Vegevision!
We owe that awesome headline to Brooklyn artist Ranjit Bhatnagar, who sometimes uses the term for his flatbed scanner images of Greenmarket produce, a project he’s been working on since 2000. His carrots graced the cover of Edible Brooklyn’s Spring 2007 issue, and selections from his scans–lovely little sprays of garlic chives, slices of okra that look like stars, and of course, bacon–are being shown through the month of December at the Baby Grand (world’s smallest) karaoke bar in a show called Greenmarket Scanography. For those who’ve been to this tiny Soho spot on Lafayette St., you know the key component of that name is Baby: This is but a sliver of a space, and thus Bhatnagar’s work, like others previewed at the bar, is being shown in slide format. Literally–the slides, shown below, are displayed on the wall, lit from behind, and viewed using the provided magnifying glass. Oh yeah, should you miss the show, you can see some of his recent work on Flickr, too.
This month I’ll be the “artist in residence” on the Brooklyn Museum’s 1stfans Twitter Art Feed. Through Twitter, I’ll be conducting variations on the Surrealist game of Exquisite Corpse, in which participants make a collaborative work of art by alternating to add pieces to it. I’m reviving a game I first organized in 1992, back in the dark ages of the web!
You’ll have to join the 1stfans membership program to play the game, but it’s a worthy cause! And I’ll post the results of the game at the end of the month.
11pm Thursday April 2 at Galapagos in Brooklyn — I’m performing with some freshly-built electromechanical instruments, some of which are shown here. On Sunday they’re going to become part of a permanent sound installation at the Coney Island Museum.
* evil monkey is on loan from the Coney Island Museum. I’ve wired him for midi control.
Noise Party! On Saturday the 15th I’m doing a family junk-music workshop at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. Make silly instruments and silly noises! Stick around for other cool events! More info at avam.org. Download poster
I made a little sound sculpture – a sort of wind-powered banjo – for this weekend’s Figment Festival on Governors Island. Here it is installed on the island’s waterfront by Castle Williams, with a spectacular view of downtown Manhattan. (If you’re in the New York area, come to the festival this weekend – it’s free, and there’s eight million things to see.)
If the wind really picks up, the flowers will spin.
And here’s a video from when I was testing it on my deck.
I’ve got three noisy things happening or starting soon:
Friday afternoon (April 4): instrument workshop/jam session at The Tank, NYC
Opening Friday (April 4): Everything Must Go — the last ever show at Flux Factory’s current space in Queens, soon to be flattened by the MTA.
Opening Saturday (April 5): Artistic Mediums: Revelations of the Invisible — at the Museum of New Art, Pontiac, MI
FIRST OFF, this Friday from 2-5pm at The Tank in Tribeca:
I’m doing an instrument-building workshop and jam session with the electronic noise band The Loud Objects. They’ll teach you to program cheap industrial microcontrollers into noisemakers of wonder; I’ll be showing how to wind your own electric guitar pickups and make simple but surprisingly great sounding electric stringed instruments. You’ll leave with one or more new instrument made by your own hands! (There’s an optional donation for supply costs.)
The Tank @ Collective: Unconscious is located at 279 Church Street between Franklin and White. To get to The Tank by subway take A, C, E, J, M, Z, N, Q, R, W, Z, or 6 to Canal Street, or 1 to Franklin Street.
LATER THAT SAME NIGHT: opening party 7pm at Flux Factory:
“Soon, very soon, the Flux Factory space at 38-38 43rd Street will be demolished. In anticipation of this event, we are turning the entirety of Flux Factory into a giant installation of itself. For the past six years, Flux Factory has developed its gallery and aesthetics laboratory at our space in Long Island City. We have had scores of shows and many hundreds of artists have graced these halls. Now it must all be destroyed. Our entire block will be razed by the pitiless bulldozers of the MTA. Everything Must Go.”
I’ll be making a sound sculpture for the show based on the recorded voices of flux factory artists, residents, and friends. I can’t give any details yet because I’m going to improvise the whole thing tomorrow night. Will it work!? Only one way for you to find
out! If that’s not enough, there will also be live music and booze.
It’s gonna be a big crazy show, check it out. If you can’t make it to the opening, the show will be open weekends (and other times – check the web site) until the CLOSING PARTY on Saturday, April 26.
Flux Factory is in Long Island city near the N, R, V, G, and 7 trains. …directions
AND THEN ON SATURDAY IN THE MIDWEST…
Opening party 6-9 pm at the Museum of New Art, Pontiac, MI. The show is called Artistic Mediums: Revelations of the Invisible:
“Thomas Edison, the son of Spiritualists, proposed a telephone to call the dead. Contemporary post humanists seek to convert their souls into bits, or at least to prove that the meat is simply a container. Paranormal researchers, in particular those interested in EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena), argue that the electromagnetic spectrum is oft manipulated by the dead to communicate with the living – that intelligences live invisibly in the ether is a foregone conclusion.”
My piece for the show is a sound sculpture made of various junk and collaged audio, called “Sonnets from the Portugese.” Unfortunately I won’t make it to the opening, but if you happen to be near Pontiac, here’s directions to the gallery. The show will be up
until April 26th.
I’ll put documentation of all three of these noisy things up on this site after the weekend.
Gonna have a party on Saturday March 1st to celebrate surviving the building of 29 instruments in 29 days! It’ll be 3-6pm (or so) in Long Island City, Queens, NYC – contact me for more info. There’ll be beer and snax and making noises. Bring your own noisemakers and/or ideas for noisemakers.
I’m going to continue with the instrument-building, making one every week forever. Or until I get tired of it. They’ll all be posted here.
Create Digital Music, Etsy Labs and Make Magazine present
A Very Special Handmade Music Night
featuring Mister Resistor live in concert
Sunday December 16th, 2-5pm
at The Openhouse, 201 Mulberry St near Spring St in SoHo
$FREE
more info at misterresistor.com or createdigitalmusic.com
Bring your hand-carved ocarinas, homebrew synthesizers, circuit bent toys and tin can banjos to show and tell and jam.
At 4pm, enjoy the handmade sonic stylings of Mister Resistor- these Parsons students have spent the semester building and playing musical instruments made from cassette tape, microchips, oatmeal boxes, and much more.
To help newcomers learn how to make their own creations, Create Digital Music’s Peter Kirn will lead off with a workshop on musical electronics, with free kits from PAiA Corporation that uses pencil markings to produce circuits. (No soldering required, so total beginners can give it a try. Kits for the project are free, on a first-come, first-served basis.) Throughout the afternoon, New York’s top musical makers will meet and display their creations.
Saturday 12-2: Circuit-bending* party at The Crucible to make instruments for Sunday. Bring an electronic musical toy to sacrifice!
Saturday 5:30-6:30: Artists’ talk at Rock Paper Scissors Gallery along with Stewart Port and Edward Schocker.
Sunday 1-2: Noise parade at Lake Merritt using the instruments we made on Saturday! Starting neat the sign at the entrance to Children’s Fairyland (Also check out Betsey’s installation which was at the same spot from 4-6).
