Manual, Oslo

Manual for the construction of a sound as a device to elaborate social connection

September 14 – 20, 2009
process, project, interaction
held at
Deichman library, Grunerløkka, Oslo
&
The Storefront, Thorvald Meyersgt 61, Oslo

with
å+k (Åsa Ståhl & Kristina Lindström) (Sweden)
Siri Austeen (Norway)
Brandon LaBelle (USA)
Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec (Slovenia/Holland)
Jana Winderen (Norway)

The Manual project explores sound and auditory experience as platforms for social cooperation and environmental investigation. Bringing together a working group of artists, the project uses sound as a tool for considering public space, and functions as a site-specific field study of Oslo, involving locational research, artistic presentation, performative actions and public discussion.

The Manual project highlights sound and listening as important locational and social material, to question how sounds of everyday life generate forms of commonality and how the dynamics of listening inform unique types of artistic intervention. Exploring such themes, the Manual project is based on process-oriented actions and events using specific locations in Oslo. During the course of one-week the artists will bring forward amplifications of city life, giving expression to sound and listening as social energy.

Including the Swedish collaborative duo Kristina Lindström and Åsa Ståhl (aka å+k), whose projects are based on forms of story-telling and sharing, the American artist Brandon LaBelle, working with urban networks and distributed sonic narratives, Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec from Holland/Slovenia, investigating questions of architectural space and forms of transmission, and Norwegian artists Jana Winderen, uncovering hidden sources of sound through blind field recording, and Siri Austeen, exploring concrete sounds and the act of listening.

Organized by Brandon LaBelle and Jana Winderen
Producer: Hjørdis Kurås, Norway

Manual for the construction of a sound as a device to elaborate social connection
is a cooperation with Ultima 09, Oslo Contemporary Music Festival (www.ultima.no),
Atelier Nord and Deichman libary, Grünerlølkka

The project is supported by Norsk Kulturråd
www.kulturrad.no

Book Launch at Machine Project

Thursday, July 30 at Machine Project – What remains of a building divided into equal parts and distributed for reconfiguration is the second volume in the Surface Tension Supplement series dedicated to publishing documentation and critical writing on site-based practices in art, architecture and performance. This volume investigates the social and political dimensions of buildings and urban spaces, including critical reflections on recent urban planning policies in China, histories of participatory architecture, and proposals for urban farming. What remains of a building divided into equal parts and distributed for reconfiguration offers multiple perspectives on the limits and creative possibilities of the built environment.
With contributions by Rachel Allen, Ava Bromberg, Ken Ehrlich, Jesko Fezer and Mathias Heyden, Nis Rømer, Carl Michael von Hausswolff and The Land Foundation.

Lowrider as cultural machine

Attending the 17th Annual Pharaoh's Car Show in Wilmington yesterday, Ken and I marveled at the aesthetics and community of car customization. From Classic Chevrolet to stripped down Ford to souped-up trucks, the car functions as a dynamic space for cultural expression and agitation carrying across the LA streets the legacy of lowrider history, Chicano identity, and the politics of having wheels. The car literally becomes a signifying machine for the production of various meaningful codes, which galvanize specific communities around the pin-stripe, the hydraulic lift, the car stereo, each a syntax within an expansive language seeking to take it low (to duck the law). Heading back to our own car, a rather dull Ford, and turning the ignition I couldn't help but feel the textured mythology running through the car, as a site for the making of particular freedoms (imagined, fantastical, real). The car already promises the open road - modifying its body, customizing its shape, appropriating the built-in class politics running from the Chevy to the Lincoln, seems to supplement through a magnifying zeal all the potentiality found in being behind the wheel, as well as taking to the road.

Austrian Pavilion

Dorit Margreiter's contribution to the Austrian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale was a poetic exploration of the pavilion itself in the form of a 35mm film. Lasting only eight minutes, the black and white film consists mostly of slow panning shots, exploring the architecture of the (mostly) empty building. Occasionally, the viewer glimpses a fleeting moment of what looks like women rehearsing for a mannered performance. It's a quiet piece with a forceful presence. Follow the link for more information.

Krakersmonument by Jeremiah Day

A subtle monument to the squatter movement in Holland, this "talk box" in the harbor outside of Amsterdam narrates the story of a local politician who resigns over tensions regarding his past involvement with the squatter movement.

The project is on view through September 6. For more info, click here.

HALFWAY TOWARDS A BEGINNING / HALFWAY TOWARDS AN END

Imagined Spaces / Imagined Lives

Imagined Spaces/ Imagined Lives is a series of collaborations between architects and puppet theater artists. Ephemeral citizens inhabit impossible and impractical inventions. Building codes and zoning laws are dispensed with. Spacial hallucinations are investigated and architectural archeology is unearthed. These collaborations take the form of topographical maps, walking tours, puppet shows, installations and animated architectural models.

June 5-7 at 8pm


EXHIBIT A by Tom Pejic, Monica Oller, Katie Shook and Susan Simpson
NAME/HERE: a guided walking tour by DanRae Wilson and Julia Hiser
AN EXCITED PLASMA EVENT, ONE DAY ON TALAPIA ISLAND; THE END by Yelena Zhelezov, Oliver Hess

___________________

June 26-28 at 8pm

GRIFFITH PARK INFERNO by Barbara Bestor and Janie Geiser
THE BRIDGE THAT DENIED ITS BOTTOM by Ana Henton and Caitlin Lainoff
HALFWAY TOWARDS A BEGINNING / HALFWAY TOWARDS AN END by Ken Ehrlich and Darius Manino
*All three performances will be presented each evening. All shows at The Manual Archives*

More information

INTERSECTION 2009

In collaboration with Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, Outpost for Contemporary Art is excited to present Intersection 2009; a multi-sited public installation project that brings artistic interventions into the heart of Eagle Rock's business community at the intersection of Eagle Rock and Colorado Boulevard in Northeast Los Angeles.

Participating artists include: Edith Abeyta, Carolyn Castaño, Terry Chatkupt, Ken Ehrlich, Christopher Genik & Christopher Michlig, Taft Green, Michael Gullberg & Jennifer Rowland, David Jones & Kelly Marie Martin, Jared Nielsen, and Edward Pine Stevens.


INTERSECTION 2009

OPENING RECEPTION: June 6, 2009, 1-5 pm at Colorado Wine Company, 2114 Colorado Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90041.

SELF-GUIDED WALKING TOUR: June 6, 2009, 1-5 pm. Project maps will be available on the corners of the intersection.

For more information, please contact Julie Deamer, Director, Outpost for Contemporary Art, at julie@outpost-art.org

Outpost for Contemporary Art
www.outpost-art.org
6375 North Figueroa Street Get map.
Los Angeles, CA 90042
Office: 323 982 9461 Cellular: 323 899 3533