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16 Oct 09

chashama

QUOTE
"chashama supports thriving cultural communities by transforming temporarily vacant properties into spaces where art can flourish. By recycling and repurposing buildings in transition, we invest in neighborhoods, foster local artists, and sustain a vast range of creativity and culture. "
UNQUOTE
Really love this concept: work with property owners to let artists use currently empty/ unleased space as galleries.

www.chashama.org/...info-about_us.htm - Preview

chashama arts public_art retail real_estate

08 May 09

Fairy tale or horror story - join the debate | RUDI - Resource for Urban Design Information

"Urban designer and artist collaborations: what value do they bring?"
QUOTE
The event did not focus on ‘how to do’ public art, but rather aimed to stimulate debate and throw up challenges to what some are coming to regard as a too-often standardised way of creating public spaces.
UNQUOTE

www.rudi.net/19698 - Preview

public_art artists urban_design collaboration public_space rudi

throw up challenges to what some are coming to regard as a too-often standardised way of creating public spaces
failed to evolve
- - then why should it be a solution to turn B. into a fantasy land instead? ...Not sure I understand why this should work. - on 2009-05-08
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5 more annotations...
- The Presence of Absence: Where are the people in public space?
  
  • What is the role of new technology?
  
  • Are we being isolated by the iPod culture?
  
  • Is it possible to plan in spontaneity?
  
  • If an art object is chosen for a place, who does it represent?
  
  Diarmaid Lawlor, associate director of Urban Initiatives, says that places should be ‘centres of collective meaning'.
- ‘I think one of the fundamental issues is that there is a rift between the concept of ‘professional' and that of ‘artist'. Not in the usual terms - artists can be professionals and behave accordingly but they are in particular professionally individual (maybe even professionally difficult).
  
  This has to accepted as a manageable risk, which perhaps could be dealt with by raising the game of the people who brief and commission the artist - to find a better fit,' she says.
  - - look to 4culture.org in Seattle; they've found ways to do this - on 2009-05-08
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- where public behaviour comes under strict scrutiny
  - - while I agree with the critique of the "malling" of public spaces (privatizing what were public spaces), I'm very very tired of the suggestion, hinted at in the highlighted phrase, that public behavior should be exempt from scrutiny or controls of any kind. If you think about it, the move to privatization could be seen as a *failure* of public will to regulate behavior in public spaces (examples: social disorder, public drunkenness & urination, hooliganism, vagrancy, aggressive panhandling, and so on). Too often (esp'y if you're living in a place that has a British flavor - either UK or Canada, eg.), there's a tendency to not be judgmental about social disorder, to be forever tolerant, to not complain, and so on. But people still react (are reactionary), so eventually they allow privatization as a way of "sterilizing" what they don't like about the public space. It's almost certainly dishonest - it would be better to have frank (even "judgmental") discussions about our urban public spaces instead. But that's where we chicken out, because no one wants to be seen as some kind of "oppressor" of "freedom." whether of individual righs (even if they're infringing on others' rights) or expression, and no one wants to be identified as intolerant of the "hard to house" or poor. - on 2009-05-08
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- ‘This is not a development that will allow the area's own character to evolve over time. Its character has been predetermined by architects, marketing specialists and planners. No room is left for responsiveness to people and locality.'
  - - from my own p.o.v., this is the most valid critique of privatized formerly public spaces. But it applies to overplanning in general, too. - on 2009-05-08
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- Some of the key issues raised included:
  
  The profession has overdone planning for all – we have lost the ability to say no, do little, allow people to make places work. Should urban designers say no to briefs they don’t think will work?
  Artists get selected too often for the way their work looks rather than the way they think – this can lead to clashes of ideology and aspirations. Too often the creative input of artists is not taken seriously by others – there is a ‘throw away mentality’ - how do we rectify this?
  The debate surrounding objects being placed in our cities and towns is obscuring the need for thoughtful places, which encourage real interaction. How can the two professions unite to encourage more creative clients?

03 Feb 09

Ned Kahn: Ned Kahn Studios

Great website showcasing Ned Kahn's (typically public) art projects.

nedkahn.com - Preview

ned_kahn art public_art art_projects land_art environmental_art design

09 Sep 08

Inhabitat » Solar LED ‘Leaf’ Streetlights by Jongoh Lee

Street lights that look like plant leaves...

www.inhabitat.com/...eaf-streetlights-by-jongoh-lee - Preview

inhabitat public_art infrastructure street_lights

26 May 08

"L.A. vision: a towering sign," by David Zahniser (LA Times) - Astani Enterprises Inc

File this under "life imitates art"? There's a fascinating battle happening in LA over whether or not Sonny Astani, businessman and developer, should be permitted to install a new kind of LED-generated image, 12 stories above the street and 14 stories tall, on the side of his 33-story condo building currently under construction in downtown LA.

