Recent Posts

The Day that Cardillacs Stands up

Elizabeth Quek

Wednesday, Feb 28, 2018 - 06:51:38 pm

@ A blog for Liz

Artwork Review

(Source taken from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Ranch#/media/File:Cadillac_Ranch.jpg)

Title: Cadillac Ranch

Artist: Chip Lord

Year created: 1974/1994

Medium: Installation

Overview

Cadillac Ranch is an installation of 10 Cadillac’s buried nose deep in a line, in the dirt along route 66 west of Amarillo.

Its almost as if they were droven off a cliff and plunged head first into the ground. Now useless, the owners wander off looking for help and Read more →

Categories: Research
Tags: Artist | Artwork | Artwork Review | DIWO | Experimental Interaction | Installation | photography | Research | Writing
(1) Show Comments
Randall Packer
I like your description of how it appears that the cars in Cadillac Ranch were driven off of a cliff into the ground. And I also think it's an interesting observation you made as to the fact that the cars have been in the ground longer than they were on the road. You might have made mention that this gesture was intended to remind us of planned obsolescence, the very nature of the evolution of the tailfins. As we know, technology becomes outdated at such a fast rate, perhaps even faster today with our digital tools and mobile devices. I would also like to encourage you to consider in your conclusion, that what is truly important about Cadillac Ranch as a public artwork is how it became interactive and participatory with the viewer. People were encouraged to paint it, add graffiti, etc., So that ties in very closely with our study of interaction. Also, references from the interview with Chip Lord would have given you an added insight into this amazing work. Nevertheless, you captured it very well.
Reply

Burn Media BURN

ROS FARZANA

Wednesday, Feb 28, 2018 - 03:43:44 pm

@ Farz

Ant Farm started in San Francisco in 1968 Chip Lord and Doug Michels. In the interview with Lord Chip, they sported ‘hippy’ culture along with their media van. An art work ‘A hundred TV sets’ is something similar to Media Burn(1975), where the TV sets were built in an Read more →

Categories: Research
Tags: media | performance | political
(2) Show Comments
Elizabeth Quek
I like the way you described the art work and its purpose. Its very detailed yet very easy to understand.
Randall Packer
Very good reference to the media spectacle of Media Burn: the use of the political speech, the national anthem with the crash-dummies holding their hands over their hearts, all staged to create a mock-real representation of the very media spectacle they were critiquing. And yes, you are right, the critique included the idea of media as propaganda, intended to create an EVENT, in its elaborate staging. I'm not sure I would refer to the car as a "political car," in fact the car that drove the artist-president into the parking lot was more of a "political car." I think rather they were attempting to create something more like a spaceship, with the countdown, as though the crash-dummies were astronauts. Otherwise, very good piece.
Reply

DIWO: RESEARCH

Tan Xiang Rei

Wednesday, Feb 28, 2018 - 10:47:47 am

@ REI

DIWO (do-it-with-others) refers to the practice of having a joint project, where like minded people collaborate together. In the case of Furtherfield, they aim to  connects people to new ideas, critical thinking and imaginative possibilities for art, technology and the world around us. Through DIWO, we have striped art making from the contrails of time, space and even drastically Read more →

Categories: Research
Tags: DIWO | furtherfeild | third space | Yoko Ono
(1) Show Comments
Randall Packer
Very good connections between the performance work of Marina Abramović's Rythem 0 and Yoko Ono's Cut Piece. You are absolutely right that both of these pieces blur the boundaries between the artist and viewer, transforming the viewer into an active participant. This is essentially the idea of DIWO, to include the viewer as a collaborator, and to introduce interaction between viewers who become in many instances makers of the work. Whereas Grand Theft Avatar is indeed a collaborative work, I think you could have better emphasized this idea, rather than concentrating on the virtual space where the work takes place. In fact, the players in Second Front are a great example of DIWO and it would have improved your essay had you pointed this out. I'm not sure what you mean by mail art stripping the work and the artist of their physical space. This needs more explanation. Also, I would try and develop a stronger conclusion, remembering, that the focus of the essay is on collaboration and participation through the process of DIWO. Yes, it's true that this has the potential of bringing the artist out of solitary studio work, but it is important to be explicit in your final statement about collaboration, and how it directly engages and connects the issues. I agree, but how exactly does it do this? How is DIWO more connected to the issues than the lone artist at work? This is a very interesting question you raise!
Reply

Is this burning an ETERNAL FRAME?

