Exhibition: Naming Things – localStyle (Marlena Novak and Jay Alan Yim) – 13. – 26. 8. 2015.

Naming Things – localStyle (Marlena Novak and Jay Alan Yim)

13 – 26 . 08 . 2015
curator: Darko Fritz

16 . 08 . 21 h . artist talk

The collaborative localStyle was founded in Amsterdam in 2000 by Marlena Novak and Jay Alan Yim. Using high and low tech means, their intermedia practice includes video, sound installation, interactive installations, live performance with electronics, and audience participation. Their projects explore how territories and boundaries—whether physical or intangible—are constructed, interpreted, and negotiated, via themes as varied as issues of trespass, the mating behaviour of hermaphroditic marine flatworms, the sonification of electric fish from the Amazon, and experimental Eurasian blackbird grammar. Their new work, Naming Things, premiering at siva)(zona, takes its inspiration from a Foucauldian discourse on a passage from Jorge Luis Borges’ text The Analytical Language of John Wilkins. Addressing semantics and general systems of thought, this audiovisual installation’s sometimes playful appearance aims to destabilize our misplaced assumption of underlying logic in how we taxonomize the world around us.

In their artist talk, localStyle will present several works that address looking towards an/other… Working with an/other creature’s perceptual system—as in their interactive project scale (with live Ghost Knife fish)—or engaging an/other point of view (as in their Chicago Cultural Center installation, Cite Unscene)—localStyle will show and discuss excerpts of these and other projects as well as the new work on exhibition, Naming Things, which explores how juxtapositions of an/other’ within a common framework begin to establish meaning and credibility.

Borges cites …a certain Chinese dictionary entitled The Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge where … animals can be divided into (a) those belonging to the Emperor, (b) those that are embalmed, (c) those that are tame, (d) pigs, (e) sirens, (f) imaginary animals, (g) wild dogs, (h) those included in this classification, (i) those that are crazy-acting (j), those that are uncountable, (k) those painted with the finest brush made of camel hair, (l) miscellaneous, (m) those which have just broken a vase, and (n) those which, from a distance, look like flies
This ‘dictionary’ is referenced in Foucault’s 1966 book, The Order of Things, where Foucault addresses the formation of knowledge within the sciences.

Foucault writes This book first arose out of a passage in Borges, out of the laughter that shattered, …all the familiar landmarks of my thought …the thought that bears the stamp of our age and our geography—breaking up all the ordered surfaces and all the planes with which we are accustomed to taming the wild profusion of existing things, and continuing long afterwards to disturb and threaten with collapse our age-old distinction between the Same and the Other.
In the wonderment of this taxonomy, the thing we apprehend in one great leap, … demonstrated as the exotic charm of another system of thought, is the limitation of our own, the stark impossibility of thinking that.

As one of the Borgesian tactics that our project, Naming Things, will emulate, existing fauna will be combined with imaginary organisms into a fictitious taxonomy whose credibility will invite speculation and ultimately a reflection on how our systems of knowledge are promulgated and reinforced. Camera tracking software was used to duplicate video camera movement in a 3d modelling program; imaginary digital creatures are recombined into the existing video media, which are comprised of multiple classes’ of animals, or live in their own virtual environment. Two other categories of footage are deployed: that of living animals in natural environments, and interaction with animals in the form of toys or material objects.Audio is developed via voice and field recordings and composed electronic music. This audio-visual project is a continuation of our ongoing exploration of perception and behaviour: gathering and processing of information, and the construction, interpretation and negotiation of thresholds and boundaries via themes as varied as the mating behaviour of hermaphroditic marine flatworms, the song of the European blackbird, and the sonification of electric fish from the Amazon.

localStyle projects have been presented in festivals, museums, galleries, and alternative venues in more than three dozen cities worldwide (a.o. Amsterdam, Amersfoort, Barcelona, Beijing, Belgrade, Berlin, Boston, Brussels, Budapest, Camden, Chicago, Cologne, Duluth, Eindhoven, Den Haag, Huddersfield, Jerusalem, Linz, London, Mexico City, New York, the Orkney Islands, Richmond, Santa Barbara, Santa Fe, São Paolo, Sarasota, Shanghai, Sittard, Sydney, Szczecin, Tel Aviv, Torino, Toronto, Valencia, and Warsaw). Festival presentations have included the National Art Museum of China’s (NAMOC) TransLife Triennial, STRP Festival, Visioni dal Futuro, Taipei Digital Art Festival.