The inspiration? Opening scenes in Blade Runner of downtown LA, showing "a skyscraper-sized advertisement portraying a Japanese woman smiling before popping a snack into her mouth. Astani says an image, such as that of a flying sea gull, could now even travel from one building to the next."

I have to admit this sounds really cool, but I can see why many factions in LA would oppose this, too. We're all familiar with the really bright illuminated advertisements -- even Victoria has a small version of one, installed outside the arena on Blanshard at Caledonia. It's bright, too bright. But Astani proposes a much more modulated, artistic, and dimmed level of lighting. If the images could look as subtle -- yet powerful -- as Blade Runner's, it could work, but there's no garantee, that if permitted, subsequent developers would follow in that "artistic" style.

Another aspect is this: the proposal, if it's art, also calls into question just how intrusive public art should be in public space. Does it have a right to be so intrusive as to be impossible to ignore? Can I, as a citizen, be obliged to register public art -- and admittedly, it would be impossible not to register this project?

Is part of what captures my attention/ imagination regarding this project its uncanny fusion of subtlety and assault, packaged as visual stimulus?

Another question: is this an art form that expresses a corporate and anti-pedestrian city ("...neighborhood anchored by Staples Center and L.A. Live, the hotel and entertainment complex that includes the recently opened Nokia Theatre"), fitting for LA where people don't walk anyway (but just wait: it'll show up soon enough on the very v

www.astanienterprises.com/...article016.html - Preview

astani advertising billboards outdoor_installations public_art public_space los_angeles

Attach
an animated sign 14-stories tall on the 33-story condominium
project he is building in downtown L.A.
The proposed sign would loom 12 stories above the sidewalk at
9th and Figueroa streets, facing the 110 Freeway. And city planners
say it would represent a first in the city's residential architecture
-- a sheet of light-emitting screens spaced close enough to form
a vast electronic image, yet far enough apart to allow occupants
to look outside.
9 more annotations...
- Astani's proposal is only the latest controversial effort to
  bring massive advertising and colorful light shows to the neighborhood
  anchored by Staples Center and L.A. Live, the hotel and entertainment
  complex that includes the recently opened Nokia Theatre.
  
  Civic boosters promised two years ago that L.A. Live would transform
  Figueroa's entertainment district into Times Square West -- a
  California counterpart to the bright lights and in-your-face
  advertising seen at Broadway and 42nd Street in Manhattan.
- Although much of L.A. Live is under construction, the district
  around Staples already has some of those colorful lights, including
  the red squares that percolate like soda bubbles on the exterior
  of the Met Lofts and the spotlights at Nokia that strafe the
  sky,
- at least two high-rises could be partly covered with rows of
  tiny panels embedded with LEDs, or light-emitting diodes -- a
  concept viewed by some at City Hall as the next frontier in outdoor
  advertising.
- In November, the City
  Council approved Fig Central, a hotel and condominium complex
  across from Staples Center that will have at least one 330-foot-long
  band of animated advertising. And at least seven more electronic
  signs are planned for the rest of L.A. Live, according to city
  officials.
  
  The courtyard outside Nokia Theatre has 12 LED signs -- enormous
  screens that intersperse concert footage with advertisements
  for mobile phones and Coca-Cola. The theater is adorned with
  more screens and billboards, a fact that disappoints some neighbors.
- "It might actually be beautiful," she said. "It
  might actually be art, as opposed to just ads."
- The billboard question seemed finally to have been answered
  in 2002, when then-Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, after 14 years
  of trying, won passage of a ban on outdoor advertising. But that
  law also contained a provision allowing the creation of "supplemental
  use districts," places like Hollywood, where billboards
  would be permitted in large numbers.
- he argues that his LED displays should
  not be considered billboards.
  
  To make the images less blinding, the signs would have a brightness
  of only 1,200 candelas at night -- roughly one-sixth the intensity
  of the signs found at L.A. Live, Astani said. And because the
  movements of his LED sign would be slower than the images on
  a television screen, Astani contends, his 14-story sign would
  be graceful, not gaudy.
  
  "We don't want to create a monster," Astani said. "If
  this is bright or intrusive, we cannot sell the condominiums.
  It will have to be so unique and unobtrusive that people will
  be proud to live behind it."
- If approved, the signs would contain artistic content during
  10% of their operation, with another 10% devoted to community
  announcements, according to Astani's proposal. The sign rules
  also would dictate the speed with which the animated images change.
  - Only 10% artistic content sounds pretty mingy... - on 2008-05-26
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- Most of the companies installing the new lights have ties to
  City Hall. L.A. Live builder Anschutz Entertainment Group has
  given $485,000 to causes backed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
  The developer of Fig Central has given $100,000; Astani has given
  $150,000.

