Game Politics

Troy City Officials Wield Building Code to Shut Down Game Art Exhibit

City officials in Troy, New York apparently used the municipal building code to shut down a controversial video game art exhibit.

As we’ve been tracking on GamePolitics, Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal, a faculty member at the Art Institute of Chicago, was invited to present at - and then abruptly booted from - Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute.

Following his RPI expulsion, Bilal’s Virtual Jihadi exhibit was moved to the nearby Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy. On Monday night, a local Republican political figure, Robert Mirch left, led a protest against Bilal’s work outside the Sanctuary. Mirch, by the way, also happens to be the Public Works Commissioner for the city of Troy. In that capacity, he is responsible for enforcing building codes.

On Tuesday, as reported by the Albany Times-Union, the Sanctuary for Independent Media was shut down by city code enforcement officials. Sanctuary spokesman Steve Pierce told the newspaper:

They put us out of business. They said we had doors that were not up to code.

Add comment Datestamp: March 29th, 2008

World Offset

MAKE A PROMISE
A real carbon offset is the process of reducing the net carbon emissions of an individual by their own actions, not by buying something.

World Offset is part of a current exhibition ecoAesthetics at TAG in the Netherlands.

Add comment Datestamp: March 22nd, 2008

5 YEARS TOO MANY

5th Year Anniversary of the Iraq Invasion — Protesters Make Sure Day Does Not Go By Unnoticed

UFPJ has initiated a massive day of creative, nonviolent action and civil disobedience in the nations capital, focusing on the “pillars of war” to interrupt business as usual for those promoting and profiting from war and empire building.

Add comment Datestamp: March 19th, 2008

Clean Air Act Undermined One More Time by EPA/Bushies

Science at Risk - New York Times

Nobody was greatly surprised last week when Stephen Johnson, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, proposed new limits on smog-forming pollutants that were weaker than those his scientists had recommended — and more to the liking of industry. In the Bush administration, contests between politics and science are usually resolved in favor of politics.

The big surprise was Mr. Johnson’s proposal to rewrite the Clean Air Act to allow regulators to take costs into account when setting air quality standards. Since this would permanently devalue the role of science while strengthening the hand of industry, the proposal has no chance of success in a Democratic Congress.

It was, though, a revelatory moment: one last cry of frustration from an administration that, despite great effort, and persistent lashings from Vice President Dick Cheney, has been largely unsuccessful in undoing three decades of environmental law.

Add comment Datestamp: March 17th, 2008

EXIT ART

E.P.A.

March 15 – May 3, 2008
Opening Saturday March 15, 7-9pm

Exit Art is pleased to announce the opening of E.P.A. Environmental Performance Actions, the first project of S.E.A, a large-scale program dealing with current environmental concerns and the way artists respond to them. E.P.A is a group exhibition surveying recent performance work from around the world that addresses current environmental crises. The exhibition will consist of videos, photographs, texts, related ephemera and a film program documenting recent performances. For this opening project we have invited curator, Amy Lipton, and founder/co-curator Patricia Watts of ecoartspace, a leading international environmental arts organization, to collaborate with Exit Art on the organization and presentation of this material. E.P.A. will include performance documentation from more than 30 international artists. These works, created in the public sphere, draw attention to and engage the public in a dialogue about issues such as climate change, watersheds, urbanization and, ultimately, human survival. E.P.A. will set the precedence for future exhibitions of S.E.A. dealing with environmental issues including The End of Oil, about the global oil crisis and alternative energy, and Consume, about food production, agricultural and sustainable living practices. An exhibition of historical social-environmental art works is also planned to place this work in context.

ARTISTS

Brandon Ballengée, Vaughn Bell/Sarah Kavage/Nicole Kistler, Mark Brest van Kempen, Carissa Carman/Joanna Lake, Center for Tactical Magic, Susanne Cockrell/Ted Purves, Xavier Cortada, Carrie Dashow/Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg/The Society for a Subliminal State, Erica Fielder, Ozzie Forbes, Futurefarmers, , Fritz Haeg, Amy Howden-Chapman, Basia Irland, Scot Kaplan, Carolyn Lambert, Robin Lasser, Kathryn Miller, Matthew Moore, Eve S. Mosher, EcoArtTech: Christine Nadir/Cary Peppermint, Andrea Polli and Joe Gimore with scientific collaborator Dr. Patrick Market, Rapid Response Cobb/Fend/Fischer/Meyer, James Reed and Social Sculpture Research Unit/Earth Agenda Projects, Tod Seelie/Miss Rockaway Armada, Austin Shull, Brooke Singer/Brian Rigney Hubbard, Anne-Katrin Spiess, Chris Sollars

Add comment Datestamp: March 14th, 2008

Eco Aesthetics: Monitoring Ecological Data and Patterns of Human Consumption

at TAG in the Hague, Netherlands

Another cool exhibition where I am showing Superfund365.

Statement by the curators on ecoAesthetics:

Following the success of <>TAG’s September ‘07 Information Aesthetics exhibition and symposium, featuring work of different artists dealing with information visualization and generative art, <>TAG continues this path with an extended program on ecoAesthetics.

<>TAG presents work of artists dealing with visualization and sonification of ecology in a set of exhibitions and a related symposium with lectures, workshops, concerts and a city walk.

Synopsis
The ecoAesthetics programme challenges visitors to consider massive eco-related issues in different and inspiring ways. The work on display shows alternatives and solutions fusing visionary art and technology

How can artists translate everyday information visually or sonically? What are innovative artists and designers doing to promote conservation of resources using innovative technology and creative thinking? How can art make us more aware of the kilowatts we consume or the carbon we emit? Can artists significantly inspire observers to be more environmentally sensitive by giving information a particular form or sound? Furthermore, can art increase our ability to analyze and relate spiritually and emotionally to the natural world we live in?

Add comment Datestamp: March 11th, 2008

feedback exhibtion @ eyebeam, nyc

March 13 - April 19, 2008
Opening: Thursday, March 13, 6 – 8PM / Closing Reception: April 19, 3PM
540 W. 21st St., NYC

What does it mean to think “green”?

Eyebeam’s expansive new exhibition, FEEDBACK, surveys artists, designers, architects and engineers on the topic of sustainability, and presents their responses—19 projects varying from public art projects and industrial design to DIY energy solutions and software tools—to inspire discussion and action on this pervasive (and increasingly commodified) subject.

As the culmination of Eyebeam’s Beyond Light Bulbs programming series, the show highlights the concerns, interests and work of Eyebeam’s Sustainability Research Group, with work by individuals, collectives, students, local community groups and the Eco-Vis Challenge winners. Free, artist-run workshops are integral to the exhibition’s design and are scheduled Saturdays throughout the show’s duration.

[I will have two works in this show: Superfund365 and Preemptive Media’s AIR.]

Add comment Datestamp: March 10th, 2008

Obama + Omar: Bye Bye The Wire

The Riff: Barack Obama, Wire Fan
So Barack Obama says his favorite TV show is The Wire [me too]. And his favorite character, he tells the Las Vegas Sun, is Omar Little, the charismatic, sawed-off shotgun toting, Honey Nut Cheerios-eating, gay stickup artist. “That’s not an endorsement. He’s not my favorite person, but he’s a fascinating character,” says Obama, displaying both admirable honesty and pop-culture cred…

Add comment Datestamp: March 10th, 2008

NPR: AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water

Pharma in the H2O
AP, March 9, 2008 · A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

Add comment Datestamp: March 9th, 2008