I'm Just a Girl

I'm Just a Girl

I'm creating a new series of work that deals with body, gender, and identity. So far the focus is on how gender and sexuality determine our rights as human beings. This is one of the still photographs. I'm creating video work as well (for an exhibition in October), and I'll post that after the exhibition is up.

Digital Art LA

I'm really excited about Digital Art LA next week! This is my first show here in Los Angeles. Here is the info.

Digital Art LA
August 13-15, 2009
Opening Reception: Thursday August 13, 7-9pm, LACDA

Come downtown this August and view new media exhibits by select area galleries, theaters, and venues near L.A. Center for Digital Art in Gallery Row. Many venues will host screenings and exhibits for major out of area institutions including California Museum of Photography, Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art (Danzig, Poland), Grammy Museum, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Davis Museum (Barcelona) and Downtown Film Festival - Los Angeles. Experience video and interactive installations at the Rowan Gallery, and video projection by Niche.LA Video Art. As well there will be an international new media exhibit of juried submissions hosted by LACDA selected by Rita Gonzalez of the L.A. County Museum of Art (LACMA).

One of my videos was chosen for the juried show, which will be shown at LACDA and also down the street in the Rowan Gallery.

If you're in town, stop by during the 3 day festival. We expect around 4000 people just on Thursday night. It'll be a rockin' night!

And we're off!

SecondHand is officially underway! We've had a good response so far and almost no technical issues. Knock on wood!

More video responses will come in as schedules allow. This functions like a live performance for those who are present in the space.

Follow along on the inter.sect Art Collective site, or search 12seconds.tv for SecondHand, or follow the #secondhand hashtag here.

SecondHand List of Artists/Participants/Performers

Here is a list of the artists/participants for SecondHand. We might have more signing up, and I'll add them here. LeeAnn Harrington changed her 12sec username, and Cynthia Lewis changed her Facebook name, so double check those.

If anyone wants to join us after we start, that's perfectly fine. This is not a cut-off list. This is just so you can connect with one another, which will make the performance much more successful.

You may check back here for updates, or you can check the inter.sect Art Collective blog at http://intersectartcollective.com/ Please make sure you've read the "more info" post to make sure you're up to speed.

Okay - expect a prompt around 8ish PST tomorrow morning! Here we go! :)


Christi Nielsen - Founder and Director
12sec: christinielsen
twitter: christinielsen
facebook: christinielsen
seesmic: christinielsen
friendfeed: christinielsen
flickr: christinielsen

Peter
12sec: @ciccariello
twitter: @ciccariello
facebook: Peter Ciccariello
location: Providence, RI

Anne
12sec: annabelle
twitter: darkrosaleen
location: Canada

Anthony Fontana
12sec: anthonyfontana
twitter: @anthonyfontana
Facebook, Seesmic, FriendFeed
location: Toledo, Ohio, US
anthonyfontana.com

Manuel Pecina
12sec: decicco
Twitter: DeCicco
Facebook: Manuel Pecina
location: Dallas

Mona
12seconds: Monaism
Twitter: Monaism
location: TX

Shelby Cunningham
12sec: yayasheshe
twitter: yayasheshe
facebook: shelby cunningham
location: Dallas, TX

Jonny Gray (a.k.a. "Bungy" or "Bungy32" or variant)
12sec: Bungy32
Twitter: Bungy32
Facebook: Jonny Gray
Ravelry: Bungy
FriendFeed: Bungy32
Flickr: Bungy032
location: Makanda, IL (USA)
http://bungynotes.blogspot.com/

Cynthia Lewis
12sec: cynthialewis
twitter: arialoracle
facebook: cy.lewis
location: Fort Worth, TX
http://www.cynthialewisstudio.com/

Kyle Kondas
12sec: kyle1point0
twitter: kyle1point0
seesmic: kyle1point0
Facebook: search for Kyle Kondas
friendfeed: kyle1point0
location: Dallas, Tx

Vanessa VanAlstyne
12sec: VanessaVanAlstyne
Twitter: Vanessavan
Facebook: search for Vanessa VanAlstyne
location: Houston, TX

Sheila Cunningham
12sec: SheilaCunningham
Twitter: @SheilaC
Facebook: sheila.cunningham
Seesmic: sheilacunningham
location: Dallas, TX

Betsy Lewis
12sec: blewis
Facebook: Betsy Lewis
location: Dallas, Texas


Dean Terry
12sec: therefore
twitter: therefore
location: Dallas, Los Angeles
deanterry.com

Michele Atwater
12sec: matwater213
twitter: matwater213
facebook: michele213
flickr: matwater213
blip.fm: matwater213
skype: Michele Atwater
location: Pasadena, MD


Elizabeth Alavi
12sec: ElizabethAlavi
facebook: Elizabeth Alavi
Blogger: Elizabeth Alavi
seesmic: elizamouse98
flickr: elizamouse
location: Dallas, TX

More SecondHand Info

For those participating in SecondHand, here is some additional information:

I will post a 12second video with the prompt 3 times a day. That video will automatically be sent to twitter and facebook. I will also send each of you an @msg on twitter to make sure you receive the prompt.

