Jeff in Madagascar

Ok, it has nothing to do with women roaming the globe, but this picture had to go up.
Thx to Jeff + Nikki.

itinerant

At the prompt of Noah Wardrip-Fruin's visit to Naomi Spellman's class at the University of California, San Diego, I ordered his book Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media. Although I'm not a big gamer, the emphasis on play and analysis of the virtual / actual overlap attracted my attention. Since Noah teaches at UCSD's School of Communications, local favorite thinkers / artists—like Lev Manovich and Adriene Jenik—are in the book..as they should be. Having just dipped into the book, I've only read Teri Rueb's description of her artwork Itinerant involving a small pocket PC with GPS and headphones. As a participant moves to a specific section of the city, their new location, tracked by GPS, triggers the playback of sounds that have been "placed" in that area. Excerpts from Mary Shelly's Frankenstein and Rueb's text about an uncle (I think fictional) who wanders the world with restlessness and is ostracized by their family.

Teri Rueb is one a handful of artists doing great work with GPS systems. The incorporation of this technology in stories about Female Expats navigating the globe make sense. More about Teri's work is at terirueb.net.

world's top 100 most livable cities

For those of you bouncing around the globe, deciding where to go next, a useful website listing the World's Top 100 Most Livable Cities was just posted.

Thanks to www.illumineerima.com for the head's up.

Enjoy.

New Nomadism

I wish I could go to this conference. http://www.symposiumc6.org/home/
April 26-28, 2007
The Art World is Flat
Globalism—Crisis+Opportunity
Chicago

bomb shelters

Check out this video shot inside a house with objects flying back into space. http://www.spyfilms.com/FTP/METRIC/EMPTY(web).mov Related to my artwork's flying figures (think dislocation and new ideas about space), the video was meant to see. Make clear connections to Zabriskie Point, Michelangelo Antonioni's 1970 film where objects explode at the end.



Wandering into my friend's bomb shelter also served as recent inspiration. The contrast between my floating figures and figures burrowing deep into the ground works well. The discovery also informs the show I'm curating this fall (Oct 1-Nov 11) at FSU's Museum of Fine Arts called Locating Secret Psychological Space. A post with info about the show is soon to follow.

Writing Home

April 25 | Town Hall Readings: Writing Home

PEN American Center
588 Broadway, Suite 303
New York, NY 10012

When: Wednesday, April 25
Where: The Town Hall: 123 West 43rd St.
What time: 8 p.m.–9:30 p.m.

More info: http://pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/1305/prmID/1411

Thanks to Yanira Castro for sending me the link.

errant

Word of the Day for Tuesday, April 3, 2007
errant \AIR-uhnt\, adjective:

1. Wandering; roving, especially in search of adventure.
2. Deviating from an appointed course; straying.
3. Straying from the proper standards (as of truth or propriety).
4. Moving aimlessly or irregularly; as, an errant breeze.

Errant comes from Middle French errer, "to travel," from Late Latin iterare, from Latin iter, "a journey"; confused somewhat with Latin errare, "to wander; to err."