OASN1 + Human Relations Books: Flyer for Ben Nadler's The Men Who Work Under The Ground

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NOVAD FLASHzine Volume n

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OASN1 + Human Relations Books Present Ben Nadler's The Men Who Work Under The Ground

The Men Who Work Under The Ground: An Experimental Reading, featuring the poems of Benjamin Nadler + audio by Blake Seidenshaw, Chris Moffett & Amelia Winger-Bearskin + Animations by Paul Mclean [+]

Co-presented by Human Relations Bookstore & Occupational Art School Node #1 on Saturday, December 8, 2012, 7-9PM

• OCCUPATIONALARTSCHOOL.COM
• OCCUPATIONALARTSCHOOL.TUMBLR.COM
• OCCUPYWITHART.COM
• FACEBOOK.COM/occupywithart
• HUMANRELATIONSBOOKS.COM
• FACEBOOK EVENT: http://www.facebook.com/events/299156983534990/

[About The Men Who Work Under The Ground]:

 BEN NADLER
Ben Nadler is the author of the poetry chapbook, The Men Who Work Under The Ground (Keep This Bag Away From Children Press, 2012), and the novel, Harvitz As To War (Iron Diesel Press, 2011). He lives in central Brooklyn, and teaches writing at The City College of New York. He is the grandson of a coal miner.

[Excerpt from Brooklyn, the opening poem in The Men Who Work Under The Ground]:

I always knew we were working against the earth

with a foe like that the odds weren't in my favor.

You attack something for long enough

eventually it attacks you back.

Trespasses are not forgiven.

I do believe electricity

remembers being coal before it was burned. 

[About Human Relations Books]:

Human Relations is a joint venture of some hopeful, fresh-faced youth and the jaded, scowling he-crones of Williamsburg’s Book Thug Nation.

[About Occupational Art School Node 1]:

Our dream is to open a building in Bushwick, Brooklyn with vegetable and flower gardens on the roof, studios of all sorts on another floor (painting, holography, photography, theater, film and all these working together) on another, living spaces and a childcare facility on another and all of these centered on a cooperative economy: food co-op, art and educational co-op, art offered in an alternative economic model. The doors to and in this place will open all ways— out to the community so all are welcome and within the space open to all rooms so people share and work together and create together. There will be teaching in this school, naturally, but no classes. Instruction will be through inspiration and guidance in open apprenticeships. We will practice the spirit of Occupy in the most constructive, joyous, healing way we can. We will step outside of capitalism, not confront or battle it. We will ignore the hegemony of institutions and corporate interests not try to overthrow or fight them. We will work outside of corporate time and within liberated time that flows as it will.

We are doing this. The process is in place. Artists are coming to the school to give lectures, for free. We are attracting people from the community and already we are engaging in an alternative art economy, exchanging services of various sorts for lessons and art. This is happening very fast. We are in deep rem sleep, dreaming hard, and it is a wonderful experience. - OASN1 founding member Chris Moylan

[About Chris Moffett & Blake Seidenshaw]:

Chris Moffett and Blake Seidenshaw collectively assemble, on occasion, as The New Ergonomics (thenewergonomics.com) only to collaborate in turn with other assemblages, reworking the nature of work.

Blake is a contributing editor at ecogradients.com, an online journal of interdisciplinary culture and education. A ceramicist and a musician, he is a cofounder of the Ashtanga Yoga Outreach network. Also: interdisciplinary edutecture; the history and practice of philosophy and the natural sciences; and contemporary (cosmo)political (ethno)ecology.

Chris engages the imagery, philosophy and architecture of education, the way we image forming and being formed by our environments. Sitting in a chair, or refusing to sit still, becomes a form of art making. A nomad scholar and movement educator, Chris is also a founding member of the artist collective ARE (aestheticrelationalexercises.com).

[About Amelia Winger-Bearskin]:

Amelia Winger-Bearskin is an assistant professor of Art and Film at Vanderbilt University in the area of Time Based Media Arts and Performance. She works with 'models' (as defined by agent-based computer programming) as a conceptual prompt in her performance work. She has developed a concept of Open Source Performance Art (OSPA) and has spoken about OSPA at various academic conferences and performance festivals since 2010. She performed at the 10th Annual OPEN ART Performance Art festival in Beijing, China, The Performance Art Network PANAsia '09 in Seoul, South Korea, and the TAMA TUPADA 2010 Media and Performance festival in the Philippines. Winger-Bearskin recently spent a month in Sao Paulo, Brazil performing at the Verbo Performance Art Festival (the first American performance artist to be invited to do so), through an international scholar exchange sponsored by University of Sao Paulo and Vanderbilt University VIO and Art Department. She was an Artist in residence at the University of Tasmania (Australia) school of Visual and Performing arts. Other recent performance credits include the Gwangju Biennial [three events: 1) main pavilion; 2) the Lotte Gallery Media and Performance Festival; and 3) the Women's Biennial in Seoul, Korea]. Currently, she is presenting a sound installation throughout the Nashville International Airport, and in Fall 2012 will be speaking about her work and OSPA as a visiting artist at universities in Portland, OR; Chicago, IL; and New York City, NY.

