Fritz Haeg - Animal Estates :: April 16, 2008; 6:30 pm :: The Center for Advanced Visual Studies, Massachusetts Institute for Technology, 265 Massachusetts Ave 3rd Fl (N52-390), Cambridge MA.

The Center is pleased to host Fritz Haeg and his project Animal Estates. While at MIT, Haeg will give a talk on his work and, with the help of MIT students and artists, build one installment of Animal Estates, a new series of dwellings thoughtfully designed to welcome an animal back into the city. These environments are made for displaced wildlife or for animals that have been domesticated. Continue reading

Brentford Biopsy :: April 5- June 15, 2008 :: :: Watermans Gallery, 40 High Street, Brentford, London.

Watermans gallery will be converted into a live design / mapping studio where investigatory, locative media artist Christian Nold together with the designer Daniela Boraschi will be working with local residents to gather information for digital and physical visualizations of the ecological, cultural and economic ‘health’ of Brentford. Continue reading

EcoArtTech will be demonstrating their Environmental Risk Assessment Rover-­AT (ERAR­AT) at Purchase College, SUNY, Purchase, NY each evening at dusk on 3/27, 3/28, and 3/29, 2008.

Environmental Risk Assessment Rover-­AT, Version 1.0, 2008: “Sooner rather than later, one comes up against the law that so long as risks are not recognized scientifically, they do not exist–at least not legally, medically, technologically, or socially, and they are thus not prevented, treated or compensated for. No amount of collective moaning can change this, only science. Scientific judgment’s monopoly on truth therefore forces the victims themselves to make use of all the methods and means of scientific analysis in order to succeed with their claims.” -German risk theorist Ulrich Beck Continue reading

Evolving the Network: Politics, Culture, and Consciousness :: March 29, 2008; 8:15 pm :: Jivamukti Yoga School, 841 Broadway (2nd fl) at Union Square :: Limited Space - Tickets.

The Obama campaign shows that the power and influence of computer networks continues to grow, as a political and cultural force, while music and video downloading is transforming the arts and culture industry. Web 2.0 tools are evolving consciousness, creating new social and spiritual possibilities. Laura Dawn, the cultural director of MoveOn; Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, musician, writer, and filmmaker; and Daniel Pinchbeck, author and editorial director of Reality Sandwich, will discuss the transfigured landscape of our new networked culture, its potentials and pitfalls. Continue reading

[Image: Annina Rüst, eRiceCooker] FEEDBACK :: March 13 - April 19, 2008 :: Closing Reception: April 19, 3 pm :: Eyebeam, 540 W. 21st St., New York.

What does it mean to think “green”? Eyebeam’s expansive new exhibition, FEEDBACK, surveys artists, designers, architects and engineers on the topic of sustainability, and presents their responses—19 projects varying from public art projects and industrial design to DIY energy solutions and software tools—to inspire discussion and action on this pervasive (and increasingly commodified) subject.

As the culmination of Eyebeam’s Beyond Light Bulbs programming series, the show highlights the concerns, interests and work of Eyebeam’s Sustainability Research Group, with work by individuals, collectives, students, local community groups and the Eco-Vis Challenge winners. Continue reading

E.P.A. (Environmental Performance Actions) :: March 15 – May 3, 2008 :: Opening: March 15, 7-9 pm :: Exit Art, 475 Tenth Ave, New York, NY.

E.P.A. is the first project of S.E.A, a large-scale program dealing with current environmental concerns and the way artists respond to them. E.P.A is a group exhibition surveying recent performance work from around the world that addresses current environmental crises. The exhibition will consist of videos, photographs, texts, related ephemera and a film program documenting recent performances. For this opening project Amy Lipton and founder/co-curator Patricia Watts of ecoartspace — a leading international environmental arts organization — are collaborating with Exit Art on the organization and presentation of this material. Continue reading

[Image: Jorgen Tandberg and Yo Murat’s winning design] “In Texas some bat lovers have excavated caves and built towers on their land to encourage bat settlement. I’m interested in initiating a project suitable for bats in London. A number of partners have joined me this year to launch an open competition to design a bat house to give a much-needed year-round habitat to bats in the Southwest London area. There is great pressure on bat numbers in London as buildings get redeveloped and home improvements leave little space for bats to live in. In this structure the bats are our client and we hope to be able to accommodate different species that have different housing needs, the raising of a family, hibernation etc.” Continue reading

Fritz Haeg: Attack on the Front Lawn :: January 26 - March 16, 2008 :: Arthouse at the Jones Center, 700 Congress Ave., Austin, Texas :: In conjunction with The Sundown Schoolhouse: How to Eat Austin and Edible Estates Regional Prototype Garden #5. This is the first major exhibition of Haeg’s work.

Fritz Haeg: Attack on the Front Lawn surveys recent ecological initiatives completed by the artist and architect known for his socially-responsive and community-oriented practice. Working at the intersection of art and social activism, Haeg engages audiences in collaborative encounters that often take place outside of the institutional confines of a museum or gallery. Continue reading

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3000 words written quite a while ago for Julian Oliver’s ‘Packet Garden’ exhibition @ Arnolfini(UK).

Appropriately, for an artist whose work has long been about exploring boundaries and intersections ( of media, artforms, of technologies ), Julian Oliver’s latest work is situated in that long celebrated interface between art and nature, between order and disorder, the garden. Across cultures, throughout time, the garden has been designed / created / explored / experienced as a place resonant with meaning, our relationship with the world probed through the use of symbolic themes and features. In Packet Garden, we are invited to map the world of our daily screens, to create our personal media landscapes. Creating order from our own disorder, we discover our own topologies, media patterns, our habits. Continue reading