Others perform “I WILL TALK WITH ANYONE ABOUT ANYTHING” at the Weatherspoon Museum of Art. Pictures from the opening.

I will also be participating in a collaborative project on Saturday near the Ferry Dock.  Keep an eye out.

“Everything You Want, Right Now!” How advertising distorts culture.

Sunday 2:30-3pm – come early, there are some great lectures including fellow Eyebeam Fellow Jeff Crouse at 4pm.
Figment Festival, Pershing Hall, Governor’s Island, NYC

From The Figment Site:

What’s wrong with advertising? Steve Lambert makes the case with a fast moving lecture that’s as funny as it is informative. Steve’s anarchist/sociologist take on how modern, non-stop persuasive messages have distorted and altered our culture will leave you plenty to ponder on the ferry ride home. Steve Lambert recently made international news with the The New York Times “Special Edition,” a replica of the grey lady announcing the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other good news. He is the founder of the Anti-Advertising Agency, lead developer of Add-Art (a Firefox addon that replaces online advertising with art) and has collaborated with numerous artists including the Graffiti Research Lab, and the Yes Men. Lambert has appeared live on NPR, the BBC, and CNN, and been reported on in the New York Times, Harper’s, The Believer, Good, Dwell, and Newsweek. He is a Senior Fellow at the Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology in New York, and teaches at Parsons and Hunter College.

About Figment

FIGMENT is an annual arts event on Governors Island, with artwork in every medium, from installation to performance to music to games and many things in between. Participation is open to any artist who would like to share their work. It is a free, non-profit endeavor run by volunteers.

FIGMENT’s vision for art looks past the white-walled galleries and into the realm of participation. Art is not just something that you stand still and quietly look at – it is something you participate in. You touch it, smell it, climb it, write on it, talk to it, dance with it, play with it, learn from it… Interactive art creates a dynamic collaboration between the artist, the audience and their environment.

As a free, public, non-profit event, we aim to advance social and personal transformation through creativity. FIGMENT is uninterrupted by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. Selling or advertising goods or services is not permitted. Neither our artists nor our planners and staff are paid – everything that you see at FIGMENT is born from a simple desire to share imagination with each other and the public.

In these challenging economic times, it is important that artists devise new ways to create, share, think, and dream about what is possible. FIGMENT is an alternative to many of the shortcomings of the commercial art world— exclusive, expensive, impersonal, untouchable and often simply boring.

Famous for his role in New York’s artistic heritage and the Pop Art movement, Andy Warhol believed that everyone had it in them to be a star for fifteen minutes. Through his own art, he defined his identity and shaped the world around him. He once commented that he’d like his tombstone to say only one word: “Figment.”

Thanks to Raffi Aghapekian for being available for the news crews. Check out Self Control

About Prix Ars:

Since 1987, the Prix Ars Electronica has served as an interdisciplinary platform for everyone who uses the computer as a universal medium for implementing and designing their creative projects at the interface of art, technology and society. The Prix Ars Electronica, the Ars Electronica Festival, the Ars Electronica Center – Museum of the Future and the Ars Electronica Futurelab are the four divisions that comprise the Ars Electronica Linz GmbH, whose specific orientation and long-term continuity make it a unique platform for digital art and media culture. The competition is organized by the Ars Electronica Linz GmbH and ORF’s Upper Austria Regional Studio in collaboration with the OK Center for Contemporary Art and the Brucknerhaus Linz, and the prizes are awarded during the Ars Electronica Festival each year. The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the most important awards for creativity and pioneering spirit in the field of digital media.

“Our Subject is You” is the first exhibition organized by the Weatherspoon Art Museum to focus on participatory art. The artists in the exhibition rely on the involvement of the public in order for their work to be realized. They form avenues for meaningful engagement within the context of the gallery, inviting museum visitors to contribute to the creation of artwork through social interaction, collaboration, and/or performativity. Artists included in the show are Tonico Lemos Auad (Brazil/UK), Harrell Fletcher (USA), Nina Katchadourian (USA), San Keller (Switzerland), Steve Lambert (USA), Darren O’Donnell (Canada), Sherri Lynn Wood (USA) and Erwin Wurm (Austria).

