Your Daily Insight // As Told By: Norman Mailer

Hip is the sophistication of the wise primitive in a giant jungle.

Essential Events // MoMA's Much Anticipated "Print/Out"

"Black Combs" by Ellen Gallagher (2004-05)

On February 19th, MoMA will open Print/Out, a much anticipated exhibition that "examines the evolution of artistic practices related to the print medium, from the resurgence of ancient printmaking techniques—often used alongside digital technologies—to the worldwide proliferation of self-published artists’ books and ephemera."

To celebrate the exhibition, the museum is hosting a slew of free events, including two talks on collaborative printmaking, one between Marina Abramović and Jacob Samuel and another between Ellen Gallagher and Two Palms Press. There are workshops in bookbinding and making your own artist's book. There's also Printin' an entire other exhibit running concurrently with Print/Out.

Printin’ takes as its starting point DeLuxe (2005), a tour de force portfolio of 60 works by Ellen Gallagher (American, b. 1965) that challenged traditional ideas of what a print could be. This technically complex work employs a veritable riot of mediums, unorthodox tools, and elements, from slicks of greasy pomade to plastic ice cubes.

If you want to dig a little deeper, you can enroll in one of MoMA's new courses like "Experimental Printmaking" or "Power, Progress, and Printed Money: Modern Printmaking in the Workshop and Commercial Art World."

See the entire schedule of events and check out the exhbition, which runs February 19 - May 14, 2012.

-- Perrin Drumm

Watch This Now // Parsons' DESIS Lab Amplifies Social Innovation in North Brooklyn

 

People in our neighborhood are always up to amazing things, so it's not surprising that last year the DESIS Lab at Parsons The New School for Design focused its lens on North Brooklyn to highlight local examples of sustainable living and innovation.

As part of its two-year Amplifying Creative Communities project, which looked at the Lower East Side in 2010, DESIS (short for Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability) explored different organizations and initiatives in Greenpoint and Williamsburg to learn how they work, help them improve through design service, and share information that will allow others to create their own alternatives to standard commercial and government services.

In addition to an exhibition and a series of workshops about local sustainable change, Amplify Brooklyn also produced some inspiring videos featuring examples of local food, sharing, biking and more, including interviews with the people behind the Greenpoint-Williamsburg CSA, the North Brooklyn Compost Project, Not An Alternative, Times Up!, the Pa-La Loma Bicycle Club and the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative.

Check out a few of those videos after the jump and head over to the Amplifying Creative Communities website for more insight and inspiration.

-- John Ruscher

Your Daily Insight // As Told By: Susan Sontag

Although none of the rules for becoming more alive is valid, it is healthy to keep on formulating them.

Wheels Up // Industrial Designer Ron Arad Reinvents The Wheel

This one's been kicking (or maybe "pedaling" is more fitting) around the Internet for a few months, but since it combines some of the things that we love most—bikes, design and innovation—we've gotta share.

Last year London's W Hotel asked six creative professionals to create one-of-a-kind bikes to benefit a good cause. All of the rides were interesting, from Benedict Radcliffe's "W New York Bike" to Natasha Law's vodka-equipped "Wyld Bar Bike," but industrial designer Ron Arad's contribution was surely the most mind-blowing. Arad created a bike that forgoes tires and tubes for sprung steel wheels. This is really one of those cases where seeing is believing, so check out the video below for proof that you can cruise smoothly down a city street on nothing but metal.

Visitors to the W Hotel on London's Leicester Square were able to give Arad's unique creation a spin for a couple months, and in December it was auctioned off to raise money for the Elton John AIDS Foundation. We don't know who the lucky high bidder was, but you'll definitely be able to tell if you see him or her out for a ride!

Behold, an entirely new meaning for the phrase "pedal to the metal":

Two Nuns Bike by Ron Arad from Dezeen on Vimeo.

-- John Ruscher

Call For Entries // Cinephiles: The Northside DIY Film Fest Beckons You

Following the success of last Summer's Northside Festival, L Magazine will once again be hosting their celebration of food, art, music and film--all going down June 14-21. Though today we're highlighting one specific elment of it: this year's Northside DIY Film Fest, a full-blown competition for the city's aspiring cinephiles and auteurs. This year, the feature and short film winners will receive a cash prize and a screening at Nitehawk Cinema in Williamsburg. They'll also win a credit at DCTV that can be redeemed for anything from equipment rentals to post-production facilities.

Of course, this is all great. But why are we especially excited this year? Because 3rd Ward's own Assistant Director, Minden Koopmans will be one of the competition's judges! We're mighty proud.

The deadline to submit is April 15th via standard mail or--praise to the gods--through Vimeo (anyone who's been making the submittal rounds knows what we mean). So get shooting, get editing and hit the jump now for all of the fest's guidelines:

Features must be longer than 50 minutes, but no more than 130. Budget must be $100,000 or less.

Shorts must be under 30 minutes and have a budget of $20,000 or less.

