Astrodime Transit Authority

CALL FOR WORK: Dropout
Postmark DEADLINE September 15 2008

Seeking video, documentary and animation entries in relation to the idea of digital dropout for Volume 4 of INtransit, produced by the AstroDime Transit Authority. How does the loss or corruption of data alter information as it reaches us? What happens to the message when we become aware of the medium? When is a glitch not just a glitch? Digital decay, lost signal, system error, the cliff effect, rolloff, dropout, static, interference, noise, data loss, corruption, malfunction. Don’t put a magnet too close to your computer screen. Don’t store your DVDs in direct sun. Walk through a wall to get to the Minus World. Can you hear me now? Remember when all of your vacation film went through the x-ray machine at the airport? When technology fails, what is lost and what is gained?

Please mail your work to:

Ali Horeanopoulos
15 Channel Center Street
Studio 519
Boston, MA 02210

If you want it returned, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope. Preview copies should be on DVD, VHS, or mini-DV. For more info, contact AliNichole@gmail.com

The AstroDime Transit Authority is a Think-Tank and public service organization that considers issues of transportation, communication and world and intergalactic citizenship. We are specifically interested in issues of race, class, gender and culture, art and technoscience. In addition, we consult and advise in sustainable communication and transportation systems off and on this planet.

Our research includes curated video shows, data collection, and performances which reveal and explore these issues. We publish a twice-yearly video journal called INtransit. We invite guest artists and contributors to participate in our curatorial and creative projects.

For general questions about AstroDime Transit Authority, email rocketscience@virtualberet.net.

Our web site is http://www.virtualberet.net/ata.

We are sponsored by the 119 Gallery in Lowell, Massachusetts at http://www.119gallery.org/

Continuing our blog series for ‘Secret Decoder Ring’ we hear from artist Mark Adams regarding his entry: A Model of the Universe: the work of Nathalie Miebach

What inspired you to produce this video piece about Nathalie’s work?

I’m always interested in work that looks back at the planet with humility from our exalted position as king of the beasts. Also how we can process real world information into beautiful things. Too often, environmental artists are preachy or hopeless. Nathalie Miebach is a modest questioner with the patience to watch the world unfold. She’s not afraid of looking at numbers and measurements which are normally intimidating and off limits. Even many of the smartest people I know refuse to let themselves dig into real information about the world.
>   
How do you see this related to “code?”

I’ve always been drawn to the mysteries of forces we cannot see, either because they happen in timeframes we can’t see or because they aren’t directly sensed by our humble orifices. The world is full of code that is being interpreted for us: weather, statistics, fashion, trends — we can’t take it unfiltered and need it decoded in small doses we can easily swallow. Nathalie is someone looking for patterns in the raw code and making it visible. Much art in any medium — my own paintings included –  are code but they don’t necessarily translate… Sometimes code is deciphered to clarify and sometimes it is meant to obscure. Both are interesting but the clarifiers are more rare.
>   
What was your overall concept and design, such as doing audio layering and incorporating ocean scenes?

I began by trying to get her to talk, ask the right leading questions to open up the flow of her ideas without scripting. But her sculptures invited fly-throughs, so much was happening on their surfaces. Also I wanted to mess with scale — the tight shots attempt to blow up the sculptures into little worlds. The layering — both video and audio — was a response to the complexity of layers in the sculptures and in Nathalie’s ideas. I was looking for echoes from the big notions to the detailed execution. Plus I had lots of footage I wanted to distill and couldn’t part with all of it. The ocean stuff was a way to get out of the closed world of the
gallery and go to a source.
>   
What do you want viewers to take away from watching your installment?

I like being dazzled by the visuals flying by. I love Nathalie’s questions and lack of pretension — how she decided to follow any patterns she found without concern about where she was going. She made a leap when she decided its OK to be naive. The biggest thing is for everyone to be their own observers — tin can scientists.
>   
What did you learn about weaving and the designs?

