Performances, Workshop and Panels in September in Istanbul and Toronto
Elle and I will be presenting performances, workshops and panels in the next two weeks in Istanbul and Toronto. Read on for more details…
ISEA Istanbul: Queer Viralities: Resistant Practices in New Media Art and Philosophy
In this panel, we will focus on queer new media art and philosophy that uses and intervenes into the viral to form a radical politics of revolt and utopia. The viral will be engaged with technically, philosophically, artistically, biologically, and affectively.
Dates: Tuesday, 20 September, 2011 – 13:00 – 14:30
Chair Person: Zach Blas
Presenters: Elle Mehrmand
Micha Cárdenas
Location: Sabanci Center Room 4
Sabanci Center, Levent
The intensification and proliferation of global connectivity has opened digital networked culture to universal contagion. Indeed, it has been argued we now live in a viral ecology under the sign of viral capitalism. As viralities spread into various realms of culture, new media artists explore the viral as that which has the ability to control and restrict as well as distribute and liberate.
Our current viral ecology has opened up new tactics of resistance for various artists, activists, and cultural producers. In this panel, we will focus on queer new media art and philosophy that uses and intervenes into the viral to form a radical politics of revolt and utopia. The viral will be engaged with technically, philosophically, artistically, biologically, and affectively. Our aim is to show that while viral rhetoric and discourses have marginalized and controlled queer populations, the viral remains an allusive, volatile potential that can be experimented with toward creating new queer politics and worlds.
Blas, Cárdenas, and Mehrmand will give theoretical artist talks, and Skanse will follow with a philosophical response to the viral in media theory.
Cárdenas and Mehrmand will discuss their current collaboration virus.cirus, an episodic series of performances using wearable electronics and live audio to bridge virtual and physical spaces that explores queer futures of latex sexuality amidst a speculative world of virus hysteria and DIY medicine. Blas will speak on new works from his ongoing Queer Technologies project that attempt to formulate a viral aesthetics based on a replicating difference of never-being-the-sameness against capital’s own modulating structure. Skanse will address new directions in viral philosophy with particular concern for how this perpetual ‘movement’ of the virus is tied to notions of novelty within contemporary aesthetic discourse.
For paper abstracts and images, see:
http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/panel/queer-viralities-resistant-practices-new-media-art-philosophy
ISEA Istanbul: Virtual Doppelgangers Embodiment, Morphogenesis, and Transversal Action
The session will address both artworks and theoretical frameworks that engage our replicated bodies, the affective relations they create, and transversal effects across multiple environments, platforms, and physical appearances.
Dates: Saturday, 17 September, 2011 – 13:00 – 14:30
Chair: Prof. Patrick Lichty
2nd Chair: Prof. Susan Elizbeth Ryan
Presenters: Gregory Little
Elle Mehrmand
Micha Cárdenas
Stephanie Rothenberg
In 1969 Gilles Deleuze theorized the “BwO” or Body Without Organs (in The Logic of the Sense, after Artaud’s original term). It refers to the virtual dimension of the body and its potentials, likened to the egg as site of embodiment (in Deleuze and Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus)—a set of multiple potentialities as well as dysfunctional repetitions. In this panel we seek to explore the relations between fleshly bodies and digitized ones as sites of embodiment for our current, informatically energized existences.
From Facebook relationships to performances in Second Life, many of us experience various parts of our lives virtually today. But how are these experiences absorbed into our so-called “real lives”? In what ways do our virtual and physical spaces intersect—are they agglomerated realities (Haraway), or embedded in some ontological continuum? There have been controversies and supporting studies (esp. concerning virtual games) suggesting that excess social mediation is harmful towards our “sense of reality” and ability to interact in society. But researchers of virtual life like Nick Yee (Director of the Daedalus Project survey of MMO players) have shown that avatar experiences positively affect our physical lives and personalities. Still, new research supports old wisdom that too much virtuality is harmful toward our “sense of reality” and ability to interact in society. How are we to think about our bodies and their virtual doubles?
Artists and designers know the metaphysics of the BwO. They have created innovative ways to explore how virtual experiences can radically transform our real-world identities, as with Micha Cárdenas’s Becoming Dragon (2008); or socioeconomically impact the physical world, as did Rothenberg and Crouse’s Invisible Threads/DoubleHappiness Jeans project (2007-8). The session will address both artworks and theoretical frameworks that engage our replicated bodies, the affective relations they create, and transversal effects across multiple environments, platforms, and physical appearances.
