In the Field 07 - may 13th 2013 - Rev Billy & the Golden Toads

Since my participation in the Jane Jacobs Walk on "Death Avenue", I considered to study the ways and strategies of some artists in the occupy movement. So I contacted them and joined a couple of meetings and rallies. 

The occupy movement has become the new face of activist left. They rally against any capitalist excess and at the moment in NYC this is the new pipeline bringing radon contaminated fracked gas into New York City.

At the meetings I found out that this movement is actually very aware of its own strategy. This is discussed and developed on several platforms but a good source is the "Tidal" the movements theory magazine.
During the rallies I got rather intimidated by the massive presence of the NYPD. This, together with the consideration that in this case art was merely a vehicle for a greater cause, made me decide not to pick up this movement as a research case. Observing them felt a bit like spying and being a guest in this country I did not want to get into trouble with the police.

Notice reverend Billy (in the White suit) and his gospel choir the Golden Toads.

Still I would like to share some footage I made during a rally at Bryant park. I want to give you an impression of present creative activism in New York.

Many of you probably recognize reverend Billy. He is a New York cult hero, preaching revolution while making good musical entertainment at the same time. He's been around since the Nineties. Check the documentaries: "Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping" and "What would Jesus buy?". I think the man has something to say.

In the Field 06 - May 09 2013 - Kitty City @ Flux Factory Queens

One of my "sources" here in the NY art scene tipped me about the Flux Factory in Queens. The project they are running at the moment is "Kitty City", a concept of Douglas Paulson. During the course of this month neighborhood kids will build a city for cats in a small factory hall during a series of workshops led by Elisabeth Hamby. They will be supported by architects, artists and designers. At the first of June the local pet asylum will provide about a dozen kittens to populate the city during a grand opening festival.

At the monthly Flux Factory potluck, every second Thursday - city poet Bob Holman reads his kitty city anthem; Ginsberg howled, Holman meows. Cat whisperer Moira Willams shows her new asylum: a NY plant seed refuge in her arm pits(!).

Moira Williams

Hm so this is the Flux Factory … a remarkable meeting place for remarkable people. At the potluck table my neighbor offers me a couple of his cookies. These are anarchist cookies he explains to me. Slightly alarmed I ask him for about the ingredients. No drugs. So why "anarchist"? The idea is to make full meal nutrient cookies that are easy to make, with ingredients that are easy to get. The recipe is free but you have to bake twice as much as you will need and give them away. If everybody joins hunger will disappear. "Food not bombs"!



Also this month a couple of brooklyn bicycle repairmen will help you to fix and pimp your bike during a couple of workshops working towards a spectacular bike tour. I think I will hang out here next couple of months.

In the Field 05 - May 4th 2013 - Jane Jacobs Walk by Occupy

Every architect, urbanist, city planner, real estate developer, urban activist and community artist should read "The life and death of great american cities" written by Jane Jacobs in 1961. And most of them did. Jane Jacobs loved the city and that's why she explored it not on paper but in real life on foot walking through the neighborhoods. She is known as the saviour of many great building in New York City. But her greatest contribution was the insight that to develop a city we need to develope its community, starting with public awareness.

Jane Jacobs demonstrating for the preservation of New York's Penn Station

In the US the Jane Jacobs is a phenomenon. All over the country so called Jane Walks are held. These are informative tours led by locals to raise awareness about the community and its urban living conditions. There is a national organization called "Jane Jacobs Walk" that is trying to keep track of these walks and organizing a nation wide city exploration festival on the 4th of May, Jane Jacobs birthday.

This Year I took part in such a walk held in one of Jane's favorite neighborhoods, the Meat Packing District at the west side of Manhattan. The walk was part of a city wide event organized by the Municipal Art Society of New York, and was led and designed (!) by a team of artists participating in the Occupy movement.

Considering my interest in situated art and informal public education I definitely wanted to take part in this. I considered it a great, peaceful and constructive way to participate as a citizen in politics. So I was completely surprised when there were almost as many police men turning up at the meeting point for this walk then there were citizen participants.

Anyhow we had a great walk with low profile ludic performances of professional actors like Kim Fraczek, Marina Tsaplina, & Monica Hunken together with lots of dedicated locals in a heart warming get together. (Watch my short video report) (Watch their online full length version)

I must say that americans have their way of giving a theatrical and dramatic turn to the things they do in public. And when singing the classic protest song "We shall overcome" I realized that there is a living tradition of democratic action in this country. The tour ended with a collective declamation of the famous poem "Don't go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas. I must admit a had to swallow a sentimental sob to stand there speaking out that beautiful poem at the border of the river hudson.

So why on earth were these coppers following us? Well the tour was to raise awareness about the dangers of the fracking of natural gas near New York City. So the coppers were not protecting public order but the interest of the oil companies I concluded and I can not think of any other reason. Do you?

In the Field 04 - May 3rd 2013 - The next big thing in NYC

Most famous museums in New York are the Moma, the Metropolitan and the Gugenheim. But one of the most extraordinary museums I found is the "New Museum". It started in 1977 based on the critique that museums are only focussed on art that has already arrived.

