Artists Meeting minutes -- Sunday March 30th, 2008
The Meeting took place at the SCOPE Art Fair at the [PAM] installation and VIP lounge.
In attendance were Lee Wells, Raphaele Shirley, Chris Borkowski, Edita Zulic, Thomas Hutchison, James Andrews, Bethany Fancher, G.H. Hovagimyan.
The meeting had two parts, one was a walk through the art fair by GH, James, & Bethany critiquing and discussing the art fair. the second part was a group discussion. Both parts were documented with video and still images. The video camera was passed around so that various people took turns as cameraperson.
The group agreed to pursue the project proposed by Thomas involving taping off the entrances to a park. GH suggested Madison Square Park and thought that getting a film permit would keep police from being to aggressive towards the project. Thomas said he would try and get a permit for May 1st.
The meeting discussion was rather lively. Part of the realization was that simply meeting and talking was quite a creative event. Raphaele and James decided that a large scale artwork/theme park was the next step past the art fairs.
GH said he will digitize the videos shot at SCOPE. The group decided to have a formal meeting on April 8th at GH's
Artists Meeting at SCOPE Art Fair [PAM] installation March, 2008
The potluck was great.
An abundance of ethnic treats such as Bosnian "Pita" and “shredded salad”
along with two yummy Quiches, Chicken and a Chicken-rice concoction, and
many flasks of red wine were provided by Edita, Raphaele, Lee, Chris
,Bethany, Thomas, Mookie (nsumi), Maureen, James, and Lara – who was
sporting a memorable flying hamburger T-shirt.
(did I forget anyone?)
The evening was more about frolicking and opulence than digesting the
various proposals up for consideration, however some time was spent
looking over and discussing the Creative Capital grant app in progress.
As this discussion occurred after a hunk of the group had already left
(..blame the wine), and with out GH and Daniel not in attendance, it might
be wise to have the discussion spill over into email. The big ideas were:
- the text in progress still needs work. There was question as to what CC
would and would not fund.
- a new idea from Maureen: launch an artists’ think tank. (which is also,
an old unrealized nsumi idea). To this Lee added in the idea of a lobbying
service; and to this James added that we draft up a set of proposals on
what we think the feds should doing in support of the arts, create a
serious proposal, and set up a meeting with the Obama cultural
representative in NY (hedging our bets that Obama will win), in the hopes
that he/she would take the ideas to heart and remember us next year.
- Chris provided some sage advice regarding the way that grant panels
operate and the nuance of writing project descriptions.
- Bethany noted that we might not actually need a grant to do any of this
and that our time and energies might well be better spent developing the
project rather than engaging yet another bureaucracy.
Many more things were discussed! As I had not planned to be the scribe,
this is all from memory. Additional recollections are welcome!
In attendance – James Andrews, Daniel Blochwitz, Bethany Fancher, G.H. Hovagimyan, Joao Salema.
Daniel is working on developing his Common Sense project in a WIKI form. GH has put up the wiki at http://nujus.net/mediawiki
The project is perfect of a rhizome commission. Daniel needs the help of some members to write the rhizome grant and also maye Chris can help with the layout of the WIKI. James mentioned that the Langlois Foundation is interested in both creating digital archives and having their archive used for research. The common sense project could be the reason to apply to Langlois for a research residency. James has suggested that there be a panel discussion along with the launch of the final project. (common sense wiki) .
Lee has invited A.M to do a project for scope. The group will have access to a data projector & screen. Chris has said that he will set up the same computer set-up as we used for dumbo. There has been some discussion online about using wifi webcams to set up a market surveillance of the art fair. GH says that we can set up a text messaging app using a cellphone and sms this can be input into the patch.
There is also the possiblility of having two or more people doing live audio discussions/interviews and feeding that into the patch. This would function as an overview/critique of the market. James remarked that the text and the general imagery for the patch should be slowed down because it flashed by too fast at dumbo. The date for SCOPE is March 27th.
The group talked about proposing to the Kunsthalle Exnergasse in Vienna Daniel suggests picking 3 projects from the Whitney proposal and developing a proposal. There is a 1500 euro stipend, plus a technicien. http://kunsthalle.wuk.at/5e/frame.htm
The Deadline is March 1st. This is an excellent opportunity.