Tan Yue Ling

Wednesday, Feb 28, 2018 - 10:31:18 am

@ MoonlingGraphics

|| The Eternal Frame (1975) is a videotaped reenactment of the assassinated of John F. Kennedy’s assassination by Antfarm which seeks to draw attention to the power of the mediated image.

Antfarm is a collective of radical artists founded in San Francisco in 1968 by Chip Lord and Doug Michels (1943-2003) that sought to rebel against the conformative style of art Read more →

Categories: Research
Tags: 4d | antfarm | assassination | avant garde | chip lord | doug halls | eternal | experimental | foundation | frame | interaction | interdiscplinary | media | reenactment
(1) Show Comments
Randall Packer
A very philosophical research critique! I feel this statement is very thought provoking:
Eternal Frame sought to explore the power of the media to immortalise such a historical moment and ingrain it into the minds of people by converting a real-life event into a processed memory via the media.
I think even Ant Farm has difficulty explaining the meaning of the work. But this statement speaks to the idea of how the event lives on through the mediated image, just like 9/11. These kind of iconic images are burned into our consciousness, thus memorialized, never to be forgotten. The Zapruder Film, which the Enternal Frame was based on, did exactly that, such that the artwork made critique of that phenomenon through its re-enactment. I thought your essay captured that idea very nicely. My only critique of your essay is that it may have strengthened it by adding more detail about the event itself, how it was staged, the fact that it was done in Dealey Plaza, the site of the assassination, and interestingly the reaction of the bystanders in Dallas, many of whom were there when it really happened. How haunting is that!
Reply

Burning Out

Nadiah Raman

Tuesday, Feb 27, 2018 - 12:22:33 am

@ ♡♡♡♡♡

Media Burn was an art performance piece organised by a group of artists and architects called Ant Farm. In the piece, a customized 1959 Cadillac renamed the Phantom Dream Car was driven into a bank of television monitors as seen in the image above, causing an explosive collision thus the term, Media Burn. It was driven by two men (artist Read more →

Categories: Research
Tags: american culture | ant farm | media burn
(1) Show Comments
Randall Packer
Nadiah, very good research critique. You are right, they staged Media Burn as a news spectacle in order to make it seem "real." The question, you might consider, is how do the elements of the political speech, the news crews, and the patriotic elements all combine to make the event seem real? And yes, you are right, they used the media to attach the media, to make a comment about the power of the mediated image as expressed through the mainstream media. Good job collecting all the research and putting it together in a compelling form.
Reply

Art as a Social Commentary

Daphne Ngatimin

Monday, Feb 26, 2018 - 06:49:09 pm

@ Daphne Ngatimin

Ant Farm Artists: Chip Lord, Doug Michels, Curtis Schrier, Uncle Buddie

Based as an architecture and design group by Doug Michels and Chip Lord, in 1968, it looks into the conceptual activity of the late 60s/70s. It breaks through the walls of traditional architecture into the new media. Ant Farm involves themselves in the youth’s culture embrace of communal Read more →

Categories: Research
Tags: ant farm | break free from the past | DIWO | DIY | media burn | social commentary
(1) Show Comments
Randall Packer
Very good commentary on the way that Media Burn was staged to create its own media event as a critique of the media. Glad that you were able to draw from the interview with Chip Lord, who did in fact describe the elaborate means they created to produce the Ant Farm depiction of the media spectacle. I am curious about your closing statement. Yes, this was collaborative (doing with others), but I would be helpful to understand better how the collaborative process manifested in the creation of Media Burn. It might have been a little stronger to have ended with how Ant Farm produced their work as social and cultural commentary, which is exactly the point.
Reply

[EI] Ant Farm - Media Burn (1975)

Francesca

Monday, Feb 26, 2018 - 09:49:57 am

@ Francesca

About Ant Farm:

Ant Farm is a collective of radical architects who were also video, performance, and installation artists but, above all, visionaries and cultural commentators. They are called ‘Ant Farm’ because it was the perfect metaphor to describe them – they were an active underground architecture group and collectivity was a way of life for them.

