One Question Interview

MICHAEL BELL-SMITH

2009-07-13T22:34:00.000-07:00

Michael Bell-Smith is one of the few artists who deeply explores animation. He controls every pixel of carefully chosen flatscreens to create new worlds that challenge old ones.

"What is your favorite moment in animation history?"

I've never been good at picking favorites, but I really like these three:

MAI UEDA

2009-07-05T07:33:00.000-07:00

Mai Ueda is an all-round freethinker who makes songs, fashion, drawings, and domain name poetry. She always makes sure her outfits will catch your eye and travels more than anyone. She is one of the two people that form the pirates of the internet.

"Are you a pirate?"

I am a girl who got kidnapped by pirates.
I sing for them a song while I am with them, it is about piracy on Internet.
I think they are cool, and I wish I was strong like them.
I am waiting for Peter Pan to take me home.

JOEL HOLMBERG

2009-06-26T01:47:00.000-07:00

Joel Holmberg is an American artist. He is one of the founders of Nasty Nets. He is arguably the chillest frau in all of Berlin.

"What is your favorite part of the day?"

I love falling asleep. I dread it all day but then when its happening its usually the sweetest thing. It brings great moments of insight that I cant wait to wake up and capture, if only I could find the time.

YACHT

2009-06-18T03:38:00.001-07:00

Claire L. Evans & Jona Bechtold are two people who venture in music, art & business. As YACHT they make electronic music that feels unelectronic, spreading a message of kindness and positivity.

"is life tough?"

Yeah, life is tough.

It doesn't have to be difficult physically, but life is tough psychically. There are glaringly obvious, tragic misunderstandings going on between people everywhere all the time, and there just aren't enough sane people to go around sorting it all out.

We had a realization recently: all the things which are doomed about humanity -- that we are territorial, prone to infighting, defensive, vulnerable, small-minded -- are the same things which cause problems in interpersonal relationships. There's no difference between the conflicts of individuals and those of the whole, other than scale. Our domestic arguments are rooted in the same human insecurities that cause wars. It's easy to be discouraged by this, and, to be honest, the only way to overcome it is to completely ignore it.

It's kind of like how when we saw The Matrix and didn't understand why you'd want to "wake up" in the first place. If your mind is content, self-sufficient, then why force your body into the unpleasantness of actual reality?

That's essentially the basis of our work.

TOBIAS BERNSTRUP

2009-06-17T06:10:00.001-07:00

Tobias Bernstrup is a singer/artist who combines sex, violence and technology into his shiny performances. He is also half of the pirates of the internet.

"do you enjoy traveling?"

Yes, it makes me awake. I love sitting on trains, in cars, planes, boats or riding bicycles. But I am very bad at going for spontaneous trips.

KEVIN BEWERSDORF

2009-06-11T14:00:00.001-07:00

Kevin Bewersdorf is an actor/artist/marketeer/philosopher who points most of his thoughts toward the world wide web. Please watch his video that summarizes his mission and check him in the movie LOL.

"What does the internet lack?"

The web minus the internet equals all that is lacking
and all that is lacking plus the internet equals the web.

The internet is made and therefore is not whole,
for the made lacks the maker.

The web is not made and therefore is one whole,
for the unmade is the maker.

YES INFObrother
YES every LoVeR
YES INFOsister
YES every HaTeR

The cup of the internet runneth over,
its contents greater than its container.

ANNE DE VRIES

2009-05-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

Anne de Vries is a photographer who explores reality by slightly altering what we see.

"do you work enough?"

After real deep thinking about this question i came to the conclusion that i never really know exactly where this 'enough' point exactly is. And therefor i prefer to work a little bit too much to be sure i'm not working too little.

Once i stop often i don't want to go back to it. And i find myself coming up with a whole lot of mind tricks to get my self going back into it again..
Making lists, spraying glassex everywhere; cleaning, re-organizing the space, and in the worse case putting on very loud radiostaddenhaag can work. When i then finally get going again, i'll be soon prepairing myself for the next problem of not wanting to stop. So basically it is too little or too much which makes it exactly enough i guess.

GUTHRIE LONERGAN

2009-05-10T00:08:00.001-07:00

Guthrie Lonergan is an artist who deals with "something very real struggling beneath a heavy and ancient structure of corporate software defaults and cultural banality". The painfully boring, mundane and embarrassing moments of internet.

"Do you like berlin?"

i've lived my whole life in LA so Europe was a complete culture shock for me -- a place with any kind of history seems automatically so nice, pretty... berlin was this way for me, too, even though i'd heard it compared to LA. It should be so obvious, but actually seeing a starbucks or a subway in europe, you can really feel its like a kind of cancer. i love fast food. my parents are from where McDonalds came from (San Bernadino, California) and eating fast food brings back all these memories of eating fries in cars with my grandma, stuff like that... joel took me to mcdonalds twice in berlin, and its much nicer than in the US... it looks nicer and you can even sort of taste the beef in the big macs (which was really, really strange.)

ROGER MCDONALD

2009-03-24T01:10:00.000-07:00

Roger McDonald is a Japanese (not English any more) curator/writer living and working in Tokyo. He is a founding member of AIT, a group of dedicated curators who teach and organize residencies for foreign artist who want to discover Japan.

What will happen in 2012?