Maria Joao talked about making the AM site more image friendly. GH said that Chris’s new editor and database is excellent and should be used. The group talked about a new common project like and exqusite corp where everyone could add images. Bethany Fancher came up with the name NO PURPOSE. GH remarked that that was a situationist method. He said he would put up a page on the AM site that everyone could add to and that it would be a good way to exercise using the JCE editor. Note: the page is up and it can be added to with separate layers. The boxes are already in place. Read Chris’s howTo upload images tutorial.
There was some discussion on email etiquette. James had suggested doing a stealth email loop. GH said that would result in our IP being banned as a spam server.
There was a discussion about the eviction of artists from 475 Kent Ave. The discussion was very lively and was a starting point for an analysis of art production and the use of artists to gentrify a neighborhood. James had suggested the group do something but there was not any consensus on what to do. GH said that artist need to seek different ways to make art that don’t fit into the same old production model. Note: Bethany posted a blog on AM enlarging on this discussion. She remarked that one of the reasons she was riding a horse across the country was that she had lost here studio.
There was also a discussion about whether to add a political action section to the AM site.
GH had also said that he had installed a project management module for the website called Hydra but had not configured it yet.
In attendance, Daniel Blochwitz, Chris Borkowski, Bethany Fancher, G.H. Hovagimyan, Raphaele Shirley, Lee Wells, Helena Winston
GH talks about the new mediawiki page- http://nujus.net/mediawiki Daniel is excited by the possibility of creating a project he has proposed for the group using the mediawiki. He suggests a one day workshop where the group learns the mediawiki interface and starts the project. GH suggests that we use Eyebeam as a place for a workshop. Lee Talks about wikipedia and suggests that each person starts a page about someone else in the group.
GH has a rough edit of the documentary footage for the gumbo@dumbo. He showed it during the informal cocktail part of the beginning of the meeting. He will bring copies for everyone for the next meeting. Lee suggests that the whole group get involved in editing the video. GH says that a great idea.
The Whitney Highline schedule is discussed. Lee suggests March 27th as a start date for the project. There is a question about when the pier show and the Whitney Bienniel is occurring, maybe at the same time? Everyone thinks it’s better to have an April, May, June & July time frame for the project. There is some discussion about David Little and what exactly was COLAB about and it’s organizing principles. The discussion then went to expanding the meaning of art and not letting the marketplace dictate the form and structure of art. It was pointed out that the Whitney is part of the marketplace but the education department is the part we would be operating under. There was a discussion of the idea of the artists patron, in this case the Whitney Museum, and what that meant. It was understood that with the more or less fringe nature of our groups activities, the Whitney would be supporting that type of loose, semi-curated experimental art event.
Raphaele suggested that if the Whitney didn’t happen we should look for different venues. Daniel suggested two trees in dumbo may have spaces and gh said LMCC. He also suggested the New York Cocoa Exchange as a possible site for an intervention. The building is at the corner of Fulton and Front Street and has NYU dorms in part of it.
Lee talked about the In Transition Show in Yektarinasburg Russia. He said that the patch Chris created with files for the gumbo@dumbo could be presented as a project by Artists Meeting. There was some discussion about whether to create new work and add more video clips to the database. This may be worth pursuing and enlarging on. The Exhibition is scheduled for October 15th .
GH also talked about possibly presenting Artists Meeting for Ars Electronica and the Split new film festival. GH also said that he was going to be in Europe from February 5th thru March 17th. If the Whitney started to happen the other members of the group would need to engage with David Little. Also Ther was agreement to have a meeting in two weeks instead of three because GH was leaving for Europe in 3 weeks.
Next meeting Scheduled for Tuesday January 29th at 7pm, GH’s place.
In Attendance – James Andrews, Chris Borkowski, Bethany Fancher, Thomas Hutchison, G.H. Hovagimyan, Lara Star Martini, Maria Joao Salema, Lee Wells Edita Zulic.
The discussion was about the design and uses of the website. The notion of total transparency of the creative process was discussed. The group asked that the email archive that was public be moved to the private section of the site. James suggested that revealing the whole process was getting to be an art world cliché. The group wrestled with the idea of what the site should be. Should it be a promo site for the group or a wide-open site to the public? Lee maintained that putting it all out there was a good thing while others thought that holding something back was appropriate. The discussion continued with the idea of a private internal section for project development and discussion that could be later edited and made public. Lee, G.H. & Chris said that everyone needed to register and start using the site in order to activate it and suggest how to make it into what they want.