For images and paper abstracts, see: http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/panel/virtual-doppelgangers-embodiment-morphogenesis-and-transversal-action
e_fagia: Digital Event ’11: Subversive Technologies
http://www.e-fagia.org/
Curated by Arlan Londoño, with Gabriel Roldos and Federica Matelli
September 15 to October 2 of 2011
Toronto Free Gallery
1277 Bloor Street West
Toronto, ON M4E 2J8
Gallery Hours:
Wednesday-Friday 12-5pm
Saturday 12-6pm
This year’s Digital Event Subversive Technologies investigates how artists respond to communication technology as one of the major sources of power in contemporary societies. During the last few years we have seen an increase in web and electronic artists and activists that use digital tools to create an impact on their societies or to register social unrest. The artists participating in Subversive Technologies use communication, information and networking technologies as a tool to reject control society, in an attempt to liberate bodies across spaces/territories, and across social and political categories.
Digital Event’11 features three installations, as well as web art, performances and video art works by more than 20 artists from canada and abroad. The art exhibition will be presented in conjunction with conferences, workshops and live media events by artists, curators, activists and scholars from different disciplines. Some of the artists present in this event are Ricardo Dominguez, Micha Cardenas, Elle Mehrmand, No Media Collective, Alessandra Renzi, Roberta Buiani, Ulysses Castellanos, Sofia Escobar, Juan David Casas, Miguel García, Angie Bonino, Ian Paul, Nacho Duran and Balam Soto.
Opening reception:
September 15, from 6 – 9 pm
Featuring an artist talk by Ricardo Dominguez and a media installation by No Media Collective.
Artist talks:
We are proud to present Ricardo Dominguez, co-founder of The Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT), past co-director of Thing (post.thing.net), and past member of Critical Art Ensemble (CAE).
Tuesday september 13, from 7:30 – 9 pm
Auditorium, OCAD University, 100 McCaul Street, Toronto, ON, M5T 1W1
Co-presented by the Faculty of Art, OCAD University as part of Art Creates Change: The Kym Pruesse Speaker Series.
Thursday September 15, 6 – 7 pm
At Toronto Free Gallery
Live Streaming
by No Media Collective
Thursday September 15, from 6 – 9 pm
Saturday September 17, and 24, from 2 – 5 pm
Saturday October 1, from 2 – 5 pm
Performances:
Reverse Apotheosis: End of The World a performance and new media presentation by Ulysses Castellanos, Sofia Escobar and Juan David Casas curated by Gabriel Roldos from Fluid New Media Lab, New York, USA.
Saturday September 17, from 2 – 3 pm
Virus.circus.laboratory by transgender performance and new media artists Micha Cardenas and Elle Mehrmand
Saturday September 24, from 2 – 3 pm
All performances will be presented at Toronto Free Gallery
Workshops:
From Html Conceptualism to Transborder Disturbances
by Ricardo Dominguez
At 80 Gould Street, Room 202, Rogers Communications Centre Ryerson University
With the support of The Infoscape Centre For The Study Of Social Media, Ryerson University
Monday 12, Wednesday 14, and Friday 16 of September
from 5 – 8 pm
Performing The Body: Wearable Electronics, Sound And Erotics
by Micha Cardenas and Elle Mehrmand
At LIFT, Liason Of Independent Filmmakers Of Toronto
1137 Dupont Street, M6H 2A3
From Monday 26 to Wednesday 28 of September, 6 – 10 pm
Activism Beyond The Interface an itinerant production lab
by Alessandra Renzi and Roberta Buiani
At toronto Free Gallery
One day workshop and performance on October 1,
from 12 – 4 pm
On Screen:
Political Subversion, a curatorial video project presented by Federica Matelli from Liminalb, Barcelona, Spain that includes the following program:
Monography
by Angie Bonino
Saturday September 17, from 2 – 3 pm
Interferences
by Miguel García
Saturday September 24, from 2 – 3 pm
Digital Event’11 is possible thanks to the support from: Canada Council For The Arts, The Toronto Free Gallery, Tinto Coffee House, aluCine Festival And OCAD University. We would also like to acknowledge the support from the artists Ricardo Rozental, Edgardo Moreno and Rodrigo Hernandez, and all the volunteers that have made this possible
virus.circus.probe // 5 min excerpt // somatic SENSOR, Highways Performance Space
virus.circus.probe // 5 min excerpt // somatic SENSOR, Highways Performance Space from micha cardenas on Vimeo.