I think of the materials as a little mundane, ordinary reeds — and in fact there are no real designs — but the accumulation of pattern creates an intuitive whole. I think it’s cool to build from really simple raw stuff. Like
the notion that when Steve Reich makes layers of simple rhythms and tones, these unintended resonances appear, accidental music. I’m a big fan of following instincts and letting things grow.
>   
How did you produce this? In what format? Editing? etc?

I’m not much of a techno. I got the cheapest 3 chip camera I could find and Final Cut Express. I also use mpgs from my still camera, a Panasonic Lx2 with wide format. I’ve learned everything I know, such as
it is, in a few months. I work as a cartographer for the National Park Service and use GIS mapping software which is all about layering images and finding conjunctions and geographic relationships. I’ve found
plots of forest that hadn’t been cut in 180 years by digitizing some old maps and layering them on top of recent aerials.

a cheery spring hello! and some news.

INtransit V.3: Secret Decoder Ring premieres Saturday May 3 at 8pm at the 119 Gallery in Lowell! it will also be screening at the Electronic Literature Organization in Vancouver Washington the first week in June. (Note: Vancouver is a suburb of Portland, Oregon, not the Canadian Vancouver!)

Carrie and sam are in the final stages of production for Secret Decoder Ring. Carrie is going to leave AstroDime in research assistant capacity for summer work as of the end of April but will come to our May screening. Thank you Carrie for all your great editing work. Carrie has also posted a lot to this blog with interviews of participating artists, and will continue to do so this month.

Upcoming INtransit brainstorms:

NOISE (Ali is organizing this)

SURVEILLANCE (John is organizing this)

and a few other ideas..one on Nanotechnology (we are writing a grant for it) and Scientific American. What is a Scientific American anyway? if you have work on any of these themes, feel free to let us know.

We’re going to be at the MIT Flea May 17 with the goods for sale. We are grateful for donations from George Fifield and Prilly Sanville. This funds our productions in part. If you know of anyone who has anything, except computer monitors, give a holla.

that’s some of the news anyway!

-sam smiley

As part of our ‘Secret Decoder Ring’ video installation, we will blog a Q&A series with various artists represented in this video.
The first is with digital artist Jane Hudson. Enjoy!

Why did you call your work “desiring machines?”
The piece is related to Gilles Deleuze’ ‘Anti-Oedipus’ in which he coins the expression ‘desiring machines’. This concept defines the trajectory of desire we seek to express which is constantly constrained by the institutions of State, family and culture.

What was your inspiration for the content and the design/look of this piece?
I had been working with digital animation, and became interested in the rather mechanical quality of movement I could achieve with the animation of still images. As well I had been using the technique of compositing for some time, and loved the way I was able to create a totally synthetic space for the figures to move in.

How or why do you believe ‘desiring machines’ fit into the topic of code?
If ‘code’ indicates the translation of all phenomena into digital information, then the ultimate constraint/filter through which to drive desire is the quantification of the body.

What would you like viewers to take away from watching your piece?
Hopefully, the ways in which the body is thrown from the cone of time onto the constantly moving surface of life to act out a pattern of expression that seeks to define an identity.

Describe the music, who produced it, and what rhythm were you looking for and why?
My husband, Jeff Hudson, created the sound track for the piece. I wanted an electronic pulsing complex that illustrated the thrust of the cone and the undeniable power of the return.

What format did you produce this in and how long did this take you to complete?
I produced the piece, first, in digital photo, then imported stills into Adobe After Effects for animation and compositing of 3-D, video and still images. The piece was mastered in widescreen Final Cut Pro.

Thanks Jane!

Greetings everyone, We are excited to announce upcoming ‘Secret Decoder Ring’ screenings.

We hope you can attend.

Preview rough draft: (at Lesley University, in-house only)
7pm wednesday April 16 in Wolfard 201 at the main campus of Lesley University.

Located on Mellen Street just off Oxford in Cambridge.

Premiere of Final: Saturday May 3 at 8pm at the 119 Gallery (http://www.119gallery.org).

