[-empyre-] October on -empyre-

["Tracey Meziane" <traceyb@byte-time.net>]

October on -empyre-

This month on -empyre- the focus will be on a dialogue between Ryan 
Griffis and De Geuzen, that will provide an opportunity to explore 
themes underlying their participation in the Chicago chapter of Jordan 
Crandall’s ‘Under Fire’ project.

Some of the potential areas of discussion may include ‘a research as 
practice’ approach to creative production, DIY tools, amateur vs 
professional forms of activist practice, notions of ‘commitment’ and 
‘issues of engagement.

Guest Biographies>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Ryan Griffis is an artist and sometimes-amateur writer, curator and tour 
guide. He currently writes reviews regularly for ArtUS magazine and has 
written for Rhizome.org, New Art Examiner and various other zines and 
journals. Ryan's art practice centers around an interest in the critical 
potential of tourism and a quasi-fictional travel agency called the 
Temporary Travel Office. The Travel Office's recent projects include 
research into the connection between parking lots and utopian capitalism 
and an unofficial residency with the National Park Service in Florida to 
visualize the neglected history of race relations there. His curatorial 
projects include YOUGenics, an exhibition exploring the social 
implications of genetic technologies and most recently, Under Fire an 
exhibition based on artist Jordan Crandall's multidisciplinary and 
collaborative discussions around organized violence. He currently 
teaches Art & Design at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
http://www.yougenics.net/griffis/ 
http://yougenics.net 
http://temporarytraveloffice.net 
http://www.art.uiuc.edu/projects/underfire

De Geuzen (a foundation for multi-visual research) is Riek Sijbring, 
Femke Snelting and Renee Turner. Collaborating since 1996, they have 
deployed a variety of strategies both on and offline to explore their 
interests in female identity, critical resistance, representation, and 
narrative archiving.  Their research-oriented works and DIY activities 
have been featured in Rhizome, Manifesta 3 (Slovenia) Mute and the 
Kuenstlerhaus Bremen (Germany).  Some of their most recent projects 
include, a temporary conversion of a bridge-watcher's house into a news 
kiosk,  a workshop on future mobile media, a Global Anxiety Monitor 
(http://www.geuzen.org/anxiety/ ) and a Critical Browser (http://www.
geuzen.org/browser/ ) While some of their projects are by commission, 
many are self-initiated. For a general overview, see: http://www.geuzen.
org/    


We are very pleased to welcome our guests and look forward to the 
October discussion on -empyre-.


Tracey Benson
PhD Candidate || Centre for New Media Arts
The Australian National University
http://www.byte-time.net
http://swipezone.blogspot.com
http://www.anu.edu.au/newmedia/pages/postgrad.html
skype: byte-time