All films must be made after January 1, 2009.

We will only accept completed submissions.

We will accept submissions with distribution agreements.

For fees and a few more specifics, visit the fest's submissions page.

-- Perrin Drumm

Your Daily Insight // As Told By: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it. The man who knows how will always have a job. The man who also knows why will always be his boss. As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.

Go Here Now // Carrotmob Chooses Carrots Over Sticks, "Buycotts" Over Boycotts

If you were excited by the infographic about The Future of Money that we posted back in December, you'll likely also share our enthusiasm for Carrotmob, an idea that fits right into that chart's "new lenses of wealth." Before you go any further, hit play on the video above for a quick and entertaining look at what it's all about.

Carrotmob takes the age-old concept of a boycott and flips it on its head. Rather than gathering together a group of people who promise to withhold money from a business to bring about change, Carrotmob proposes having a group pledge positive financial support for a business to achieve the same end. "We are called Carrotmob because we use the 'carrot' instead of the 'stick,'" the Carrotmob website explains. The reasoning? "In a boycott, everyone loses. In a Carrotmob, everyone wins."

In a recent feature on food and consumer choice, BBC 4 highlighted Carrotmob's "buycotts" as an example of a "growing attitude about technology and the desire to make things happen." Founder Brent Schulkin described how he started Carrotmob after noticing that boycotts don't really connect with how businesses make decisions. "What really matters to a business is money, spending, new customers, marketing and that sort of thing," he says.

On the Carrotmob website you can explore past campaigns that people have successfully organized across the globe. Focusing on convincing businesses to make environmentally friendly and sustainable changes, they range from asking a Bangkok grocer to stop using plastic bags to a Park Slope hardware store that agreed to use 22% of the money spent by Carrotmob shoppers on energy improvements. 

You can log into the Carrotmob website and share your own completed campaign, and soon you'll also be able to create and promote new ones. Start thinking of the carrots you and your network can dangle.

-- John Ruscher

A Marathon Happening // Triple Canopy's Sam Frank on Their Three-Day Opening Party in Greenpoint

You may have seen our recent Call For Entries on emerging artist zone--but if you were in Greenpoint between Friday, January 20th and Sunday, January 22nd, you may have heard some strange chanting echoing from the 155 Freeman Street locale. No, a new Pagan cult hasn't moved into town (though knowing this city, one actually may have). Rather, the venerable arts organization, Triple Canopy, was celebrating the long anticipated opening of their new location with a three-day reading of Gertrude's Stein's "allegedly unreadable" book, The Making of Americans: Being a History of a Family’s Progress. 

A unique christening ritual to be sure, but one befitting a "hub for the exploration of emerging forms and the public spaces constituted around them." Triple Canopy's current issue, "Negative Infinity," includes a project that pits motion studies, industrial capitalism and mental illness against the power of Buster Keaton as well as six other items that are as penetrating as they are unique. Editor Sam Frank filled us in on the details behind the open house extravaganza.

3W's Perrin Drumm: First off, tell us why is Gertrude Stein's The Making of Americans: Being a History of a Family’s Progress "allegedly unreadable?"

Sam Frank: It's very long--nearly 1,000 pages--quite repetitive in a rhythmic way, like minimalist music, but also in an attempt to be exhaustive and describe everyone who could ever exist as completely as possible. Stein was more than interested in the kind of empiricism you get in the sciences, which in one sense are ultimately concerned with complete description and explanation of everything therein. Long and longer sentences and multipage paragraphs, a plot that vanishes for tens of pages at a time. In part it's just a cliché that Stein's unreadable; the easy thing to say if you haven't tried. 

PD: Do you think this past weekend proved that statement wrong?

SF: Reading the book out loud for 15 minutes (or 3 hours, in the case of Ariana Reines)--in what way is that reading the book as a whole? And what about listening to someone read for 15 minutes or 3 hours? Is the listener reading The Making of Americans or not? No one stayed the whole time. Did anyone read the book last weekend? Or did everyone read the book? And what about the people who "read" it through our live-tweeting?

PD: We're listening...

SF: One thing that was fascinating was how many different ways of not reading Stein there were, almost as many as there were readers. Some people read it for the rhythm--often the poets--some found the novel in it--often the novelists. Sometimes people's dyslexia surfaced and they swam in the language, flailed in it. People unconsciously normalized the word order and "corrected" words they weren't expecting to those they were. But reading out loud was really a much easier and more joyful thing than sitting down silently with the book. And the last hour was a unison-read from everyone in the room: a bit cultic, a bit cathartic, a physical release. Are all those people going to go home and read the book from page 1? No. But so many people have already said how psyched they are to do it again next year.

PD: What made Triple Canopy choose this as their opening event? 

