The results of her curatorial work have appeared in venues worldwide. Most recently, she was part of the curatorial team for the 2012 ZER01 Biennial in San Jose, California.
Michelle is currently Curator at V2_ Institute for Unstable Media, and a member of IKT (International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art).
Representation: The Next Speaker
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Background: The term “speculative realism” was coined at a conference at Goldsmiths in 2007 chaired by Alberto Toscano that included the philosophers Ray Brassier, Iain Hamilton Grant, Graham Harman and Quentin Meillassoux. Since then the term has split into factions like object-oriented ontology (OOO), spawned a number of journals (Speculations and O-Zone), book series and several other conferences and debates. The theme can be taken as part of a current philosophical interest in rethinking correlationism (an act of division between human and world), and is broadly congruent with existing discussions of the nonhuman, more-than-human and other frameworks of new materialism. Many key points of these conceptual trends are also pertinent to current trends in artistic practice: a non-anthropocentric worldview; an interest in modes of ontological levelling (a democracy of things); a consideration of aggregate forces like climate through categories of autonomy.
Vernissage (in the presence of the artists): December 8, 14:00 - 17:30
Finissage (with special guests, e-book launch): January 11, 17:00 - 19:00
Exhibition hours are Tuesday - Friday 11:00 - 17:00, or by appointment
by emailing: Michelle Kasprzak
The exhibition will be closed over the holidays from December 22 - January 2.
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You can download the e-book as an EPUB, MOBI, or PDF.
Across Europe, culture is in the crosshairs; the common currency is in peril; the Dutch government has fallen. But we aren't going to speak of that. Instead, Vital Beauty - the most recent book by V2_ Publications - asserts that we must return to the "age-old idea of beauty" to recover a sense of our own humanity: a humanity refracted through the lens of our technologies and the possibilities that they bring. This plea for a return to beauty is backed by a group of designers and thinkers demanding a "New Aesthetic," one that embeds the fingerprint of digital methods in our environment in increasingly visible ways. Are we on the cusp of an "Aesthetic Turn" in contemporary art and design? And if so, what shape do we want it to take? By speaking of aesthetics now, are we fiddling while Rome burns, or rescuing the essence of our culture from discussions of how to finance it?
Blowup: Fiddling While Rome Burns? is presented to the audience as an online event. Follow the process at V2_ through this page and via social media between June 17 and 21. We will provide you with daily updates. Expect interviews, statements and arguments by the participants and of course the final publication on June 21.
"A good example of a nascent formalization, or boundary drawing practices in relation to the New Aesthetic is given by debates over the "correct" use of algorithms. Last february, Norwegian born, NYC-based artist generative artist Marius Watz posted on his Tumblr - of all places - a brief article intended to act as a warning sign and wake-up call for his peers, the community of artists and designers who have chosen the medium of computer code as their working toolset. He wrote:
Yes, heavy use of standard algorithm is bad for you. That is, if you wish to consider yourself a computational
creative capable of coming up with interesting work... You cannot lay claim to “owning” any given algorithm
(or hardware configuration), unless you have added significant extra value to it. To do so at best ignorant...
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experiment with great algorithms (Waltz 2012).
In effect this was a critique of what Watz called "algorithmic laziness" and seemed to be defining the contours of acceptable algorithmic use in artistic practice. As Sterling (2012b) commented, "A 'canon of algorithms.' What an intriguing development.’."
Monday June 18: Book Sprinting with Adam Hyde, interview by Arie Altena.
Monday June 18: Interview with José Luis de Vicente by Arie Altena.
Tuesday June 19: Interview with Michel van Dartel on The New Esthetic by Joris van Ballegooijen.
Interview with Nat Muller on V2_'s Book Sprint 2012 from V2_ on Vimeo.
]]>With austerity budgets slicing into the civil service, healthcare, education, and the arts across Europe, it's a prime moment to stop and assess what we as a society value and hold dear. The straw man argument usually goes that hospitals are more important than art galleries, but is a society with no cultural expression worth living in? We can put a man on the moon, so can't we balance a budget so that people have good local hospitals and a nice film festival to attend, too? Our society has evolved in an amazing way -- flush toilets! airplanes! smartphones! -- and yet when it comes to investing in culture, it can feel like we never left the cave.
This debate will focus on the finer points of how we think about culture and money, and how we can get out of the losing argument with our austerity-minded leaders. Guiding the conversation will be a cultural economist with experience both in Europe and the US (Diane Ragsdale), an artist-economist with insides into both fields (Hans Abbing) and a representative from The People Speak, who masterminded the Who Wants To Be? gameshow/social experiment that saw V2_ audiences spending around 1000 Euro together at the previous night's Test_Lab (Saul Albert).
