Just back from a few days in Berlin, where, among many other things, I had a chance to get together with Aram Bartholl to talk about his SPEED SHOW project, a beautifully simple initiative to turn your local internet cafe into a digital art show.

As Aram describes in his SPEED SHOW manifest:

“Hit an Internet-cafe, rent all computers they have and run a show on them for one night. All art works of the participating artists need to be on-line (not necessarily public) and are shown in a typical browser with standard plug-ins. Performance and life pieces may also use pre-installed communication programs (instant messaging, VOIP, video chat etc). Custom software (except browser add-ons) or off-line files are not permitted. Any creative physical modification to Internet cafe itself is not allowed. The show is public and takes place during normal opening hours of the Internet cafe/shop. All visitors are welcome to join the opening, enjoy the art (and to check their email.)”

I love the simplicity and DIY nature of SPEED SHOW, done in five easy steps:

1. Find Internet Cafe. Rent time on all the computers for the evening.

2. Select work to show on standard browsers. Create gallery plan.

3. Invite people.

4. Enjoy the show.

5. Make Internet Cafe owners incredibly proud and happy.

For a full description of the project and more video and photos, visit the project site here.

Photos by Kuc, top video grab from Aram’s video on project site.

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There has been a tremendous response to the Ikea Hacker contest and forthcoming exhibition I’m doing with Platform 21 in Amsterdam – some insanely good DIY Ikea innovations are coming in, and some completely unexpected Ikea Hacks, such as the one above from Daredo, where the Ikea store is turned into a workout area, its products being re-purposed into exercise equipment. Be sure to subscribe to see more as the final entries pour in.

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Today’s preview of an Urban Play artist brings Poland’s Truthtag into focus.

As is the case with putting together any show, there is an ebb and flow to the list of artists as work progresses, but within the Urban Play roster, Truthtag has always had a core position in the show and its larger concept of DIY Urban Design. 

Based in Wroclaw, Poland, Truthtag works at the intersection of street art, urban intervention and architecture, augmenting existing buildings and urban areas with slight touches of shapes, colours and geometric forms. For Truthtag, the city’s built environment is a plug-and-play system, able to be augmented and enhanced in an ongoing, generative fashion.

Working with what he refers to as “aesthetic break-ins” in cities for eight years, Truthtag was recently invited by the Polish Cultural Institute to bring his brand of architectural remixes to London as part of the London Festival of Architecture – a fitting embrace for a fresh creative working with the physical city.

In addition to his fantastic ability to play with the visual context of the building and jam off of its lines and structure, Truthtag also maintains a gallery entitled “changes” which documents how the organic forces at work in nature and the city take their own hand at augmenting and altering his pieces over time. 

I encourage you to spend some time exploring more of his work here.

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Today’s preview of an Urban Play artist brings Madrid’s SpY into the light.

The thing I’ve always liked about SpY is the width and breadth of his work and media. From anchoring glow sticks into the pavement to turn a traffic arrow into a firing spaceship (above), to simply attaching a Pac-Man shape onto a bus stop to turn it into a video game scene, SpY is particularly skilled at slipping urban easter eggs into the daily adventures of Madrid’s residents.

As the excellent street art writer Javier Abarca says of his work, “SpY’s interventions do not jump out at you, they wait until you come across them. They are not a monologue, but rather the result of a dialogue between the artist and the surroundings, between the passer by and the piece.”

On the more aggressive end of the spectrum, SpY has a great love for physically re-working the road barriers and hoardings around Madrid to spell his collective’s name. The re-design of the object, where its final state is identically functional to that of its origin, yet contains a great deal more significance and personality, is always a favourite urban intervention technique for me.

Again, as Abarca puts it:

“This work is a way of giving us back an object like the hoarding, whose ubiquity had made it virtually invisible, and, with this, it opens another small window on a certain activation of the consciousness, on a slightly sharper perception of the surroundings. Which is necessary in a city that silently contemplates how fountains, benches and, in general, the possibilities of using the public space disappear, among other outrages.”

From the aggressive to the sublime slight hits as below, it’s been a pleasure to work with SpY and get to know him in the process. You can enjoy more of his work at his website here.

And please remember to subscribe so you don’t miss the rest of this series.

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dblt (diablito) from Scott Burnham on Vimeo.

It’s been very satisfying to watch 3D urban intervention come into its own in recent years due to the historically unparalleled roster of people hacking and remixing the physical city with their work. But even out of this immensely talented pool, Esparza has emerged as something of a game-changer. His Urban Parasites – small robotic creatures made from recycled consumer goods which wander, climb, crawl and explore the marginal areas of the city – bring a fresh, unexpected dimension to the city itself and to urban intervention in general.

While his early works required direct human interaction to be animated, he said in a recent conversation that he then began looking at the natural energy sources in the city, using for example “wind or water to help a shapeless sculpture move through the irregular urban geography.” His combined interest in mechanics and a frustration with the lack of an entirely self-sufficient animated object in the early stages on his interventions introduced him to the study of robotics, and “the way they can express or project their ideas, wishes, or fears.”

