Diane Rehm on expats

http://wamu.org/programs/dr/07/11/06.php#18202

This link should take you directly to the audio.
http://wamu.org/audio/dr/07/11/r2071106-18202.ram

Miwon Kwon's Comments on Nomadism

From Miwon Kwon's "The Wrong Place." Art Journal > Vol. 59, No. 1 (Spring, 2000), pp. 32-43.

It occurred to me some time ago that among many of my art and academic friends, the success and viability of one's work is now measured in proportion to the accumulation of frequent flyer miles. The more we travel for work, the more we are called upon to provide institutions in other parts of the country and the world with our presence and services; the more we give into the logic of nomadism, one could say, as pressured by a mobilized capitalist economy, the more we are made to feel wanted, needed, validated, and relevant. It seems our very sense of self-worth is predicated more and more on our suffering through the of always traversing through elsewheres. Whether we enjoy it or not, we are culturally and economically rewarded for enduring the "wrong" place. It seems we're out of place all too often.

But what is a "wrong" place? How does one recognize it as such, as opposed to a "right" place? What do we really mean by these qualifying adjectives? Is being in the wrong place the same thing as being out of place? And what are the effects of such mis/displacements for art, subjectivity, and locational identities? In light of the intensified mobilization of bodies, information, images, and commodities on the one hand, and the greater and greater homogenization and standardization of places on the other (which, by the way, facilitates the smooth, unimpeded mobilization and circulation of these bodies, information, images, and commodities), I continue to wonder about the impact, both positive and negative, of the spatial and temporal experiences that such conditions engender not only in terms of cultural practice but more basically for our psyches, our sense of self, our sense of well-being, our sense of belonging to a place and a culture.

Finally to work on the expat book. Post your comments soon if you'd like to be included. See my Friday, July 20, 2007 post for more info.

art + blog = blogart?

When I started female-expat.org in 2004, my dream was to bring together the creative outpourings of women spread throughout the globe in one place online. The exhibition call below inspired me to not only have it exist online, but to have us collaboratively create a book that would be made available at lulu.com because although we love our computers as a way to explore content, many of us still enjoy having a hard bound book that we can hold in our hands while we take a break from technology.

Here's the quick and dirty directions to this project:
1) Scoll through the images
2) If any image relates to your own experience, write a poem or simple phrase in the one-line thought / quote from another offer, etc that relates.
3) Enter your poem, comment, quote, etc in the comment line for all to read (you can also email me your comments at jdietrick@gmail.com)
4) The best comment will be paired with that image for a book that will be made available online.
5) I'll buy and mail a copy of the book for those people whose writing is chosen.
6) The book will remain online for other female expats for years to come.

Thanks for participating!
Joelle
jdietrick@gmail.com


http://weblog.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=8&title=call_for_entries_internet_based_art_java&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

a + b = ba ?
[art + blog = blogart?]

JavaMuseum - http://www.javamuseum.org
is starting its 2nd phase
by publishing on open call focussing on the question
whether blogs and/or blogging can be tools for creating a new type of net based art.
The launch of this new project in September 2007
is planned to be also the occasion for re-launching
JavaMuseum after a phase of re-structuring since 2005.

[More:]

.
JavaMuseum - Forum for Internet Technology in Contemporary Art,
founded in 2000, realized between 2001 and 2005
18 show cases focussing on Internet based art in a global context,
including more than 350 artists from 40 countries.
In this way, JavaMuseum was able to show for the first time the dimension of Internet based art as a new and individual art genre, even if it is continously said to be dead.
.
For a + b = ba?, JavaMuseum is inviting
artists to submit such an art project
which is using the blogging technology.

One blog project only can be submitted.

Please use this form for submitting:

1. first name/family name, email address, URL homepage
2. short artist bio/CV
3. title of project, year of launch
4. URL of project
5. short project description ( English, no more than 300 words)
6. 2 screen shots (jpg, 800x600 px)

7. answer the questions of the interview
which can be found here --->
http://weblog.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11&cat=80

Please send the requested material via email to
info@javamuseum.org
subject line: a+b submission

Deadline 31 July 2007

obituaries + movement

Notebooks from a Creative Capital Foundation workshop has me writing one, three, five and ten year goals. Then it asks me to write an obituary. Although it sounds like a morbid task, it does put every goals into perspective. Now I'm nosing through the New York Times obits only to find one on Isabella Blow. When her rich grandfather escapes gambling debt by fleeing to Kenya where "he joined the Happy Valley set of alcoholic, aristocratic semi-exiles." It's no wonder when expatriates are thought of as privileged vagabonds. I flash back to a squirrel seen yesterday—specifically to his skip, skip, leap, skip and his simple joy found in movement—maybe in less cynical terms, that is what all the moving is about...

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.