…testing for viral contamination…
…due to recent viral outbreaks, protective latex barriers must be worn at all times…
…the hysteria is everywhere…
…touching, and illness, are prohibited by law…
…skin to skin contact may result in viral contamination…
virus.circus is an episodic series of performances exploring possible queer futures of latex sexuality and DIY medicine in resistance to a speculative world of virus hysteria. The performances use wearable electronics, soft sensors and live audio to bridge virtual and physical spaces. The history of queer politics shows that the rhetoric of viruses such as HIV are used to control marginalized populations, while the present transnational politics of viruses such as H1N1 unearth the militarization of medical authority, microscopic migrations and global inequities.
…For your protection and the protection of others, you may be asked to wear a mask…
…The virus must be contained…
Code switching between mixed and alternate reality, virus.circus asks how we can use reality as a medium, resonating across a number of modes including public space interventions, performances in museums and galleries and networked performances. Wearable sensors allow the performers to experiment with transreal embodiment, performing with their physical bodies and Second Life avatars simultaneously.
//
elle mehrmand // http://elleelleelle.org
micha cárdenas // http://transreal.org
videography by frankie martin
performed at somatic SENSOR
highways performance space
santa monica, california
january 2011
Join us Saturday night for GUTTED at LACE!
Elle Mehrmand and I will be performing Saturday night at LACE in Hollywood for their annual benefit, GUTTED. It’s going to be an amazing event with lots of performances all night. I hope you can make it!
We’re performing part of this series:
virus.circus is an episodic series of performances using wearable electronics, soft sensors and live audio to bridge virtual and physical spaces. The performances explore possible queer futures amidst a speculative world of virus hysteria. The history of queer politics shows that the rhetoric of viruses such as HIV are used to control marginalized populations, while the present transnational politics of viruses such as H1N1 unearth the militarization of medical
authority, microscopic migrations and global inequities. Code switching between mixed and alternate reality, “virus.circus” asks how we can use reality as a medium, resonating across a number of modes including public space interventions, performances in museums and galleries and networked performances.
http://www.welcometolace.org/events/view/gutted-2011/
Saturday, February 19th, 7pm-12am
LACE is pleased to present GUTTED 2011: LACE’S ANNUAL WINTER BENEFIT. For the second year in a row, LACE has teamed up with Los Angeles-based curator and artist Dino Dinco, who brings his own passions and experience to this annual fundraising event. Inspired by Los Angeles’ history of performance art and LACE’s role as an open platform for artistic expression, Dinco has reached out to a range of artists, both established and emerging, to present an unrestrained evening of contemporary performance.
GUTTED 2011 showcases a daring ensemble of live performance, texts and objects speaking of, from and to the body. With a roster of creative talent spanning thirty+ years of live performance, GUTTED 2011 illustrates an array of how artists address and use the human form, spanning issues of domesticity and labor, AIDS, race, (im)migration, the sex trade, social activism, queerness, straightness, body destruction, sound, fantasy, play and grotesquerie.
This year’s talented lineup includes a variety of experienced GUTTED performers as well as new faces, including Karen Anzoategui, Micha Cardenas, Mariel Carranza, Alexis Disselkoen, Monica Duncan, Cara Elizabeth, Rafa Esparza, Keith Hennessy, Dawn Kasper, Simone Gad, Brian Getnick, Raquel Gutierrez & Lady Noise, Tania Hammidi, Elle Mehrmand, Taisha Paggett, Paul Pescador, Julie Tolentino & Stosh Fila aka Pigpen, Samuel White, and Dorian Wood. Also on display will be a selection of 2D and 3D art works from Juan Martin del Campo, Jr., Rigo Maldonado, Letizia Ragusa, and Jimena Sarno with programming by Dennis Cao.
“Dino has an extraordinary instinct in how he brings together performance artists from a range of sensibilities that results in creating a truly striking experience. Last year, he introduced our audiences to a completely new LACE and I am looking forward to his next transformation,” comments Executive Director Carol Stakenas.
