Archives for category: Local CT
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Rain Barrels & Water Tanks

July 18, 2012 //
0

While I was musing aloud about transforming our city’s dingy old water tank into highway-visible public art to announce the opening of its first fine arts center next year, my son asked a very practical question:  how are you planning to get the paint up there?  Details, details, she says, waving her hands around in vague circles…then: enter a team of experts.

Among the latest round of Rockefeller Innovation Fund winners just announced, this one focuses on water as a resource:

http://wordabovethestreet.org/

THEY must know how to get the paint up there!  Right on time, so I can submit the idea as part of a collaborative proposal led by my neighbor and focused on the nexus of sustainability, aesthetics and civic pride to solve urban blight in West Haven, CT.   The big picture includes rain barrels for all – citizens, city parks and City Hall – and drought-resistant native plants on our classic New England Green.  Connecting these dots and others, we are responding to the Mayor’s Challenge, an exciting way to focus those rambling, summertime philosophical discussions over crushed ice, mint and lime:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-bloomberg/mayors-challenge_b_1594734.html

Don’t creative people have a duty to respond to such challenges?  Oh my, did “creative” and “duty” just pop up in the same sentence?  Yeah, they did.  Still a few days to go before the deadline, and even if we don’t win, we can improve our capacity for big ideas and learn from each other along the way.

Meanwhile, after all these years I only just discovered the secret to a great water balloon fight, revealed by an eight-year-old:  fill the bucket with water first so the balloons don’t break.   DUH! to him, an innovation to me…

Here’s to the rest of a summer filled with ideas that refresh and inspire.

Categories Local CT, National Trends, Regional New York / New England

Reexamining Industrial Design

July 12, 2012 //
1

Instructions Not Included: Tinker, Hack, Tweak will take an unexpected look at readymade culture and the objects with which we surround ourselves November 9, 2012 – January 17, 2013 at Artspace in  New Haven.  Meanwhile, in the spirit of the show,  I am organizing a meet-up for industrial designers, engineers and product developers to explore and respond to the work  – and perhaps other exhibits/performances  in the future – as a specially-informed audience.

At Artspace, artists/makers from Connecticut and the surrounding region are invited to submit proposals for consideration through August 30, 2012.  http://artspacenh.org/opportunities.asp?id={FB9554BB-D036-4ABD-ADC6-A31F144EC35E}

At Artsinterstices, industrial designers, engineers and product developers interested in developing a collaborative, contextual response to the selected artists’ viewpoints should contact me at artsinterstices@gmail.com.   The group will convene November to see and discuss the work as it opens.  We will explore and respond to the concepts on this blog in the New Year.  This is an experimental approach to curating audiences from outside the arts who have specialized knowledge and informed insights to share,  for purposes of mutual enrichment and alliance-building among creative enterprises.  An app, if you will, with the exhibit as platform.

I am excited to see what happens next when we put interesting minds together in the space between art and business! – EBS

Tags ,
Categories E. Slomba Arts Interstices, Local CT, Performances and Exhibits, The Agile Story

Ideas + Garages =

July 9, 2012 //
2

Generally speaking, and safe bet this is true in your neighborhood, the pretty flippingest cool stuff happens in garages.

Natulis ArtTemporary invites us to recap this historical cultural trend as they put out an open call for free studio space this August in a former car repair shop in Berlin, Germany:

  • Bands from The Clash to Iggy Pop and Mc5
  • Bill’s early Microsoft experiments
  • Chelsea district art galleries

http://natberlin.com/garage-art-about/

True, the liminal space of a garage is irresistable.  You can try things out in the garage that you could never get away with in the house, even in the basement.   It is space that feels set apart, where one can experiment and suspend cultural notions about what is safe, what is allowed and what people do.   Everywhere, there are local, national and international heroes garaging it old school while keeping it innovative.   Samples from my personal ‘chive? – Ta-DA:

S.L.A.M  (Streb’s Lab for Action Mechanics) 5,000 squ. ft at 51 N. 1st St. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn http://www.streb.org/V2/space/index.html

Biopunk scientists hacking genomes around MIT (ever hear of glow-in-the-dark squid?) http://bostonbiotechwatch.com/2011/04/14/hacking-ourselves-%E2%80%9Cbiopunk-diy-scientists-hack-the-software-of-life%E2%80%9D-by-marcus-wohlsen/

And of course there’s West Haven, Connecticut.   In a backyard garage on Savin Avenue, a horse and carriage are kept in circulation, you see them cruising around town.  And in a more industrial setting, 14 Gilbert St. hosts  a long-term affair between sculptor and sculptures in the studio of Guggenheim award-winner Robert Taplin.

http://roberttaplin.com/pdf/art_new_england_nov_dec_2010.pdf

Do you know what interesting ideas are taking shape in some of the garages near you?  Believe me, it’s worth investigating.   Welcome these incubators into your midst, even or especially if it is unclear what’s being spawned.  And on August 30, if you’re anywhere near Berlin, enjoy the party at  Scharnhorststraße 32 celebrating nine artists who have made “ephemeral, time sensitive art at tremendous growth rate” in their provisioned spaces for  Garage Art 2012.

Tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Insights from Leaders, International, Local CT, National Trends, Performances and Exhibits, Regional New York / New England

Cronote’s “Remind Button” free to nonprofits

June 19, 2012 //
0

Cronote is an application that inserts a remind button onto a website so that visitors can schedule their own calls to action.  Perhaps they prefer to purchase a ticket closer to an event, say, or get in touch with someone else who may be interested.  The start-up is offering the service free to nonprofits.

https://www.cronote.com/

The Cronote system, elegantly enough, is based on a single line of code.  One of the benefits to an organization is that it helps predict future demand.  This is aided by an analytics feature.

Cronote only stores data  long enough to send the reminder, after which it is automatically deleted.  Contact info is not kept anywhere indefinitely, or shared.   In fact, it is blind to the organizations that have events.

A nifty way to encourage  layers of enthusiasm and engagement, Cronote was selected for participation in the summer 2012 Yale Entrepreneurial Institute.   I found out about it through the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, now using their Remind Button at http://www.newhavenarts.org/

Check it out.  Experiment.  Enjoy!

Categories Local CT, National Trends

Futurecasting

June 5, 2012 //
0

The group Connecticut Creates is dedicated to putting state residents who are inventing new futures for themselves and their communities into contact and conversation.  As was discussed in the international arts/science/technology symposium “Transcending Borders” yesterday in Salzburg, knowledge is not meaning, and meaning is only generated through conversation and engagement, person to person to person…

http://www.ctcreates.org/

The first public conversation is on June 7th at four sites around the state, including Middletown, New Haven, New London and Norwalk.

(PS:  sounds “revolutionary,” to me, don’t know about “still…”  )

http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/on_air/gmc_weekend/connecticut-still-revolutionary

Tags , ,
Categories Local CT

Wave Nature

May 29, 2012 //
0

 

Poking around in the all-consuming passion with which surfers hunger for their next wave, I can’t help but be inspired to think about art, innovation and the quirky thoughtfulness that makes us humans, human.  International Surfing Day will take place on Saturday, June 23rd….the beach is the perfect place to spend the day. This year  http://ct.surfrider.org/ will celebrate ISD in Milford, CT. …There will be surf lessons/demos, surf bands…and much, much, more! ”

Surfing may well be the world’s purest form of recreation.  It is athleticism that does not require a man-made arena.   It pits the human body against a rhythmic, unpredictable force that challenges its scale and its limits.  It unites people around the world in ecological awareness and a self-interested activism that is, therefore, authentic.  Bonus: aesthetically, it is beyond beautiful…it is breathtaking.

Like Zen Buddhism, surfing seems to inspire people to wax philosophical (unavoidable pun) about an existential state that defies articulation.  “Step Into Liquid, ” a film that is less of a documentary and more of a sensory feast (available on Netflix Instantwatch), includes interviews with several of the world’s outstanding surf posses.   Three brothers, for instance, traveled to Ireland and set up a surf clinic where Catholic and Protestant children could be together, both in their element.

Surfers are not competitors in the traditional sense.  Sure, they occasionally want to “best” each other, but what they seem to be mostly questing after – and what we miss in other sports when it is lacking – is the essence of excellence.  Hence, statements like: “Surfing is not a lifestyle.  It is life…style is optional.”  And, “Surfing is not a matter of life or death.  It is more important than that.”

Science tells us waves are an energy transport phenomenon, with cross-cutting properties regardless of medium.   Throughout the universe, wave nature surrounds and envelopes us.  In approaching the ocean, a surfer is concerned more with its energy than with its matter.  Is it too big a stretch to try and make a connection to today’s workers in the new economy dealing more now with “ideas” than with “stuff?”   Aren’t we all trying to ride the waves in one way or another?

Every project, every flow of work contains some rhythmic unpredictability.  It is a pattern we cannot escape, so we might as well bring to it our agility, a deep appreciation for others’ agility and a spirit of contagious courage.   We may as well try and get chaos down to a human scale where we can have fun with it.

My friend Ellen, who lives nearby in our shoreline community in Connecticut, has this voicemail message, one of the best consolation prizes I’ve encountered for missing someone who’s unavailable:

“We can’t control the waves, but we can learn how to surf.   Surf, baby, surf!”

I hope you will celebrate International Surfing Day with me on June 23rd by mastering whatever waves you may encounter.   Even better, why not do a little traveling in search of the challenge of bigger, riskier and more awesome ones?

Categories E. Slomba Arts Interstices, Local CT, Regional New York / New England

TGIF: Q&A in Mind Edge

May 18, 2012 //
0

Must interrupt regularly scheduled TGIF interview about the recent nonprofit development sprint to bring you the following, just published by Mind Edge, learning in innovation (based in Waltham, Mass).