15 May 08

Colourful banners to light up city (Vancouver Sun)

Wouldn't it be great to have something like this (based on a virus invading the artist's computer) be digital/ computer-generated, instead of in the same old technique of ...?screen-printed banners? C'mon, so it's a nice pattern -- but if it derived from "a virus that invaded [artist Bratsa] Bonifacho's computer," why not make it viral in form?

www.canada.com/...story.html - Preview

vancouver bratsa_bonifacho art art_projects public_art

Colourful banners to light up city
Vancouver artist Bratsa Bonifacho unveils his works at city hall
Catherine Rolfsen,
Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, May 14, 2008
VANCOUVER I The city's gloomy skyline is about to receive a shot of colour as hundreds of dazzling artworks are strung up for the 50th annual street banners display.
"I decided I had to do something very colourful, because the city is so rainy, so cloudy," said Vancouver artist Bratsa Bonifacho, at the unveiling of his works at city hall Tuesday.
And he has: the six works -- which will be hung in various combinations this summer along the Burrard and Cambie street bridges, Georgia and Burrard streets and the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts -- are bursting with neon pinks, electric blues and brilliant oranges.
2 more annotations...
- The intricate banners, composed of grids of stylized letters and symbols, come from a series entitled Habitat Pixel, which is inspired by a virus that invaded Bonifacho's computer.
  Rather than frustration, Bonifacho was seized with fascination when "the whole screen jammed with numbers and pixels."
  The final works look cryptic, and they are: Bonifacho said the banners are encoded with secret messages.
  "But I'm never going to reveal it," he said with a laugh.
  "It could be Latin, it could be French. It could be Chinese."
- At Tuesday's unveiling, Mayor Sam Sullivan presented Bonifacho with a $1,500 honorarium and thanked him for creating "a visual feast for the pure enjoyment of the public."
  The tradition of Vancouver street banners dates back to the B.C. Centenary in 1958, when a team spruced up the city by flying banners as well as stringing strands of dogwood blossoms over Granville and Hastings streets and floated a dragon on Lost Lagoon.
  Jack Shadbolt, Tony Onley, Gordon Smith and Bill Reid are among the artists whose works have been displayed on the banners over the years.

11 Mar 08

Downtown to be painted with digital light

Downtown Vancouver's corporate buildings will be "grafitti-ed" with laser art, as part of Cultural Olympiad. See http://2007.newformsfestival.com/neograf for more info.

Wish we had something comparable in Victoria (hint, hint!)...

www.canada.com/...story.html - Preview

downtown grafitti light_art neograf neografik_project nomlg public_art vancouver

Downtown corporate office towers will be rebranded on Friday and Saturday night when a group of graffiti artists paint their 10-metre tall designs on the sides of buildings with light.
The non-destructive art form uses new open-source software called laser tagging. It allows artists to create real-time designs with light instead of Jiffy markers and spray cans.
Called NeoGraf, the digital graffiti performances will be taking place as part of Midforms and the 2010 Cultural Olympiad.
On both nights, the digital graffiti starts and ends at Open Studios, 252 East First Ave. On Friday, artists Rhek and Virus will be doing laser tagging and over the course of several hours and they'll be moving to several locations in the downtown core including the east wall of the Holiday Inn on Howe and Helmcken. For location details check http://2007.newformsfestival.com/neograf.
On Saturday, artists Neal Nolan and Adam Dodd will be creating more detailed and complex murals. The software allows artists to create different looks, ranging from standard, hard-edge graffiti to more painterly images.
NeoGraf is being brought to Vancouver by NomIg, a Montreal-based duo that investigates the relationships between audio and video.
Ed Jordan from NomIg said people are invited to drop by, watch, and participate on Friday.
"You'll see on Friday a crowd of people and some spontaneous drawing on walls. It'll look large and bright. You'll probably see someone drawing a stick man to people who will be doing some skilled patterns and drawing," Jordan said from Montreal.
"We'll probably have some music playing. These aren't already created images just being projected on a wall. This is about watching the creative process unfold."
1 more annotations...
- Jordan said he came up with the Neografik Project as a way of reclaiming public space by filling it with art instead of corporate logos. The software for laser tagging was developed by new media artist Agent Watson in Amsterdam and the Graffiti Research Lab in Brooklyn, N.Y.
  NeoGraf is the most visible portion of Midforms, an annual multidisciplinary festival celebrating new technology and music. Midforms also includes Dubforms, which explores dub and electronic music, on Friday, and TechForms, an electronic and ambient music event, on Saturday. Both are ticketed events that take place at 10 p.m. each night at Open Studios.