Dan Graham’s 55 minute low-fi video art rockumentary Rock My Religion(1982-1984). A personal favorite-
Rock My Religion is a provocative thesis on the relation between religion and rock music in contemporary culture. Graham formulates a history that begins with the Shakers, an early religious community who practiced self-denial and ecstatic trance dances. With the “reeling and rocking” of religious revivals as his point of departure, Graham analyzes the emergence of rock music as religion with the teenage consumer in the isolated suburban milieu of the 1950s, locating rock’s sexual and ideological context in post-World War II America. The music and philosophies of Patti Smith, who made explicit the trope that rock is religion, are his focus. This complex collage of text, film footage and performance forms a compelling theoretical essay on the ideological codes and historical contexts that inform the cultural phenomenon of rock `n’ roll music.
Original Music: Glenn Branca, Sonic Youth. Sound: Ian Murray, Wharton Tiers. Narrators: Johanna Cypis, Dan Graham. Editors: Matt Danowski, Derek Graham, Ian Murray, Tony Oursler. Produced by Dan Graham and the Moderna Museet.
Monte Vista Projects 5442 Monte Vista St. (at Ave. 55) LA, CA 90042
How can we share resources, create networks and develop opportunities for the exchange of ideas and projects internationally?
Instigated by Japanese curator Mizuki Endo, who is researching ways that alternative projects and spaces in LA can connect with similar ventures in Asia, this event is intended to open up a discussion that will form the basis of a publication on people and organizations wanting to create independent international networks.
Endo will present two alternative spaces he established in Fukuoka, Japan and Manila in the Philippines that highlight the different situations of the art system in Asia. He will be joined by Mauricio Marcin, an independent curator based in Mexico City, who will additionally talk about a range of projects that are currently operating in the metropolis.
A discussion will follow, coordinated by Danny Orendorff, curator-in-residence at ART2102.
Beyond Sunshine Quoi?: Connecting Parallel Universes is the first event in the new season of ART2102 exhibitions and projects. Throughout the summer, fall and spring, artists, writers and curators from Israel, Lithuania, Japan, Mexico and the U.S will be presenting projects that place research and inquiry at the heart of art practice.
Previous Sunshine Quoi? Events Part 1: Sunshine Quoi?: Temporary Contemporaries Part 2: Sunshine Quoi?: Common Sense Part 3: Mapping Sunshine Quoi?
Mizuki Endo is a curator, art critic and organizer based in Fukuoka, Japan. Through long-term research on cultural systems in the city, he has organized various projects such as exhibitions, concerts, film screenings, symposiums, and magazines, which raise awareness of the Do-It-Youself culture that underpins the cultural life of the city. He established two alternative art spaces in Asia; Art Space Tetra (Fukuoka, 2004) and Future Prospects Art Space (Manila, 2005.) He was awarded the 3rd Lorenzo Bonaldi Art Prize (2005), has been the networking curator of ‘Singapore Biennale 2006,’ and is currently the recipient of the Japan-US Arts Program fellowship, with the Asian Cultural Council (2007.) He recently became the director of ARCUS, an international artist-in-residence program in Ibaraki, Japan.
Mauricio Marcin is an independent curator and writer based in Mexico City. From 2006-07 he was the Director of Celda Contemporanea, where he initiated a program of exhibitions that placed emphasis on the reinterpretation and reevaluation of artists’ practices during the 1960s and 1970s, focusing on artists who were pioneering in performance art, video art, and non-objective art in Mexico. Marcin’s last exhibition for this series was a retrospective of Juan José Gurrola, one of the most influential Mexican artists in the past four decades. From 2004-6 Marcin was visual arts journalist for the newspaper La Crónica de Hoy. He has also published articles and essays in magazines such as Curare, Fahrenheit, Generación and others. Currently he is developing Virus, a project which involves commissioning 40 artists, musicians, composers and writers to make a sound work, which will be broadcast as interventions into the regular programming of Ibero 90.9FM, a major radio station in Mexico City.
Danny Orendorff is an independent curator, researcher and writer currently living in San Francisco, California, pursuing a M.A. in Curatorial Practice at the California College of the Arts. He has assisted on projects and exhibitions occurring at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Phoenix, Arizona; SFCamerawork in San Francisco, California; and at the Berkeley Art Museum in Berkeley, California, where he will be co-teaching a course on ‘Digital Culture’ this Fall. Orendorff is also Project Manager for a traveling exhibition of artist source materials, the backroom. His research interests revolve around crowds, behavior and the introduction of live-elements into exhibition, including Performance, dance, experimental music and architecture, as well as digital, net-based or New Media artistic practices.
Monte Vista Projects is a new artist-run space in Highland Park that will stage regular exhibitions, conversations, events and performances. Their inaugural show First Kiss will open on Saturday, July 14 from 7pm-10pm. Visit www.montevistaprojects.com for more information.
