a house gets built
Posted May 13th, 2010 by surplusDay 2 building our installation for the Tate Modern’s 10th anniversary show No Soul for Sale. Almost there!
Tate Modern: Day 1
Posted May 12th, 2010 by surplusIt’s cold as a witch’s teet here in the UK and we’re wearing everything we packed all at once! Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall is massive and in just a couple of days it will be filled with “No Soul for Sale: A Festival of Independents” featuring nearly 70 of the most innovative art groups from around the world for the Tate’s 10th anniversary show.
Here are some pics from Not An Alternative’s installation building, day #1:
Showdown in America: Foreclosure Installation
Posted May 8th, 2010 by surplus
Not An Alternative teamed up with National People’s Action, AFL-CIO, and SEIU to build this installation, a truly mobile home, for a march on Wall Street on April 29th. The demonstration drew more than 10,000 people calling for banking reform.
Videos from the NY Post and Democracy Now! show demonstration participants sharing their foreclosure stories from the installation’s porch.
Critical Strategies in Art and Media Book Launch
Posted April 15th, 2010 by surplus
Thursday, April 15, 2010
6:30pm – 8:15pm
Wollman Hall, New School University
65 West 11th St, 5th fl
New York, NY
“For centuries, art has been put on pedestals and in pillories, literally and figuratively, over its supposed capacity to carry a critical, political charge. Yet the trends of the last few decades - the birth pangs of hypercapital and environmental catastrophe - have hardly brought about any form of art potent enough to meet challenges on that scale. In September 2009, the World-Information Institute convened a group of digital theorists and practitioners to debate whether art has a future beyond a “creative industry” bent on decorating disaster - or, if not, what new kinds of approaches might be called for. This book distills that debate. Contributions by: Konrad Becker (World-Information Institute), Ted Byfield (Nettime), Amanda McDonald Crowley (Eyebeam) Steve Kurtz (Critical Art Ensemble), Jim Fleming (Autonomedia), Claire Pentecost (Continental Drift), Peter Lamborn Wilson (Temporary Autonomous Zone). Interventions by Bifo, Marco Deseriis, Rene Gabri, Brian Holmes, McKenzie Wark, and Felix Stalder.
The launch will include brief remarks by Marco Deseriis (NYU), Steve Kurtz (Critical Art Ensemble), Andy Bichlbaum (The Yes Men), Ken Wark (NSU), and Trebor Scholz (NSU), Beka Economopoulos (Not An Alternative), and Gabriella Coleman (NYU).
Int’l ElectroSmog Festival: City Branding Debate
Posted March 18th, 2010 by surplus
You are kindly invited to:
To Brand or not to Brand: The ElectroSmog Global City Branding debate
Thursday March 18th, 4pm - 6pm EST / 21:00 (GMT +1)
Discussion hosts: Merijn Oudenampsen & Ana Méndez
Venues: De Balie, Amsterdam / Eyebeam, New York / Medialab Prado, Madrid
http://www.electrosmogfestival.net/program/#branding
New York participants: Beka Economopoulos and Jason Jones of Brooklyn-based non-profit organization, Not An Alternative.
Branding strategies are the object of extensive critical research, mostly from the area of urban sociology. This research tries to figure out how such large scale urban and regional product-packaging strategies are affecting local economic structures, land and real-estate, local tax provisions, social housing, traffic flows, and other conditions that have an immediate impact on the daily life of residents.
In this debate, designers, artists, activists, architects and sociologists will look at the relation between branding and sustainability. Citybranding - or nation branding - attempts to hook up a location to the international flow of tourists, goods, workers and capital. It makes a lot of sense from a short term economic point of view. From the point of view of sustainability, however, these branding strategies are highly questionable. They add to the problematic of hypermobility that is under discussion in the Electrosmog festival.
In a broader sense the critique of city branding addresses the question of whether it is a good idea to profile places as products in an international market instead of living environments for their inhabitants. On the other hand, one could ask, whether cities and regions are economically viable at all without effective branding and promotion strategies. Are there alternative branding strategies?
Contributions by:
Merijn Oudenampsen, Amsterdam
http://www.flexmens.org/
Ana Méndez & Isidro López, Observatorio Metropolitano, Madrid
www.observatoriometropolitano.
Beka Economopoulos & Jason Jones, Not An Alternative, New York
www.notanalternative.net
Daniel van der Velden, designer and writer, Meta-haven, Brussels / Amsterdam
www.metahaven.net
Eva Ramos López, Town Planning and Housing Area, Madrid City Council
