Video still from Bjork in Times Square by David Bates, Jr.
NORDIC OUTBREAK
Streaming Museum is pleased to present at ISEA2013, a special collection from Nordic Outbreak, an exhibition of over 30 moving image artworks by established and emerging contemporary Nordic artists curated for public space. Curated and produced by Nina Colosi and Tanya Toft, the exhibition and accompanying public programs launched in New York City, March 1 to April 6, and are travelling throughout the Nordic region and internationally in 2013-14. Nordic Outbreak will be viewed as large projections and on screens in public spaces, on its website, and at partnering cultural centres.
The themes presented in the artworks reflect discussions and issues that have been critical to the Nordic context in the past decade – such as gender equality, decline of the welfare state, nationalism vs. globalism, rural nostalgia, the man/nature relationship, post-crisis transition and existentialism. These issues confront the underpinnings of society in the Nordic region – but they also reflect international realities and conditions in the digital age.
Nordic Outbreak opened on March 1st with a new version of Björk’s Mutual Core video by Andrew Thomas Huang, from her Biophilia series, on view during Times Square’s Midnight Moment, simultaneously displayed across 15 of the largest screens in Times Square.
Public programs included a symposium and exhibition at Scandinavia House with Keynote speaker Erkki Huhtamo, Professor of Media History and Theory, University of California Los Angeles, Nordic artists, theorists, and curators; screenings at Big Screen Plaza, Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (“the Gateway to the United Nations),and the Manhattan Bridge Archway, a lecture at New York University on the history of Nordic moving image, and an evening event in the Sky Room at the New Museum.
Nordic artists in the complete exhibition: Eija-Liisa Ahtila, J Tobias Anderson, Björk, Ken Are Bongo, Jeannette Ehlers, Efterklang, Jette Ellgaard, Jessica Faiss, Søren Thilo Funder, Sigurdur Gudjonsson, Styrmir Örn Gudmundsson, Eva-Mari Haikala, Iselin Linstad Hauge, Kaia Hugin, Hanne Ivars, Mogens Jacobsen, Vibeke Jensen, Jesper Just, Hannu Karjalainen, Antti Laitinen, Dan Lestander, Una Lorenzen, Pernille With Madsen, Dodda Maggy, Eva Olsson, QNQ/AUJIK, Miia Rinne, Egill Saebjornsson, Magnus Sigurdarson, Birgitte Sigmundstad and Superflex.
Nordic Outbreak is produced in collaboration with Nordic curators Daniela Arriado, Birta Gudjonsdottir, Kati Kivinen, and Jacob Lillemose; and cultural centres Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Reykjavik Art Museum, Danish Architecture Center, Screen City Festival, Katuaq the Cultural Centre of Greenland, PNEK, AV-Arkki.
ARTISTIC LICENSE IN SILICON VALLEY
Streaming Museum launched an international tour of Artistic License in Silicon Valley at the ZERO1 Biennial Urban Screen, San Jose, California, in September 2012. The exhibition presents perceptions of global digital culture by seven internationally known contemporary artists: Michael Najjar, Sophie Kahn, Maurice Benayoun, Scott Draves, Multi-touch Barcelona, Ursula Endlicher, and Mark Amerika.
The invisible city (2004) by Michael Najjar
Sensory fluid imagery of the megacities New York, Mexico City, São Paulo, Paris, Berlin, London, Shanghai, and Tokyo explores telematic space and the future development of global cities as the material embodiment of information density. (MichaelNajjar.com)
04302011 (2011) by Sophie Kahn
Laser portraits that appear incomplete and fragmented as a result of disruptions, caused by the models’ movement and breathing during the scanning process, suggest a metaphor of instability in our digitally mediated identities. (SophieKahn.net)
Emotion Forecast (2010) (Video Version) by Maurice Benayoun
This real-time data visualisation artwork depicts the internet as the nervous system of the world, by measuring 48 emotions on websites related to current events in more than 3200 cities worldwide, revealing the results in a hyperactive map. (Benayoun.com)
Gen 244 (2011) by Scott Draves
Artificial intelligence and human designers come together in this generative, participatory ‘cloud art’ work made with mathematics and Darwinian evolution by Draves’ Electric Sheep open source code. The essence of life is created in digital form in the artwork’s cyborganic mind comprised of 450,000 computers and people who vote on their favourite designs which reproduce according to a genetic algorithm. (ScottDraves.com)
HI, A Real Human Interface (2009) by Multi-touch Barcelona
This film imagines the concept of personal computer quite literally as possessing life-like qualities of human companions, by embedding a human being inside one. (Multitouch-Barcelona.com)
Facebook Re-enactments (2009) (Video Version) by Ursula Endlicher
The artist bridges the gap between the internet, physical reality and performance, impersonating people who share the same name on Facebook. (Ursenal.net)
#NewAestheticVideo (2012) by Mark Amerika
This mock trailer for a movie that was never made, but lives on the Web as a distributed narrative, refers to an eponymous artist whose artistic presence and remixed persona is a mash-up of mobile phone videos, animated gifs, Google Earth glitch imagery, and the corrupting presence of a literary voice summoned from the digital-beyond. (MarkAmerika.com)
Arrival – Departure (2013), Tom Carr
Art Plural Gallery, Singapore, and Streaming Museum are pleased to present a new public work by Spanish artist Tom Carr. Titled Arrival – Departure, the digital video shows silhouettes of urbanites ascending and descending an escalator within the frame of a pinhole. Arrival – Departure is touring Streaming Museum’s partnering public screens around the world.
Arrival – Departure is a simple vignette of an instantly recognisable scene – of people riding escalators – that evokes contemplation of urban existence. They travel along the same path within the same space, and yet there is no communication. Depicting both the individual and the archetype, the silhouettes portray the universal condition of people in transit.
See it here: streamingmuseum.org/arrival_departure; tomcarrstudio.com; artpluralgallery.com
Tom Carr is internationally recognised for his formally-rigorous sculptural works and numerous large-scale projects, especially for outdoor public spaces. From monumental steel sculptures in Madrid to light sculptures in the French mountains, the prolific and versatile artist has materialised his creative vision in locations around the globe.
About Streaming Museum
Streaming Museum produces and presents contemporary-themed exhibitions of international multi-media arts and related programs to a global audience via mobile devices, a network of big screens worldwide, and at cultural and public centres. The museum was founded in New York City by Nina Colosi. Since its launch on 7 continents on January 29, 2008 exhibitions have been viewed on screens in over 55 locations worldwide. streamingmuseum.org
Presenting Partner
Urban Screen Productions curate and produce content and events for public screens and manage the Concourse Urban Screen in Chatswood, Sydney.
Supporters
This project has been assisted by Willoughby City Council
Presented By
This project is presented by ISEA2013 and the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) as part of the 19th International Symposium of Electronic Arts, Sydney.
For press inquiries contact:
Kate Greenberg, 646-405-5987
[email protected]