This event is made possible in part by the generous support of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
“Well I get an email submitted to Ubu anonymously– it says, “Here is a site you might like to look at. It’s called Understanding Duchamp dot-com.” Anything that is sent I look at, although most things don’t get on the site. I’m hit very hard with submissions, but I look at everything–everything is viewed or listened to. And this is a nice little site about Marcel Duchamp done well in flash. I wrote him a little note back and say, “Hey man thanks that’s cool. Good luck thanks for doing that.”
“He sends me another note that says, “Well if you like that you might like this.” And he gives me the URL to Aspen Magazine that is online and password protected. And I look at it and go, “Oh my god!” I write him back and say, “What is up with this? This is absolutely incredible!” He said, “Well, I spent years digitizing the entire contents of the Aspen Magazine boxes and put them online. But what happened when I put Understanding Duchamp online I got a legal threat from the estate of Duchamp. Who evidently have a copyright on his name, and used Duchamp in the URL, and they really wanted to shut me down. I figured if that was the problem I had with Duchamp imagine the problem I’m going to have with six hundred other artists when I put them up on the Web.” And I said to him, “Look you know what, why don’t you give it to me. I’ll take the risk, no problem, I know how to deal with cease and desists. You know I deal with them all the time.” I explained the mission, “It’s usually okay.” Whatever, whatever, whatever…
“So he gives me the whole thing and it’s absolutely incredible. And on Aspen Magazine there are fucking files by John Lennon and Yoko Ono! We have never heard from Lennon and Ono’s people. And those real–you know who has more–but again this is the avant-garde, it’s John Lennon’s radio play, it’s him twittering a dial and Yoko singing. Then the New York Times wrote up Aspen Magazine and they said to Merce Cunningham, who has an mp3 interview on there from one of the old records; “So Merce Cunningham, how do you feel about the fact that you were not asked permission but your work is up on UbuWeb?” And Merce said, “The educational value of having my words up on UbuWeb far outweighs any financial remuneration. I am thrilled that it’s there.” So that is the attitude, that’s the attitude. That is basically what Robert Wilson was saying as well. Now of course we have people like that coming to us that want their works up there. The Robert Wilson guy said, “Hey you know we’d like to talk to you about putting more stuff up.” And after this letter. [laughs] They understand the value of this site.”
Kenneth Goldsmith of the awesome UBUWEB interviewed at Archinet.
“There is much controversy with this plant due to a crop of fake Kratom from France that was distributed worldwide in the recent past. It was part of the Rubiaceae family of plants, but it had to Mitragynine in it. Our Kratom has been verified as authentic by 2 independent sources, including Daniel Siebert.
“Kratom is legal everywhere except Thailand, and is known to ease the mind and energize the body in smaller amounts, while creating a vivid meditative repose that lasts 4-6 hours in larger amounts. Typically, 14 grams of Mitragyna speciosa was extracted into water, and drank in one gulp as a tea, or made into a resinous ball, then swallowed.
“This very rare herb is found only in very remote areas of South East Asia, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, and elsewhere. Its botanical name is Mitragyna speciosa and is in the same family as the coffee tree Rubiaceae. Kratom leaves have long been used for medicinal purposes to treat diarrhea, worms and in Bangkok tuk-tuk drivers consume Kratom as an amphetamine substitute. In Malaysia an other parts of the world its used to help heal opium addiction.
“Over 25 alkaloids have been isolated from Kratom. The most abundant alkaloids consist of three indoles and two oxindoles. The three indoles are mitragynine, paynanthine, and speciogynine – the first two of which appear to be unique to this species. The two oxindoles are mitraphylline and speciofoline. Other alkaloids present include other indoles, and oxindoles such as ajmalicine, corynanthedine, mitraversine, rhychophylline, and stipulatine.
“Alkaloid content varies from place to place and at different times. Within each location, there is a quantitative variation in alkaloid content from month to month. While indole content seems to be fairly stable, oxindole content shows tremendous variation.
“Mitragynine is the dominant alkaloid in the plant. It was first isolated in 1907 by D. Hooper, a process repeated in 1921 by E. Field who gave the alkaloid its name. Its structure was first fully determined in 1964 by D. Zacharias, R. Rosenstein and E. Jeffrey. It is structurally related to both the yohimbe alkaloids and voacangine. The alkaloid content of the leaves of Mitragyna speciosa is about 0.5%, about half of which is mitragynine. An average leaf weighs about 1.7 grams fresh or 0.43 grams dried. Twenty leaves contain approximately 17mg of mitragynine. All leaves appear to contain mitragynine, speciogynine, paynanthine, and small quantities of speciociliatine. Oxindole alkaloids usually occur only in small or trace ammounts.
“Kratom has quickly become our top selling item here at the shop, and we hope that responsible use of this beautiful plant will help keep it legal indefinitely.
“But, we offer this extracted plant material strictly for external use only as an exotic incense. Not for human consumption.”