[About Paul McLean]: 

Paul McLean is an artist accomplished in new media and traditional fine art, a pioneer in dimensional production and integrated exhibit practice. He has exhibited in one-man and collective shows extensively since 1986, and is currently represented by SLAG Contemporary Gallery in Bushwick (Brooklyn, NYC). His research interests include media philosophy, specifically pertaining to time and systems; individual and collective expression; and the convergence of 4D methodologies among military, political, business and social sectors. McLean holds a B.A. in English with a Fine Art concentration from the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, IN), two Masters degrees from Claremont Graduate University (MFA in Digital Media, Masters of Arts & Cultural Management) and is currently a doctoral candidate at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. He is a contributing writer for the Brooklyn Rail and other publications and has been blogging since 1999. McLean has been a co-organizer of Occupy with Art since September 2011, and is a founding member of the Occupational Art School Node #1 in Bushwick. He creates moving images for projection, art environments and the web; net.art, web and print graphics; paintings and drawings; poems, commentary fiction and non-fiction. McLean lives and works in Bushwick.

OASN1: PLAYLAB [TNE] @chashama

Side Effecting

“It is a safe guess that not more than one human in 10 million is conceptually familiar with and sensorially comprehending of the principle of ‘precession’ [orthogonal side effects].”

—Buckminster Fuller, Critical Path

Kinesthetics of Precession

Set 1 | Play Lab

A play/work/lab on how to feel, recognize, pick up, and send spinning, the ripple effects of artistic endeavor through movement, theory, and drawing. Gain a working, sensory facility with the potency of side effects, and join us in envisioning the collective effects of coming together as part of the Occupational Art School.

What are the ways in which an experience of precession can generate an immediate effect? Say through a movement exploration that then translates into a sketching process of precessional effects themselves. Feel precession in movement, and then, while it is happening, touch charcoal to paper. This would be one level of resolution, coupled with a documentary effect. Or drawing as a trace of precessional awareness.

Relational Drawing

November 24^th, 1-4pm. Movement, charcoal, words.

∞

Variations on Spin.

Set 2 | Temporary Formation

And then you keep it going… Infinitely resolvable, it is something to be continually set in motion. One can set it back out into the world, as a ripple effect, seeing how this appreciation would effect art works and movement to come. The collective traces can be gathered into an exhibit, a temporary formation, a rippling rather than traveling show. At another level of resolvability, we can begin to play with the collective formation itself. How can we image different organizational axes for precessional effects? What is the precessional effect of art-production, of occupation, of schooling, of architecture?

November 30^th, [TBD]: A showing of traces, and talk on the occupation of art.

@Art House | chashama [Hosted by Christopher Trujillo]

Chris Moffett and Blake Seidenshaw collectively assemble, on occasion, as The New Ergonomics (thenewergonomics.com) only to collaborate in turn with other assemblages, reworking the nature of work.

Blake Seidenshaw

Blake is a contributing editor at ecogradients.com, an online journal of interdisciplinary culture and education. A ceramicist and a musician, he is a cofounder of the Ashtanga Yoga Outreach network. Also: interdisciplinary edutecture; the history and practice of philosophy and the natural sciences; and contemporary (cosmo)political (ethno)ecology.

Chris Moffett

Chris engages the imagery, philosophy and architecture of education, the way we image forming and being formed by our environments. Sitting in a chair, or refusing to sit still, becomes a form of art making. A nomad scholar and movement educator, Chris is also a founding member of the artist collective ARE (aestheticrelationalexercises.com).

[Facebook Event]



OAS Node #1/OWA: Update

Concept sketch by Lavinia Nannini for OAS Node 1

Over the past month, Occupy with Art has been down, primarily due to the impacts of Superstorm Sandy on our crew. When we've been posting, it's either been to the Occupational Art School tumblr or the OwA Facebook page. While posting to the websites hasn't been so much a priority over the past few few weeks - for some of us who've been without power, it wasn't even a possibility - we have focused our energies mainly on pre-visualization practice and organizational development. This hasn't been easy often, due to interruptions in our communication services. That said, we have several exciting new projects, events and alliances launching later this month that we'll be announcing in the next few days. 

OAS 9.2012 Conference Call Notes [By Jez Bold]

Jez’s notes from yesterday’s conference call to prep for Jenjoy’s OAS presentation at the Black Mountain conference this weekend. Workshopping the presentation at Bat Haus tonight from 7-9pm…

Click the image to view the conference schedule. 

Conference description: 

RE-VIEWING BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE 4: Looking Forward at Buckminster Fuller’s Legacy: a weekend gathering of scholars, practitioners and artists coming to Asheville to discuss, present and experience topics and workshops related to the forward-thinking ideas of Buckminster Fuller with some presentations addressing other topics related to Black Mountain College. 

