Aaron here today with Jack Brougham on LICAF; Sonia Landy Sheridan; Comic Arts Brooklyn; Magical Realist Videogames; DADA; Chick Dissections
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The Hills and Streets – Jack Brougham on LICAF
Here on the site we have a reflection from Jack Brougham on his weekend at LICAF in Kendal and the kinds of thoughts it stirred.
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about closing the circle between creating and publishing and publishing small and often in cheap little editions, road-testing stories in public, and building larger narratives or works from small individually published units. So far so confused? – excellent. Anyway, arriving at the table with this in the back of my mind it was great to see the organizers had hired Comics Workbook a photocopier so we could run off copies of the zines and comics produced in the CW workshops that took place on Saturday morning. Workshops are great and everything, but when you can demonstrate to people how easy it is to start running off copies of your own stuff to share, that’s something else.
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Generative Systems
The Networked Performance blog has an overview of Sonia Landy Sheridan’s Generative Systems program, developed at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1970s. This will be of specific interest to people who use copy machines in their work, or technology in their art-making in general, or who work at institutions that would allow one to do so.
With the cooperation of scientists, industry, artists and a unique body of graduate students, Sheridan was able to explore the implications of the communications revolution for the arts. As artist-in-residence at 3M’s Color Research and Central Research Labs, she was able to take back to her students up-to-date industrial experiences. Sheridan shaped her art and teaching on the premise that art, science and technology function as intertwining systems of thought.
Additional documentation of Sheridan’s work can be found at the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology.
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CAB 2016
Comic Arts Brooklyn, arguably the best show of its kind in these United States (and probably in the top 2-3 comics festivals in all of North America), will be held Saturday, November 5, 11am-7pm at Mt. Carmel Gymnasium, 12 Havemeyer St in scenic Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, USA. As with previous years, this is a showcase of some of the best alternative/indie/art comics, small press, and self-published work that’s available. Admission is free.
Satellite events include:
Organized by Gabe Fowler and Desert Island.
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Triennale Game Collection
Some immersive experiences for people who have access to smartphones.
Via Allison Meier at the Hyperallergic blog:
For me, the most enjoyable game by far, and the one that kept my attention the longest, is “Neighbor” by Jake Elliott, Tamas Kemenczy, and Ben Babbitt of the American Cardboard Computer. You’re a sombrero-sporting wanderer seemingly on a retreat at a desert compound with the sun-washed colors and modernist shapes of a Ricardo Legorreta building. Like Cardboard Computer’s Kentucky Route Zero, which had its fourth act released last month, there are tones of magical realism in your exploration. Interacting with the sandy environment reveals pleasing tasks like harvesting aloe leaves, making salves at a cauldron, reflecting at a pool, and stowing cherished objects for “the far side.” Offerings left at a monolith might be taken with a can of spinach left in return. And then there’s your cowboy neighbor, whose friendship is gradually developed without words in this serene place.
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DADA Backissues
Princeton University’s Blue Mountain Project has made all 8 issues of the DADA arts journal from 1917-1921 available.
Via Josh Jones at the Open Culture blog:
Edited by Tzara and including his manifesto in issue 3, the magazine “served to distinguish and define Dada in the many cities it infiltrated,” writes the Art Institute of Chicago, “and allowed its major figures to assert their power and position.” Dada succeeded a previous attempt by Ball at a journal called Cabaret Voltaire—named for his Zurich theater—which survived for one issue in 1917 before folding, along with the first version of the cabaret. That year, Tzara, “an ambitious and skilled promoter… began a relentless campaign to spread the ideas of Dada…. As Dada gained momentum, Tzara took on the role of a prophet by bombarding French and Italian artists and writers with letters about Dada’s activities.” Whatever Dada was, it wasn’t shy about promoting itself.
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Jack T. Chick Under the Microscope
Jack T. Chick died yesterday at 92. His bizarre and evangelical “chick tracts” – found at the most desperate places in America; bus stops, subways and street corners everywhere – could probably be considered the most widely distributed mini-comics. Hundreds of Millions have been printed and distributed… His death is a significant comics death, in a hard to define way. His hate-filled messages will not be missed.
The Enter the Jabberwock blog has taken the time to dissect and/or eviscerate a good deal of Jack T. Chick’s tract work.
From the Dark Dungeons Revisited (Epic Tag-Team Gary Gygax Died For Your Sins Edition) post:
The idea that “rock music” is somehow “occult paraphernalia” is pretty hilarious. It’s just these arbitrary designations for things that old, conservative-minded people find generally unpleasant. KNEE SOCKS ARE OCCULT PARAPHERNALIA. I DON’T LIKE PEANUT BUTTER. YOUNG PEOPLE NEED TO PUT MORE CLOTHES ON. TELEVISION HAS TOO MANY COMMERCIALS. IT’S WAY TOO COLD IN HERE. LET’S BURN IT ALL.