Sunday, June 18, 2006

link-a



link-a is an online multimedia art show which explores "(policies of afftectivity, aesthetics of biopower"). Curated byJuan Martín Prada and produced by medialab madrid. It includes 11 works and a few essays which are worth experiencing.

Thanks to Rhizome for the link.

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Freak Folk!?


A recent article in the NYTimes about "Freak Folk" is a great piece about what they refer to in the article as the "neo-hippies" movement, which we here call the chippies.

One of the more articulate ways in which I've seen the chippie ideals put forth is a statement by Greg Weeks, of the Philadelphia based band Espers:

"There's an element in this community that's tied in to the most valid aspects of the counterculture and learning from the mistakes of the earlier generation."

For one thing, he notes that "there isn't so much reckless abandon" with regard to drug use; just alcohol, marijuana and the occasional psychedelic, most say. Politics, meanwhile, tend to be expressed subtly, through the way people live rather than through explicit song lyrics. "You don't have to have a grand statement," Mr. Weeks said. "You can just do things in your own little way, put them out there, and if people respond, it's going to have a chain reaction. And I think that's kind of what's happening."


This summary of values seems to capture what I see as a growing trend in the people I encounter in relating personal politics to a greater system of operating and working from there. Instead of always making it "us" vs. "them" it acknowledges the idea of a more complex relationship between every person and thing, it is really more diplomatic.


There are other great quotes in this article and it can all be read here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/arts/music/18herm.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

"You may be in a London basement with a laptop and a guitar, but you can make the city your rural area through music," said Mike Lindsay of Tunng.'


Nice to see they have an multimedia slideshow too in this article...multi...media.

Monday, June 05, 2006

The RU Sirius Show

The RU Sirius Show

The first post I'd like to make is a recommendation of a podcast of the RU Sirius Show based in San Francisco. The show is a good source of alternative topics of discussion and it is described on the modoglobo network site as "plumbing the depths of meme culture"...and that's pretty much what he does.

He also has a podcast called NeoFiles, which is available on the same network and is geared more towards discussing new technologies and their relationships to our cultures and subcultures.

Artforum calls RU: "the Wired visionary of post-modernism and psychic pandemonium".
Learn more about him at wikipedia.




You can download the podcast or listen to it in streaming audio here.

Why don't you go like start a blog...you freaking chippie...



Welcome to the launch of "the chippies".

"chippie" is a word derived from the word "chip" as in computer chip; and also from the word "hippie".


Simply put, a chippie is someone is young and willing to utilizie communication technologies as a means of organizing ideas about what rules and what is messed.


Enjoy.

--Pat