New OAS Logo

OAS Node n: Alessandro Ambrossini's ~SEEYOURSOULWITHATELESCOPE~

[From Ale/OAS Node n]:

Dear Playaz;

Please welcome to our Fibonacci Arena a Italian artist, Mr. Ambrossini! he has a beautiful project called ~SEEYOURSOULWITHATELESCOPE~ which seems incredibly similar to Kaleidoscope, right #jez3prez? :-) it is a project filled with poetry, inviting people to share their greatest dreams. not  consumerist, not necessarily dreams you dream at night but rather dreams that keep you awake and actually keep you going. #OWS is such a dream for many of us, this pluripotential space where we our dreams together trying to make them a reality.  ∞ to ooze #poiesis! ∞  always… :: here is a brief summary ::

~SEEYOURSOULWITHATELESCOPE~

a dream weaver, a dream catcher.   
with a few words (200-400 words) can you share your utmost dream? I believe that dreams can help people and maybe they can change the world a little bit, specially when dreamt together.  if you want you can add some image or video that illustrates your hypothetical, possible or impossible dream ~ even write a poem about your dream. or dreams. 
Would love to have dreams from #OWS. can you share it with me and the world? 

he is a little shy about his English, but there is no need to be shy here my friend. Rafa also speaks Italian pretty well, you guys should definitely Skype! 

He draws and does other media as well. i was thinking about the incredible combo #OAS node 1 + Direct Action Flaneurs + Occupied Stories? :-)  

anyway, let’s make it happen. #OWS could use some dreams to get a bit of #poiesis back on our movement.  

Ale! 

∞

Update on Monday, September 24, 2012 at 10:57PM by admin

Here's my dream…if it is of interest send it along, anywhere...

solidarity,

Chris

Up

Flocks of tamed pigeons

float from a tunnel painted

on the mountainside,

Boulders push their bellies

into the morning light, pear

trees ride the tall grass…

Out on the bay, icebergs drag

their skirts in the summer haze.

Houses slip inch by inch into

the sea as if afraid of the cold.

Occasional breezes stir

The ash and soot falling

In clouds from the east

Somewhere and when they do

The sunlight spotlights

A fellow stepped off the cliff’s

Edge, his legs churning mid-air—

no forward progress, no sudden drop…

Bullets stop at eye-level,

Red clouds pause overhead,

He walks on, not looking

Down, pushing his weight

Into the emptiness that suspends

Him. Pigeons watch with the blank

tranquility of sleep as another

and another steps off, as if

the air beneath their feet held

not space or force or grim

prospects but another kind of

obvious, something worth

the risk of losing , while

others rest…What does it take

to step off the cliff’s edge

when so much is falling:

houses dropping, towns

vanishing in a red sea...

A loud noise sends the flocks

Flying back into the painted dark,

A sudden storm shreds the paper

World, but those who occupy

The edge, the free air, and

The horizon beyond are as

light as baby's breath...

When will they come down?

Maybe soon, maybe never.

Maybe it doesn’t really matter

So long as they persist,

Keep at it, keep going,

Not look up, not look down,

But ahead, taking to air,

everywhere.

OAS Node #1 [9/19]: Milo Santini - time[d]raw-ings

OAS Node #1 [9/21]: David Spaner

Occupational Art School Node 1 at Bat Haus is pleased to present an evening with David Spaner, who is visiting New York City to talk about his book SHOOT IT! Hollywood Inc. and the Rising of Independent Film. Friday from 7-9PM, David Spaner will read a few passages from SHOOT IT! and engage in an open forum on the global corporate movie industry and its positive and negative effects on burgeoning alt.cinema. Copies of SHOOT IT! will be available for purchase and signing. Event is free for first-time visitors to OASN1@Bat Haus. Barter-gifts can arranged with OASN1 for returnees. 

CONTACT: OAS co-organizer Paul McLean artforhumans [at] gmail [dot] com

FACEBOOK EVENT: http://www.facebook.com/events/515008968528042/

ABOUT DAVID SPANER: 

David Spaner has worked as a movie critic, feature writer, reporter, and editor for numerous newspapers and magazines. Spaner's writings about culture (mostly film) and politics have appeared in alternative (The Open Road, Yipster Times, Georgia Straight) and mainstream publications (Vancouver Sun, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Vancouver Magazine). His movie coverage and other cultural writing was featured in the Vancouver Province daily newspaper from 1999 to 2008, and won the Publishers Award for best feature writing in the paper. Spaner's column on independent film, "Indie City," also appeared in the newspaper.

MORE: http://www.cbsdtoolkit.com/microsites/?p=3&id=556

ABOUT SHOOT IT!:

Shoot It! is a revealing history of how Hollywood, with its eye on the bottom line, arguably lost its ability to support the work of creative filmmakers; it is also a passionate portrait of the independent filmmakers around the world who have risen up to fill the void.

While the studios envisage a generic universe, repressing local film cultures along the way, talented independents continue to tell local stories with universal appeal. This book is a celebration of those determined filmmakers who, despite it all, overcome every obstacle and just shoot it!

MORE: http://www.cbsdtoolkit.com/microsites/?id=556

OTHER OPPORTUNITIES TO SEE DAVID SPANER THIS WEEK IN NYC: 

Wednesday, September 19th, 7:00pm

Shoot It! reading, screening of Cassavetes' Shadows, & a discussion w/ Leila Goldoni

Strand Bookstore, 828 Broadway (at 12th Street), 3rd floor, New York, NY

Ticketing info: $10 Strand gift card or purchase of Shoot It!