Media Burn (1975):

Media Burn (1975) Read more →

Categories: Research
Tags: ant farm | chip lord | doug michaels | experimental interaction | inflato cookbook | media burn
(2) Show Comments
Randall Packer
Very good piece. Your discussion of how Ant Farm staged Media Burn, as further elaborated by Chip Lord in our interview, was intended to create a certain authenticity in the spectacle of the event: including the flags, speech, 4th of July, and all the ritualistic trappings of a media event. Good point about how they involved the audience in their video to comment on the work, lending a certain participatory element. I am also glad to see that you included a mention of the Inflatocookbook, which was intended as a DIY guide. I might have been useful to describe more specifically how the cookbook might have achieved collaborative DIWO results, but I am very pleased you included it in your critique, as this as this support the interdisciplinary nature of Ant Farm's work as a media collective.
Jocelyn
ACCESSED NOT ASSESSED!!!! Just joking. but really, not assessed. I like how you brought up the cookbook, and i would love to have a look at it thoroughly. Also, I like how you brought up the fact that the audience were part of the documentation of the Media Burn! Very DIWO.
Reply

Ant Farm, Media Burn Review

Felicia

Saturday, Feb 24, 2018 - 10:53:27 pm

@ f e l ❍

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXY6ocvaZyE

(Video of Media Burn, the Project)

On the third space once again, the audience from all parts of the world coincides with the Adobe Connect platform to watch the live conference hosted by Mr Randall Packer and Chip Lord. Founded in 1968 by Chip Lord and Doug Michels, Ant Farm explores Read more →

Categories: Micro-Project
Tags: Media Burn | Micro Project | review
(1) Show Comments
Randall Packer
Felicia, you have a lot of interesting comments about Media Burn. It is important though to support your comments, such as why it was "more than a spectacle," and how this was important to the performance of Media Burn. Also in your concluding paragraph you reference Guerrilla Television, but it is important to explain what that means and how it contributed to the work. There is also a lot of language that you have assembled together from the various information provided, which is great that you are doing the research, but I am also very interested in your own interpretation, your own critique, your own words, and response. When using language provided, be sure and put it into quotes, thus separating it from your own language. Ultimately in the research critiques, I am interested in what you think and how you have processed the work and what it means to you. I am really pleased that you watched the interview, but in the future, be sure you support your essay with specific references from the reading or interview materials that are assigned.
Reply

A Pitstop: DIWO & Experimental Interaction

Daphne Tan

Thursday, Feb 22, 2018 - 11:58:21 pm

@ WILDFLOWER

Experimental Interaction – A Summary, awaiting a Sequel

DIWO, otherwise known as, Do It With Others, is a concept created by Marc Garrett, the founder of Furtherfield. A new perspective brought forward to encourage collaboration, this has shifted creative production from being top-down to being collaborated. In the first half of the semester, Experimental Interaction class has emphasized on the idea Read more →

Categories: Research
Tags: art review | Third Space | writings
(1) Show Comments
Randall Packer
Brilliant piece! I am delighted with the quality and thoroughness of your research critique. You synthesized our projects extremely well in the context of Furtherfield's concept of DIWO. And I am very pleased that you have recognized the value of collaboration as a form of creative activity and interaction between artists and participants. I hope you will find the process of DIWO of value to your ongoing work. Excellent research, articulated very clearly, and nicely summarized.
Reply

DIWO: Maker Culture

Bala

Thursday, Feb 22, 2018 - 11:58:00 pm

@ Bala's OSS

DIWO and Artware

“As an artist-led group, Furtherfield has become progressively more interested in the cultural value of collaboratively developed visions as opposed to the supremacy of the vision of the individual artistic genius.”

During the lecture, Garrett makes an indirect reference to this quote when he brings up how maker culture pushes creatives out of their comfort zone. Painters need not Read more →

Categories: Research
Tags: artware | co-creation | collective narrative | DIWO | faircoin | furtherfield | open source | ownership | peer production | power relationships | third space
(3) Show Comments
Randall Packer
Very impressive! And so detailed in your dissection of Furtherfield and its effort to use DIWO to create social change through the collaboration of artists. You very effectively discussed several of the Furtherfield platforms, such as VisitorStudio, which served as a vehicle for bringing artists together to collaborate via the network. Also, excellent discussion of the changing role of the artist, the curator, and the viewer, who together in a more non-hierarchical manner are able to work together in a more socially-engaged manner. This is a very thorough and well-written research critique. Excellent!
Bala
Thank you! I loved reading about Furtherfield, so I'm glad that enjoyment carried over into my writing. The session with Marc Garrett really helped solidify the essay as well; thank you for arranging for such an in-depth lecture by the man himself :-)
Randall Packer
Your welcome Bala!
Reply