Following a brief talk show with Diane, Hans and Saul, the audience will join us at the interactive Talkaoke table designed by The People Speak! Talkaoke is a UFO-shaped glowing table with embedded interactive surprises that get people involved and talking to each other. The debate is sure to be animated and heated, as we challenge each other on how economic prosperity and cultural vibrancy can co-exist.
Event stream:
Blowup: Show Me The Money (2011) from V2_ on Vimeo.
After the event, the Blowup e-Book Reader for this event is available for download.
Admission Free if you attended Test_Lab: Who Wants To Be...? on the previous evening!
Free entrance for students (college card)
€5,- for everyone else
To acknowledge the 100th anniversary of Marshall McLuhan’s birth, this edition of Blowup will present the Strategic Art Initiative 2.0 exhibition of re-created early telematic artworks; the worldwide premiere of Them F*ckin’ Robots, a documentary on the work and influence of electronic art pioneer Norman White; a keynote lecture by Dutch thinker and author Arjen Mulder, examining the things we love and love to hate about McLuhan; and a closing party for the exhibition featuring a custom cocktail.
1. Introduction, by Michelle Kasprzak
2. Introduction to the Strategic Arts Initiative 2.0 Exhibition, by Laura Berazadi
3. Texts from the original Strategic Arts Initiative catalogue,
by Derrick de Kerckhove and the participating artists
4. Strategic Arts Initiative 2.0, by Derrick de Kerckhove
5. Strategic Arts Initiative 2.0, information on the works
6. McLuhan in Europe 2011, by Stephen Kovats
7. The Normill, by Ine Poppe (translation by Sam Nemeth)
8. Marshall McLuhan Interview, by Gary Wolf
9. From the V2_ Archive: An Extremely Complicated Phenomenon of a Very Brief Duration Ending
in Destruction; The 20th Century as Slow-motion Car Crash, by Mark Dery
10. Excerpt from From Image to Interaction, by Arjen Mulder
11. The Wisdom of Saint Marshall, Holy Fool, by Gary Wolf
Blowup: We are all Crew S.A.I. opening (2011) from V2_ on Vimeo.
Thursday November 3
20:00 - 23:00: Opening of Strategic Arts Initiative (SAI) 2.0 exhibition, five telematic artworks connected live with InterAccess in Toronto, Canada. Featuring artworks by Doug Back, Laura Kikauka and Carl Hamfelt, David Rokeby, Graham Smith and Norman White, the exhibition is a re-creation and evolution of the original 1986 exhibition curated by Derrick de Kerckhove.
Welcoming remarks and short talks by the artists at 20:30.
Friday November 4
20:00: World premiere screening of Them F*ckin' Robots, a documentary on the life and work of electronic art legend, and participant in the Strategic Arts Initiative 2.0 exhibition, Norman White. Directed by Ine Poppe and Sam Nemeth.
14:00 - 23:00: SAI 2.0 exhibition open and connected live to InterAccess, Toronto.
Saturday November 5
14:00 - 20:00: SAI 2.0 exhibition open and connected live to InterAccess, Toronto.
20:00 - Keynote lecture by Arjen Mulder: Things We Love and Love To Hate About Marshall McLuhan (and cybernetics) .
21:00: Response to the lecture and commentary on the SAI 2.0 exhibition by Derrick de Kerckhove
.
21:30 - 00:00: SAI 2.0 exhibition open and connected live to InterAccess, Toronto.
Closing party with custom cocktail begins at 22:00.
Admission € 5,- pass for events on all three days. Free entrance for students (college card).
The event opening and Arjen Mulder's keynote was streamed live.
After the event, the Blowup e-Book Reader for this event will be made available for download.
Blowup: We Are All Crew is part of McLuhan in Europe 2011, a year-long celebration of Marshall McLuhan's impact and legacy on European art and media culture during the centenary of his birth. http://mcluhan2011.eu. The exhibition in Toronto is part of the Dew Line Festival.
The Strategic Arts Initiative 2.0 exhibition is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.
]]>We are rapidly entering (and perhaps even have already entered) an era where we are able to print 3D objects at our desks, make and share laser-cut gifts for friends, and use off-the-shelf tools to plug these creations into the web and have them send status updates on our behalf. We have some commonly-held visions of the future, but what could our very wildest dreams (and nightmares) look like, beyond the cliché of the flying car? What answers can we find in speculative design? Our expert guests will explore these questions in collaboration with the audience in a hands-on, "open think-tank" format.