Thursday, September 20th, 6:00pm (Doors: 5:30pm)

"Meet the Scholar" clips & discussion with David Spaner

3rd floor Screening Room, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Centre

111 Amsterdam Ave., 64th-65th Sts, New York

FREE EVENT

MORE INFO: http://www.cbsdtoolkit.com/microsites/?p=2&id=556

AUTHOR DAVID SPANER DISCUSSING SHOOT IT! ON URBAN RUSH: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PezskcbmxM

READING + DISCUSSION WITH SHOOT IT! AUTHOR DAVID SPANER AT BOOK SOUP: http://youtu.be/SSfrnmLWD5Q

PREVIEW AND/OR PURCHASE SHOOT IT! ON AMAZON: http://www.amazon.com/Shoot-It-Hollywood-Rising-Independent/dp/1551524082

#S17 -- year 1 anniversary reflection [OAS Node n /Transmission]

temporary absence from the field of action gives you a good spot to observe spirals. yes, history is a collection of spirals, pendulums that rover. sometimes it is funny my friends, funny how so much intensity can take us time to digest. to overcome a police officer kicking you in the ribs and smiling sadistically is a slow process. one. two. three

~ go 

the choice \\ to #bloom,, to #ooze a fresh movement :: is urgent to be reconciled with......#year1 is done. now, a tad bit of coffee (or tea) and some peace of mind, some books, a humming-bird whistling political literature,, a kiss from your love and we are on our way for #year2. but what is precisely crossing that valley, we still don't know.

in the last months of our movement,, it became clear that it will take nothing more than a philosophic rebellion in #occupy to dissolve the consolidation of power and remove the stench of our stagnated waters :: our ideological springs are contaminated with pus, and became no longer a good source to drink from ........... if we are to thrive as a viable project it is paramount to reject stagnations and seek fresh currents of thought.

to #occupy with our bodies a given space and park there,, pretending that everything is going to be ok because we are there for "as long as we can!" -- is #ostrichism. and the same can be mentioned about refusing debt or domination without refusing to dominate others:: one is not complete without the other.

~ abolition is volition, says the Oracle of Delphi.

sometimes i wonder if we were to "win" or take power. how different our project would actually be? i see organizers,, sympathetic journalist and theoretical gurus still working under a Toyotist paradigm, {{dling! dling!}} ~ JUST IN TIME ~ {{dling! dling!}} :: "hello! we are here to sell you redemption, with the utmost attention to efficiency & results!"{{dling! dling!}} --

or what acid historians call

                  POST-MODERNIST CRAP 

and we BUY IT! efficiency & results! we BUY it! 

#occupy has only one enemy :: ITSELF :: and not because we are blind, unable to see our adversaries marching on us,, hunting us down - it takes more than physical violence to legitimize a dying order. this is clear for everybody with their necks deep enough. we know that THEIR project was discredited after the fall of the Wall in 2008. not even their own priests believe in their bullshit anymore,, and this will always be for our advantage. the greatest threat comes from the obscurity of our own shadows...

the question is if #occupy is "reformable" or will it take a radical departure from the dominating schools of thought in #OWS to break the chains arresting our imagination.

 -- maybe the mirror is a set of questions -- :: despite the Diaspora,, are we dancing revolution freely and with #poiesis, or are we insisting on the same shit? are we adventurous and curious and experimental or are we picking the safe, broad road?

before trying to destroy the Beast (neoliberal state) by clogging its circulatory system (financial capitalism),,

 _ did we ::