James said that he felt that just making another artists website was not very interesting. G.H. talked about having the site be project driven and not open to a wide audience lke youTube. James said he’d like to follow up on gh’s idea of a “logo show.” GH also that the Whitney project was coming along and the brochures look very professional. Edita said that when people google her name the artists meeting site popped up with the santa dildos. Chris discussed metadata and how it affected search engines. Raphaele had photographed some of the bad santa pictures and they were uploaded onto the site by the time the meeting started.
Everyone talked about the party Saturday at Raphaeles.
Please log onto the AM site and add your thoughts to these minutes by using the comment section for registered users.
In attendance, James Andrews, Daniel Blochwitz, Chris Borkowski, Bethany Fancher, G.H. Hovagimyan, Bill? (NSUMI), Lara Star Martini, Raphaele Shirley, Lee Wells
The group talked about the Whitney Highline proposals. Everyone agrees to read or put their proposals online at the artists meeting list. The list archive to view back proposals is http://nujus.net/pipermail/artistsmeeting/
Please put your proposals up on the list ASAP <artistsmeeting(AT)nujus.net>
Chris suggested that a venture capitalist site called the funded might be a place to pitch the artists meeting fund. http://thefunded.com/
The Whitney proposals are the top concern for the group. Raphaele suggested we all read each other proposals and critique them in some manner. Lee suggested a winnowing down of proposals. GH said he thinks we should give them all the proposals as an example of the amount of energy the group has.
GH says that he will try and write an overview essay over the holidays that everyone can add to.
Lee suggests that we have a Table of Contents with a two sentence description for each proposal. One idea was to make the evolution of proposals ongoing. This can be done on the AM joomla site. It was suggested that this process of an ongoing evolution of proposals should be part of our methodology.
Daniel suggested that the idea of working together as an investigation is another viable strategy and overall theme.
The group talked about the idea of engagement in each others’ processes and also engaging the public. There was some discussion about including the public in the creative process as for instance a painting party and then the group re-packaging and presenting the finished product. GH pointed out that that’s a strategy similar to web 2.0. The group takes the position of privileged artist and aesthetic gatekeepers.
Raphaele unrolled the anti xmas mural and there was quite a bit of oohs and ahs! The final decision was that we would take separate photos of each rendition and use give them to the group as e-cards for xmas.
Finally it was agreed to meet at GH’s again in one week to finalize the Whitney proposals.
Attended- Leesa Abahuni, Nicole Abahuni, James Andrews, Daniel Blochwitz, Eliza Fernbach, G.H. Hovagimyan, Thomas Hutchison, Jaoa Salema, Raphaele Shirley, Lee Wells
Group discussed anti-xmas show. Lee talked about space at Art Basel Miami as not yet fixed, G.H. says that Postmasters has said maybe but it’s for in between xmas & New Years. Various types of printing strategies discussed such as offset printing and G.H. has large format printer. Also discussed making lightboxes with acetate prints. Raphaele invites group to her loft on November 15th to do a collaborative poster creation party. Bring stuff to glue down and computers, files etc.. Raphaele will confirm date & location. Conclusion is to go ahead and do collaborative piece. Also Lara had said she might go down to Miami-- needs more confirmation. Also Eliza suggested a “fake” postering campaign in which the group claims to have pasted up posters all over New York and perhaps dummy up some photoshop documentation as proof.
Whitney Museum Highline proposals discussed; James presents NSUMI package of interesting and funny proposals. Group decides to get serious and have next meeting in 3 (November 20th) weeks be a proposal meeting. Members are asked to bring proposals to share and work on. GH suggests to be as loose and creative as possible. Overview is to bind together all proposals with an overview letter and give to Whitney for consideration.
Website design preliminary discussion with GH asking all members to come and help him with design. Design criteria has been layed out by Lee in the email discussions:
>> A clean simple design (white page, black text with colored links) >> Basically a brochure website with a blog type homepage >> >> ----- >> >> Categories >> >> Home Blog (running blog with comment function) >> >> Static Pages >> About (Artist meeting mission statement) >> Artists (Bio, statement, etc) >> Projects (completed, ie. gumbo at dumbo) >> Proposals (ie. Whitney Highline stuff) >> Press (2 part - project PR, high res press images and logos) >> - make it easy for the media to do a story on us. >> >> Contact (info at artistsmeeting.org) >> >> Other possible pages >> >> Media (video and audio files for download) >> Join (for those interested in becoming a part of AM) >> Links/Associations (various links to interesting sites and organizations)
