Author Archives for Jay Babcock

FWAF 2009 'STORY FROM NORTH AMERICA' by Garrett Davis & Kirsten Lepore

Story from North America from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.

Here’s a story from North America. A young boy is scared of a spider and asks his daddy to kill it before it hurts him. The father points out the flawed logic of preemptive strikes and explains the values of compassion and living in harmony. Music you’ll be humming by Garrett Davis, animation by Kirsten Lepore.

The 3rd annual Floating World Animation Fest features senses shattering video art and psychedelic animation from the secret world of motionography. 3+ hours of mind melting, soul loving psychedelicanimation… this summer’s ultimate videocation! Floating World Animation Fest 2009 – Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison, Portland OR – June 25th.

Polyanthroponomia

From a review in The Guardian of The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning by “Gaia” hypothesis originator James Loveock…

[T]he concept of Gaia has slowly gained popularity over the decades and is now grudgingly accepted by many biologists and physicists as a true vision of our planet, a place that has been kept in decent ecological nick by the behaviour and variety of its many lifeforms.

Unfortunately, Gaia is in trouble today, says Lovelock. It is infected by a virus called Homo sapiens. Humans are destroying ecosystems, killing off species in their thousands and destabilising climates. “We became the Earth’s infection a long and uncertain time ago, but it was not until about 200 years ago that the Industrial Revolution began: then the infection of the Earth became irreversible,” he says.

Lovelock names this illness polyanthroponomia, a condition in which humans are so plentiful they do more harm than good. More to the point, the condition is untreatable. Renewable energy projects, cutting carbon footprints and promoting sustainable development and other green ideas are no more than the posturing of “tribal animals bravely wielding symbols against the menace of an ineluctable force.” In short, we are heading towards a climate catastrophe that will leave only pockets of humanity left alive, says Lovelock.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — George Carlin

carlin
June 22– George Carlin
Premier American comic, edgy social critic.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o

*Armenia: The Flaming of the Rose, the Christianized festival of Anahit, the ancient Goddess of chastity; sheep with gaily painted horns are led to church service, with food and flowers piled at the altar.

ALSO ON JUNE 22 IN HISTORY…
1633 — Catholic Church forces Galileo to recant theory Earth orbits Sun.
1909 — Black American dance innovator Katherine Dunham born, Joliet, illinois.
1935 — French surrealist René Crevel dies, Paris.
1938 — Joe Louis knocks out “Aryan supremacy” claimant Max Schmeling.
1939 — American individualist anarchist Benjamin Tucker dies, Monaco.
2008 — American comic, social critic, George Carlin dies, Santa Monica, California.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

Thurs June 25, NYC: MERMAIDS VERSUS UNICORNS, curated by Byron Coley and Jo Robertson

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Jordon Wolfson, The Forest From Above in Reverse, 2006 (Image courtesy of Johann König, Berlin)

MERMAIDS VERSUS UNICORNS
Curated by Byron Coley and Jo Robertson
June 25 – August 14, 2009

I-20
557 West 23rd Street in West Chelsea

http://www.i-20.com

Opening: Thursday, June 25, 6-8pm

Rachal Bradley
Peter Coffin
Byron Coley
Martin Creed
Cyprien Gaillard
Manuela Gernedel
Celia Hempton
Shana Moulton
Sav X
Jo Robertson
Eduardo Sarabia
Lucy Stein
Jordon Wolfson

In the Year of the Swine Flu, this Decade of the Cur, there is no longer such a thing as Good Taste. Even things that please the semiotic tongue are rank. If that’s even possible. And it is.

Over the last several years, Jo Robertson in London and Byron Coley in rural Massachusetts have kept up a running dialogue discussing what happens when you get beyond Good. They have found that that we seem to ache for art that creates and fulfills a person narrative, no matter how fractured.

A conversation about the girlish swagger of Ted Hughes and the nawhale-like compression of Sylvia Plath acted as the driving force behind the evolution of Mermaids vs. Unicorns. This idea recurred and eventually developed into the explorative concept that would facilitate this show to venture across geographical and stylistic borders.

On June 25th, I-20 debuts their second collaborative exhibition. The show is comprised of thirteen artists from Berlin, Guadalajara, London, New York and Paris. The artists all contribute an open dialogue between archetypes, relating to the differences between earth and sea.

Mermaids vs. Unicorns presents the viewer with a number of mediums ranging from photography to ceramic installation to oil painting. The theme allows for a variety of interpretations, from the literal to the extreme. Frolics are enjoyed, identities are stolen or obliterated, communication breaks down, and the mammals will lie down with the fish.