(1) prepared something in its place,, a QUOTIDIAN alternative,, or are we making the same mistake of the French Revolution?

 ~~~ the French Terror occupied the vaccum left by decapitations ~~~

_did we ::

(2) realize that we don't need to clash with the state, but rather make it obsolete?

so this is it. #year2 ~

! we more than ever enter a time of self-discovery. maybe #occupy can't be reformed, but this might not be a bad thing :: it takes a while to understand that we can always write history in the way of a wanderer, 

     ~ instead of #settling,

#rooting,

                     ;; instead of #occupying

or  #OCCUPY -- :: maybe just to       #ROVER?

             Happy Birthday family.

Atchu

OAS Node #1 [9/14]: Audrey Snyder + Joe Riley - Parallel Cases

During the summer of 2012 Audrey Snyder and Joe Riley traveled through landscapes of abandoned railroads in California and Oregon atop bicycles adapted to run on railroad tracks. The railbikes were devised as a way to re-activate the railroads now lying in disuse in both rural and metropolitan areas of these western states. On Friday, September 14 from 7-9, Occupational Art School Node 1 at Bat Haus will host Audrey and Joe to share their amazing story.

[PROJECT SUMMARY]:
The project first emerged about a year and a half ago when Joe and Audrey became interested in exploring the parallel histories of the American railroads and the demise of commercial printing, specifically its shift from handset type to mechanized linotype and eventually to digital printing. A nearly forgotten – perhaps even abandoned – point of convergence for the histories of the railroad and printing lies in the Tramp Printers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Tramp Printers were itinerant printers who hopped trains across America to set type in the publishing houses and newspapers that had sprung up alongside the railroads. Inspired by the legacy and tradition of the tramp printers they restored a 3” by 5” Kelsey Excelsior hand operated letterpress that they will use to publish a chronicle of their travel in the forgotten right-of-way. Through Parallel Cases, they endeavored to take up the methods and means of the tramp printers as a way to both collect and distribute their findings. 

PROJECT URL: http://parallelcases.tumblr.com/

FACEBOOK EVENT: http://www.facebook.com/events/414933371901352/415164485211574/

Click to read more ...

OAS Node #1 [9/12]: Liv Mette Larsen

The Occupational Art School Node 1 at Bat Haus is pleased to present an evening with Liv Mette Larsen, accomplished Norwegian-born painter based in Bushwick and Berlin. From 7-9PM on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, OASN1@BH will host a casual conversation with the artist and introduction to her Scrap Metal series, which is inspired by the scenes she has encountered during her recent stints working and living in Bushwick/Brooklyn/NYC. 

Painting by Liv Mette Larsen

Download a 2011 catalog of Liv Mette Larsen’s “Scrap Metal” series HERE.

Photo by Paul McLean

[Catalog Essay]:

 LIV METTE LARSEN: SCRAP METAL [NEW YORK PAINTINGS] 

In a career spanning more than thirty years, Larsen’s intuitive paintings, watercolors and drawings establish an energetic dialogue about perception and the transitory moments of life. Working primarily in monochrome silhouettes, she employs alternating scales to reconstruct the subjective realities of her narratives. Instead she proposes an inductive perspective, abstracting people and things from her daily encounters that reflect the circumstances of Larsen’s practice. Her paintings dissolve the boundaries between figuration and abstraction, with objects transforming fluidly into organic geometric forms. She paints with densely applied egg tempera to create the illusion of volume to allow isolated elements to become vivid archetypal forms and graphic signs. 

Throughout her recent works, urban space and the ways in which people engage with it have been a primary concern. Drawing inspiration from the fleeting moments of everyday life, figures are devoid of context, either standing alone or with blocks of color. In Big Men (2011), heavily bundled men isolated against the canvas appear to be engaged in a ritualistic dance, alternately moving closer and further away. Likewise in Berlin Blue Abstract Walking (2010), an unknown woman, identifiable only by her profile, poses in each canvas. Reduced to strictly physical cues, each stance ranges from contemplative to interrogative. This series takes its title from a specific blue that was discovered by eighteenth-century alchemists working in the Prussian capital.  

From anonymous figures to pared-down industrial environments, she seeks to integrate the identifying characteristics of her location with her works. Larsen approaches the subway as a linear system reminiscent of Mondrian’s urban grids while in Scrap Metal and Scrap Metal Heap (2011) Larsen records the scrap metal heaps that were immediately outside of the window of her Brooklyn studio. Reduced to abstract swathes of bright yellow, blue, orange, and green, the utility of each jagged piece dissolves into an amoeboid shape. In Smith Street (2011), the blurred relationship between figure and ground disorients perspective. Although Larsen makes reference to a specific location, her paintings examine the fundamental relationships between people and their surroundings, preserving initial observations and glimpses to allow for prolonged reflection.

    

Liv Mette Larsen was born in Oslo, Norway in 1952 and attended the Oslo SHKS School of Art and Crafts. From 1978-84 she studied at the Berlin Hochschule für Künste (UDK). In 1992 she won Berlin’s Senate Cultural Affairs Department Grant and Norway’s Vederlagsfondet Grant in 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2006. She received additional grants from the Norwegian Cultural Council in 2000, 2004 and 2006. Recent solo exhibitions include Literaturhaus, Salzburg, Austria (2006), Galerie Kai Hilgemann, Berlin, Germany (2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012), Galeria Fruela, Madrid, Spain (2008) and Helac Fine Art, New York, USA (2011). 

She has exhibited internationally for over three decades and her work is included in major public and private collections.

OASN1@BH Week 2 Review

