On Lindsay Howard and Temporary Highs
Posted by | Paris Jomadiao | Posted on | October 12, 2016
This week’s Conversations at the Edge program features Temporary Highs, a research project and series of linked exhibitions by net art curator Lindsay Howard. To accompany the program, we are linking to an interview with Howard published by Observer. In this interview, Howard speaks with writer and curator, Ryan Steadman, about the importance of net art and her projects leading up to the conceptualization of Temporary Highs.
To read the interview, please visit: Curating Internet Art, Online and IRL.
Still from True Life: I’m a Selfie – (Fake True’s Negativity Remix) (Petra Cortright, 2013). Image courtesy of the artist.
Tags: 2016 > Digital Media > Internet Art > Lindsay Howard > Net Art > Temporary Highs
Temporary Highs – Thursday, October 13
Posted by | Amy Beste | Posted on | October 7, 2016
Still from True Life: I’m a Selfie – (Fake True’s Negativity Remix) (Petra Cortright, 2013). Image courtesy of the artist.
Temporary Highs is an ongoing research project and series of linked exhibitions by curator Lindsay Howard that explores how the structure of the internet enables reward-seeking behavior in a compulsive cycle of sharing and consumption. It focuses on artworks that operate in a space where immediate gratification is paramount and multitasking has become a requisite social behavior. Featuring works by Pascual Sisto, Addie Wagenknecht, Petra Cortright, Hannah Perry, among others, this screening examines the pleasure and anxiety around these experiences as well as the constant search for validation, understanding, and connection.
Curator Lindsay Howard in person
2013-16, multiple artists, multiple countries, multiple formats, ca 60 min + discussion
Lindsay Howard is an independent curator specializing in how the internet is shaping art and culture. She curated the first and second digital art auctions at Phillips Auction House in New York and London, respectively, which were called an “art breakthrough” by WIRED magazine. She founded the exhibition program at 319 Scholes and served as a Curatorial Fellow at Eyebeam, a leading art and technology center in the United States. For the past year and a half, she worked as the Curatorial Director at NewHive, where she lead community engagement projects and commissioned more than 30 new online artworks. She has lectured at Bennington College, Carnegie Mellon University, New York University, and SAIC.
On Jenny Perlin
Posted by | Paris Jomadiao | Posted on | October 6, 2016
This week, we are excited to welcome graduate student, Julia Sharpe, to write for us! In her essay, Sharpe reflects on Jenny Perlin’s The Perlin Papers, an unsettling exploration of the United States’ culture of paranoia during the Cold War.
The Perlin Papers, J. Perlin, 2012. Image courtesy of the artist, Simon Preston Gallery, New York and Galerie M+R Fricke, Berlin
Jenny Perlin’s The Perlin Papers is an archive at Columbia University of declassified FBI documents on nearly 200 people peripherally related to the trial and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in the early 1950s. The first six films of this series reconstruct transcripts, recordings and hand-written materials from the archive. The seventh film is the fictitious depiction of two female transcribers at their desks. The eighth film is surveillance footage of a storage warehouse. As Perlin states at the beginning of the series, the films search around the “edges of the main story, unknown names, forgotten records, bad copies, scraps and bits.” Through the exploration of these mundane, bureaucratic and incomplete records, Perlin highlights the problematic nature of both surveillance and the archive; both are created in a context that allows for a specific interpretation of the materials gathered within it. That is to say, materials gathered under suspicion seek out the suspicious and therefore find the suspicious.
The Perlin Papers, J. Perlin, 2012. Image courtesy of the artist, Simon Preston Gallery, New York and Galerie M+R Fricke, Berlin
The Perlin Papers, J. Perlin, 2012. Image courtesy of the artist, Simon Preston Gallery, New York and Galerie M+R Fricke, Berlin
The fourth film in the cycle reenacts a transcript and recording from a 1953 dinner party, demonstrating this pattern. We listen in on the conversation from outside of the dinner party apartment. The camera moves from the entrance to the building up to the door of the apartment. We get close to the people speaking, but we never see them. At times, it is difficult to hear what they say. We hear words like “committee,” “meetings” and “witnesses.” But we also hear muffled sounds. When this scene closes, the voiceover notes, “the informant fills in words he cannot understand.” The fifth film shifts to the writing of this transcript, which appears as a vocabulary list because the most common word is “inaudible”—an indication that the informant cannot hear what is being said. The focus on this inaudibility calls the rest of the transcript into question. By emphasizing this unreliability, Perlin leads us to see that when taken out of context words can be used to reinforce a certain interpretation. In this way, the dinner party becomes self-fulfilling. Because the informant is looking for certain words, the informant finds them. The atmosphere of this reenactment displays an aspect of surveillance and the archive that are often unaccounted for in the legal system. Both are prescriptive; both are curated interpretations. In order for each to exist, there must be a set of criteria necessary for a document to be included.
