Women in the City

Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler and Cindy Sherman are part of this public exhibition throughout the streets of L.A. Maps and more about the project can be found here.

The Lament Project

I recently participated in The Lament Project.

From the project description:
The Viralnet.net curators invited a variety of performance, electronic, acoustic, noise, spoken word and visual artists to contemplate the meaning of the lament and to submit a personal interpretation, one minute in length.
Even though there are many traditional laments to draw from, Viralnet.net encouraged the artists to invent new and personal interpretations of the form and to explore the full range of possibilities, spanning the humorous to the serious. Except for the one-minute length requirement, there were no preconditions or rules that the artists needed to follow in creating their laments.

A Wikipedia Reader

Mylinh Trieu Nguyen and David Horvitz organized a project based on artists looking into the linking of wikipedia pages. You can download a copy or order a book version here.

Talking trash?

I recent took a class of CalArts students to the Chiquita Canyon Landfill. It was quite an experience... Some of the more interesting facts: The landfill receives between 5000 and 6000 tons of trash per day. Yes, that's per day! The nearly 600-acre site is outfitted with a complex network of piping that allows the methane gas released from the garbage to be burned by an enormous furnace, which reduces the pollutants released into the air. The landfill is currently in the process of building an facility that will use the burning of methane gas to produce electricity. I was struck in particular by the construction of landscape by the refuse. You could see that the process of "disposing" of the waste was essentially about digging giant pits lined with black plastic and creating layers of waste which eventually morph into a hill-like landscape. My students were disappointed that the falconer had gone home for the day... apparently many landfills use birds to deter gulls from congregating.

There is lots of interesting thinking about trash available... A couple of examples are Heather Rogers work from a few years ago The Hidden Life of Garbage. The film and the book are both excellent. Here is an interview from alternet. Also, Errant Bodies contributor Jennifer Gabrys has written some excellent articles on electronic waste. Check out her website for details.