To hear him talk about the “ideas, wishes or fears” of robotics in the city is only the tip of the iceberg in understanding his emotional and philosophical approach to the inter-relationship of his objects and the city. Inspired by the street vendors (ambulantes) of Mexico City, who get the power for their sidewalk shops from nearby electrical posts, Esparza’s creatures also use the electric cables for power and as a means of movement, such as with diablito (little devil).  And on the ground below, his “ppndr-s” (pepenadores) intervention is Esparza at his best. Abstract, mechanical beetle-like creatures, made of recovered and recycled consumer electronics and discarded materials, pick and forage their way through piles of trash which have gathered in the corners of the city’s streets:

ppndr-s (pepenadores) from Scott Burnham on Vimeo.

I always find immense satisfaction in work which uses existing, cast-off areas of the city as opportunities for interaction and animation. But more than that, the pleasure lies in seeing the perplexed, confused and eventually amused look on the passers-by as they begin to decipher what is taking place. Which, as Esparza says when thinking about the larger picture of cities in general, is quite substantial. For him, the “micro” interventions of his work, are directly part of what is happening at the “macro” level:

“I believe that the city, as a concentration of human beings, is the epicentre of the most radical transformations in human history – it is also the materialisation of a human project that facilitates the meeting of imagination, knowledge and information. All this happens in an environment for survival, where social and economical relationships and other aspects depend on a continuous negotiation and fight for power with others. The city is a live organism, in which many life forms subsist. I also think technology is an essential part of the city. It creates trends and situations, which are influenced by and subordinated to the environment, but sometimes these make their own rules…”

clgd (colgado) from Scott Burnham on Vimeo.

From small mosquitos which fly around the inside of subway cars to the amazement of children, to odd creatures which move towards lamps and lightsources in the corners of buildings, Esparza’s work opens new areas of expression in the ongoing narrative of creative interaction with the city, and I’m honoured to be working with him. A complete overview of his work can be found at his Parasitos Urbanos website.

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A) I decided I don’t spend enough time around supermodels
B) It’s been too long since I’ve spent an evening drinking rose-flavoured vodka cocktails
C) I was invited because of my relationship with Premsela

It was all celeb, glam and paparazzi, dahling, but hugely enjoyable in its own right. Fashion exhibitions are incredibly difficult to pull off, but this one is exceptional. The highlight, obviously, was the insanely huge doll house in the centre of the exhibition. Viktor & Rolf essentially re-created the entire exhibition, which surrounds the dollhouse, in miniature. If you’ve seen their website, this won’t be a surprise, but in the context of the exhibition, it not only added a layer of appreciation to their work, but also created the simple joy of smiling as you enter the space and see something truly fresh and exciting in a show. I really can’t recommend it enough.

However, with my recent time being filled working on Urban Play, I came across one piece in the exhibition that made me pause for a moment and mix wonder and appreciation for where some of their ideas come from:





Mark Jenkins’ “embed” to the left, Viktor & Rolf to the right. Coincidence? Discuss…

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Image Credit: Mark Jenkins

With Milan just around the corner, Droog and I have been putting together a few communication documents for Amsterdam’s 2008 International Design Biennale – Experimenta Design (EXD08), of which Urban Play will be the main event. Doing this, I realised the majority of public attention right now is on the new designs being created for the project. These are staggering, believe me. But in parallel to the design work is the work that’s being put into the Urban Play exhibition. So as a taster, here’s the PR info that’s going to be released about the show in Milan:

Urban Play: The Exhibition
international unauthorized collaborations and urban interventions

The Urban Play exhibition will provide a global overview of urban design interventions done by the public, for the public. While some refer to the latest wave of urban creativity as guerrilla design, and others term it “3D Graffiti”, the common definition is that this work is where creative expression in the city streets becomes physical and is literally transforming cities around the world. Done without permission or commissions, the vast range of work on display represents, as the title states, unauthorised collaborations which exist at the intersection of the latest genre of street art and the beginnings of open source urban design. The Urban Play exhibition will show how this latest wave of urban intervention is not only challenging the rules of engagement between people and allowed creative expression in the city, but is also changing the language of creativity in the city. While social attitudes have previously dismissed urban intervention as a form of vandalism, at the heart of the current wave of guerrilla design is in fact a deeply sophisticated movement with a dedicated attitude concerning their role in the life of the city. The Urban Play exhibition is the definitive overview of the next wave of street art and the creative urban interventions that are literally transforming cities around the world.

The Urban Play project is conceived and curated by Scott Burnham and produced by Droog Design. For both the exhibition and the design commissions which create the Amsterdam route the renowned Dutch design studio Thonik (www.thonik.nl) will provide the design of the interface and interactive media campaign.

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Free For All
March 3rd to March 24th, 2007
Alberta Gallery of Art
Edmonton, Alberta
For a full write-up of the event, go here. But you can’t get more concise in describing what is going on there other than listing their primary exhibition guideline: If one person can carry their submission through the front doors of the gallery _ in one trip _ then we will include it in the exhibition. The size of our front door is 9 ½’ x 5 ½’.

Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft
2 March 2007 then ongoing
nüans, Ellerstrasse 187
Düsseldorf
The initial installation opens to the public and allows visitors to make changes to the work, (first at the private view, and for the duration of the show) by adding, moving and recombining elements, etc. The space and the changes will be documented daily, then monthly.

These of course aren’t the first shows to do this, but let’s hope this is just a sampling of a lot more to come.

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The folks at Urbis put together an audio guide to the recent exhibition I curated for them – The China Show. If you look past the impression that I was shouting across a room while giving it (I was – it was recorded during a curator’s tour I was giving), it gives a good overview of the show. You can find it here.

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