The Perlin Papers, J. Perlin, 2012. Image courtesy of the artist, Simon Preston Gallery, New York and Galerie M+R Fricke, Berlin
The Perlin Papers suggests that material collected under surveillance is unreliable. Because we cannot see the people speaking at the dinner party or hear everything they say, we cannot contextualize their words. Once language becomes separate from its immediate context, it’s meaning can be interpreted so as to fit another’s purpose. During the McCarthy era of unilateral indictment, this kind of interpretation inculcated a society of fear. Perlin unmasks this process, revealing the ways “those who work to make things visible and those who work to make themselves invisible.”
The Perlin Papers, J. Perlin, 2012. Image courtesy of the artist, Simon Preston Gallery, New York and Galerie M+R Fricke, Berlin
Jenny Perlin: The Perlin Papers – Thursday, October 6
Posted by | Amy Beste | Posted on | September 30, 2016
Still from The Perlin Papers (Jenny Perlin, 2006-12). Image courtesy of the artist, Simon Preston Gallery, New York and Galerie M+R Fricke, Berlin.
The 1953 execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg—US citizens accused of spying for the Soviet Union—haunts The Perlin Papers, Jenny Perlin’s (MFA 1998) unsettling exploration of the United States’ culture of paranoia during the Cold War. Produced as a cycle of eight films, the project draws from an archive of FBI files kept on hundreds of people only tangentially related to the case. Perlin highlights the minutia and assumptions recorded in the archive: in one sequence, an FBI-bugged dinner party comes to life, full of ellipses and muffled words; in another, the hasty notes of a government informant are carefully reanimated. The result brings the era’s darkest moments into conversation withstate surveillance today.
2006–12, USA, 16mm transferred to digital, 54 min + discussion
Jenny Perlin (b. Williamstown, MA) is an artist working in Brooklyn. Her practice in 16mm film, video, and drawing works with and against the documentary tradition, incorporating innovative stylistic techniques to emphasize issues of truth, misunderstanding, and personal history. Perlin’s works have been exhibited around the world, including the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka, Croatia; the Drawing Center, New York; and the Kitchen, New York. Her work is held in the public collections of the MoMA and Whitney in New York and the Seattle Art Museum. Perlin received her BA from Brown University and her MFA from SAIC and completed postgraduate studies at the Whitney Independent Study Program. She teaches at the New School and the Cooper Union and is represented by Simon Preston Gallery, New York and Galerie M+R Fricke, Berlin.
On Sally Cruikshank
Posted by | Paris Jomadiao | Posted on | September 28, 2016
This week, we are excited to welcome animator Sally Cruikshank to kick off our fall 2016 season! In preparation, we are excerpting part of an interview with Cruikshank published by Art of the Title. In this interview, Cruikshank looks back over her career with Art of the Title Managing Editor, Lola Landekic.
Sally Cruikshank, still from Fun on Mars, 1971.
Lola Landekic: So, maybe before we get into the major film work and the commercials and Sesame Street and the National Film Registry, we can start at the basics. How did you get into animation?
Sally Cruikshank: Well, I was an art major in school at Smith. In my senior year, I taught myself about animation and made a film. A professor helped me set up a photo enlarger and that got me started. I graduated early from Smith and went on to the San Francisco Art Institute because I wanted to get as far away from New England as possible! I made a couple of art films there, just on my own. One was called Fun On Mars, which was sort of my reaction to San Francisco.
That was followed by one called Chow Fun, for which I got a tiny grant from an organization that eventually became South by Southwest, many years later. While I was editing Chow Fun at Snazelle Films — I went in and rented a Moviola to edit it — I got a call that the boss wanted to see me. I finished the editing, and I thought, “Oh man, I must’ve broken the Moviola.” I thought I was in trouble. Instead he said, “I want to hire you to experiment in animation.”
