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Park(ing) Day Planning Meeting: Turning Metered Spots into Green Spots Monday, August 31, 2009
Park(ing) Day, a global movement to promote the use of green space in urban centers, hits Chattanooga streets once again on September 18.
Park(ing) Day started in San Francisco as an opportunity for citizens, artists, and activists to collaborate and create temporary public parks out of curbside parking spaces. According to organizers, more than 70% of most cities’ outdoor space is dedicated to private vehicles. It is from this fact that the movement, now in its fourth year, draws its momentum.
How it works: Participants in Chattanooga can pick a parking spot in town, accepting the lawful terms of using it—ie, feed the meter—and create a mini-park for the day. If inexpensive curbside parking promotes increased traffic and wasteful fuel use in the downtown area, curbside parks promote revitalized, green street-scapes. Fountains, pools, public beds, and hanging gardens have found ways into Park(ing) spots in the past, as well as park-benches and full-sized trees.
CreateHere will host a planning meeting to prepare for Park(ing) Day this Wednesday, September 2 at 6 pm. Want to get your company, school, friends involved? Looking for a way to use that kiddie pool? Join us for refreshments and idea generation.
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Flick’s Cafe: 1930s Films at the Central Library
Join the Central Library tomorrow, September 1, for a screening of the 1937 Astair & Rogers comedy Shall We Dance. The screening starts 6:30, with a suggested donation of $1.
Shall We Dance follows ballet star Pete “Petrov” Peters as he arranges to cross the Atlantic aboard the same ship as the dancer he’s fallen for but barely knows, musical star Linda Keene. By the time the ocean liner reaches New York, a little white lie has churned through the rumor mill and turned into a hot gossip item: that the two celebrities are secretly married. Significantly, Shall We Dance marks the one and only time the brothers Gershwin wrote a score for an Astaire/Rogers musical.Posted by
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HelloWorld.show(); | A Curator’s Take (part 2) Friday, August 28, 2009
In honor of our extended gallery hours tonight for August’s Last Fridays on Main, we’re proud to present a curator’s perspective on our current exhibition, HelloWorld.show();. Below is part two in the series, written by Senior Arts Fellow Jessica Martin.
Dave Shea, the creator and cultivator of the highly influential website csszengarden.com, has taken a more literal approach to displaying source code. By pairing a browser view and source code, via video projection, “Process Zen”, explores the relationship between HTML and CSS using the initial design of the CSS Zen Garden project. The web browser starts with an unformatted view of HTML, and over time progressively adds more CSS formatting rules until the final design is achieved.
Aaron Walter, representing the work submitted by MailChimp, offers an interactive piece for viewers. “Pictaculous” speaks to the notion that input begets output. “Just as the actions of our computers are shaped by inputs recieved, so too are we influenced by outside stimuli”. Pictaculous.com allows users to submit a photo and in return, generates the predominant color palette, including the Hex values for each color, related color palettes, and a downloadable color palette file for Adobe software.
Leslie Jensen-Inman’s work, “Teach the Web” is primarily concerned with the relationship between the web, as an industry, and academia. Through her work in the exhibition, Jensen-Inman presents a single concept in three distinctly different formats: code, in chalk on a chalkboard; book-form; and browser view. All depict the same content, and their presentation speaks to the notion that both physical and virtual methods for teaching must progress in tandem with the industry.
The work of C.E.B. Reas also addresses relationships, specifically between evolved natural systems and the synthetic systems we engineer. Reas, Associate Professor at UCLA, is represented by Bitforms Gallery NYC. His work in HelloWorld.show();, “Pre-Process Execution” and “Pre-process Hex” is evocative of transformative systems in motion and at rest. The work itself is derivative of the software he creates using short text instructions that explain process that define networks. From his hand-made book filled with code to the unique framed print, Reas’ work can ultimately be understood in terms of traditional image-making techniques paired with finely crafted programs that define processes.
All in all, HelloWorld.show(); is mimetic in nature; in that it creates an atmosphere that is similar to that which we interact with on a daily basis. The particular pairing of artist and practitioners in this exhibition aims to bring audiences one step closer to understanding the constant and inevitable interaction that takes place between natural and man-made, mechanical realms, while highlighting a trend—the web—that is forever changing our society and culture.
Join us tonight from 5 to 7 pm for Last Fridays on Main, or check out HelloWorld.show(); during our regular gallery hours, Monday through Friday, 9 to 5; or Saturdays 9 to 1. HelloWorld.show(); closes September 12.
