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Here’s a great feature on Illuminations of Wedding in Greece’s OZON Magazine. Kristin Trethewey and I curated this three-day event, consisting of a group exhibition, panel discussion and workshop, in January 2013 at Wedding-based creative resource centre SUPERMARKT. Click on the image to read the article as a PDF (in Greece and English).
Hello! You are invited to a special event in Berlin next Tuesday evening entitled BERLIN’S MEDIA ART COMMUNITY: A Female Perspective, curated and moderated by myself and Ela Kagel. All information on the event can be found below. I hope you can join us. Best wishes, Michelle
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BERLIN’S MEDIA ART COMMUNITY: A FEMALE PERSPECTIVE
Tuesday 9 April 2013, 18:30—23:00 at SUPERMARKT
Featuring presentations from Tatiana Bazzichelli, Valie Djordjevic, Andrea Goetzke, Kathy Rae Huffman, Claudia Kefer, Julia Kloiber, Lisa Lang, Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen, Diana McCarty & Michelle Thorne // Moderated by Ela Kagel & Michelle O’Brien
Berlin has a rich and long-standing tradition of women engaged in the fields of media arts, media activism and digital culture. Today over half of Berlin’s independent project spaces and initiatives revolving around the themes of tech, media and digital culture are run by women. A broad range of female curators and activists continue to shape net politics – initiating independent programmes, hosting events and leading research at Berlin’s universities. Despite this large female contingent, and in a city where the workforce is generally evenly distributed, it is at odds that the theoretical discourse on media art and net activism, executive roles and directorships, as well panelists and participants at events and festivals, are still male-dominated. In a forward-thinking city like Berlin, this ongoing gap should be addressed so that the wider fields of media arts and activism are fully inclusive of the multitude of female skills and viewpoints on offer.
At this event, SUPERMARKT highlights and showcases a selection of the women who have played an important role in shaping the profile of Berlin as a digital culture city. We will learn more about their history, career paths, and the narratives of their work and life. Ten inspiring women in the field will join us, and answer questions against the backdrop of their own lives and careers, including what drives them to continue the work they do, what have been the crucial moments of their careers, and who are their professional mentors, support networks, and inspirations. This evening will provide an opportunity to get to know this community, share inspirations, identify trending themes in the field, and gauge both common resources and grounds for future collaborations. Whilst the focus of this event will be on the diversity of Berlin’s female media art community, of course anyone is invited to attend.
Language: The language of this event will be English
Cost: This event is free // please email rsvp@supermarkt-berlin.net to register your attendance
Address: SUPERMARKT – Brunnenstr 64, 13355 Berlin (U8 Voltastr or U8 Bernauerstr)
Photo: © Ars Electronica | Susi Rogenhofer, Flickr CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 license
The cover of TJ Eckleberg‘s new album This Might Feel Like Home, featuring my photography.
This image was shot on Main Street, in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant district in summer 2012.
Thinking of my beautiful bro-and-sis-in-law Andy Bull & Renee Avgoustinos as they prepare to get hitched in the Hunter Valley tomorrow.
Sending lots of love from snowy Berlin x
“We are in danger of overlooking a simple yet crucial point: the greatest value of the arts – to individuals and to local communities – is through participation in them, rather than merely being exposed to them as spectators … We talk endlessly about the need for ‘balance’, by which we usually mean the balance between work, family and leisure. But there’s another quite magical possibility: balancing the stresses, disappointments and tedium of life with the therapeutic release of tension through some form of regular creative outlet.” – Arts Hub. Read more: http://ow.ly/hWm7y
Smelly homeless folk, corporates in suits, screaming babies, punks with dogs, professors, naughty school kids, hipsters, accordion-playing gypsies, and everyone in between. I love the many walks of life that inhabit Berlin’s metro, day and night. One day I’ll make a documentary about this unique urban space.
Video feature on our show Illuminations of Wedding at SUPERMARKT last month!
The Silent City: Digitally Assembled Futuristic Megalopolises by Yang Yongliang. Made from hundreds of photographic artifacts.
Fun night of booty shaking with Berlin’s beautiful young things, then walking home through the silent dawn mist.
Feel like a new person today: so good to be reminded of catharsis on the dance floor.
Thanks to Katrina James for this photo of my Oudezijds Voorburgwal 147 series hanging in ReTramp Gallery Berlin for the exhibition Reisen durch das Objektiv, February 2013.
Even more surreal after the Russian meteorite storm, only a couple of days after this clip was released.
My Valentine goes out to all my amazing, talented, creative, intelligent, thoughtful, insightful, hilarious and gorgeous single friends. I love you all!
“In an era where we’re all permanently face down in a sea of information, whoever can help us sort through it and discover what matters to us holds power … the battle for our attention is only going to increase, and it’s one that for perhaps the very first time could really allow the substantive to shine alongside the sensational.” – The Quietus
There seems to be a current trend in Berlin of expensive workshops, seminars and talks on how to make money in the arts, with some of the hosts offering fairly questionable qualifications and content. A community service by business-savy organisers or exploitation of naive and/or desperate creatives? Hmm..
“The future? Digital, yes. Creative services, yes. Independent artists, yes. And across them comes a new role that has caught the attention of education providers. Highly flexible, highly versatile, enterprising and entrepreneurial, it’s the creative producer – the person who draws the dots between the creative workers and stakeholders of all stripes, resources and at the end of the chain, audiences or consumers.” – Arts Hub