Soundscapes + Glitches: Interview w/ Artist Phillip Stearns

Our Art Haus // Rock series is an interview or feature about artists and musicians we love.

Tumblr's pick for Art Takes Times Square // image courtesy of artist

Phillip Stearns is tumblr’s Pick for the Art Takes Times Square contest, hosted by our fam at Artists Wanted. We wanted to catch up with Phillip, who’s also an instructor here at 3rd Ward (he’ll help you make DIY Synthesizers! Audio Amplifiers!)

3W: How did you come up with the name "Pixel Form" ? There's another dude with this as the name of his website. Have you ever thought about collaborating with him?

PS: The name’s falling slowly in disuse. Do you have info on this other guy?

3W sends Phillip a link to a nature photographer’s website.

PS: Well, the reason I'm moving away from it...other people are using it--it's too easy. I use my real name now.

3W: Is there a different mood between your visual and audio work?

PS: My sound based work is more abstract, challenging, intellectual, and the visual art has been influenced by the presentation medium (online and social media), becoming more playful and full of color. My year-long project Year of the Glitch was started with the thought: "I'm gonna do a glitch a day." I chose tumblr because it seemed like the best way to share info. The audio doesn't get as many notes as the visual.

PHILLIP'S MOST POPULAR TUMBLR POST:

Everybody Loves GIFSPhillip's Glitch Textiles:

Glitch Textiles, courtesy of artist

"It's this perfect conceptual loop--this kitsch momento is being used to visualize corrupted memory. And in the process, it becomes a new memory." 

Check out: Phillip Stearns’ SoundCloud

3W: Tell us about your sound art. 

PS: I come from a background of audio engineering.  By using pure mixer feedback, tones can be intermodulated to create rhythms. Some sounds mimic melodic sequences, some are pure noise. All the pieces I do with this are improvised. My work Anopthalmia is named after a disease, when one is born without eyes. It’s part of a larger collection, Macular Degeneration, which has to do with blindness or loss. These feedback loops create a sonic landscape. It's sort of like Mario Bros. You can never go back. It's a journey, a path, and I'm wandering through.

Optic Vasculature // Artist Unknown

"I'm not visually impaired, but it's on my mind. I've worn glasses since kindergarten."

3W: Has your work ever stumped you? 

PS: I'm often stumped on the technical side of things. The stumping becomes part of the process, and the piece actually changes. The work is so tied to the technology that is producing them. The final piece is somehow different from the original idea, and includes the technology that created it.

3W: How do you include the spectator in your performances?

PS: I'm creating an experience. Some of the work is more involved. If I use stroboscopic lights, [it is] exclusive in that epileptics cannot participate. For those who can experience the work, it's going to be unique to the individual, because everyone's central nervous system is operating at a different speed.

"It's not a question of interactivity it's a question of immersion."

 
3W: What's a guilty pleasure?

PS: Whiskey comes up first. Specifically, scotch. Does that sound pretentious?

3W: No, we can relate! 

PS:  And dark chocolate.

3W: Who is your favorite composer/musician?

PS: I wanna give a shout out to all my friends. Phil White, Pete Edwards (Casper Electronics). I just did a residency with the two of them. I've found them to be incredibly influential figures. Tristan Perich. Richard Garet. Jeff Donaldson!!!!

3W: What are you listening to right now?

PS: This English artist, Clark.  Let me see if can play a tune over the phone.

PS plays it over the phone, we love it!

PS:  It’s like when you have time to meditate in the city: mental stimulation, spiritual serenity.

Sign Up for Circuits Classes with Phillip Stearns:

Audio Amplifiers 
DIY Synthesizers

Intro to Circuits w/ Daniel Fishkin

Phillip Stearns' studio is based in Bushwick, and hails from the birthplace of SXSW. After veering off the engineering and physics path to pursue music technology at the University of Colorado, Denver, Phillip earned his Master’s at Cal Arts in music.

Call For Entries: Submission Deadline for the Crest Hardware Art Show Now Extended Through Friday

The 11th Crest Hardware Art Show is less than a month away, but you still have time to submit your hardware-themed artwork for this time-honored showcase. The deadline for submissions has been extended through this Friday, June 8, and the show will kick off on June 30 with the always fun Crest Fest.

