from last month.

so, tomorrow night i'm going to head up a discussion about developing a model for feedback on work of this kind. we'll start to unpack what we consider 'meaningful' for an audience, and what our own parameters are. and even ask where performative work really resides - is it in real-time, or is it in our memories?

and if any of you guys have any ideas, please, chuck them in the comment section:

how to you assess the success of an experiential or performative work - especially if you were not there at the time?


i'll post the results here (and probably cross-post on the feedback, etc site too.)