[Novadic transmission from A, September 1, 2012]:

friends. 

this morning i received a sweet letter from a NYC occupier which raises important questions for the struggle. riding on its wave, would like to discuss a bit the Body-Without-Organs (BwO) notion and the hot possibility of mathematically modeling the movement through non-linearity.  

occupier letter.

"The key is in learning to embrace contradiction. It's the only way we can grow. Radical + reformist. Masculine + feminine. Rejecting the system + using the system to implode itself. Outreach + Inreach. The list is endless. I know it's personal for me, but I feel so strongly that if we blow up the binary, everything becomes so much more POSSIBLE. It's a pretty obvious thing that these divisions are created to keep us submissive. What do we do once we dissolve these imaginary lines?"

C.

this brings us to the exploration-experimentation that our collective has been conducting in the movement so far, namely with the use -and abuse, why not?- of pluripotential spaces. these zones are effectively TAZs elicited by organizers, whom "code" a given space with the right inscription (rules) and then present the instructions to the players; through this rune-like operator, trained organizers can optimize the emergence of flow (optimal experience) at any given loci, outdoor or indoor. the consequences are endless. 

         A.

time suspension.                    

~ "When you will have made him a body without organs,

then you will have delivered him from all his automatic reactions

and restored him to his true freedom." ~ 

                         A. Artaud (1947) 

Fibonaci Arena (FA) is any given space coded with instructions that elicit flow (e.g. Salon, Magic Mountain). FAs are intentionally unintentional vortexes, a spiral-eliciting accident, which draws its theoretical basis on anarchy and the notion of BwO that Deleuze & Guattari introduce in their collaborative work. in those instances where play is elicited time is abolished. 

play is flow & flow is play

"what is your name?" dialogues.

(...) existence means exposition to and adaptation of a full range of given norms, structures and boundaries (...)

(...) this does not lead to a loss of personality but to a construction of an artificial one: already before we are born we are categorized based on our genitals, which decide what kind of name is going to be imposed on us, Susan or Tom (...) 

(...) a stratification of our bodies, which is created through the hierarchical order of society (...) Thousand Plateaus (...) continuous power relations amongst members of society (...) power where those at the top oppress the others 

Mark

in illo tempore ~ "in that time" ,  or "once upon a time".

in order to break binaries, and thus promote a revolution in the logical framework that guides -- and ensnares -- Western thought it is suggested: 

(1) that instead of "breaking" boundaries, revolutionaries seek to "dissolve" them by eliciting phase transitions :: from solid to liquid :: liquid time, flow :: ~ this method of engaging Empire discussed by OccupySunTzu acts on the links, on the spaces in between.

(2) this phase transition may be elicited through flash ~ liberations, i.e. collective processes of emancipation in public streets & squares :: similar to ancient tribal hierophanies :: regression to the undifferentiated state of BwO :: 

(3) dissemination of Fibonaci Arenas. 

the resulting kaleidoscopes are #novad-like supernovas. 

occupyMathematics ~ "and they say you always hated math (...)"

to start thinking about how to mathematically model the movement, at this point of maturity and beyond, is probably the last thing that Empire wants us to do. from here on lies the suggestion that we OccupyMathematics. 

check out mathematical approaches to model complex emergent behavior (eg, central nervous system;; ant colony;; traffic jams ;;) and these links with tricks from the trickster: 

• %Cellular Automatta (Turing machine): http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/notabene/cellular-automata.html

• $Network Theory and associated cartographies: http://ijoc.org/ojs/index.php/ijoc/article/download/1136/553

• #Singularities in Pluripotential Theory: http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/~mattiasj/research/ppt1.pdf

Sent from my soul

Mapping the voyage of the Hippo.

∞

[NOTES]:

The dynamics that manifest as revelations in the material zone or phase only comprise a small fraction of the dynamics in play. Most of the dimensional arena is active with immaterial transpects demonstrating what can be described as multiplicity, resistant to epistemology or the recursive. The key for the lead artist is to encourage or facilitate the transiting of evidence, of life, through the spatial layers we designate as free and open to our pluripotential phenomena. 

In OAS we discovered in Week 2, for example, that a course need not exist to exist in substantiated iterations. We found, additionally, that timing can pronounce the extended, even epic, duration of a 4D artistic project, given a dedicated locus + chronos, as long as the witness(es) and presenter(s) share the space with a focal media array, including networked electronics attached to the web and database. As such, the spectacle is only activated by a combination of hard-, soft- + wetware [LOL], in the actual stage, with the virtual as both accompaniment and archive. In relation to experience, the transmission is conducted in a flux of casual and formal micro-environments. The environment has a time feature, and it is easily translated as "a moment" itself, although such a designation is incomplete. 

The technical evaluation of the phenomena is hardly encompassing of the experience. 

Another interesting anecdote involves the act of preparation for the transmission. Is such activity not also an invitation, or a calling? What if the calling IS the event? 

∞

Super Lucky Cat reappears to connect OASN1 & AFHGC.

{Imagining the Scenario (Coffee Painting)}:

1. Lead artist wears a "red dirt" shirt from Kauai, to initiate a discussion of source material for artistic, organic staining processes.

2. Today's business section of the NY Times is provided as a substrate, but also as an acknowledgment of timeliness, and other relevant considerations affecting (or not) the artistic enterprise. The subject of materials is expanded to include "non-artist" materials.

