Recently, in a conversation that I was having on Rhizome, a colleague was mentioning that although a particular body of work wasn’t their cup of tea, that they surmised that it must have been interesting in that it must have been difficult or challenging to do. This is only one example, but it gives me a rhetorical touchstone for what seems to be a larger phenomenon.

In thinking about the creation of New Media, I’ve come across a multitude of artists who believe that the merit of a work is linked to the artist’s technical prowess and the degree of difficulty involved in the creation of the work [1]. The link of New Media Art to craft seems to elide the conversation of art and objecthood initiated in 1917 upon the fateful inscription of “R.Mutt” upon the urinal by Duchamp. And, with the force of the Conceptual Art movement in the 60’s and 70’s in working to problematize the whole idea of the art object, why does a material discourse (i.e. craft) reemerge in a de-objectified movement like New Media? This is a (somewhat) puzzling phenomenon.

11/19/06 11:45 AM
Bare life, subject, exposure, recuperation: ‘bare life’ on –empyre- soft-skinned space (Sydney, July 2006)A report(also known as THE THING because it was a monster to write!) by Christina McPhee, participant, documenta 12 magazine project for –empyre- soft-skinned space, Sydney; on the occasion of the documenta 12 transregional meeting on November 11 to 13, 2006, Goethe Institute, Cairo, Egypt.

Last week, during three evenings in Geneva, we had the chance to discover the last performance of the young swiss collective: www.n3krozoft.com Like some of their other works, it was dealing with video surveillance, geopolitics, fictions and a mix between acting and video screenings. This time, we were following John Doe, a secret agent, lost behind pipelines, satellite antennas and Iraki terrorists.

http://neural.it/projects/rm/

THINK

Neglectful of this blog I have been. Returned from Europe months ago, I embarked on a round of conferences – in later October I did "Trans" the visual culture conference at University of Wisconsin-Madison, "Art in the Contested City" at Pratt Institute, and then "Continental Drift" at 16 Beaver both in early November in NYC. All these shindigs were illuminating, from very different points of view.

Sunday, November 19, 2006
1:00p-5:00p
Join the Sewing rebellion! Take a stand against the fashion machine and emancipate yourself by learning how to sew. Frau Fiber, artist, activist and former textile worker invites you to join in the sewing rebellion! Learn sewing tricks of the trade, so you won’t have to labor confused and frustrated at your sewing machines any longer. Create your own fashion statement beyond the boundaries of designer labels. Revolt against the globalization of the fashion industry by producing garments unique to your taste and body shape.

Propped up only by a medium preset upper set stellar star step.
I bent lessons.
Equally amused.
paraphrased rhythm structures own.
For junior.
The future helmed by a ghost of christmas past.
Genius. resound molecule network eye.

I recently stumbled across Making the Empire Cross by Brisbane artist Priscilla Bracks. Her practice explores the human condition and world we inhabit. She is especially interested in chaos, change, the patterns chaos creates, and the way these factors impact upon personal, social and national identities.