New Museum NYC

To stretch your mind you could try to argue that once art arrives in a museum it's probably outdated. This is not bad, because good art has to be preserved. But if that is the only thing museums do then our attention might be fixed on the past and making us neglect the present and future. So what about a museum that tries to present art that is in development or yet to come?
Visionary founder Marcia Tucker gave the New Museum a head start with this mission. Now days many museums are thinking about a new position in a public domain that is also fed and led by new, social, media. They try to adapt their exhibitions to a more active and less docile audience.
Let's say that "only yesterday" culture was highly influenced by institutions and industries following a authority of merits or a logic of the market. The "old" media were "one to many" media, meaning that few people - those who were in control of the scarce media channels - were addressing a mass audience. The audience could either accept those few messages or turn away. Participation (reply, adaption, variation, alternation, etc.) was not a serious option.
Those days are gone and now we have all sorts of cultural constellations influenced by grass roots, peer groups and niche markets. The "old" media still exist but they are supplemented by the "many to many" (Youtube, Facebook) and "one on one" (WhatsApp, skype) social media. Slowly but irreversible there is a shifting power relation between the roles of "transmitter and receiver", "talker and listener", "maker and taker" and "producer and consumer" and we don't know if it will continue, bounce back or snap.

So museums as "presenters" might want to develop a new relation with their "receptors" and the New Museum is up front in this avant-garde. Producing traditional exhibitions is just a minor part of their activities. They step out of the frame, of the stage, the pedestal and out of the building. They organize workshops and events that concern contemporary living in New York.
I first got in touch with the New Museum on the Ideas City event. Part of the event was a market of ideas. Hundreds of bright New York minds presented their inventions and dreams on the streets around the New Museum. Another event was a public pitch of a handful of the most radical ideas to transform the city in one of the biggest churches of the city, Saint Patrick. After the pitches the public voted a winner. This was the so called "PlusPool". This installation would float in the waters around Manhattan island cleansing the water while at the same time offering a public swimming pool to the public.


I would say that at the moment the latest big thing happening in New York is the Highline. I don't have the impression that the next big thing in New York will be the Citibike project that was recently launched. So keep an eye on this plus pool project. New Yorks next big thing could be on the water.

Impression of Pluspool on Brooklyn side of the East River

In the field 03 - May 2nd - Returning from the dogs

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Richard Jochum, the artist and professor I met before also invited me to participate in his next performance that would be staged at the Elga Wimmer Gallery in Chelsea (Mid-West Manhattan). The name of the exhibition was "Don't feed the animals" and it showed work of artists that performed deviant behavior in public as I would summarize. Richard asked me to participate together with a dozen of others including my guest Niek. See what happened in a performance that would intervene with the opening reception at the gallery.

ps remember the performance of Dutch fluxus artist Wim Schippers: "Going to the Dogs" 

Real life writing in the field 00 - April 30th - Remedy for the modernist hangover?

My friend Niek came to visit me the 25th of April. The first couple of days we stayed at the Morningside Heights right next to the Columbia Campus. We stayed with Rahul and Susham Bedi. Susham appeared to be a well-known Indian writer and former movie actress. The house was filled with colonial paraphernalia like panther and tiger skins pinned to the wall, and at the first floor there was a private primary school. We were not staying in a BnB but in the decor of a novel.

April 30th, Niek told me there was a symposium about the modern Avant-Garde right next door in "Das Deutsches Haus". Together with the crowning of a new Dutch King and the tiger skins at the wall of our hospice it all made sense to me. So within a few seconds we were listening to a series of lectures on the "Modernist Hangover" of the Avant Garde in literature and art.

Now, it could have been the acoustics, or maybe the limitations of our understanding of academic English, but we had a hard time understanding what was said. The second speaker spoke about an artist group called "Tiqqun" and their "Theory of Bloom" but unfortunately I could not properly hear her elucidation. Nevertheless musing on these few fragments of information I had a stroke of insight.I was thinking something like:

What could be the modernist hangover? I guess the acknowledgment of the limits of human ability to fully understand the world and control its destiny. For post modernists this would mean a liberation of the totalitarian rationalization of every aspect of human existence. But for the hardcore modernists this surrender would be a defeat, a failure of the modernist project.

What could "Tiqqun" mean in this context? It is the name of a contemporary art magazine that seems to refer to the Jewish word "Tikkun Olam", meaning "repairing the world". In the context of the modernist hangover it might suggest that we should not focus on changing the world but on fixing it. We might not be able to mold the world completely according to our will, but we might be able to put ourselves to the task of adjusting, rectifying and modifying it the best we can, everyday over and over again until eternity.

And what about the "Theory of Bloom"? I figure it suggests we should think of development of the world in lifecycles instead of linear trajectories from imperfect to perfect. The world will never reach a final stage of perfection. But it will bloom every now and then. And if we treat it well and dedicate our selves to the work of "Tikkun" it might bloom more luscious, and more often.

I am pretty sure this interpretation is my own and does not match the version of the speaker or the artists she was talking about. Nevertheless I find this line of thought very inspiring as a perspective to move on past modernism. Maybe these "Tiqqun" artists could be a new case in my research. I will definitely sort them out the next couple of days.

In real life 06 - April 27th - New York City on a Roof

People that know about my whereabouts as an artist also know about "City on a Roof" and "Do the Rooftop-Hop", situation art concepts I coined to develop together with a couple of architects, designers and the Pavlov medialab. To put it simple I would say that these projects were an attempt to inhabit inner city rooftops in order to unlock undetermined city space for creative city development (City on a Roof) and artistic experiment in public (Do the Rooftop-hop).

 

It was a delight to see that such a rooftop landscape was eventually build, not in the Netherlands but here in New York City. It is actually a modification of a former subway fly-over called "the High line". http://www.thehighline.org/ Now covered with green and redecorated as a public performance space the High line unlocks a formerly hard to penetrate western harbor area of Manhattan, starting from the Chelsea art district. April 27th Niek and I took a stroll on this marvelous stretch of public space. Watch the video.