LL: And that’s how you got hired at Snazelle?
SC: Yeah, so Gregg Snazelle hired me and I had this great job where they let me work on my own films. Gregg called it “heading the animation department” but it was just me, so I was just heading myself! He was hiring me to do commercials when we got them, and then the rest of the time to experiment with animation.
They had recently done some great and recognized commercials for Levi’s using rotoscope, one was called The Stranger and it was very well designed, by Chris Blum. Gregg Snazelle won many awards for them. It was done in rotoscope which hadn’t been seen much since the ’40s. They revived rotoscope, really.
Sally Cruikhank, still from Connie’s Shoes advertisement, 1972.
So then I did some commercials for them. I believe I did the first commercials for The Gap when it was still just a clothing store in San Francisco, and I did a commercial for Connie Shoes.
I’ve been looking for the rest of those commercials. I used to have them on a 3-quarter inch tape, but that wasn’t a very strong format. They’ve all disintegrated. Formats become obsolete so fast, it’s just stunning. One-inch tape, too. That used to be like the rock solid format for commercials, for broadcasting, but that’s another super fragile format that they can barely save anymore.
We got very few commercial projects, actually, but I had to go to work, 40 hours a week, one hour for lunch, so I got busy and made cartoons.
One thing that was so different is that Gregg didn’t care about owning anything I did. I had signed no contract; there was no, “All of this belongs to me,” which is everywhere now in the business. When my films were finally finished, he still didn’t want to own them! They were my films and I’d made them there. It was a wonderful arrangement.
Sally Cruikshank, still from Quasi at the Quackadero, 1975. Image courtesy of the artist.
LL: What was animation like then, in the 1970s? How did the industry seem to you?
SC: The industry was mainly down in Southern California, really. In Northern California we were so out of that. There was so little production going on there. Gregg was doing commercials, but it was more just art. I felt I was an artist experimenting with things. The scene in LA was very male-dominated, and in San Francisco there was very little animation going on…
For more, visit: Sally Cruikshank: A Career Retrospective, Part 1 and Sally Cruikshank: A Career Retrospective, Part 2.
Sally Cruikshank’s Cabaret – Thursday, September 29
Posted by | Amy Beste | Posted on | September 23, 2016
Still from Face Like a Frog (Sally Cruikshank, 1987). Image courtesy of the artist.
Since the 1970s, Sally Cruikshank has produced some of the most mind-bending independent animations of her generation. Featuring a motley assortment of talking animals and smart objects, her works blend the anarchic style of Depression-era cartoons with a darkly humorous sensibility. In her best-known film, Quasi at the Quackadero (1975), a misshapen duck blunders through a surreal amusement park. In Face Like a Frog (1987), creatures cavort to music by Danny Elfman. Cruikshank presents work from throughout her career, including classic Sesame Street spots and a recent new media project featuring a chatbot named Whinsey. Film prints courtesy of the Sally Cruikshank and Jon Davison Collection at the Academy Film Archive.
1971–2016, USA, multiple formats, ca 60 min + discussion
Sally Cruikshank (b. Chatham, NJ) is an artist and animator. Her work has been screened in movie theaters and broadcast on televisions around the globe. Best known as an independent animator, she has also produced spots for Sesame Street and titles for feature films like Ruthless People (1986) and Smiley Face(2007), among many others. Cruikshank is the recipient of numerous awards including the inaugural Maya Deren Award for Animation from the American Film Institute. Her 1975 film Quasi at the Quackadero is considered one of the most important independent animations of the 20th century and was inducted into the US National Film Registry in 2009. She splits her time between rural Colorado and Los Angeles.
Announcing Fall 2016
Posted by | Amy Beste | Posted on | August 23, 2016
Sally Cruikshank, still from Quasi at the Quackadero, 1975. Image courtesy of the artist.
We’re thrilled to announce Conversations at the Edge’s fall 2016 season! Guests include Sally Cruikshank, Jenny Perlin, Sara Magenheimer, Nicolás Pereda, Paul Kos, Jacolby Satterwhite, Brett Story, curator Lindsay Howard, and the group Text of Light (Lee Ranaldo, Alan Licht, and Tim Barnes) performing alongside films by László Moholy-Nagy. Check out full season details here.
Fall 2016 Sneak Peek
Posted by | Amy Beste | Posted on | August 14, 2016
Still from Face Like a Frog (Sally Cruikshank, 1987). Image courtesy of the artist.
