The electronic frontier

...the electronic frontier is 'a world that is both everywhere and nowhere, but it is not where bodies live.'

Dreyfus, H.L., On the Internet (2001) Routledge p.4

I'm exploring theories of embodiment as they relate to the posthuman in the virtual realm and finding some good material in "The Body: A Reader" edited by Mariam Fraser and Monica Greco, Routledge 2005.
Does virtuality threaten the body with extinction, or does it offer new forms of embodiment and extensions of material awareness? My focus is upon the accused/criminal body.

Her Majesty's Courts Service - Information for Researchers

Her Majesty's Courts Service - Information for Researchers

Summer in London sounds like a good idea ... as well as a visit to the UK's virtual courts such as Camberwell Green Magistrates' Court, London and Medway Magistrates' Court in North Kent.

Surveillance conference: the artist as voyeur

The 'Surveillance and/in Everyday Life: Monitoring Pasts, Presents & Futures' conference is on at the University of Sydney 20-21 February 2012. I'm presenting on 'The Artist as Voyeur' in a panel called 'Artistic Practices and Interventions' and I'll be showing some of my covert footage from Japan, including this one:

 http://vimeo.com/35621436

Doing Time: Depth of Surface

Spanish artists Patricia Gómez and María  Jesús González have been commissioned to create a work that explores the archeology and past lives of the historic Philadelphia Holmesburg Prison (1896-1995). The artists detached the surface of the prison walls, the 'skin of architecture', using a technique known as 'strappo'. The resulting works act as silent witnesses to the prison events and tangible records of the former residents and staff. The exhibition also features surveillance-style video installations.

http://vimeo.com/31812447

http://www.philagrafika.org/

Weegee: Murder is My Business

The work of Weegee (1899-1968) is being exhibited at the International Center of Photography in New York:
http://www.icp.org/museum/exhibitions/weegee-murder-my-business

Weegee documented New York crime scenes in his dramatic photographs and text. This exhibition is drawn from the Weegee Archive at ICP with recreations of his apartment and exhibitions.

Anakhronismos: video art screening 27 January 2012

I've been invited to curate the next Illuminations video art screening at Bondi Pavilion:
Friday 27 January 2012
6 - 9 pm (one night only)

Here's my catalogue essay:

αναχρονισμός Anakhronismos ΑΝΑΧΡΟΝΙΣΜΟΣ

ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Greek anakhronismos, from ana- ‘backward’ + khronos ‘time.’

Our daily lives are chronologically arranged, time measures our moves, structures our internal narratives and puzzles philosophers and scientists alike. We waste, take, kill and do time, yet the concept remains elusive. We dream of time travel to a nostalgic past or utopian future: how ironic is it that the quintessential time machine, Dr Who’s TARDIS, is an anachronistic British police box? Paradoxically, anachronism has currency in video art practices with the technologies and content implicated by artists. Experimentation with the obsolete and futuristic, the relic and the speculative, and an awareness that our methods today face extinction tomorrow, are part of the joy of connecting past, present and future in video art. Time code is the defining language of digital video. Artists find expression in frames per second, with editing software allowing temporal relationships to be splintered, echoed, layered and suspended, expanding non-linear possibilities. Video, the ‘art of time’ according to video historian Michael Rush, has been used by artists to foreground the subjective experience of both duration and timelessness. Moments can be dramatically fast-forwarded or extended, slowed, repeated, and revisited with re-editing and through looping repetition, a mesmerising endless episode may be created.

With the works of Anne Ferran, Yoram Gross, Matthew Hopkins, Brian Joyce & Trevor Ditcham, Carolyn McKay, Kate Richards & Ross Gibson, and Vanessa White, viewers can reflect upon the relentless process of the present falling into the past, the future slipping into the present, and the sweet anticipation of the future remaining infinitely out of reach.

Carolyn McKay

Justice Precinct

Image: Carolyn McKay

As part of my preliminary research, I spent this morning at the NSW Parole Authority in the Justice Precinct. I went there to observe video link appearances of inmates - to see firsthand how the video conferencing system works and how it looks in courtrooms. A whole new world was revealed as men appeared from correctional centres across NSW, their image multiplied on the many courtroom screens. I have filled my notebook with observations that will inform my draft ethics application, and give me more content to contemplate.

Taking the Oath

Still images from my digital video currently being projected onto the walls of the Women's Cell @ The Lock-Up Cultural Centre, Newcastle, as part of the group show 'I WAS HERE'.

http://www.thelockup.info/

http://www.visitnewcastle.com.au/accom_result1/the-lockup-museum-education-centre/

Where?
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=90+Hunter+St,+Newcastle&sll=-32.926357,151.78122&sspn=0.03278,0.037422&g=Newcastle,+NSW&ie=UTF8&ll=-32.925653,151.783891&spn=0.008195,0.009356&z=16&iwloc=addr

LOCK-UP EXHIBITION

I Was Here

The Lock-Up Cultural Centre

http://www.thelockup.info/

25 November - 11 December 2011

I’ll be exhibiting a video work in this group show:

“This exhibition celebrates the enormous contribution made to the Lock-Up Cultural Centre by the Artist-in-Residence Program. In the past five years, over 65 creative practitioners: artists, dancers, musicians, writers, poets and architects have resided in the AIR residence and responded to the unique environment of The Lock-Up. They have contributed greatly to the enrichment of the Newcastle arts community, through exhibitions, lectures, workshops and performances.”

It's always great to exhibit my work in The Lock-Up which was a police station in Newcastle from 1861-1982.

Violence Studies

http://www.newcastle.edu.au/institute/humanities-research/historyofviolence/ViolenceStudiesConference2012.html

Next year, the University of Newcastle is hosting its inaugural Violence Studies conference. According to the website, they are calling for papers (due 1 May 2012) from a wide range of academics including anthropology, art, history, international relations, law, literature, psychology, philosophy, political science and sociology.

Specific themes may include, but are not limited to:

• Concepts of violence
• Representations of violence (in art, literature, and film)
• Ritual group violence
• Political violence and terrorism
• Violence and liberation
• Violence and sexuality and sexual politics
• Violence and gender roles
• Domestic service and violence
• The history of interpersonal violence
• Atrocities of war (including the collection of body parts and war trophies)
• The language of violence
• Race, class, civil rights and violence
• Collective violence
• Vengeance
• Religion and violence
• Violence against civilians (war/colonization)
• Traumatism