SF: Artists Space and then Paula Cooper Gallery have hosted The Making of Americans marathons over New Year's for a quarter century, through Y2K. Readers ran the gamut of downtown NY types: Fluxus people, John Cage and friends, artists, writers, dancers, musicians. A whole community came together around this book and this reading; and we wanted to see what would happen if we did it a generation later, in a new neighborhood, for a community whose concerns are very similar and very different at once. 155 Freeman isn't big enough to host a party, so we wanted to have an open house instead. We were open for 53 hours and anyone could come by and have a drink or some borscht or stale donuts, read a little and listen a lot. We hope to be a space in Greenpoint (as we try to be on the Web) that's open to our peers and receptive and responsive to history while still being in the present moment. Reading a book from a century ago en masse felt like the right gesture to start it off.

PD: How many readers did you have in all? How long were their "shifts?"

SF: What with the group read at the end, I bet we got up to 200 people total, but certainly more than 150. Most were on for 15 minutes, but some for as short as a page, and a few for more than an hour. (See the complete list of readers)

PD: Assuming you dropped in to see it for yourself, what did you think? Do you know about how the late night/early morning readings went?

SF: Personally, I was there for about eight hours the first night, eighteen hours the next day/night/day, then maybe nine more hours until the end--so, about two-thirds of the time. We finished just before midnight on Sunday, just under fifty-three hours after starting. Besides the TC editors Sarah Resnick and Molly Kleiman, a few other people stayed all night on Friday. At 7 am on Saturday morning, Mary Walling Blackburn and Che Chen sang their section in a kind of Gregorian chant.

People kept coming into this room full of cult members: the Church of Stein, consecrating our new space with half a million words. 

PD: Can you give us a sneak peek of some of the upcoming events?  

SF: Lots of things coming up, but only a few of them finalized. On Feb. 25, Anna Lundh is doing a performance and lecture drawn from the incredible research that went into "The Tale of the Big Computer." 

There's going to be a poetry series of some kind, occasional pop-up exhibits, talks drawn from or feeding into articles in the magazine. A lot will be finalized soon, but for now, here's Program Director Peter Russo on Crisis and Critique:

From February 10–19, Triple Canopy will present Crisis and Critique, an installation project by the Norwegian artist Per-Oskar Leu (call it a "micro-exhibition"). Like much of Leu's work, Crisis and Critique examines the role of the artist during historical moments of upheaval. The centerpiece of his installation is a new video that combines archival recordings of Bertolt Brecht's appearance in 1947 before the House Un-American Activities Committee with several German films from the 1930s and 40s, notably Fritz Lang’s M (1931) and Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1933); Brecht’s Kuhle Wampe, oder: Wem gehört die Welt? (1932) and Hangmen Also Die! (1943). We also made a small poster-publication with Leu, available free at the show, that includes an 1933 essay on the role of the artist during economic crisis, by the late German-Jewish artist Otto Freundlich, as well as a diagram of the so-called "Business Plot," a political conspiracy wherein Wall Street allegedly sought to overthrow FDR.

-- Perrin Drumm

Introducing Our Newest Location… a Culinary Incubator!

Preliminary rendering only. Actual design to come.
As announced by Brooklyn Borough President, Marty Markowitz, 3rd Ward will open a Culinary Incubator with the generous support of the city of Brooklyn and the assistance of the New York Economic Development Corporation. It will be located in Brooklyn and will aim to further the city’s commitment to the food manufacturing industry as part of the City’s incubator network.

The new incubator will open in 2013 and have everything you’ve come to expect from 3rd Ward: diverse classes at all levels, professional tools and equipment, influencer-led events, and a community of inspiring, creative individuals. When we open, it will be easier than ever to bring your culinary ideas to life, whether you’re a culinary professional, small business, or passionate home cook. Here’s a “taste” of what to expect:

CLASSES

• Traditional Food Preparation Techniques
• Modern Techniques & Technology
• Drinkmaking
• Urban Agriculture
• Health & Nutrition
• Professional Development

PROFESSIONAL-GRADE FACILITIES

• Large Shared Kitchen with standard,
  specialized & experimental equipment
• Baking & Pastry Kitchen
• Meat Curing Lab
• Beverage Lab
• Classooms & Event Space

COMMUNITY EVENTS

• Lectures, tastings, free seminars,
  competitions, healthy produce
• Event spaces will feature open kitchens,
  dining areas, broadcasting capabilities
  and more

CAFE & MARKET

• Healthy meals (using select Member-made ingredients), fresh produce, cooking ingredients, Member-made food products, tools and equipment

New York is home to some of the world’s best chefs, inventive food producers, and game-changing culinary entrepreneurs. With the help of Brooklyn Borough President, Marty Markowitz and the NYCEDC, we hope to offer New York a dynamic, world-class incubator that will breed a new wave of food innovation, education, and economic activity.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED:

• Interested in the Unlimited Membership (unlimited access to all facilities and classes)? Add your name to the Invite List.
• Want to partner with us? Submit proposals to partners@3rdward.com
• Want the latest information on the Open Date, hiring, teaching opportunities and more? Sign up for our Mailing List.