“The impetus for GUTTED arose from my love for performance as well as my ongoing interest in the work of French philosopher and social critic Jean-Luc Nancy, particularly his title, Corpus. In this relatively short work, Nancy articulates that there is no ontology of the body, but rather, the body is ontology itself. In other words, the body begins everything. The body is a familiar subject of discourse in the arts, as we have and will always already work from the body. A body of work. A body of knowledge.” –Dino Dinco
Come see Elle and I perform in SF at Arse Elektronika!
###### monochrom’s
##### Arse Elektronika 2010
#### SPACE RACY
### Talks, machines, workshops and performances
## San Francisco, September 30-October 3, 2010
# At Chez Poulet, Center for Sex and Culture, Parisoma, Noisebridge and Mission Comics and Art
# http://www.monochrom.at/arse-elektronika/
We’re performing here:
### SCHEDULE
## Opening Night and Prixxx Arse 2010
# Hosted by monochrom’s Johannes Grenzfurthner.
With a superspecial keynote by Susie Bright (All Along the SexTower: Sex on Stage in America, from Susie Bright’s Reporters Notebook)
Featuring many guests stars, like Thomas S. Roche, Charlie Anders (Erotic mind control via the Internet) and Elle Mehrmand and Micha Cárdenas (virus.circus)
Thursday, September 30, 2010
9:00 PM at Chez Poulet (3359 Cesar Chavez, San Francisco)
and doing a workshop here:
## Screw-It-Yourself: Workshops and Unconference
# With Christophe, Maia Marinelli, E. Conrad, Elle Mehrmand, Micha Cárdenas, Zach Blas, Heather Kelley, Robert Glashüttner
Sunday, October 3, 2010
2:00 PM at Noisebridge (2169 Mission Street, San Francisco)
Read more here!
virus.circus.breath video and photos
virus.circus.breath from azdel slade on Vimeo.
For your protection and the protection of others, you may be asked to wear a mask.
The virus must be contained.
Performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, at the Here, Not There performance night.
Alternate reality performance with latex, wearable electronics, lilypad arduinos, conductive fabric, conductive thread, soft sensors, lilypad Xbee wireless transmitters, ultrasonic rangefinder.
elle mehrmand and micha cárdenas
More at transreal.org and elleelleelle.org
Stills at flickr.com/photos/lotu5/sets/72157623782952247/
Photography by Ash Smith.
Code and technical details here: transreal.org/2010/06/25/virus-circus-source-code-and-technical-info/
virus.circus in Buffalo, New York and CTheory Article Posted
Yesterday, CTheory put up their latest batch of chapters from their new book Code Drift: Essays in Critical Digital Studies. My essay Becoming Dragon: A Transversal Technology Study is included. I’ve been inspired by CTheory for many years, so I’m really happy to have them publishing my work now. The book includes amazing essays from Jordan Crandall, Johnny Golding, Fox Harrell and Arthur and Marilouise Kroker.
But right now, Elle and I are feverishly preparing for our performance and artist talk at SUNY Buffalo next week. If you’re in town, come see the next performance in the virus.circus series.
Micha Cardenas and Elle Mehrmand
virus.circus
A MIXED REALITY PERFORMANCE ABOUT VIRUS HYSTERIA, POLITICS AND EROTICA
SATURDAY, MAY 8th, 2010
8:00 PM
SQUEAKY WHEEL, BUFFALO, NY
712 main street • buffalo ny 14202 • 716-884-7172
Due to recent viral outbreaks, protective latex barriers must be worn at all times.
Cover your cough! Be a virus fighter! We want our citizens to be safe, healthy and happy.
Skin to skin contact may result in viral contamination.
Touching, and illness, are prohibited by law.
Failure to comply will result in a minimum of 10 years in a federal penitentiary.
FRIDAY, MAY 7, 2:00 pm The Future of the Public University: Perspectives from California
Center for the Arts, Room 278, Department of Media Study, SUNY Buffalo
Visiting artists Micha Cardenas and Elle Mehrmand will facilitate a conversa- tion between UCSD and the University at Buffalo. On the agenda will be the future of the public university, the current situation in California, what we can do for UB, and the parallels between the UC system and the SUNY system. B.A.N.G. lab researchers and activists Ricardo Dominguez, Brett Stalbaum, and Amy Sara Carroll will be joining us remotely from California.
All events sponsored by the SUNY Buffalo Graduate Student Association, Department of Visual Studies, Department of Media Study, Interdisciplinary Group for Advanced Praxis, Department of Visual Studies GSA , Department of Media Study GSA