With this collection for S/S 2011 it was made immediately evident that Rag & Bone is a rapidly expanding brand. Just a couple of seasons ago when I interviewed the British design duo behind the label, they talked about their brand being based firmly around wardrobe staples, key items that... [more]

It's truly fashion week - the first show of the day, Rag & Bone, is running a little late but thankfully I have something even better than clothing to look at - I am sitting directly opposite the American Vogue trilogy of Anna Wintour, Tonne Goodman and Grace Coddington who... [more]

Eddo Stern, Kinetic Shadow Puppets (after Narnia,Segeal, World of Warcraft and Iraq) Plastic, Paper, Electronics, 2008, Interaccess, Toronto

The New York gallery world isn’t as fun as it was a couple of years ago. The scene desperately needs new media galleries to replace now closed venues such as Vertexlist and artMovingProjects, and pop-up spaces aren’t going to cut it.  Spaces dedicated to creating focused long term exhibition programs are essential the growth of the field and there aren’t any. Here’s what we’ve got (that I know of):

Postmasters: The most legitimate New Media exhibition venue in New York though their programming isn’t exclusively such. They exhibit strong new media artists such as Eddo Stern, Kristin Lucas, and etoy.corporation but also eva and franco mattes.

Spencer Brownstone Gallery: Hosted Are You Sure You Are You? in April 2009, a group show of new media artists including Petra Cortright, Harm Van Dorpel, and Guthrie Lonergan, followed by a two person show by Tara Sinn and Rafeal Rozendaal in March 2010. They seem to be getting their feet wet, but it’s no Postmasters.

Eyebeam: The Atelier apparently has construction slated for October which means only their Window exhibition space is operational. They’ve hosted some good events in the past — I’m always a fan of the youtube competitions, (though I’m often a contestant) — but their exhibition program looks like its sponsored by a lot tech companies.

Rhizome: They run the best technology blog in the city, but have no permanent physical space. The organization could use one.

Bitforms: A gallery specializing in the exhibition of kinetic electronics that form faces.

Bryce Wolkowitz: Shows a lot of lightbulb art. Also, Julian Opie.

Over the Opening: Once a month artist collective MTAA convert their studio into a venue for time based events. It’s a solid event space, but not a gallery with regular hours.

Camel Art Space: A non-profit with new media shows slated for the future. I’ve not yet been.

319 Scholes: Word has it this space also has new media shows slated for the future, though the website gives me pause. I have not yet visited space.

Update: Twitterati member @Juliagulia adds her own Blue Box Gallery to the list as well as The Chelsea Art Gallery’s work with Google. I’ll pass on the google collaboration — it’s a sci-fi wonderland over there — but Blue Box’s migrating program is worth a look. As it happens it’s part of The Last Supper, a blog sponsor this month.

Next week from September 16-19th, San Jose will host the digital art biennial ZER01. Taking place at locations across the city, events will include a symposium on collaborative environmental art, films (with a program geared towards live cinema), public art projects throughout the city, and exhibitions at partnering institutions Anno Domini, MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, and South Hall centered around the biennial's theme "Build Your Own World" and much more.

Rhizome will show "Domain" as part of their film program, which will present live performances by Jeremy Bailey, Petra Cortright, Constant Dullaart, and JODI nightly at the Empire Drive-In inside South Hall. You can read more about the program below. If you are planning to attend the biennial, please join us!

We have recently arrived at the moment in human history when the networked computer is no longer the mystical facilitator of communication, entertainment, and research; it is an appliance, as pervasive as the microwave and nearly as boring. Developments in technology and network infrastructure have delivered a networked computing experience that is affordable, instantaneous, user-friendly, and richly interactive to a broad audience. What is most unique about this moment is not technology's inevitable deliverance of a widely accessible networked space, but the virgin cultural aptitude for navigating this space that has accompanied the computer's ascendance to the mundane.

This cultural shift towards a visceral acceptance of networked space has rendered the spectacle of its inner workings inert, and in the process has opened up tremendous possibilities for artists using these spaces to finally connect with an audience undistracted by the underlying mechanics of the interaction itself. This presents an interesting opportunity for both artist and audience alike as they can now approach the work on equal footing in a shared domain. The networked computer is as much the natural habitat of the contemporary internet user as it is the contemporary internet artist.

Domain presents four telematic performances by an international group of artists whose work is informed and mediated by the personal computer and the internet. The performances consist of live streaming video sourced directly from the artist's webcams or screencasts broadcast directly from the artist's computer. The casual nature in which this type of performance can now be pulled off echoes the process in which many contemporary internet artists create their work. Art can be made cheaply, quickly, and independently of institutional support; the bedroom is the new studio and the personal computer is the only tool they need to inform, create, and distribute their work.

Artists include: Jeremy Bailey, Petra Cortright, Constant Dullaart, and JODI

Is it still necessary to define art by intent and context? The gallery world would have us believe this to be the case, but the internet tells a more mutable story. Contrary to the long held belief that art needs intent and context, I suggest that if we look outside of galleries, we’ll find the actions, events and people that create contemporary art with or without the art world’s label.

Over the past 20 years, the theory Relational Aesthetics (referred to in this essay as RA) has interpreted social exchanges as an art form. Founding theoretician Nicholas Bourriaud describes this development as “a set of artistic practices that take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context”[1]. In reality, art erroneously known to typify RA’s theorization hasn’t strayed far from the model of the 1960’s Happening, an event beholden to the conventions of the gallery and the direction of its individual creator. In her essay Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics, Claire Bishop describes Rikrit Tiravanija’s dinners as events circumscribed in advance, using their location as a crutch to differentiate the otherwise ordinary action of eating a meal as art[2]. A better example of the theory of RA succinctly put into action can be seen in anonymous group activities on the internet, where people form relations and meaning without hierarchy.

Started in 2003, 4Chan.org is one such site, and host to 50 image posting message boards, (though one board in particular, simply titled ‘/b/’, is responsible for originating many of the memes we use to burn our free time.) The site’s 700,000 daily users post and comment in complete anonymity; a bathroom-stall culture generating posts that alternate between comedic brilliance, virulent hate and both combined. Typically, the content featured is a NSFW intertextual gangbang of obscure references and in-jokes where images are created, remixed, popularized and forgotten about in a matter of hours. 4Chan keeps no permanent record of itself, making an in the moment experience the allure of participation. For all of the memes that have leaked into our inbox from it, 4Chan maintains a language, ethics and set of activities that would be incomprehensible to the unfamiliar viewer. Induction to /b/’s world is not fortified and understanding it merely requires Google searching its litany of acronymated terms or participating regularly enough to find out for yourself.

Today, our coverage of the S/S 2011 New York Collections begins in earnest, after a stuttering start of parties, launches and lighter-weight labels filling the schedule. Our first big show today is Jason Wu - appropriately enough, chiming with our SHOWstudio Shop show In Wolves Clothing: Re-imagining the Doll. Wu... [more]

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The right knee by Noki closes the first instalment of our Fashion Body programming, timed to end just as our coverage of the S/S 2011 catwalk shows begins.

We finish this first leg on a slightly sinister and unsettling note - not what you would immediately... [more]