Hello World! or: How I Learned to Stop Listening and Love the Noise is an immersive, large-scale audio visual installation comprised of thousands of unique video diaries gathered from the Internet. The project is a meditation on the contemporary plight of democratic, participative media and the fundamental human desire to be heard.

Christopher Baker engages with his work often the rich collection of social, technological and ideological networks present in the urban landscape. Read also more about him and his creations in an earlier article posted on the Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog here.

On one hand, new media technologies like YouTube have enabled new speakers at an alarming rate. On the other hand, no new technologies have emerged that allow us to listen to all of these new public speakers. Each video consists of a single lone individual speaking candidly to a (potentially massive) imagined audience from a private space such as a bedroom, kitchen, or dorm room. The multi-channel sound composition glides between individuals and the group, allowing viewers to listen in on unique speakers or become immersed in the cacophony. Viewers are encouraged to dwell in the space.

Recently the Hello World audio visual installation was also used as backdrop for an interesting special on Swiss Television (Schweizer Fernsehen) called:  special Kulturplatz Extra report. This TV special focused on the theme: “Living with the computer: blessing or curse?” The reports range from the hippie roots of personal computing in silicon valley, to robot therapy for the elderly. 

Photos,video and source: Christopher Baker | Vimeo | Kulturplatz Extra

A shaded view on fashion film festival Milano trailer

Diane Pernet has released the trailer of her upcoming “A shaded view on fashion film festival” which will be held in Milan, Italy. Read more about this festival in an earlier published article on the Warmenhoven & Venderbos Blog.

The Fashion Film festival in Milan is organised in collaboration with Vogue Italia and will once again feature short films, installations and documentaries. It will be held between 25Th and the 30Th of May, 2010 at the Palazzo Morando, 6 Via Sant’Andrea, Milan.

Photos and video Diane Pernet | A shaded view on fashion film festival | A shaded view on fashion blog

“A la belle étoile” is a huge and impressive audio/visual projection installation by Swiss conceptual artist Pipilotti Rist. In contrast to many other conceptual artists, her colourful and musical works transmit a sense of happiness and simplicity.

“A la belle étoile” was screened in 2007 on the slight slope of the Piazza in front of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Currently it is part of the exhibition titled: elles@centrepompidou, in which the selection of the “the Centre Pompidou’s collections is focused on female artists from the 20Th century to the present day.” The exhibition will run until February 2011.

The below video gives an impression of Pipilotti Rist’s “A la belle etoile”.

Pipilotti Rist | Photos: Georges Meguerditchian | Video: reel aesthete Vimeo channel | Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

Quote about fashion by English fashion and portrait photographer and Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre: Cecil Beaton.

On Kawara, a Japanese conceptual artist living in New York City, made since 1966 a long series of “date paintings” (the Today series), which consist entirely of the date on which the painting was executed in white lettering set against a solid background. Other series of works include the “I Went and I Met” series of postcards sent to his friends detailing aspects of his life. A second series of postcards, I Got Up At, rubber-stamped with the time he got up that morning, and a series of telegrams sent to various people bearing the message “I am still alive”.

In 1971 he started with his work called ‘A Million Years’. This ten volume piece was produced concurrently with a series which would later be seen as his defining work. ‘A Million Years’ was, just as its title states, a series of numbers counting back the last million years from 1969. It was later  accompanied by ‘One Million Years (future)’ which counts forwards from 1980. In 1993 Kawara transformed One Million Years (Future) from a written to recorded state. The impetus for this metamorphosis was an exhibition for Dia Center for the Arts that ran from January 1, 1993, to December 31 of the same year. The below video made by New York art tours gives an impression of ‘One Million Years”

The exhibition was comprised of three parts, a selection of one thousand Today paintings, the ten volumes of One Million Years (Past) and the recording of One million Years (Future), in which a male and female voice continuously, year after year, count into the future. A segment of this recording was transformed into a CD. With the exhibition the viewer plays a more passive role, entering into the space where the recording plays continuously, whereas with the CD the amount of time is limited, 74 minutes, and contains a set number of years (1994 AD to 2613 AD), thus transforming the infinite time of the exhibition into the finite time of the CD. With the CD the viewer is able to manipulate the duration and chronology of the CD, thus entering into a far more active relation to the work. You can listen to a part of the work in the below Ubuweb podcast.

Photos: On Kawara | David Zwirner Gallery | Sources: Ubuweb, Wikipedia | Video: New York Art Tours Youtube channel