3. The lead artist displays a large set of many types of painting tools, mostly brushes. Students are encouraged to choose several for painting with the coffee. The brushes serve as the point of origin for a conversation about the "life" of the artist's tool, and/or the partnership between the artist and the tool + the history of making that may be thought of as embedded in the tool through usage and application. [Introduction to Techne, time, craft traditions... (+)]

4. Many types of papers are introduced. Experiments on viability as substrate for medium, "pigment" and expressive means.

5. An array of large format (mostly floral) photographs are mounted around the classroom. We will paint on the museum board cut into window mattes, enclosing the photos. Many considerations. One of the photos (a rose) is displayed on a nice Italian easel at the door.

6. "Final" exercise will be to paint on very fragile light paper (multi-hued), which will buckle and otherwise dramatically respond to the coffee-paint. 

7. Discussion about artists who use coffee as an important part of their exhibition practice (like Sara Sun, who has a show going currently at Governor's Island Art Fair - thanks for the heads-up Andrea; and Jayson Musson + Manning Williams). Discussion about coffee growing (political/economy). 

Clemens Poole + Shane Kennedy & other Hippo crew members talk story to a full Haus, Friday, August 31 at OASN1.∞

OASN1 reached an important marker with the "Voyage of the Hippo" program on Friday, August 31. The evening presentation, which consisted of a fantastic, compelling slideshow/movie sequence + Q&A + commentaries facilitated by Clemens Poole and long-time AFH anchor Shane Kennedy, realized our vision of how our "class" format would work in practice. At the conclusion of the talk, many of us walked to Tandem, a few blocks down Troutman in Bushwick, to continue the vibrant concourse over libations. 

∞

Interior shot of Pickthorn in Bushwick.

We continue to make friends in the neighborhood, like Jayson Musson, AKA Hennessy Youngman and the amazing ladies of Pickthorn. We are also beginning to establish strategic partnerships. OASN1 is now sponsored by both Wyckoff Starr and the vaunted Brooklyn Rail. JenJoy Roybal is already proving invaluable, as she begins the process of scanning the domain for artist-teachers and relevant organizational/mission comparisons to/for our enterprise. She sent Chris & I links that reveal possibilities neither of us had entertained prior. JenJoy is gifted with big vision. 

∞

The discourse that is percolating in the novad pool is providing us with tremendous inspiration and seed-thought, moving forward. Coming in multiple forms (poems, images, sounds, movies, links, texts, notations, forwarded correspondence, system schematics, references, citations, equations, juxtapositions... [+]) the novadic inputs are fueling some OAS movements, refining threads, introducing new seams, expanding horizons, shifting PoVs & frames of reference [+]. Thank you, gamers!

∞

The occupationalartschool [dot] com nexus is weekly undergoing facelifts, as we assess the proper format for that organ. For now, the preponderance of notices and documentation is being sited on the OAS Tumblr and in the OwA/OAS Facebook pages. The OAS Twitter, Pinterest and other social media are functional but rudimentary in our usage of them for a bit longer. The question at this point is whether to invent an entirely new framework for the virtual / actual interplay. 

∞

Finally, the ripple effect from DisciplineAriel [Event 1, August 25, 2012] has only begun to evidence itself in our secondary co-lab phase. Stay tuned.

Videos from DisciplineAriel performance at OASN1 @Bat Haus [August 25]

Photo by Cody Sullivan

Video by Cody Sullivan of live performance at Occupational Art School Node 1 at Bat Haus on Saturday, August 25, 2012. Performing: Wilson Novitzki (synth, etc), Adam Caine (guitar), Michael Barron (overhead projector), Paul McLean (animations, overhead projector, image uploads).

[MORE VIDEOS]:

• CODY #1: http://youtu.be/5r-u2GFpBUY
• MIKE #2: http://youtu.be/Cii_HplrsMo
• MIKE #1: http://youtu.be/41lNbyjDXeI

http://www.disciplineariel.tumblr.com

OAS Node #1 @BAT HAUS: Coffee painting tonight! [Info]

Click image to download doc.Info on this evening's Occupational Art School "COFFEE PAINTING" class @ Bat Haus Coworking Space, "COFFEE PAINTING." Should be a ton'o'fun. All you have to do is bring yourself + a great attitude. FYI: First OASN1 class is always free!

Neighborhood Metal [OASN1@BH][August 24]

Clif Hawkins. Click the image to visit Clif's Tumblr.

Some reflections on Clif Hawkins' visit to Occupational Art School.

By Paul McLean

Friday night, and the Bushwick sidewalk and street outside Bat Haus are quiet. We haven't really got a handle on the traffic flow in the neighborhood, yet. The conversation around it reminds me of gallery talk in Santa Fe, which relies, or did when I was there, on a significant walk-in demographic. Gallerinas and -rinos would pass the time conjecturing on what might responsible for a slow spell, and what the duration might be. I thought of it as an equivalent to dowsing. The lights in BH are low. It's an altogether pleasant moment. Clif and I and some friends sat in the ergonomic office chairs and carried on a relaxed conversation.

First, Clif passed me the obituary for Manning Williams. Clif apprenticed with Manning, who became a lifelong inspiration, mentor and friend to Clif. The first lesson in Clif's "Neighborhood Metal" teach-in is the value of the community artist. We go through photos on the laptop, briefly summarizing a life of art and culture. While scrolling quickly through images, Hawkins quietly interjects anecdotes about Williams, what his studio looked like, the kinds of tasks Clif would carry out for him. Eventually, a picture begins to emerge of an exchange that over years helped Clif shape his relationship to art, craft and the artist's life.

Clif enjoyed describing his first metalwork occupations, which he took in his teens. Now Hawkins reached into a beautiful leather bag and produced several portfolios. We leafed through them, stopping at this or that print for my questions or compliments. Clif shares very quickly a progression through his past creations, and after a few minutes of this, it's clear that by his late 20s he had amassed an impressive catalogue of pieces, created for many applications, from stage sets to puppet shows, architectural conservation to sculpture, his own and others'.

