#silvershed

Stephen posing with Shane Kennedy's "Tatanka"

By Paul McLean First of all, thank you to the AFH Dimensional Collective and the staff of Silvershed, and all who braved the crazy-making heat to attend the reception for "A New Dimension" last Saturday, July 23. The evening proved truly memorable. The general consensus among us is that most of those who showed up did so because they were really behind the effort and the artists, so, as you might imagine, the vibe was truly positive and supportive. Relative to the many receptions I've and others in our crew have been to over the years, our event was as good-feeling as any we could recollect. The art topology in the Big Apple can be brutally critical and tribal, and that element was pretty well thoroughly absent from "A New Dimension," for which I for one am grateful, this being my first real show here. The following notations won't be flowing in any pre-ordained order. Let's begin! To answer Shane's query, I have absolutely no idea why I buttoned my white shirt all the way, and, yes, minus the shoes, it was my wedding suit, from Kauai. I believe I imagined at my initial exhibit in Manhattan, I would be suited with tie. My garb was then an approximation, in response to the environmental conditions, which were, as anyone present could tell, extreme. The old school dudes I came up admiring wouldn't have cared a whit, though, probably. They would have put on the formals for show time. Moving on to more substantive, but immaterial, matters, the Dimensional FAQ to my mind was a fantastic success, due in large measure to the presence of those fabulous Reading Group #1 folks, and Gregory Sholette, artist, educator and author of Dark Matter. Although several attendees weighed in with terrific questions and observations, the RG#1ers and Mr. Sholette drove the discussion into some very relevant territory. The first phase of the lively exchange spanned about a half-hour (from 8:15-50), during which I shared some 4D backstory and anecdotes and fielded Q&A. The second phase commenced shortly before 9PM, when the inimitable Paris Ionescu appeared and plopped down into the couch between Patrick Meagher and myself, and immediately proceeded to redirect the discussion towards some very rich material. I took that opportunity to rejoin the opening, but the conversation continued through the evening until Amy Baumgarten and Shane Kennedy performed (around 10ish). For me, this impromptu session of Reading Group, which has played an incredibly important role in my transition from LA to NYC by way of EGS, was vital to the overall success of our program for Silvershed. Again, thanks to all who contributed and participated, especially Paris, Patrick, Brad Troemel and Lauren Christiansen. The audio environment provided by Stephan Moore was subtly amazing. I have over the years worked with quite a catalog of remarkable musical and sound talents for dimensional productions, including Michael Brewster, Sharon Gilchrist and Jeff Coffin, to name only a few, but the collaboration for "A New Dimension" was really noteworthy. I should mention that Stephan came to the project through Amy, for whom he produced a unique soundtrack - for her alone - as an accompaniment for the KEYFRAMING performance. Although it's not clear to me how many of our guests might have at depth concentrated on Stephan's aural wovenform - which was generative and therefore dimensionally animated, essentially "alive" - as they wandered through the five main exhibit spaces at Silvershed where the Dimensional Collective's art and work were displayed. What I'm certain of is that all who traversed "A New Dimension" as an environment were affected by the sound composition. The performance, which it was, conducted by Moore remotely, in a programmatic procedural method facilitated by software, hardware and wetware in tandem, poses a conundrum for those concerned instrumentally about authorship in era of networked Turing machines, which operate in many cases as sentient collaborators, and should be acknowledged as such. The wetware components in the presentation were Shane, Amy and Silvershed's Patrick Meagher, who provided logistical support and actual components, such as wires, speakers, tape and sweat equity. The exposition of Stephan Moore's sound piece in the dimensional production was verifiably a collective effort, and required a combination of platforms spanning old and new media for art, music and dance, and not just of the human variety. The contributing elements are as vast as the global infrastructure producing any communication or creation connected to the vast electronics array that the digital world evidences. That the virtual and actual relations of the "music" in "A New Dimension" manifested as an undercurrent of aurality is interesting from my perspective in its own right. I'll stop there. The QR Code aspect of "A New Dimension" is similar in scope, although the appearance was decidedly more overt, as appearances usually are. Quite a few of the attendees at our show we noticed either downloaded the app for the QR Code reader and connected to the moving images I posted to AFH YouTube for "A New Dimension, or immediately began mobile viewing of the videos and animations, within the project space. It was cool and fun. The QR Codes were posted throughout Silvershed, and embedded in the large format digital prints in Gallery 2. Both means of access functioned properly. The concept of reducing the number of big electronic presentation devices (projectors and monitors) in the galleries, and delegating the task of display to viewers' personal portable devices proved to be a wonderful sub-thread during the show. Comparing the environment to, say, "HOME01," the collective project we produced for ruby green Contemporary Arts Foundation in 2001, in which we mounted over forty monitors and projectors for a one-night-only Live Art Event, "A New Dimension" was a much-streamlined presentation. It is astounding to me, if only from a logistic standpoint, how far the technology has advanced in a decade, and the possibilities engendered thereby. When one considers the perceptual implications, dimensionally, the phenomenon cannot but be described as potent. Working with the QR Codes as visual elements in composition, to shift to another