Marlena Novak is a member of the faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in the Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation. Prior to that, she served as Associate Director of Northwestern’s Animate Arts Program, and has been a faculty member at the University of Illinois Chicago and visiting professor at the University of New Mexico. She has received grants from the Arts Council of Great Britain, Illinois Arts Council, Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts, and the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Her work is included in public (a.o. the Corcoran in Washington, DC and the Mondriaanhuis in Amersfoort, NL) and private collections in Europe and the USA, and has been presented in solo and group exhibitions in more than three dozen cities worldwide.

Jay Alan Yim studied computer music at Stanford and MIT and music composition at the University of California Santa Barbara, the Royal College of Music, and Harvard. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Illinois Arts Council (three times), Tanglewood, Aspen, and many other awards. His music has been featured at international contemporary music festivals and has been performed by artists such as the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Nederlands Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Residentie Orkest Den Haag, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble SurPlus, Arditti, JACK, and Spektral Quartets, Nieuw Ensemble, ICE, dal niente, Gareth Davis, and Frances-Marie Uitti.

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Naming Things
localStyle (Marlena Novak and Jay Alan Yim)

13. – 26. 8. 2015.

Galerija siva) (zona iz Korcule premijerno predstavlja audiovizualnu instalaciju pod nazivom Naming Things umjetnickog dua localStyle (Marlena Novak i Jay Alan Yim) iz Chicaga. Otvaranje izlozbe je u cetvrtak 13. 8. 2015. od 21 do 23 sata u prisustvu autora. Umjetnici ce odrzati i predavanje na engleskom jeziku pod nazivom towards an/other… u nedjelju 16. 8. 2015. u 21 sat. Izlozba je otvorena svakodnevno od 21 do 22 sata, ili prema dogovoru, do 26. 8.

Suradnicki projekt localStyle pokrenuli su Marlena Novak i Jay Alan Yim 2000. godine u Amsterdamu. Koriste high i low tech sredstva, a u svoju intermedijsku praksu ukljucuju i video, zvucne i interaktivne instalacije te performanse uzivo uz participaciju publike. Njihovi projekti istrazuju kako se teritoriji i granice – bilo fizicke ili nematerijalne – konstruiraju, interpretiraju, pregovaraju, a obrađuju razne teme, poput npr: pravo prolaza teritorijem koji je u privatnom vlasnistvu; ponasanje crva hermafrodita pri parenju; sonifikacija (ozvucenje) elektricne ribe iz Amazone; eksperimentalna euroazijska gramatika crnog kosa.

Njihov novi rad pod nazivom Naming Things premijerno se prikazuje u galeriji siva)(zona na Korculi, a svoju inspiraciju crpi iz foucaultovskog diskursa primijenjenog na isjecak iz Borgesovog teksta ‘El idioma analítico de John Wilkins’ (Analiticki jezik Johna Wilkinsa). Dok adresira semantiku i opci sistem misljenja, ponekad zaigrani izgled ove audio-vizualne instalacije cilja na destabilizaciju cesto pogresnih pretpostavki o tome kako funkcionira logika taksonomije svijeta koji nas okruzuje.

U okviru predavanja koje ce se odrzati 16.8.2015. u galeriji siva) (zona, duo localStyle ce predstaviti nekoliko djela koja se bave gledanjem prema nekom/drugom… (towards an/other…). U svom radu s percepcijskim sistemom nekog/drugog bica (kao npr. u njihovom interaktivnom projektu pod nazivom scale s zivom Ghost Knife ribom), ili angaziranjem stava nekog/drugog (kao npr. u instalaciji pod nazivom Cite Unscene koja je bila postavljena u Kulturnom centru Chicaga), duo localStyle ce pokazati dijelove upravo spomenutih, ali i nekih drugih projekata, ukljucujuci i projekt pod nazivom Naming Things koji se premijerno prikazuje u galerijskom prostoru sive) (zone. Naming Things istrazuje kako pozicioniranja nekog/drugog’/’neke/druge’ u okviru opceg i opcenitog pocinju oblikovati vlastito znacenje i vjerodostojnost.

Borges pise: …određeni kineski rijecnik pod nazivom Nebesko sredstvo dobrohotnog znanja gdje … se zivotinje dijele na (a) one koje pripadaju caru, (b) one koje su balzamirane, (c) one koje su pitome, (d) svinje, (e) sirene, (f) imaginarne zivotinje, (g) divlje pse, (h) one koje su ukljucene u ovu klasifikaciju, (i) one koje se ponasaju kao lude those(j), one koje su nebrojive, (k) one koje su oslikane najfinijim kistom napravljenim od kamilje dlake, (l) one koje stavljamo u rubriku ‘pod razno’, (m) one koje su upravo razbile vazu, i (n) one koje s distance izgledaju poput muha.
Foucault referira na ovaj ‘rjecnik’ u svojoj knizi iz 1966 Les Mots et les choses (Rijeci i stvari, prvi put prevedeno u izdanju Nolita 1971.godine, hrvatski prijevod Srđana Rahelica, 2002. godine, izdanje Golden marketinga) u kojoj je rijec o formiranju znanja u okviru znanosti.

Foucault pise: Mjesto rođenja ove knjige nalazi se u jednom Borgesovu tekstu. U smijehu koji pri citanju uzdrmava svako uobicajeno misljenje – nase misljenje: misljenje naseg doba i nase zemljopisne sirine – dovodeci do kolebanja svih uređenih povrsina i svih planova koji za nas smiruju bujanje bicâ, zadugo zabrinjavajuci nasu tisucljetnu praksu Istog i Drugog i dovodeci do njezina teturanja. […] U zacudnosti takve taksonomije ono do cega dolazimo u skoku, ono sto nam je zahvaljujuci basni naznaceno kao egzoticni sarm neke druge misli, upravo je granica nase: ogoljela nemogucnost da to mislimo (prijevod s francuskog Srđan Rahelic, Golden marketing 2002.)

Projekt Naming Things emulira jednu od borgesovskih taktika tako da se postojeca fauna kombinira s imaginarnim organizmima u fiktivnu taksonomiju cija vjerodostojnost poziva na razmisljanje i snaznu refleksiju o nacinu na koji se nasi sistemi znanja sire i međusobno osnazuju. Koristio se tracking software za kameru kako bi se udvostrucio pokret video kamere u 3d programu; imaginarna digitalna bica kombiniraju se unutar postojeceg medija videa u kojem lociramo multiple vrste zivotinja koje zive u vlastitom virtualnom okruzenju. Također se koriste jos dvije kategorije snimaka: ona snimljenih zivotinja u prirodnom okruzju te ona koja prikazuje interakciju sa zivotinjama u formi npr. materijalnih objekata. Zvuk se razvijao kroz kombinaciju snimaka vokala, terenskog snimanja i komponirane elektronske glazbe.

localStyle projekti predstavljani su na festivalima, u muzejima, galerijama kao i alternativnim prostorima u vise od tucet gradova sirom svijeta (između ostalog u Amsterdamu, Amersfoortu, Barceloni, Pekingu, Beogradu, Berlinu, Bostonu, Briselu, Budimpesti, Camdenu, Chicagu, Koelnu, Duluthu, Eindhovenu, Hagu, Huddersfieldu, Jerusalemu, Linzu, Londonu, Mexico Cityju, New Yorku, na otocima Orkney, u Richmondu, Santa Barbari, Santa Feu, São Paolu, Sarasoti, Sangaju, Sittardu, Sydneyu, Szczecinu, Tel Avivu, Torinu, Torontu, Valenciji i Varsavi). Festivalske prezentacije ukljucuju festival TransLife Triennial u kineskom Nacionalnom umjetnickom muzeju (National Art Museum of China’s – NAMOC), STRP Festival, Visioni dal Futuro, Taipei Digital Art Festival i mnoge druge. Recentni projekti su bili predstavljeni u amsterdamskom Amstelparku, na festivalu Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, zatim u Caochangdi, Chicagu, Londonu te Sangaju.

Marlena Novak predaje na School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Odjel za film, video, nove medije i animaciju. Prethodno tome, radila je kao Associate Director of Northwestern’s Animate Arts Program, te predavala na Chicago University of Illinois, a bila je i gostujuci profesor na Sveucilistu New Mexico. Dobitnica je potpora od institucija poput: Arts Council of Great Britain, Illinois Arts Council, Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts, i City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
Njeni radovi su dio javnih (npr. kolekcija Corcoran u Washingtonu, DC ili u Mondriaanhuis, Amersfoort, Nizozemska) i privatnih kolekcija u Evropi i SAD, a izlagani su na samostalnim i grupnim izlozbama u vise od trideset gradova sirom svijeta.

Jay Alan Yim studirao je racunalnu glazbu na sveucilistima Stanford and MIT, te kompoziciju na Sveucilistu California Santa Barbara, kao i na Royal College of Music te na Sveucilistu Harvard. Bio je stipendist sljedecih institucija: Zaklada Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Arts, Illinois Arts Council (cak tri puta), Tanglewood, Aspen, te mnoge druge. Njegova glazba izvođena je na internacionalnim glazbenim festivalima, a izvodili su je umjetnicki ansambli poput: New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Nederlands Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Residentie Orkest Den Haag, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble SurPlus, Arditti, JACK, and Spektral Quartets, Nieuw Ensemble, ICE, dal niente, Gareth Davis, and Frances-Marie Uitti.

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