Friday, February 19, 2016

DISPATCH FROM DESTITUTE WEIRDWYNTER

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DIRT PALACE

FEBRUARY 2016

THE TWILIGHT ZONE IN BETWEEN WINTER AND SPRING MIGHT BE MELTING OUR MINDS A LIL...

We're looking for a last-minute short-term subletter!
Shoot Nina an email at ninaruelle@gmail.com.
Her room and studio could be yours for the month of March!

 

 
 
JANUARY WINDOW ARTIST: NORLAN OLIVO
Norlan Olivo is a Providence based artist, photographer, educator and musician. He is currently earning his BFA in Photography from The Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and will graduate in May. An arts educator, Norlan has taught photography to youth and adults at local arts organizations AS220 and New Urban Arts. In 2012 Norlan's photography was featured in "Moving", a public arts project in partnership with Rhode Island State Public Transit Authority, where Norlan and his students had their photos displayed on the outside and inside of a RIPTA bus. An internationally touring musician, Norlan has performed in What Cheer Brigade, political punk band The Downtown Boys, and as a DJ going under the name Dj Cathawk. The Downtown Boys were named "2015's most exciting punk band" by Rolling Stone Magazine and have performed on Democracy Now! Norlan has musical releases on Don Giovani Records, Sister Polygon, and Anchor Brain Records, and his projects have been written about in Stereogum, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, the Providence Journal, Spin, and VICE.






*****UPDATES*****

 

Working on a musical split CD with herself. Will be performing as Taskmaster on 2/19 at Tommy's Place with Caethua, Colby Nathan, and Tom Kovacevic.  Also working on some new musical themed t-shirts for Club Darnell. Stay tuned.

 


 
RECTRIX WILL BE PERFORMING
2/27
WITH TABOO AND DIABOLICAL FIEND
AT OUT OF SIGHT (formerly Boys Town)

VVLTVRE'S 2009 EP, My Will is to Self Destruct
Is being released by ANNIHILVS this spring.
Pre-orders available HERE

 





So far, Nina's spent February in North Adams working as an over-hire on MASS MoCA's art fabrication crew. It's been surprisingly fun moving railroad ties and solid steel blocks around a football-field-sized gallery, but she's looking forward to coming back home soon!

She also currently has artwork in two shows in Rhode Island. Modern Archaeolgyat T.F. Green's Greenspace Gallery, will be on view until May 1st. Future Traditions: A Furniture & Textile Show, at the Pawtucket Arts Collaborative Gallery, will be on view until March 3rd.

And last but not least, Nina's looking for a subletter this Spring! Shoot her an email at ninaruelle@gmail.com. Her room and studio could be yours, as soon as March 1st!

 
Erina has been spending the last 2 months at DP making shirts and prints to raise donations for Phoenix House and Gearing Up (PHL), two non-profit organizations that provide rehabilitation programs as well as educational resources to those afflicted by drug addiction. At the end of the project, $500 was donated to Phoenix House and $1000 was donated to Gearing Up.

On March 1st, she will be relocating to Oakland, CA to give the west coast a shot. She is bummed out the wazoo to leave because DP is incredible. SO! E-mail Nina (ninaruelle@gmail.com) to have the spring time of your life (room + studio available March 1st) !!



XANDER MARRO


Starting a fellowship at the RISD Museum. Read about it here in ArtForum.
Working on prints/illustrations for Sussy Santana's forthcoming book ENA
.

 


Jieun recently took a short trip to the overwhelmingly beautiful west Texas- here are some photos from Big Bend Natl Park and Sonora Caverns.

Back in Providence, she has a new project in the works… stay tuned~ *_*

 


Alison is still working on a short film, which will mostly likely be screened in late April!
*stay tuned*



O HORVATH

O is working hard........or hardly working............desiccating............dreaming of spring...............???????????????????????????????????????????????????


 
***DIRT PALACE LIBRARY HI-LITES***


MONTHLY PICTORIAL TREAT FROM THE DUSTY SHELVES OF THE DIRT PALACE
FURTHERING THE QUEST TO SPREAD FUN
LIKE GIN AND JUICE, MOSTLY GIN

This month's find is a Dungeons and Dragons Choose Yr Own Adventure style book/game called CIRCUS OF FEAR! From the back cover..... "YOU KNOW TOO MUCH! You learn that a cruel circus owner plans to take over the country. Somehow you must get away and expose his scheme. What will YOU do?" Doesn't sound so bad to me.........










Monday, February 1, 2016

SITE VISIT #2 - STUDIO XX

2016! The Dirt Palace is getting strategic (making a plan)! 
As part of this process we're visiting some organizations/space that we admire and hope to learn from. 

This post is part of a series of profiles of spaces that we have visited. This project is 
supported by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.


At a Glance
Founded: 1996
Budget: $260k (Canadian)
Staff: 6 (part time)
Board: 9
Committees: (Each comprised of board and staff)
Human Resources
Web/Communication
Programming



Founded in 1996, Studio XX is a bilingual feminist artist-run centre for technological exploration, creation and critical reflection. XX supports independent media arts production and offers a platform for a multiplicity of territories, voices and creative actions by artists who identify as women, trans or dissident in the contemporary technological landscape. Demystifying, providing access, equipping, questioning and creating, these are the aims of Studio XX. We actively participate in the development of a digital democracy that encourages autonomy and collaboration.