zone, was also for me exciting, mainly because the little boxy things remind me of the earliest sort of pixel-derivative image-forms, harkening even to Atari, and Pong. Embedding the QR Codes in posters, flyers, and e-vites made for fairly extreme textural divergence, speaking in the context of that odd space occupied by digital graphic generation. Creating a series of wall prints, perfect for viral dispersion, consisting of a QR Code, a title and the Jewelly Rouger logo, I came to respect the parameters of art-utility inherent in the QRs, obdurately functional in their capacity to connect the viewer to a URL in virtual-space, yet pop enough to grab eyes, as is pertinent to contrived or graphic contemporary optical effects. These little buggers have juice! Although I didn't have time yet to build an animation using the QRs for "A New Dimension," I will definitely. When I applied last year for the NEA New Media directorship, I considered the idea that an artist might find something useful in such contraptions as QR Codes for art worthy of skepticism, if not outright rejection. The notion seemed dumb, and not a little nefarious, given the global corporate forces pushing for the adoption of these image-machines and similar linking-tools, good for reducing the distance between wherever-you-are and wherever-they-want-you-to-be. Now, after "A New Dimension," I can definitely see the technology as a value in its own terms. For our exhibit, we foregrounded the ubiquity of QR Codes, and found I think a fine application for dimensional art environments. Observing viewers, my initial analysis would be that watching our movies on one's own mobile device afforded the user a new layer of perceptual awareness of the actual presentation on view immediately about her or him. Part of that has to do with scale, part to do with exploration at one's own pace and pleasure, and part due to the lack of indicated outcome. I chose not to insert a movie-still thumbnail on the individual QR/title/logo prints, to provide the user with a precursor image before proceeding through the process of accessing the animation or video. I think now this was a good decision. When he or she arrived at the URL, the movie was more a discovery than an expected outcome. Fun! Enough on that. On to KEYFRAMING and the OpFeek performance... Combining the two proved a fantastic decision. The effects were magical. Shane managed to shoot video to document the event, and I shot a couple hundred-plus still images for good measure. Those will serve to commemorate the happening and for reference purposes, but as those present will surely attest, the actual thing was much more spectacular. The 360º space in which KF/OpFeek occurred was stupendous, with the skyline backdrops and the RT unfolding of the performance proving once again that there's no replacement for Being There. I don't feel ready to discuss the sensations associated with the moment, particularly because mine were colored by some factors that would not apply to the other viewers. I was throughout snapping photos, and thus watching the performance through the lens of my Canon camera, as opposed to simply focusing on the movement and interplay between body and thrown projection. Furthermore, my involvement on two tracks, one being the KEYFRAMING trajectory and the other the OpFeek trajectory, meaning their respective creative and collaborative evolutions, to a degree displaces my recognition of the presentation for "A New Dimension" impacting me the way it would have, had this been my first encounter with them both, as a combinative phenomenon, or a hybrid. Not that the hybrid-quality of the performance was apparent. KEYFRAMING and OpFeek seemed made for each other. I will leave it to others for now to render the event on its own terms, to communicate the occurrence as one free-standing, existing on its own terms. I am also not quite ready to delve into the work I produced for "A New Dimension," especially the moving images, but some reticence also applies to making literal the paintings (DIM TIM and the Bloombergs) and even the online zine and new Tumblr blogs (more below) created for the exhibition. In brief, in the interests of transparency, I'll offer a few disclosures. Regarding the Dimensional Time painting series, one of the most promising developments is the DIM TIM signature. Since I first started using the PJM signature in the early 1980s, and the 01 appeared in the late 1990s, I haven't considered another finishing demarcation, until now. The matrix DIM TIM represents, as codified in the DIM TIM signature, is beyond the scope of this brief essay to confront adequately. I won't try. Another development in the DT series I wish to call attention to is the integration of digital prints as a substrate for the painting. Another is the surface application of 3D elements. Another is the numbering sequence. Finally, I would call attention to the original or originating drawing, the overhead projection of same, and the various iterations occurring in the moving and compressed still images, translated by compression to the web space. The DT series of paintings+ comprises a complex of manifestations that verifies the contentions I made about painting, reproduction, dispersion and other relevant concerns for artists working cross-platforms today. While the dimensional praxis is fairly common in the rarefied arena of image production, if not professionally mainstream for the advanced users, I believe it's fair to say that the utility of all the components is not prevalently understood. It is not uncommon to encounter extreme, even fanatic proponents for the abolition of objects in favor of the immaterial, advocates for the creative destruction of "medium-specificity," and so on, as an extension of either-or propositions about material versus immaterial dichotomies and dialectics (so 2D, man). I would suggest that my presentation in "A New Dimension," whether anyone notices or not - that's another question, entirely - obviates this false choice, and/or equation. As for the Bloomberg(s), and this issue should be reflected on in relation to the antecedent texts published prior to "A New Dimension" on the AFH sites, I would suggest that they prove that dimensional analysis, as an absolutely vital component of dimensional