Here is what you do:
1 - Watch the prompt on 12seconds.
2 - Respond by creating a video on your channel. If you make a video reply to my post, then it will show up under my initial video. It's no big deal if that happens. But if you want to make sure all of your video responses show up as posts on your channel, then create one of your own. Let me know if this doesn't make sense. Please remember to copy and paste (or type) my title and tags so all the videos will show up in a search.

Don't get too stressed about this. This is supposed to be fun! Things will go wrong just like any exhibition. No worries.

Remember - it's totally up to you how to interpret/translate. Try not to limit yourself with rules. You might find yourself thinking, "I can't do that in 12 seconds." My response would be.. Who said you could only respond once? ;-) See what I mean?

Is there one central location for all of this? Yes and no.

Please remember that 12seconds is not set up like Seesmic was. This will not be neatly contained in one thread. But that's part of it. It functions much like status updates that can get buried but are searchable through hashtags. To make sure it's searchable, be sure to use my titles and tags.

I will post updates and such about the show on my blog, but I have also created a blog where everyone's channel will be displayed. http://intersectartcollective.com/
Please go to your 12seconds channel. Go to the bottom of the page and click on widgets. Choose the larger version on the left (12seconds FAT). Copy and paste the code below the images and send to me at crnielsen@gmail.com. Please include your name. You do not have to do this if you don't want me to display your channel. I'm only doing this so there is one central location for people to see the videos.

Here is a video on Seesmic about all of this if you want to watch. The first one is long, the second is short. Please watch both.
http://seesmic.com/videos/M6WzxSlRkR
http://seesmic.com/videos/Fnr80kWo5o

Are you excited yet?!? :)

hopes/dreams/fears

This is another new media project I'm involved with. Inny described it so perfectly, I'm using her blog post....

@Platea are launching Project III: hopes/dreams/fears. This time is it not a performance in the way that Co-Modify was, more of a participatory art project. There isn't the sustained performance aspect this time, cos we know you're busy people! You can take part once, or many times. It's entirely up to you.

An Xiao and the @Platea steering committee will be collecting people's hopes, dreams, and fears in the form of status updates. We'll be doing it in real life at gatherings of people (from festivals to dinner parties) and also online in forum groups. The status updates will appear during July on a special facebook page, so you can see the hopes, dreams, and fears of people all round the world.

If you'd like to take part, all you have to do is:

1. Fill out the form here (you can do this anonymously or using a pseudonym if you would prefer).

2. Join the hopes/dreams/fears Facebook group.

3. Wait to see yours and others' hopes, dreams, and fears broadcast over the next month and a half in your Facebook feed.

"hopes/dreams/fears" begins in New York City on June 12 during the FIGMENT NYC arts festival on Governor's Island and it runs till the end of July with participants across the world. Members of online public art collective @Platea are gathering individuals' hopes, dreams, and fears in the form of status update language (i.e., "Jessica hopes that she graduates with honors next year." "Red fears he might lose his job due to the recession."). These will then be broadcast to a broader audience via a Facebook page, with the goal of uniting diverse groups via social media and offering a collective picture of communities' hopes, dreams and fears during this time of economic crisis and transition.

There's lots more about @Platea if you visit http://plateastweets.blogspot.com

SecondHand Exhibition - Open Call for Participation

***update***
Some folks are asking for some clarification because this is a lot of info. I made a video on Seesmic that will hopefully help explain. Let me know if you have more questions! http://seesmic.com/videos/ngxbVJcPWi
*****

I created Inter.sect Art Collective, a group of artists using new media platforms to explore digital exhibition spaces outside the traditional gallery model, during a graduate class called MobileLab. We began experimenting with art that resulted from the interruptions and connections via the mobile phone. I sent the group random found text via text messages on the mobile device, something from a billboard, a newspaper, a bumper sticker, a poem. The artists then translated that text into visual imagery, emailed the video to a server where it was projected in real time to a physical gallery space. It was an interruption that resulted in entwined interpretations. Inter.sect participated in Real Time at the Dallas Contemporary, and the exhibition traveled to Pocket Films Festival at the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

The collective’s most recent project was on Seesmic, turning a video chat application into an online international exhibition space. TimeFrame lasted 72 hours, connecting artist and audience in an interactive interpretation of the bizarre element of time found on sites like Seesmic where different moments, hours, or even days happen at the same instant on the individual timeline.

