[-empyre-] empyre: circumventing and disrupting norms in art and in advertising

[Renate Ferro]

Thank you Julian for explaining your project.  I'm sure that you, Clara
and Diego have talked critically among yourselves about whether product
replacement actually disrupts the capitalist system  or perhaps may
enhance it in some cases.  I'm curious if you could share with our
subscribers a couple of examples of artists in artwalk who used the system
to deconstruct the billboard platform for viewers through their
replacement art?

Patty Zimmerman made a post a couple of days ago and I'll snip the part
that I think is relevant here:
"Emergent social media fascinates me as a historical continuation of the
promise of amateurism to extend production and self-expression and to
generate new publics beyond corporations, governments and institutions. I
like the idea of constantly evolving technologies that shed their
proprietary matrices. I like gadgets, devices, gears,software, and
machines, even though they drive me crazy."

I like and use social media. I like thinking about its possibilities for
human rights work, for new forms of connection and collaboration, for new
ways to invite people into big messy concepts and debates that transcend
borders and nations. But this same social media perplexes me. And worries
me"

I guess my general question is-- How can we as artists and educators who
are excited and enticed by new gadgetry, softwares, machines also remain
critical about  the system that this technology is embedded in.   Renate



> Hola a todos,
>
> This is the second time I link to this project on Empyre and I feel a
> little
> self-conscious about doing so.. Nonetheless it seems relatively on topic.
>
> The idea is simple, replace street advertisements with art using hand-held
> devices (like smart phones) and computer vision technology as a
> substitution
> platform. Artist's pick a campaign they want to exhibit 'on' and wherever
> my
> software 'sees' that advert, their 'artvert' appears instead when viewed
> through
> the handheld device.
>
> One can exhibit on Helmut Lang, Burger King, Apple or Yves Saint Laurent,
> for
> instance.
>
> I call this 'Product Replacement'.
>
> 	http://theartvertiser.com/
>
> Video documentation can be recorded on the device and uploaded as
> (tourist)
> footage to YouTube etc whenever an open access point is available, a
> reimagination of a city where art is in place of adverts.
>
> Product Placement in film can also be exploited: a film found on a peer to
> peer
> network can be fed to my software, adverts detected and used as a
> 'surface' for
> the presentation of art; here third-party digital video is treated as
> exhibition
> space. The altered video is then rendered out frame by frame and re-seeded
> as a
> torrent file for redistribution using the same network.
>
> The project has been invited as guest of the upcoming Transmediale 10,
> Berlin.
>
> Myself and collaborators Clara Boj and Diego Diaz will be working with
> local
> artists in the use of our system. The result will be in the form of an
> 'art
> walk' for local audiences where their artverts will be viewed on select
> (gigantic) billboards in the city.
>
> Here's a great project with similar intention, in the form of a Firefox
> plugin:
>
> 	http://add-art.org/
>
> Saludos,
>
> --
> Julian Oliver
> home: New Zealand
> based: Berlin, Germany
> currently: Berlin, Germany
> about: http://julianoliver.com
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>


Renate Ferro
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Art
Cornell University, Tjaden Hall
Ithaca, NY  14853

Email:   <rtf9 at cornell.edu>
Website:  http://www.renateferro.net


Co-moderator of _empyre soft skinned space
http://www.subtle.net/empyre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre

Art Editor, diacritics
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/dia/