production, works and works beautifully. The cover feature on Bloomberg in the Village Voice published the week our show opened is, in the vernacular of 4D production as I've formulated it over the past several decades, is a verification that the precursor analysis for "A New Dimension" was correct. Of Bloomberg, there's much to say, and not much, too. He is an oligarch, and a new media phenomenon, situated as a hyperreal non-event. Exposure is not enough for Bloomberg. It would be more appropriate for a democratic mob to determine his fate, than a few dimensional artworks, presented in a rooftop project space in Chelsea, during a killer heat wave. It's Murdoch(s) turn right now, but as Milo Santini might say, I hope the Bloomberg(s), all the iterations revealed in the course of the project, and the numerous interlinks, get theirs, too. "Even a public lynching improves, when it's managed more like a business," spake Zeelio. I suppose I share these thoughts as an extension of the production substrate, which is a social sphere, including politics, media, economics and their external breakdown (war) and internal failure (prison, poverty), which operate negatively as resources, as revenue, as "reasons." To produce an exhibit like "A New Dimension," at an historical moment like this one, can feel ludicrous, mad, pointless, at times, irrelevant. History, if anything, though, as demonstrated quite clearly the opposite is true. As Jean Arp's quote indicates, an artist *must* make art in wartime, or when tyrants abide and flourish, when the artificial presumes the role of Truth, if nothing else, to celebrate life where and when it is least valued. When all seems arrayed against art and free life, and fear and death-dealing rule, that is exactly the time to engage in making art, in living freely, beautifully. Speaking for myself, I believe that to be the central proposition of "A New Dimension." The context is in effect, immaterial, as a direct consequence, and the outcome can in a small but significant way be beneficial. With this in mind I would applaud the efforts of Glenn Goldberg and Shane Kennedy, whose wall art for "A New Dimension" establishes a thread that winds back to Chauvet, by way of NYC post-War contemporary art, in acknowledgment of the original "Americans." The bison, as my native friends relate, lowers its head into the wind during a blizzard, and stands strong. Both Goldberg and Kennedy contributed powerful performances for the moving image assemblage in our exhibit. More than this, or rather, additively, they/we demonstrated the value of generational transmission, not just of artistic craft, but of something just as profound, if not more, something basic and human. Glenn is a great teacher, and subtle, which is certainly revealed in his "Leaf," a "duck" with "FLAVOR" inside, and as a label. As a semiotic scrambler, Glenn's piece is far from a trifle. The discourse between bison and duckie is itself a wild mash-up in the show space, for the 3D viewer turning. Traveling round the corner, facing Glenn's bigger-than-me painting, I love the portrait Shane produced of Glenn for his Cooper Union coursework, which smiles as simulation at the original's handiwork, techne. If one is privy, and can track Shane's remarkable evolution as an artist, through apprenticeships, life- and occupational experience, to put it euphemistically, it's plain to see Kennedy and his art are informed by rich relationships with mentors, for whom this young man has reciprocated with the great force of character, over time. The schema is the circle within the circle(s). TRIKKE3 is a dimensional relation within a dimensional collective, and "A New Dimension" constitutes our first mature iteration. If the gist behind the sentences if this paragraph seems encoded, it is. Shane also contributed the small red painting to the show, which he maintains is "nowhere near done," and the photo of me painting "Dimensional Tim [DIM TIM] #2," which also appears on the Production Notes book and the new AFH home page. As a dimensionist student, and accomplished practitioner, Shane's reflective lens is an aperture for each of us, and a projection, simultaneously. The moderating influence of GG is pervasive in these complex interpolated relational dynamics. The framework is not psychological, ideological or semiotic. The architecture is more akin to the familial tree or rhizome, by alignment reinforced more than blood and bone. In this, the congruence of spirit and mind is more democratic than anything else. "A New Dimension" is an American show, within a world show, simultaneously, and these artists are American in a range of globular manifestations that in my opinion are "the best" of that US qualification. In essence, the national here is not violently exclusive, but instead a form of inspiration, by example, as internal re-sample, created with some trusted tools, by Geistian mechanics of the highest order. The solo performance, then, is a key to quality team play, in a game where everyone wins... I forgot to mention at the opening of "A New Dimension" during my remarks at the FAQ, that the AFH web nexus, artforhumans [dot] com, has undergone a profound redesign, which launched in conjunction with the Silvershed expo, along with BADGER zine. There was the announcement of the opening of the Dimensionist Art School in September, here in Brooklyn, too. These are very significant developments for AFH. Another is the test of   Kickstarter and LULU, for fundraising and publishing, respectively. There just hasn't been time to fully absorb or discuss these developments for Art for Humans, but hopefully that time will come soon. In closing, I would like to for my part dedicate "A New Dimension" to the Greek people, and finish these notes with a contextual notation. In the middle of three undeclared wars, the elected leaders of the United States, but primarily the Republicans in office in Congress, and particularly the House of Representatives, particularly John Boehner and Eric Cantor, and their allies, are conducting a campaign to torpedo the nation's fiscal stability. They are, in a word, traitors, as are any who support them in their malevolence. When one sees, recognizes evil, disguised as ideological mission, what is one's responsibility, in a democracy? - Paul McLean