SecondHand
Inter.sect now presents an open invitation for participation in SecondHand. Anyone is welcome to join. This performance will take place on 12seconds.tv during the week of June 19-26. We will revisit the idea of translating a prompt into visual imagery. But this time, the prompt will come from random text found in secondhand conversations via online status updates. I may find these on Twitter, Facebook, or other social networking sites.

We seem to believe that we can still express ourselves with shorter and shorter strings of text. The initial frustration of limited characters eventually evolves into an appreciation of the requirement to be succinct. Can our artistic expression be filtered in the same way? Would we still call it art even though it only took 12 seconds? One of my painting professors always liked to call assignments “problems” in order to make us think of ways to solve them. So let’s have fun solving this one!

How to Participate
Ready for the challenge? Anyone can join.

1. Sign up for a free account on 12seconds.tv.

2. Post the following in the comments section of this post:

• Name (first name or pseudonym is fine)
• Your 12seconds.tv account username
• Your Twitter account username – highly recommended but not required
• Other social networking sites you use that you want listed – only so artists may follow each other. Facebook, Seesmic, Tumblr, etc.
• Where you are – not required, but would be interesting info. City, State, Country-whatever you feel comfortable with.

If you cannot comment, no worries! You can send your info to me on twitter (@christinielsen) or send an email with SecondHand Exhibition in the subject line to crnielsen(at)gmail(dot)com. I’ll post the info here for you.

3. Follow me on 12seconds.tv (christinielsen) as well as on twitter (@christinielsen) if you have an account.

• The exhibition will be much more successful if all performers follow each other on 12seconds.tv. If you have a twitter account or other social networking sites, I highly recommend using the setting that will post your 12seconds video to those accounts. This gives the audience a much better chance of seeing the work and interacting with it. I also recommend following each other on twitter or other sites so that you receive notices and reminders to post.

4. By Wednesday, June 17, I’ll post a list of participants with usernames so you all can follow each other.

5. Beginning June 19, you will receive 3 prompts per day (don’t worry – these are very short responses). I will initially reveal the prompt on 12seconds.tv which will auto-post to Twitter as well as Facebook. I will also send each of you the prompt via an @reply on twitter if you list an account. This way you’ll be notified and won’t miss the prompt if you’re away from the computer for awhile.

You will then translate it visually (on 12seconds) using either a webcam, a mobile device, or even an edited file that may be uploaded. These will be very quick responses that mimic the micro-blog style of communication. You may make as many video responses as you like for each prompt. The interpretation or translation is entirely up to you. Narrative, non-linear, abstraction, video art, performance, music, etc. Many of the original core members of Inter.sect will also be participating, so you’ll have a few examples to start if need be. Do take time to think about your response. You ARE posting a work of art. Or… perhaps the performance as a whole becomes the work of art. You, as the artists, will define this during the week.

I will be posting updates here during the week, and I’ll do my best to see everything. But if I miss something you feel needs to be mentioned, let me know so I can get it on the blog. Also – you can embed your 12seconds videos on your own site if you want to document your performance!

If you want to see an example of how some of the original members responded when we used mobile devices and text messages, you may watch this video. This installation was edited and shown at the Dallas Museum of Art. Performances after this installation have all been done in real time.

If you want to see an example of the TimeFrame exhibition on Seesmic, click here. This exhibition was not based on prompts, but you can get a sense of the online format with audience interaction.

This will be a lot of fun and a great chance for you to experiment with new media. Join us for SecondHand! I’m sure there will be lots of questions. Feel free to ask. Cheers!

***update***
Here is my info for you.
12seconds - christinielsen
Twitter - christinielsen
Seesmic - christinielsen
Facebook - Search for Christi Nielsen
Los Angeles

***update***
Some folks are asking for some clarification because this is a lot of info. I made a video on Seesmic that will hopefully help explain. Let me know if you have more questions! http://seesmic.com/videos/ngxbVJcPWi