Finally, Secret Decoder Ring is going to be featured at this year’s Electronic Literature Organization conference in Vancouver, Washington(near Portland Oregon).

We are very excited about this!!!!

The conference is in June of 2008.

Please join AXIOM Gallery for the Astrodime Transit Authority DVD release and screening of their curated video and animation journal.

December 14th, 8pm

For info and directions go to http://www.axiomart.org

(they are right at the Green Street T station in Jamaica Plain, MA)

INtransit Volume Two: Fast Women (New Release!)
This 35 minute program presents works by and about women who address speed in different manners–physically and through technology: Tanya Bezrah, Maggie Orth, Margaret Dolinsky, Eve Gordon, Ellen Lake, Annmarie Lanesey, Kama Lord, Natalie McKeever and more.

INtransit Volume One: Will Pandas Ride Free on the Handlebars in 2092?
This 44 minute video looks at future and imagined transportation systems and includes work by: Anna Shapiro, Christian Frey, Sangho Shin, Muriel Magenta and Michael Udow, Jessica Irish and Jonathon Mc Dowell.

ATA’s INTRANSIT library archive

Saturday, 10-27-07, 8pm

Studio Soto

63 Melcher St.

Boston, MA

It’s down to 3 finalists in the Apartments.com “Possession Obsession” contest and our own Ali Horeanopolous needs your vote!
Check out her video entry and vote for her to win the grand prize of $20,000! Vote til October 19, winner announced on Oct. 29th.

http://possessionobsession.apartments.com/contestant/60/

Here’s a Q&A with Ali about the contest:

1) Why do you collect so much stuff? What compels you?

Mostly I collect because I don’t like to see things that are perfectly usable destined for a landfill. So I will grab anything I see that I think that I can give new life…
2 )What is your favorite find?

Wow! I didn’t know how amazing old wallpaper books are until I started collecting them. They’re beautiful and completely seductive! I really like my wallpaper, but my favorite one item would have to be the Eames chair that I’m sitting on right now. My boyfriend and I found this chair abandoned because the back was broken off. Someone actually tried to screw it back together! We’re experimenting with epoxies right now to try and find the one that will make the back stick on. It’s cool to have a piece of design history in our apartment.

3) If you could use one adjective to describe your apartment what would it be?

Overflowing… or maybe ‘anti-minimalist’

4) What would you do with the $20,000 grand prize money?

I plan to use that money as a small business non-loan to start my own company making things out of found junk. This includes refinishing furniture, as well as trying to minimize paper waste by using FOUND paper to make things that are mostly disposable, like: cards, envelopes, wrapping paper, etc. I really want to create awareness about the amount of waste that we produce, and try to encourage/inspire people to upcycle! Upcycling is reusing discarded items in a new, and maybe even better way. I also want to help revive the tradition of unique handmade objects that has been lost, rather than mass-produced objects. It’s so fun to have something that’s one of a kind, and to know that someone put time and energy into making it that way.

5) It’s down to the wire, why should we vote for you?

Vote for me! because I’m doing something creative and healthy for the environment. And especially because I’m young and ambitious, and have big plans for the prize money beyond just spending it on material things. Vote for me because it would make me oh-so-happy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
119 Gallery October 13, 2007, 8pm

ATA presents– FAST WOMEN

Fast Women: A curated video and animation show featuring creative musings
related to women and speed: acceleration on the ground and through
technology. This thirty-five minute program presents works by eleven women
who address speed in different manners: Bebe Beard, Tanya Bezrah, Eve
Gordon, Ellen Lake, Anne Marie Lansley, Kama Lord, Gina Kamentsky, Natalie
McKeever, Doris Schmidt, Sam Smiley. Image: Gina Kamentsky

Fast Women is volume 2 of INtransit, a bi-annual video art journal that is
a topical compilation of art, animation, documentary, and interviews.
Produced by the Astrodime Transit Authority, www.virtualberet.net/ata.

119 Gallery
119 Chelmsford St. Lowell, MA 01851
978.452.8138 www.119gallery.org