We’re thrilled to announce that our fall 2016 season kicks off September 29 with an appearance by legendary independent animator Sally Cruikshank! Additional highlights include appearances by artists Jenny Perlin, Nicolás Pereda, and Jacolby Satterwhite, among many others. Watch for our full season line-up next week!
Still from The Perlin Papers (Jenny Perlin, 2006-12). Image courtesy of the artist, Simon Preston Gallery, New York and Galerie M+R Fricke, Berlin.
Still from The Palace (Nicolás Pereda, 2013). Image courtesy of the artist.
Still from Reifying Desire 2 (Jacolby Satterwhite, 2012). Image courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix.
On Lyra Hill
Posted by | Ziva Schatz | Posted on | June 22, 2016
We are delighted to have graduate student Lara Schoorl help us conclude our spring 2016 season with some thoughts on artist Lyra Hill!
Lyra Hill, remember (2016) at Conversations at the Edge 2016. Photo by Camarri Lane.
Lyra Hill’s work as an artist, curator, and performer expresses a deep engagement with place, whether that is a physical location or conceptual mindset. In her recent show at Conversations at the Edge, Hill used the conditions of her immediate surroundings—screens, audience movement, the darkness of the theater, and recent news of Prince’s death—as raw material for her transformative performances. These included the group meditation Breathe With Cube, an immersive performative reading of her comic Cat Tongue, and Happy Ending, an enveloping new piece on death and what lies afterward.
Lyra Hill, Cat Tongue, performance at Conversations at the Edge 2016. Photo by Camarri Lane.
Although Chicago is not explicitly present in Hill’s work, her work engages the city’s arts communities. Hill is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was involved with groups such as Xerox Candy Bar and the Experimental Film Society. After her graduation in 2011, Hill founded and ran Brain Frame, a groundbreaking series of “performative comix readings” held at different locations in Chicago from 2011 to 2014. She currently teaches teens at the Museum of Contemporary Art, hosts numerous events around the city, and runs the radio show Magic Chats, for which she invites people to bring in and talk about sounds and the unseen.
Tags: 2016 > Alumni > Comics > Drawing > Lara Schoorl > Lyra Hill > Performance > video
April 21-Lyra Hill: Three Performances
Posted by | Ziva Schatz | Posted on | April 15, 2016
Thursday, April 21 | Join us for Chicago based artist and curator Lyra Hill!
Lyra Hill, still from Cat Tongue, 2014. Image courtesy of the artist and the Video Data Bank
Comics artist and filmmaker Lyra Hill produces spectacular performances that mix psychedelia with fantastic tales of self-discovery, the body, and the mysteries of nature. She uses multiple film projectors, looping audio effects, and pulsating hand-drawn images to create super-sensory environments of light, color, and sound. For this event she will present three pieces, including Breathe With Cube (2015) a “comedy trance” featuring an anaglyphic 3D cube that pulsates, grows, and splits in two; Cat Tongue (2014) a tale of sexual exploration and heavy machinery; and a new piece, created especially for the Gene Siskel Film Center, that meditates on “the end” with drawings animated by three alternating slide projectors.
2014–16, USA, multiple formats, ca 60 min + discussion
Lyra Hill (San Francisco, CA) is an artist and curator living in Chicago. Raised in a neo-Pagan tradition, Hill began teaching at witch camps and leading public rituals at the age of 16. Her 16mm films have screened at festivals internationally. She has presented her hybrid performances at the Chicago Humanities Festival, Chicago Printers Ball, Chicago Underground Film Festival, and Chicago Alternative Comics Festival. She has also presented her work at venues across the country, including Artists’ Television Access (San Francisco), Cinefamily (Los Angeles), and Echo Park Film Center (Los Angeles) in addition to countless underground shows in strange, secretive places. Hill works as a teaching artist at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. She is currently hosting and producing a weekly radio interview show called Magic Chats. She received her BFA from SAIC in 2011.
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Conversations at the Edge is a weekly series of screenings, performances, and talks by groundbreaking media artists.
CATE is organized by SAIC's Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation in collaboration with the Gene Siskel Film Center and SAIC's Video Data Bank.
Programs take place at the Gene Siskel Film Center (164 N. State / Chicago, IL / 312.846.2600), unless otherwise noted.