If you're in need of some inspiration, you might peruse some work the show has featured in previous years on We Heart New York, L Magazine and Craft or on the show's Flickr page. Personally, we'd love to see something inspired by Crest's resident animals: Franklin, a pot-bellied pig who's been featured in the New York Times and has his own Facebook page, and Finlay, an African Grey parrot who's been known to play tricks on cell phone-weilding customers.

For more check out our previous post about the show and the full guidelines and entry form. Following the June 30 opening, where you'll be able to enjoy music art, food and more, the show will remain on display through August 31.

We'll leave you with a brief video of "Running Man," an amazing zoetrope by Greg Barsamian that was featured in the show back in 2008:

-- John Ruscher

Our Top 10: The Stops To Make During This Weekend’s Bushwick Open Studios

The sixth annual Bushwick Open Studios officially takes over the lofts, studios, streets of Bushwick this weekend. With a whopping 500+ events happening today through Sunday, you won't be able to venture far in the neighborhood without stumbling upon some enticing visual art. 

As it'll be equally hard to decide which of those events you want to check out, we've compiled 10 we feel you shouldn't miss. (There are certainly plenty more worth your time, but look at this as a start.) For further guidance, we recommend Hyperallergic's overview, Art Fag City's Recommended BOS profiles, Benjamin Sutton's top 20 on Artinfo.com and some insider tips from L Magazine. For the whole shebang (and a crucial Google map), hit up the official BOS directory. And when you're in the midst of the action, keep your bearings with the BOS iPhone app.

So now for our picks. Godspeed, art seekers!

Defying Devastation: Bushwick in the 80s at The Living Gallery:

Bringing together the photography of Meryl Meisler, who snapped shots as a Bushwick art teacher in the 1980s, the words of Vanessa Mártir, a writer who recognized her own seven-year-old self in one of Meisler's photographs, and the design of Patricia J. O'Brien, who also taught art in Bushwick in the 80s--Defying Devastation offers an extraordinary account the neighborhood's difficult past. All weekend.

Moustache Man.Street Art Pop-Up Store at 174 Bogart:

Writer, curator and 3rd Ward teacher Robin Grearson's latest project is "a curated collection of super-affordable artwork and artist-designed merchandise by well-established and emerging Brooklyn artists." It will be the first chance to snatch up "(legal) work" by the infamous Moustache Man and prints by Enzo & Nio, as well as new work by Quel Beast and the last pieces of the deconstructed QRST/Criminy Johnson mural from Dreaming Without Sleeping. All weekend. 

Holy BOS! at Bobby Redd Project Space:

Taking place in and around a beautiful church, Holy BOS! will present a weekend full of live music, film, art performances, yoga, food and more. All weekend.

Bushwick Open Studios T-Shirt Project at Brooklyn Fire Proof Cafe:

BOS and local studio BKtees offer up live t-shirt printing of works by select BOS artists. Friday June 1st, 2012, 6pm-10pm.

Feather Weight at Studio 307:

3rd Ward's own Allison Wall will join seven other artists for a studio visit turned group exhibition featuring sculpture, painting, photography and video. Saturday and Sunday.

Daniel Bejar, Stretchin a Dollar, 2008. One hundred U.S. cents flattened by freight trains 1" x 14.4'. NURTUREart presents new works by Bejar at Bushwick Basel.

Bushwick Basel at Starr Space:

Taking its name the influential international contemporary art showcase Art Basel, this is an "art fair" organized by renowned French artist Jules de Balincourt, who recently told Gallerist "I hate art fairs." Obviously this isn't your typical art world shindig. Rather than lining the wallets of the Gagosians and Saatchis of the world, Bushwick Basel showcases homegrown galleries like Norte Maar, English Kills and Storefront Bushwick. Saturday and Sunday.

Rafael Fuchs at 49 Bogart:

The accomplished photographer and well-known man-about-Bushwick, whose work we featured back in September, presents work "exploring the border between what is 'proper' to photograph, what is 'proper' to show, and what is a 'proper' way of showing." All weekend.