– Byron Coley

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — Rockwell Kent

kent
June 21– Rockwell Kent
Radical illustrator, socially committed visual artist.
rockwell_kent_gr_fs

JUNE 21, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Summer Solstice, 05:48 UT.
*Father’s Day.
*Canadian First Nations Day.
*Midsummer’s Day, long celebrated as the greatest festival of them all.
*Stonehenge, England: Sunrise Rituals.

ALSO ON JUNE 21 IN HISTORY…
1877 — 10 Molly Maguires, Pennsylvania coal mining activists, hung.
1882 — Socialist illustrator Rockwell Kent born, Tarrytown, New York.
1905 — Existential philosopher, novelist Jean-Paul Sartre born, Paris, France.
1920 — Police shoot 14 Wobblies during clash in Butte, Montana.
1979 — Poet, drummer Angus MacLise dies, Katmandu, Nepal.
1982 — John Hinckley, Jr., would-be assassin of Acting U.S. President Ronald Reagan, found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

FWAF 2009 – 'PLEASE SAY SOMETHING' by David O'Reilly

Please Say Something – Full Length from David OReilly on Vimeo.

David O’Reilly’s Please Say Something is one of the highlights of this year’s Floating World Animation Fest.  The deceptively archaic polygon style actually provides a very emotional and cinematic experience for the viewer.  This poignant and moving short film tells the story of a troubled relationship between a Cat and Mouse set in the distant Future.  Winner of the Golden Bear for best short film at the 2009 Berlinale.

The 3rd annual Floating World Animation Fest features senses shattering video art and psychedelic animation from the secret world of motionography. 3+ hours of mind melting, soul loving psychedelicanimation… this summer’s ultimate videocation! Floating World Animation Fest 2009 – Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison, Portland OR – June 25th.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — EDUARDO MONDLANE

mondlane
June 20– EDUARDO MONDLANE
Mozambiquean liberationist, anti-colonialist martyr.

JUNE 20, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Hamburg, Germany: Cherry Festival. One day during the siege of 1432, the city gates opened and out came children dressed in white. Hussite hearts melted, the siege was raised, and the children were sent back laden with ripe cherries.
*Midsummer’s Eve: Everyone into the woods at night; stay up all night, sing, dance, make love, worship the sun god in fire symbols, greet the rising sun. Fairies speak in human tongues on this night; the flower of happiness blooms. Gather flowers and boughs. Large wheels bound with straw are set burning and rolled down hills, etc.
*New Identity Day.

ALSO ON JUNE 20 IN HISTORY…
1887 — Dadaist master Kurt Schwitters born, Hannover, Germany.
1920 — African liberationist, martyr Eduardo Mondlane born, Gaza, Mozambique.
1923 — Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa dies, Parral, Mexico.
1928 — Jazz great Eric Dolphy born, Los Angeles, California.
1933 — German feminist, radical Clara Zetkin dies, Archangelskoje, USSR.
1963 — Cold War prompts “hot line” between Washington and Moscow.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, 1922-2009

From The Hindu:

Sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan died in San Francisco, U.S., on Friday after a prolonged kidney ailment, according to a family friend here.

Khan, 88, died at his music centre, according to Rabin Pal, secretary of sitarist Pandit Ravi Shankar.

Mr. Pal said he was informed about the death by the Ustad’s family in San Francisco.

Khan’s secretary here Ashish Roy said the maestro, who was on dialysis, was ailing for over four years and his condition deteriorated in the last four months.

A recipient of Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan, the Ustad was a colossus in the world of Indian classical music for the last five decades. He is survived by his wife Mary, three sons and a daughter.

Hailed by violinist Yehudi Menuhin as ‘the greatest musician in the world,’ Khan had many firsts to his credit in taking Indian classical music to the west. He was admired by both eastern as well as western musicians for his brilliant compositions and his mastery of the 25-string instrument.

The illustrious son of Ustad Alauddin Khan was the first to cut a long play record of Indian classical music in the U.S. and to give a sarod recital on American TV.

The Ustad was also the first Indian musician to receive the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1991. He was nominated for Grammy Awards five times between 1970 and 1998.

Born on April 14, 1922 in Shibpur village of Comilla district, now in Bangladesh, Khan took up music at the age of 3, learning vocal music from his father and percussion from his uncle, Fakir Aftabuddin.

His father trained him in several other instruments too, but he decided to concentrate on sarod and vocals.

Khan gave his first public performance in Allahabad at the age of 13 and made his first gramophone recording in Lucknow when he was in his early 20s. He became the court musician of the Maharaja of Jodhpur and continued for seven years until his patron’s death. The state of Jodhpur bestowed upon him the title ‘Ustad.’ At the request of Menuhin, Khan visited the U.S. in 1955 and performed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

He founded the Ali Akbar College of Music in Kolkata in 1956. In 1965, he began teaching in the U.S. and later opened a branch of his college there and in Switzerland.