Cheers, and make sure your weekend ROCKS!

http://projectmanagement.atwork-network.com/2012/05/18/qa-elinor-buxton-slomba-on-the-art-of-agile/

Tags , , , , , , , , ,
Categories E. Slomba Arts Interstices, Insights from Leaders, Local CT, National Trends, Regional New York / New England, The Agile Story

Still Revolutionary

May 15, 2012 //
0

Hey Virginia, do you still have lovers?  Because here in Connecticut, we’re Still Revolutionary.

http://www.ctvisit.com/pressroom/article/gov-malloy-unveils-the-connecticut-still-revolutionary-campaign/20152

In Hartford yesterday, Governor Dannel P. Malloy, joined by Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) Commissioner Catherine Smith, Deputy DECD Commissioner Kip Bergstrom and other state officials, unveiled Connecticut’s new branding campaign.   “Still Revolutionary speaks to Connecticut’s deep roots in the founding of this country and reminds us that we still have that independent, revolutionary spirit. For centuries we have been the home of literary greats, innovators and natural wonders — an incredibly diverse array of products and talent, all right here in Connecticut.”

Personally, I think “Halfway between Boston and New York” would work just as well… but let’s have some fun with this!

Categories Local CT

Exact Change

May 4, 2012 //
0

Tomorrow, Elm City Dance Collective and other indigenous, urban Connecticut performing artists – including Verbal Slap and Kings Band of Harmony Brass Shout Band – will be rocking city buses across New Haven, live.   How cool is that!?  Not just that it’s happening, but that we know it’s happening..

MANY THANKS to the Arts Council of Greater New Haven and CT Transit for presenting Exact Change.  Here’s to more ambient art situated at street-level in the urban environment, sponsored and otherwise.

Details on this round at http://www.newhavenarts.org.

Tags , , , , , ,
Categories Local CT

Games of Choice and Chance

May 3, 2012 //
0

Last Friday, Yale Dance Theater presented The Legacy of Merce Cunningham in a great big open space – the university’s Payne Whitney Gymnasium.  This Friday, I’m still thinking about it.

Merce Cunningham is dead, and his company formally disbanded.  Yet a unique choreographic approach dedicated to highlighting qualities of un-repeatability and randomness in the universe persists.   Cunningham’s work pokes holes in the way we always try to locate beginnings, middles and endings in the harsh neutrality of ever-flowing occurrence.

The gym was an unusual venue for seeing modern dance, despite the obvious kinesthetic connections.  It made me recall how  my own first exposure to the art form was for phys-ed credit in college, where we learned to slowly curve the spine down vertebra by vertebra, a classic Cunningham technique.  The dancers had a chance to tell us afterwards how dwarfed they felt moving from their rehearsal studio to this grand hall of physicality, performing movements that seemed to carry very different qualities with no walls close around them and no mirrors to look in.   Enhancing the openness they were experiencing viscerally and making it more intense, the dancers were called upon to exercise choices provided for them within the choreography.

This kind of Choice – not “improvisation” per se but a vein of spontanaeity embedded within a defined set of choreographic instructions – consists of, for example, what corner to head towards, or whether to start off on a 45-degree or a 90-degree angle.   The result of each dancer exercising their options in this manner created – as it creates each time it is performed – an “unpattern” of graceful inevitability, composed of bodies that cut dislocated trajectories yet somehow managed not to collide.  The total effect gave the appearance of swallows on the early evening sky above the autumn river in Connecticut, the way they gather and swell and then pull away, exposing rhythms within chaos.

The program featured a “MinEvent,”  an uninterrupted sequence of excerpts drawn from full-length pieces produced over the years.  Each MinEvent is unique; this one included parts of Pond Way(1998), Rorotorio (1983), Numbers (1982) and Canfield (1969).  Pond Way had premiered at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival when I was working there, another small gift of coincidence.

Meg Harper and Jennifer Goggins, both former principal dancers with the company and now legacy-bearers who had worked all semester with the Yale students, spoke about the working process as well as Cunningham’s intent.  They explained what the audience members who gathered for this experience would NOT see.

First and foremost, we would not see narrative.  No story was meant to be conveyed by the movement, no build up of tension and then struggle then cathartic release, no cause and effect.

Along with structured Choice for the dancers, Cunningham was extremely keen on incorporating chance operations in building up his choreography.  He and his long-time artistic collaborator, composer John Cage, used the I-Ching as an instrument of Chance to dictate how they would put together particular forms and sequences.  In performance, the dance and music created in this manner were meant to take place within the same physical space, but be unrelated.  For the presentation, we were treated to a Cage composition performed live alongside the dance by Yale School of Music Musicians.

It is this break from narrative that is one of the most seductive qualities of the work, in my opinion.  The mind is thwarted in its pattern-seeking.  Cause and effect is limited to muscles pulling bones, a torso falling over the hips, an arm twisting,  a sound being made, and then another sound…

Cunningham and Cage, as collaborators playing together, setting up rigorous conditions for Games of Choice and Chance, exploring their limitations and possibilities, seemingly made space happen.

It’s still happening.

 

***

Over the course of the semester, the students of Yale Dance Theater reflected on the legacy of Merce Cunningham’s ideas on the YDT blog at   http://ydtp.commons.yale.edu

Categories E. Slomba Arts Interstices, Local CT
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »