Wilco at Mass MoCA

Wilco at Mass MoCA


"Big news for Wilco fans in Western Mass.: The band is curating a three-day festival at Mass MoCA this summer. The rock band, which played the Orpheum in Boston last night, announced today that it will curate the so-called Solid Sound Festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams. The event, scheduled to run Aug. 13-15, will feature all of the band members' side projects: Glenn Kotche's On Fillmore, John Stirratt's the Autumn Defense, Nels Cline's Nels Cline Singers, and Mikael Jorgensen's Pronto. (What, no Jeff Tweedy side project?) Wilco, of course, will perform as well, probably on Saturday, Aug. 14. The festival also will include a comedy stage, interactive exhibits, film, video, and DJs. Tickets, which go on sale Friday at wilcoworld.net and solidsoundfestival.com, will cost $86.50 (including all fees and parking) if you buy them before May 31. After that, they climb to $99.50."

GreenPix - Zero Energy media wall

"Greenpix behaves like an organic system, absorbing solar energy during the day and then generating light from the same power that evening. The project promotes the uncompromised integration of sustainable technology in new Chinese architecture, responding to the aggressive and unregulated economic development currently undertaken by the industry, often at the expense of the environment."

random artist

Found this video on youtube, it's a series of interactive pillars that you can touch.

Not really sure who the artist is?

"Hello Stranger is an interactive installation consisting of 30 LED
pillars arranged in a field and embedded in gravel. Together they form a sparse 3D display which is immersive
(you can walk through it), tangible (you can touch it) and real
(as opposed to virtual)."

Wafaa Bilal

Wafaa Bilal - Domestic Tension


"...viewers can log onto the internet to contact or "shoot" Bilal with paintball guns. Bilal's objective is to raise awareness of virtual war and privacy, or lack thereof, in the digital age. During the course of the exhibition, Bilal will confine himself to the gallery space. Over the duration, people will have 24-hour virtual access to the space via the Internet. They will have the ability to watch Bilal and interact with him through a live web-cam and chat room."

I went to Bilal's lecture on campus last semester where he talked about this work. I really liked his concept, and after the Abramović show at the MoMA, can appreciate the discipline and meditative state of mind needed to invest oneself in a work like this. Bilal uses new media technology, such as the internet, live video, and robotics in the context of the war in Iraq.

David Byrne - Playing the Building

This was a really cool installation in which Byrne allows the viewer to play sounds which reverberate throughout an empty building in downtown Manhattan. Interesting use of space, sound, music, and the technology to make it all happen.

kinetic building

"Each stainless steel flake reflects the bright sky or sunlight when in vertical standby position. When the flake is tilted downwards by a computer controlled pneumatic piston, its face is shaded from the sky light and this way appears as a dark pixel.
By reflecting ambient or direct sunlight, the individual flakes of the FLARE system act like pixels formed by natural light."

media architecture

Boe-Bots