Studio XX supports the creation and dissemination of independent media art through its Wired Women Salons, commissions, co-productions, its online electronic journal .dpi, artist residencies, the weekly XX Files radio show, the HTMlles Festival, through professional development workshops and anytime access to its Open Source Lab.


In 2008, Studio XX launched Matricules: one of the world’s largest online archives of women’s digital artworks.


X: The day that we were meeting with Studio XX we woke up early and found that in the night a light snow had dusted the streets of Montreal. The first snow of the season!!! We decided that because we actually had NO practical footwear for a full on winter situation, that we should leave extra time for walking the mile or so there. By the time we hit the streets the snow had resumed falling and we were outside in our ankle moccasins and slip on clogs navigating the slippery sidewalks. While we had stopped to grab coffee at some place with a large psychedelic cat painted on the side of it, this hadn’t taken much time, and we got to the space early. Not acceptably early…but what’s wrong with you people early. So we walked around the neighborhood, which seemed quiet and rather residential. The building where studio XX is located also houses other artist run spaces notably Orboro and GIV (Groupe Intervention Video).  I hadn’t put the pieces together before, but at dinner the previous night my friend Katherine reminded me that films of mine had screened earlier in the year at GIV in a program of women animators put together by Emily Pelstring. Ok, the puzzle pieces of the city were starting to click together. Emily was also on the StudioXX programing committee and had done a residency there years before and had spoken very highly of the organization. Also, Daniella - the newest Dirt Palace member, had just spent the last 6 weeks at the Studio XX residency. So there was some overlap between our organizations and I was excited to get to see it from the inside.
We arrived and met Deborah VanSlet and Erandy Vergara. Deborah is the Production Coordinator, and Erandy is the Programing Coordinator. Deborah had been involved with the organization since way back in the day serving as a board member for many years before stepping in as Interim Coordinator General. She’s a freelance videographer and been involved with radio for a long time, specifically the CKUT program Dykes on Mykes, and founded XXfiles Radio a program of Studio XX.  Erandy has an academic background with a focus on feminism, global art histories, curatorial studies, postcolonialism, and critical race studies, with a particular interest in recent remix cultures, the strengths and downfalls of science and technology, decolonial uses of media, queer phenomenologies, and the aesthetics and ethics of participation.
P: As an organization based on technology, Studio XX has had to adapt and change many times mirroring the technology shifts over the past two decades. Things like having their own server are no longer necessities, staff and leadership positions have been morphed and redefined several times, and the culture of how Studio XX intersects with different communities has shifted. Maybe it is the constant flux of the very materials they work in that has made Studio XX so flexible in negotiating change.


X: One really cool thing about doing a site visit with Studio XX in person was having Erandy explain all of their programs to us in person. On the website it’s honestly a little bit overwhelming in terms of the shear quantity of stuff that is filtering through the StudioXX universe. Having it explained in real life broke it down and made it manageable. It also underscored that their website is dense, not simply because they do a lot, but because they have an incredible archiving system/philosophy and protocol around it. Literally there are hundreds of profiles (maybe even thousands?) of artists who have been involved with StudioXX. There’s an online image archive, an audio archive, a video archive, a text archive, an events archive; it goes on. It’s smart, it’s searchable, it’s expansive, it’s so impressive!  
On the subject of archiving both Deborah and Erandy offered interesting perspectives. For Deborah the emphasis on archiving was about linking the mechanisms of power and memory: “If we’re not keeping track of our own history, it’s gone, that’s how history works”, while for Erandy detailed accounts of the past offered a way of strategizing how to go forward: “we’re writing history with every action, only in looking backwards through the archive did I come to realize what things were missing in our programing”.  They joked about the tension in crafting their archive between the hoarders and the “purge queens”.  Pippi and I looked at each other knowingly. “Purge queen!” - what a useful and apt term. That phrase was going to get wrapped up in plastic and smuggled across the border with us for sure!
P: I think that they actually hilariously framed it as the BATTLE between the Horders and the Purge Queens. I guess it’s easier to be a horder of data though than of physical objects! It’s easier to find space!!
X: In conducting these interviews, one thing we’re particularly interested is how different organizations have navigated moments of change. StudioXX shared with us a story of a fairly recent transition.  There had formerly been a position of “Director General” - that staff member was leaving. The board was in the process of figuring out a transition plan, when the remaining staff came to them and essentially said, “let’s flatten the whole organization. Let’s work less hierarchically.” They offered a vision of an org chart that was much more horizontal but that got all of the responsibilities covered. The board listened to the staff and they’re currently working under this model.

P: Erandy, as the new Programming Director is looking to bring Studio XX into an era of community engagement. At this point, Studio XX is a space that offers many services, but is not necessarily a community.  There is not a definitive way to get involved in the organization outside of utilizing the services (taking a class, using equipment). It’s interesting to think about… When the services that you provide are workshops, resources and education, you have no way of tracking or knowing how the resources and skills people have learned have rippled, expanded, ignited other projects in the world. Practically, an artist could take a class and their life’s work and direction could completely change, but without a continued relationship with the space there is really no way of knowing the effect that the services have had. I have a feeling that Studio XX has made many ripples in their community over the years but they haven’t necessarily boomeranged back. With Erandy’s vision, artists can be engaged over time and have ongoing relationships which would feed back into the organization.

Artist Residency Presentation: Daniella Ben Bassat from StudioXX on Vimeo.
Dirt Palace member Daniella Ben Bassat's performance at Studio XX after her
residency there this fall.