In the exhibition, museum visitors will take part in the formation of artwork and through special live participatory events at the June 19th opening. Through this process, “Our Subject is You” anticipates visitors will become aware of a collapse between the traditional boundaries that define spectator from artwork, or spectator from performer, and perceive themselves to be active participants in the creation of art and culture.

The embrace of social collaboration in art has its roots in the Happenings and interactive works produced by artists such as Yoko Ono and Alan Kaprow in the 1960s. Now reformulated by globalization and the widespread use of the internet, the works in “Our Subject is You” reveal how participatory practice has increased in relevance—and prevalence—among artists over the past decade.

“Our Subject is You” is co-curated by conceptual artist and UNCG Assistant Professor of Art, Lee Walton and Weatherspoon Curator of Exhibitions, Xandra Eden. Support for San Keller’s work is generously provided by Pro Helvetia, Swiss Arts Council.

SUMMER PARTY!
Friday, June 19, 7 – 9:30 pm

Weatherspoon Art Museum – 6th Annual Summer Solstice Party + “Our Subject is You” Exhibition Premiere

An evening of music and interactive artwork. Free admission. Light food and refreshments (cash bar). Bring your cameras!

Schedule of Events

7 pm: “We Art Proud to Present” by Nina Katchadourian Not to be missed! Arrive between 7-7:30 to participate in this red carpet event.

7:45: “Weatherspoon, Dega. Dega, Weatherspoon” by Darren O’Donnell Featuring VIP guests from the Montagnard Dega Association of Greensboro.

8 pm: “Take the Stage: Open Mic” Live entertainment by Greensboro’s finest.

RELATED PUBLIC PROGRAMS

Noon @ the ‘Spoon, Tuesday, August 11, 12 pm

Artist’s Talk: Sherri Lynn Wood, Thursday, August 20, 5:30 pm

Workshop: Group Stitching Mantra (led by Sherri Lynn Wood), Saturday, August 22, 2-4 pm $10 members/$20 non-members. Contact t_dowell@uncg.edu to register.

Co-Curators’ Gallery Talk: Xandra Eden & Lee Walton, Thursday, August 27, 4 pm

Artist’s Talk: Steve Lambert, TBA

Weatherspoon Art Museum
corner of Spring Garden and Tate Streets
University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Where Lives Come to Die
Video, 3′31
San Francisco, 2009

This piece is based on a poem by Scott V. from Oakland. Scott and I have been friends and collaborators for a long time. I saw him perform this piece live and people were laughing, confused, and depressed all at once. It was amazing. After collaborating on a long-form experimental video, we decided why not keep the momentum going and turn the poem into a video?

All the video was shot in 2005 over 2 nights at the actual coffee shop near Scott’s old work (the story is based on fact). I tried to edit it in the coming days. Days turned into years as I would step away from the edit to gain perspective, but whenever I would return to it, I couldn’t come up with a good edit or sound. Luckily John Davis gave me hours worth of his audio experiments to use in a radio program I made, and I found audio from him that worked perfectly. Later after I moved to New York, Nadia Awad came to Eyebeam as an intern and pulled a rabbit out of her hat on the edit. She’s got the magic touch! More time went by and Liz Filardi added her amazing titles.

The people who worked on this are all very talented and I hope you find our little 3 minute story at least half as sad, funny, and human as I did when I first heard it.

Scott V. from Oakland | text
Steve Lambert & Scott V. from Oakland | visuals
Nadia Awad | editing
John Davis | sound
Liz Filardi | titles

With support from eyebeam.org

Steve Lambert gained considerable notoriety eight days after last November’s elections when he collaborated with a group called the Yes Men in publishing a politically progressive hoax edition of the New York Times, its banner headline declaring “Iraq War Ends.” The debut Los Angeles solo show for the New York-based artist at Charlie James Gallery includes video documentation of that work, as well as well-traveled intersections between art and advertising.

Inside, we are greeted by a needlessly large plexiglass donation box by Steve Lambert titled “Steve Lambert Refuses to Participate in the Exhibit.” A legend near the box promises that all the money collected will be divided among the artists in the show because the SJICA didn’t budget any money for artist fees. On the day I attended, a scattering of ones and a few fives sat unimpressively at the bottom of the box, adding irony to the piece’s tongue-in-check rejection of a show about rejection.

Read article in full at KQED’s site