We covered territory that for a mid-career artisan, artist, craftsman, tradesman is fairly common, especially after the gloss and ambitions of youth-driven desire for recognition has settled into a programmatic endurance. Again, the discussion revolves around examples of experiences, changing ideas about the fields and options available to a technician, the effect of the economy on culture. It isn't a philosophical talk, as such. It isn't about theory. Clif talks about making things, about people and projects, and the social currents that flow through a life in materials, a life in the shop, a life of manifesting ideas as things.

One can sense respect for fine work, and a keen limit for bullshit, particularly the sort that derives from a desire for great output unaccompanied by recognition of its real cost. It's clear Clif doesn't begrudge a haggler. It's more than this. The sensibility is attached somehow to Clif's willingness, even pride in being a neighborhood shop guy. Ash, his partner at AWS shares this local boy headset. I can verify on my account, having stopped in a time or two with little jobs that Clif and Ash have attended to. Neither one grew up in Brooklyn, but both spend time and energy serving the community.

The last thing I'll mention about "Neighborhood Metal" are Clif's closing thoughts. He seemed genuinely to have enjoyed the evening. I asked him why. He told me that the kind of talk we had seems lost in today's wired world of ever-texting creative classers barhopping and posting about it on Twitter in real time.

Steel Plant Stands

OAS Node #1 @BAT HAUS: DisciplineAriel [Internal Documentation]

[DisciplineAriel performs at OASN1@BH Saturday, August 25, 2012]

Michael Barron on overhead projector. Click image to see Bat Haus photoset.[Performance Elements]:

• Wilson Novitzki improvises on synth and guitar
• Photos shot on camera phones by Paul McLean, performers, Bat Haus owners Natalie Chan & Cody Sullivan, and guests (+ digital enhancements as after effects in some instances) are uploaded to the DisciplineAriel blog in real time, or later, and interlinked in the network of OASN1 sites and portals
• PJM animations for DisciplineAriel are projected and presented on one of the Bat Haus computer monitors, looping
• The overhead projector is utilized for real time old school psychedelic image mixing; Paul initiates the sequence, creating a wall projection, with olive oil, water, Guerra Paint and other water-borne pigments (acrylics) in powder, solid and liquid form, including interference and metallic paints, plus coffee; Michael Barron takes over, and also photo-documents the results
• Wilson invites Adam Caine to sit in on the set; Adam plays guitar

Wilson Novitzki, Adam Caine

[LINKS]:

• DisciplineAriel Blog
• Bat Haus
• Wilson Novitzki [Soundcloud]
• Paul McLean [Art for Humans]
• Occupational Art School Node 1 [Main][Tumblr]
  

Overhead projection, iteration 1 [PJM][Narrative]

DisciplineAriel began in early summer 2012 as a "Borderless Art" proposition + mobile media collaboration for Bushwick-based musician and composer Wilson Novitzki and visual artist Paul McLean. The process involved several informal exchanges at Wyckoff-Starr, plus emails, phone calls and a pre-production meeting and 4d demonstration. Web archive links were exchanged and reviewed.

During a two-month European tour with renowned DIY artist R. Stevie Moore, Novitzki composed short electronic and guitar pieces on synthesizer and iPAD. These pieces were uploaded to a Tumblr created for DisciplineAriel by McLean, who added entries featuring "outside" content - from three sources:

• Famed Kauai-based surf guru Ambrose Curry
• The Voyage of the Hippo blog (long-time AFH collaborator Shane Kennedy contributing)
• Anarchivist/revGamer/Novadic transmissions from Bold Jez.

These satellite or context threads also in real time sequences featured neo-epic or -journeyman components and intersecting trajectories. McLean contributed digital still and moving images, as well as photo documentation of "HOME," i.e., Bushwick, the project's point of origin.

The DisciplineAriel performance for Occupational Art School Node 1 at Bat Haus constitutes a "Welcome Home" party for Wilson; a version of "Talking Story;" a prototyping proof for the particular kind of collaboration Novitzi and McLean practice(d); an invitation to further expand the collaboration to include both random and "staged" participation by OASN1 artists [+]

Overhead projection [operator transition phase]

[PHOTO & VIDEO DOCUMENTATION]: Natalie Chan, Cody Sullivan, JenJoy Roybal, Michael Barron, Paul McLean [+]

New OwA ads for the September issue of Brooklyn Rail

Brooklyn Rail ad for September

Brooklyn Rail ad for September

OAS Node #1 @BAT HAUS: Whatever It Maybe ∞ [Internal Review]

Page 10 of Jeff Sugg's portfolio. Click image to download the PDF of Jeff's portfolio.

Whatever It Maybe ∞
Jeff Sugg at OASN1@BH (August 22, 2012)
By Paul McLean

Jeff Sugg parked his street-painted punk van directly in front of Bat Haus about an hour before his Occupational Art School Node 1 presentation was slated to begin. After a quick smoke, Jeff - master theatrical projectionist, designer, artist, visionary and enabler of visionaries [+] -  commenced to unload the gear he would be using during "Digitizing Theater" into the Bat Haus space. For tonight's program, OASN1 co-organizer Chris Moylan had supplied a digital projector, which Jeff would use to share his slideshow, movies and to create a real-time vignette, an immaterial hand-operated & projected reference table for Sugg's favorite inspirational picture texts. Sugg's influences? Sviboda, Bucky Fuller, Da Vinci...

I provided an overhead projector. The overhead throws a representation of Peter Cooper by Shane Kennedy in the rear of the screening area. The Cooper is our OASN1@BH mascot. Alice Cooper's "School's Out" is the OAS theme song, though I haven't shared that bit of intel with anyone yet, except for you, dear reader.

Tonight (that night), we're in for a treat.

∞

Click to read more ...