Addressing this contemporary issue will be Julian Bleecker: designer, researcher at the Design Strategic Projects studio at Nokia Design and co-founder of Near Future Laboratory; Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino: product designer, entrepreneur, and partner at Really Interesting Group (London); and Anab Jain: interaction designer, founder of Superflux, and recent TED Fellow.
Following a brief talk show with Julian, Alexandra, and Anab, the audience will have the unique opportunity to collaborate with our invited experts in an "open think-tank": a guided speculative design session wherein we'll address the product design challenges of the near and not-so-near future.
Download the Blowup: The Era of Objects reader:*
Blowup Reader: The Era of Objects_PDF
Contents
1. Introduction, by Michelle Kasprzak
2. Design Futurescaping, by Anab Jain, Jon Ardern, and Justin Pickard
3. Is this thing on? Identity, robots, and spying through everyday objects, by Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
4. Writings on the Internet of Things, by Rob van Kranenburg
5. Design Fiction, by Julian Bleecker
6. Speculation and Extrapolation, an excerpt from a longer text by Ilona Gaynor
7. Evolution of an Internet of Things, by Ana Serrano and Tim Warner
8. The Spime Arrives, by Bruce Sterling
*Because this reader contains a lot of images we decided not to publish it in the ePub or Mobi format.
Blowup: The Era of Objects (2011) from V2_ on Vimeo.
Julian Bleecker: http://www.nearfuturelaboratory.com/
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino: http://designswarm.com/2011/
Anab Jain: http://superflux.in/
Documentary images are a common method to measure and reflect on the monumental scale of change occurring in contemporary society. These images are also highly aestheticised, making beauty even of images of the most desolate slum or industrialised landscape. As a crossover point between art and journalism, the documentary image also allows us to question the veracity of world events from multiple viewpoints, often offering multiple uncomfortable realities instead of a single, easily-digestible worldview. In an era of a massive data onslaught that individuals struggle to cope with, the documentary image continues to offer us a human face on information, sometimes elegantly summarising a complex situation. But what balance needs to be struck between honest portrayals of reality and artistic license?
Every Artist, a Journalist reader (mobi)
Every Artist, a Journalist reader (ePub)
Every Artist, a Journalist reader (PDF)
1. Introduction: Every Artist, a Journalist
2. Aesthetic Journalism: Acts of Witnessing, Practices of Participation, Alfredo Cramerotti
3. Temporary Storage, Ken Hollings
4. The Making of P.A.P.A, Michelle Kasprzak
5. Reality in the Age of Aesthetics, Mark Nash
6. From the V2_ archives: Art, Power and Communication, Alexei Shulgin
Blowup: Every Artist, A Journalist (2011) from V2_ on Vimeo.
Featuring: Elio Caccavale (IT/UK) | Amy Youngs (US) | Wilfried Hou Je Bek (NL).
Maybe in a few years, Fido (or Fikkie) will go to the museum without you. The first edition of Blowup will examine art and design projects that are created with animals in mind as the end users and active participants – not people. This evening event will feature three leading practitioners discussing their work that is created for animals to appreciate and actively use. The speakers will address how their work can instill greater empathy for animals in us, and what they think the animals' experience of the art actually is.
We'll hear from American artist Amy Youngs, who has created new habitats for hermit crabs and a lounge space for crickets; Dutch thinker, psychogeographer and writer Wilfried Hou Je Bek who has translated the Epic of Gilgamesh into the pictograms that scientists use to teach language to apes; and Italian designer Elio Caccavale who has designed a TV for pigs to use among other speculative design pieces in his work Utility Pets.
Plus, as a nod to the genre of YouTube videos that consist solely of cats doing cute things, we introduce the Cats Only iPad Play Zone. Bring Fluffy along and let her enjoy some iPad games especially for cats.
Blowup: WildThings (2011) from V2_ on Vimeo.
Contents:
1. Introduction, by Michelle Kasprzak
2. Art for Animals, by Matthew Fuller
3. Cricket Call – Communications Between Insects and Humans? - Interview with Amy Youngs by Giovanni Aloi
4. Creating, Culling and Caring, by Amy Youngs
5. Excerpt from Gilgamesh for Apes, by Wilfried Hou Je Bek
6. Miracles, Monsters and Disturbances, by Elio Caccavale & Michael Reiss
7. A Pig Saved My Life, by Elio Caccavale
8. From the V2_ Archives: Squids, by Louis Bec
9. Final Word
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