Rafael Fuchs

24 Hour Dialogue on Art and Life with Bushwick at Thames and Varick:

Like to talk? Stop by the traffic island at Thames Street and Varick Avenue between sunset on Saturday and sunset on Sunday. "Peter Boswijck of HEAVY WOODS" will serve as moderator for quite a lengthy discussion. Saturday and Sunday.

3D Buildings Bushwick at 538 Johnson Ave. #401:

Self-proclaimed as "a project of outrageous scope and pointlessness," 3D Buildings Bushwick is an ambitious and fascinating attempt to create and upload accurate virtual models of the neighborhood's landmarks to Google Earth. Saturday and Sunday.

Sculpture Garden at The Onderdonk House.

Sculpture Garden at The Onderdonk House:

A collaboration between Bushwick artist and gallerist Deborah Brown and Lower East Side gallerist Lesley Heller, this project has populated the grounds of the historic Dutch farmhouse with lots of locally-made sculpture. All weekend.

-- John Ruscher

Watch This Now: MTV Brings Back "Art Breaks" With Help From MoMA PS1 and Creative Time

MTV Art Breaks, old and new, with stills from videos by Jean Michel Basquiat and Rashaad Newsome.

Back in the 80's, when MTV was still airing these things called "music videos," the fledgling rebel cable network decided to take things one step further with "Art Breaks," a series of short video art pieces by the likes of Keith Haring, Richard Prince and Jean Michel Basquiat. The aim was to "bring visual art to viewers who tuned in to MTV for the art of music videos."

Now MTV has revived "Art Breaks," inviting NYC contemporary art authorities MoMA PS1 and Creative Time to curate new videos by artists such as Mickalene Thomas, Rashaad Newsome and Jani Ruscica. You can follow "Art Breaks" on Tumblr and watch both the new segments as well as some of the '80s classics.

"This collaboration allows a younger generation of artists to experiment beyond the walls of the museum and onto the screens of a broad, international audience," says MoMA PS1 Director Klaus Biesenbach, while MTV President Stephen Friedman adds that "creative expression and experimentation are at the core of MTV's DNA." (We will keep our mouths shut on that one, but we do condone this particular project.)

"Art Breaks" will likely get the most exposure online, but we most certainly love imagining "Jersey Shore" viewers being inadverntently turned on to contemporary art in between all of the drama, fights and binge drinking (followed by the binge drinking, drama and fights.)

Meanwhile, watch videos by Mickalene Thomas and Richard Prince below and head to Artbreaks.mtv.com for more.

-- John Ruscher

Call For Entries: Apply To Be One of Lady Liberty's First Artists-In-Residence

 

No, you won't get studio space in her crown, but the new Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island artist-in-residence program, which kicks off in July and is accepting applications through May 21, could give you the chance to get pretty close to Lady Liberty. 

According to the National Park Service, the residency "aspires to share with the public the scenic beauty and stories of Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island through the world of art" and will challenge artists "to make this park come alive for all—to generate excitement about it for visitors and strangers alike."

A jury will select between three and six visual artists, who can choose to participate in a two-, three- or four-week residency. This includes studio space in the New Jersey City University Visual Arts Building in Jersey City, campus housing, and "unparalleled access to the park's resources, including the museum, library, oral histories, and other places not normally accessible to visitors, such as our archives and extensive museum collections not publicly displayed." Don't worry, New Yorkers—local artists will have the choice of living at home and commuting. There's no stipend, but studio space, housing and bragging rights as one of the Statue of Liberty's first artists-in-residence sounds like decent compensation to us.

Work created during the residency will be exhibited as part of the Statue of Liberty's reopening in late 2012 (it closed last October for renovations), and artists will also be asked to donate two pieces and present two hour-long public programs and a three-hour workshop/demonstration.

For more information, including the application form, head over to the National Park Service website.

-- John Ruscher

Around The World With Artist Kurt Perschke's RedBall Project

Kurt Perschke's RedBall Project, Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, Chicago. Photo by Fuzzy Gerdes.