“This Friday, July 6th The Tatamimats will be doing an encore performance of Dark Side of the Uke, their ukulele-only version of Pink Floyd’s classic album Dark Side of the Moon. The show takes place at The Knockout in San Francisco and is in celebration of The Knockout’s 2nd anniversary. The Knockout is in the venue that was previously Chicken John’s infamous Odeon Bar.” Via Boingboing.
Orenda-For Three Meta-Slendro Vibraphones Composed by Kraig Grady- 2005 Performed by Erin Barnes, Kraig Grady, and Ellysa Shalla
Recorded and Mastered by Miriam Kolar Cover Art by Dori Atlantis
“Orenda is both a Huron and Anaphorian word meaning that kind of power that mortals can summon to combat the blind forces of fate.
“While not a composition from Anaphoria, it is one that is informed by the ambient philosophy that blossoms out of the words and sounds of those people.
“The piece starts at an extremely low volume and listeners might be warned not to increase the level on their sound-producing device.”
Limited Edition of 200 in Two Covers of 100 each
This 3” mini-Cd is the second of a series of pieces conceived directly for this medium. This is the first to appear on the Archives of Anaphoria label, which plans to continue with a series of like works.
All the best things are washing up on Heliotrope by LACC. They split-open, germinate and flower as some fun, accessible, full-fledged post-carbon culture. The souls of dead outposts of everything great but gone (331/3 Bookstore Collective, Luna Sol Cafe, The Print Kitchen, art in action space) are now a part of the expanding LA bicycle universe. Bike culture in LA is categorically people-powered. So many amazing and interesting artist, writers, poets, musicians, environmentalists and visionaries are involved, a book needs to be written.
This weekend the Bicycle Film Festival happened in LA. To celebrate, a party shut down Heliotrope. 400-plus bicycles rode in: dainty cruisers, chopped-down one gears, imported multi-gears, bikes with bamboo peace flags, bikes with sound systems, dirt bikes too. There was this skid competition: folks would tear down Melrose, whip around the corner onto Heliotrope and jam on their breaks- trying to see if they could slide the distance between two wooden towers. Those who did skid got to advance, those who didn’t ended up head-over-heals with road rash. A weird way to spend the afternoon, but the crowd was into it and just being there–bikes!
The co-op bicycle kitchen used to be housed in the eco-village, but then moved onto Heliotrope. The Kitchen offers a place to fix up or build a bike. Part of the Kitchen’s mission is to expand bicycle culture in LA. Beyond fostering and supporting many bike and non-bike events and scenes, they’ve been doing this by getting more bikes between the legs of people, young and old. They have also been taking over their neighborhood, literally. Scoops, the least expensive and most “experimental” gelato shop moved in down the block. Across the street a commercial bikeshop, in league with the Kitchen, opened up. And now if you need another excuse to get on your two wheels, newly opened by members of the Kitchen family is the equally inexpensive brew joint and vegan restaurant Pure Luck. They have a solid selection of beers on tap and offer local visionaries a seat to re-imagine the city from. But then again they are all ready doing that.
“… In 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a shopping mall was the modern equivalent of main street, the “normal municipal business district.” It concluded that the landowner could not “limit the use of that property by members of the public in a manner that would not be permissible were the property owned by a municipality.” (Amalgamated Foods Employees Union Local 590 v. Logan Valley Plaza)
But in a subsequent decision the Court retreated from this position, stating that property does not “lose its private character merely because the public is generally invited to use it for designated purposes.” (Lloyd Corp. v. Tanner)
Then, in 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court essentially left the question of access to malls up to the states, holding that the federal Constitution affords no general right to free speech in privately-owned shopping centers. (PruneYard Shopping Center v. Robins)
However, state constitutions may be interpreted to provide greater protection for expression, and therefore newsgathering, than the U.S. Constitution. States may therefore afford the public greater protection for expression in a shopping mall, even at the expense of the owner’s property interest. Since the high court’s decision in PruneYard, several state supreme and appellate courts have ruled on the issue of whether their state constitutions give people the right to enter shopping malls for noncommercial purposes such as political campaigning or gathering signatures for an initiative petition.
Courts that have found constitutional protection for these activities have given a variety of reasons for their decisions.
For example, the Colorado Supreme Court found that a town’s financial support of a shopping mall, and the range of non-shopping activities allowed there, made the center the equivalent of a public forum. This finding was sufficient to trigger the state constitution’s free speech clause, which prevented the mall owners from excluding citizens involved in nonviolent political speech. Courts have also ruled that if a shopping mall allows some political opinions to be expressed, it must allow speakers of all types onto the premises.
Almost all courts that have found a right of access to shopping malls have also said that center owners may promulgate reasonable time, place and manner regulations on noncommercial speech activities. Under the three-part test discussed earlier, these rules must be content neutral, narrowly tailored to serve a significant state interest and leave open ample channels of communication.
Arthur Magazine 