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HelloWorld.show(); | A Curator’s Take (part 1)
In honor of our extended gallery hours tonight for August’s Last Fridays on Main, we’re proud to present a curator’s perspective on our current exhibition, HelloWorld.show();. Below is part one in a two part series, written by Senior Arts Fellow Jessica Martin.
Let’s face it, we live in a digital world. Even those of us that don’t consider ourselves technically savvy interact with virtual spaces every day, and likely, we do little to acknowledge the wizard and work behind the curtain. That very notion inspired the concept for HelloWorld.show();—55here’s latest exhibition.
The exhibit features local and national participation from traditional artists and programmers. Yes, programmers, the people who write computer code, professionals using geek-speak. The show’s focus is to highlight code and all of its glory. Front- and back-end programming in various formats activate the space and transform it into a virtual realm.
HelloWorld.show(); showcases 10 artists’ work, including two collaborations.
Weston McWhorter, a designer and web developer in New Orleans, challenges viewers and turns the notion of “high art” on it’s head. To the untrained eye, McWhorter’s work may be perceived as painting. But in actuality, the artist generated the random color chunks in “Untitled 1” thru “4”, using PHP (a scripting language). The result: four High-res UV prints on canvas that fill the space and introduce concentrated, regimented modules of color throughout.
Matt Turnure, a Chattanooga native and local web developer, is sensitive to visual aesthetic while having a mind geared toward technical analysis. His piece, “#slideshow”, illuminates the script and imagery that breathe life into his website. The clean, white lines of his lightbox accentuate 4 transparent layers on which Matt has printed imagery, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. “#slideshow” illustrates the three main layers of a web page’s engine and its respective code.
In concert with the geometric lines that are traditionally formed from technical and electronic installation, show participants Matt Sears, Isaac Duncan, and Rudd Montgomery have contributed functional and traditional sculptural works that were manufactured from natural elements such as wood and metal.
The long, soft lines of Matt Sear’s sculpture, which houses an iPod Touch, accentuate the bold, mathematical presence created by Aaron Gustafson’s “Tipr” application, shown on the iPod. Together Sears, a local woodworker, and Gustafson, a local programmer, explore a dialogue where two very similar but different languages interact, each has a different dialect, one organic and the other technical.
This concept is also explored through the collaboration and work of Dan Rubin and Isaac Duncan III. Rubin, of Ft. Lauderdale, FL, is a designer who has a strong interest and experience with (X)HTML and CSS. Duncan is a local sculptor. Together, they tackle the issue of the common perception that the virtual world is flat. “The Space Between the Lines”, explores the multi-faceted nature of web design by revealing multiple viewpoints of the process of web design and displays them on a 3-dimensional surface.
Look for part two in this series later this afternoon!
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“Meshes of the Afternoon”: A Surreal Touchstone Wednesday, August 26, 2009
School’s back, and in this blog post, UTC graphic design student and CreateHere fellow TJ Bowman remembers, fondly, a moment of learning abroad.
Last winter while I was visiting London, I made the usual stops; Big Ben, the Eye, the Globe Theater, St. Paul’s, Tower Bridge, Stonehenge, et cetra. The gem of the trip, however, was none of the above. It was the Tate Modern. I could go on for days and days about how and why this museum is the place I want my ashes spread but I’m not going to. Instead I’m going to give you the first Surrealist film I’ve ever watched, and I’m assuming, for most of you, that it will be your first as well. Lucky for us, it’s a great one by husband and wife duo, Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, titled Meshes of the Afternoon (1943).
On the DVD release, Maya Deren; Experimental Films 1943-58, she comments about the film, saying, “This film is concerned with the interior experiences of an individual. It does not record an event, which could be witnessed by other persons. Rather, it reproduces the way in which the subconscious of an individual will develop, interpret and elaborate an apparently simple and casual incident into a critical emotional experience.”
After further research, I later came to find that the idea was in large part influenced by Hammid and after Deren began to receive all the glory for the work, as she typically did, their marriage began to suffer. After their divorce, Deren added classical Japanese music from her third husband, Teiji Ito to the film (talk about surreal!).
This film was part of an extensive Surrealism exhibit on the second floor of the Tate Modern of January 2009. Out of all the works from every media type, which there was a plethora of, this one was and still is my favorite piece. I also saw several Paul McCarthy films, which… I won’t go into.
Enjoy!
Watch Meshes of the Afternoon, in two parts, here and here.
By TJ Bowman, Platform Fellow
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