It's a giant beach ball...it's a weather balloon...it's RedBall. We feel the Superman allusion is warranted, as RedBall, a globe-spanning public art project by New York-based artist Kurt Perschke, maintains something of a superhuman presence. The first RebBall installation took place in St. Louis back in 2001 as a commission from Arts in Transit. With the money from that commission, Perschke took it to Barcelona. Sydney soon beckoned, and pretty soon it RedBall was rolling along, inflating its way into the hearts, imaginations and urban spaces of cities ranging from Chicago and Toronto to Taipei and Abu Dhabi.

For Perschke its not so much about the 15-foot inflatable ball itself, but the potential it represents. "The true power of the project is what it can create for those who experience it," he explains. "It opens a doorway to imagine what if?" Angela Melkisethian offers a similar take in Sculpture magazine: "RedBall's occupation of the spaces that are taken for granted briefly foregrounds the invisible backdrop of urban life. What used to be neglected space becomes a realm of possibilities."

RedBall's next destination is the United Kingdom, where it will tour throughout June. We'd love to experience its spherical red goodness right here in Brooklyn. It would fit in great alongside the epic work that's emerged from 3rd Ward's own Inflatable Sculpture classes.

Meanwhile, here's more from Perschke on RedBall:

-- John Ruscher

Infographic: NYCEDC Compares New York Real Estate And Art Sales

 

When it comes to art and residential real estate, it's not surprising that New York is home to many eye-popping sales in both markets. Though this chart from NYCEDC's February 2012 Economic Snapshot shows just how evenly those numbers match up side-by-side.

For instance, if you emptied your piggy bank last year and discovered that you had saved up around $40 million, you could have acquired Gustav Klimt's "Litzlberg am Attersee," which sold at Sotheby's for $40.44 million, or Andy Warhol's first self portrait, which went for $38.4 million at Christie's. If you were more in the mood for a new pad rather than a masterpiece, you could have set yourself up in the Harkness Mansion or 834 Fifth Avenue with a few mil to spare!

For a more a closer look at these findings, check out this NYCEDC's podcast featuring 3rd Ward writing teacher Grace Bello and Steven Giachetti of NYCEDC's Research and Analysis team. "If you look at it on a per square foot basis, obviously art is far more expensive than even the most prestigious apartments in New York City," Giaccetti says.

Here are a few other fascinating statistics from that snapshot:

• New York accounted for about one third of all global sales at Christie's and Sotheby's in 2011.

• NYC is also home to more than half of all art sales in the United States.

• Local auction houses Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips De Pury racked up a whopping $1.1 billion in sales of contemporary and impressionist art in just two weeks last November.

-- John Ruscher

Happening Now: BAM's Annual Silent Auction

Anyone who lives in Brooklyn and doesn't regularly go to BAM for a play, performance or movie simply isn't getting the most out of the borough. What other arts institution hosts both experimental opera and screenings of Die Hard (followed by a Q&A with Alan Rickman)!? Well, now they're holding another event worthy of a quick trip to Fort Greene: their annual Silent Auction.

If you haven't guessed already, one of the reasons BAM is able to produce so many innovative programs at reasonable prices is because they rely on donations. So if you're feeling charitable, check out some of the art up for auction, including pieces by Cindy Sherman, Richard Serra, Nan Goldin, Glen Ligon, Mickalene Thomas, Nate Lowman and several other emerging Brooklyn artists.

"Plate Distortion II," by Brooklyn-native Tauba Auerbach (pictured way up above) has already sold, but you still have until April 22 to get your bid in on most of the other offerings. You don't even have to be wealthy to take home something great. We're contemplating placing our bids on Michael De Lucia's "Cylinder (Violet)" or maybe Matthew Jensen's "On the way to, #14." 

Regardless, Check out the entire auction online and stop by BAM to see what's on display in the lobby. Get your culture on, people!

Call For Volunteers: Help Create Giant Puppets For The PEN World Voices Festival

Processional Art Workshop's "Bibliobats"

This year's PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, which runs from April 30 through May 6, features an amazing array of participants, including Salman Rushdie, Colson Whitehead, Margaret Atwood, Laurie Anderson and the Kronos Quartet. And guess what? You can join them.

The internationally acclaimed Processional Art Workshop, whose work you might have seen in the annual Village Halloween Parade, and the PEN American Center, the nonprofit organization that presents the annual literary festival, are looking for volunteers to help craft huge "bibliomorphic" puppets and other literature-inspired props. These "bibliomorphic" creations will be featured in the Parade of Illuminations, the festival's opening celebration at the High Line on April 30, as well as in ongoing performance throughout the week.

Want in? From April 21 through May 2 artists Alex Kahn and Sophia Michahelles will be leading workshops where volunteers can help "translate the sensual anatomy of bindings, folios, paper and print into bibliomorphic puppets and performing objects." All you have to do is fill out the volunteer form. No experience is necessary, and kids ages 10+ can help out as well if accompanied by an adult.

Below is the full schedule of workshops, which all take place at the Westbeth Center for the Arts. We can't wait to see the amazing puppets that you help create:

• Saturday, April 21: Noon–6pm
• Sunday, April 22: Noon–6pm
• Wednesday, April 25: 2–8pm
• Thursday, April 26: 2–8pm
• Friday, April 27: 2–8pm
• Saturday, April 28: Noon–6pm
• Sunday, April 29: Noon–6pm
• Tuesday, May 1: 2–8pm
• Wednesday, May 2: 2–8pm

-- John Ruscher

A Cut Above: Kai Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano's Intricate Artwork, From Papel Picado To Downton Abbey

"Skeletons in the Closet' by Kai Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano

3rd Ward member Kai Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano can trace her artistic roots back four generations. "None of my family members would identify themselves as artists, but they are all intuitively creative people and they have always nurtured my passion for art," she says. "My great-great grandmother was an amateur photographer, she choreographed elaborate scenes with members of her family during the 1920s, and these photos are definitely a source of inspiration for me. Her daughter, my great-grandmother, made collages and was often the model of her mother's photographs. My grandmother (a nuclear physics professor) used to draw and paint, and my mother (a law professor) creates found-object art, collages, and graphic art."

Kai Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano"My family also has a tradition of story telling that has deeply informed my aesthetic and identity," she adds. "These stories tell my family history, but also the family mythology which in turn has informed our family consciousness. This unique relationship to my roots plays a huge role in my work."

Growing up in New Mexico, Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano was exposed to the Mexican folk art of papel picado, or paper cutting. "In 2008 I took a workshop at a local art center with papel picado master Catalina Delgado Trunk," she says. "The medium came easily to me, and I realized I could really use this technique to combine my multi cultural roots with my interest in politics and popular culture." Read more about Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano below and hit the jump to see more of her intricate work (including some fantastic embroidery pieces).

"I use this ancient art form to discuss sex, politics, pop culture, my family history and my own experience of walking the line between cultures, while maintaining a sense of wit and irony," she explains. "I also establish inter-generational collaborations by referencing photographs taken by my great-great grandmother."

3rd Ward has inspired Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano to further expand her skills. "I wish I could take every class!" she says. "The great thing about taking so many classes is once in a while you really find something that speaks to you, that's what happened when I took Extraordinary Embroidery with Iviva. I never embroidered before, and now I can't stop."

"I am finishing two embroidery series of Downton Abbey and Parks and Recreation which I'll submit to Bust Magazine's Craftacular fair this spring," she tells us. She just completed artwork for Brooklyn band Elliot and the Ghost and is brainstorming with her mother on some collaborative projects. Her work is also currently featured in Cutting Edge: Contemporary Paper Cutting at the Boise State University Visual Arts Center. "This is particularly exciting for me because it includes such paper cutting greats as Beatrice Coron and Nikki McClure!" she says. "It is a huge honor to be showing with these talented women."

And now for two of Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano's Downton Abbey embroidery pieces, the awesomeness of which we can't begin to adequately describe, followed by a couple of her equally amazing papel picado works:

'The Dowager Countess' by Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano

'Lady Cybil' by Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano

'Manchild' by Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano

'Ozon' by Margarida-Ramírez de Arellano

-- John Ruscher