The Future will become Primitive. In other words, ideas of the future as something ahead of us in time, as a tablet onto which we project futures, will cease to be. This will most likely be because of significant technological or quantum mechanical discoveries, such as the laboratory
realization of time travel. This would effectively 'end' History understood as a rationally progressing linear journey from the past into the present and onto the future. It would be important to note that the discovery that subverts History emerges from the very tools which it created, namely scientific method. The 'ending' of History would therefore not be some apocalypse or catastrophe as depicted by Hollywood, but rather the effective subversion of our Modern ideas of Time. I say the Future will become Primitive in the sense that this situation will once again allow for multiple felt experiences of Time. The role of computers and the internet in
this will probably be very great. I imagine computers becoming ever smaller in size, as they incorporate nano-technologies. Computers will effectively become shamanic tools for ecstasy-seeking, to borrow the phrase of the shamanic scholar Mircea Eliade. We will perhaps swallow computers, like psilocybin mushrooms, and enter into labyrinthine webs of information, data
and shared experience. Instead of being the domain of a privileged few, the seeking of knowledge and ecstasy will be allowed for all through such technologies. The 'ending' of History as we know it, will also be a clarion call for systemic change across many levels from the way we conduct politics, organize societies, manage nature, as well as how we inhabit our minds and bodies.

CONSTANT DULLAART

2008-12-14T07:26:00.000-08:00

Constant Dullaart makes simple and stupid things, he talks about contemporary anthropology, visualizing rhetorical devices etc etc.

I especially like thedisagreeinginternet.com

will you save the world?

yes

AIDS-3D

2008-08-11T08:17:00.000-07:00

AIDS-3D is Daniel Keller and Nik Kosmas, two American artists creating installations and performances to remind us how cool it is to be in front of our computer. Check this beautiful flaming bluetooth sculpture.

Do you live by any rules?

AIDS-3D's CURRENT GUIDELINES:

- We have a generalized distrust of institutions and their conventions.
- We believe in the sharpest possible distinguishment of ones self.
- We believe that the digital revolution is still transforming humanity and that we must always be the vanguard of this revolution.
- We believe in a fluid and undefined sexuality based on the ability to virtually sublimate any desire online.
- We believe that drugs are cool but not as cool as we all wished they are.
- We believe in wearing thick wool socks in the summer as well as the winter.
- We believe in trying to eat a different style of ethnic food every day of the week. (this is a balanced diet)
- We believe in maintaining a fashionable silhouette at all times.
- We believe in a completely free worldwide market.
- We believe that intellectual property is problematic, but we also respect that profit remains the biggest incentive for new developments.
- We always vote for Democrats, but only because we're pragmatists.
- We believe that usually its best to only wear one pattern at a time.
- We are members of a dynamic international community.
- We are proud to be Americans because we invented black music, hollywood, public relations, and the internet!
- We believe there is no such thing as selling out as long you are still spreading your ideas.
- We believe that proactive ego-force can effect change on a global scale.
- We want to believe in Oprah's Secret.
- We believe in dancing.
- We don't share girls anymore.

Smoke weed every day

JAN ÅMAN

2008-08-01T06:19:00.000-07:00

Jan Åman is a curator/writer/critic/activist running FargFabriken in Stockholm, an acclaimed exhibiton space and laboratory of new ideas, as well as founding the NewWorldBank, a database of ideas and solutions to change the world.

How much longer will we use the term "contemporary art"?

I guess in the old sense the term "contemporary art" is already long gone. It is of course still used by the traditional art museums, magazines and commercial galleries. But this only means that it is used to protect a territory that has already lost its meaning, relevance and energy. There is still money to be made on it for galleries. Customers want a guarantee that an image is contemporary art and not, say..., photography. For the museums the term has a Disney or Las Vegas effect. And this is the whole story. "Contemporary art" is like "French cuisine" or "rap music". The term will still be around as long as people can make a profit from it, which is OK, but the interesting stuff is made outside of this context, in relation to the net, to cities, to society, to fashion, to whatever... and does not need to be labeled.

CORY ARCANGEL

2008-06-27T08:07:00.000-07:00

Cory Arcangel is an artist known world for hacking Nintendo games but has since shown he's interested in much more than that.

"Do you ever get tired of computers?"

It is impossible to get tired of computers these days. This is cause they are made to last only a few years. So once a user gets everything complied, configured, authorized, and running smoothly, the computer breaks and it is time to start all over again with a new one. It's never ending work.

ANGELO PLESSAS

2008-06-09T01:15:00.000-07:00

Angelo Plessas is a unique artist making websites that are strange, nervous and poetic at the same time. He uses the internet to create portraits of people around him and many sides of himself.

"Do you believe in hard work?"

It's very random. Depends the way I wake up in the morning. Sometimes when I wake up I feel I am in a such productive and speedy mood that I go and work for 10 hours non-stop, but this does not work all the time. Some other times I get up in such a slow pace that nothing really feels will move ahead that day but out of the blue a miracle happen without even moving my little finger.

STEVEN SCHKOLNE

2008-06-03T13:29:00.000-07:00

Steven Schkolne (Los Angeles) is an artist who manipulates images to show us how normal life can be. Also check out Schkolne Number.

"what is the one question i should ask you?"

"how tall are you?"

PETRA CORTRIGHT

2008-05-20T15:23:00.000-07:00

Petra Cortright is a very young artist. Check out this amazing video. I saw it before and it didn't really hit me but now I realize it's greatness.

"Are you a busy person?"

Oh my god NO :( only in my fucked head. especially now. i don't do anything anymore. just half thought out / half effort for everything i do lately. but it is crazy if only someone could only see the notepad files, text messages, emails all to myself, meaningless to-do lists of google image search keywords, things to twitter later, ideas for some .gif, ideas for certain projects that will never happen... it's fucking insane because these things never get done. all i've been doing for a while is making lists and then the lists never get read and they get lost. i make folders on my computer and to name them i pound on the keyboard like eirtuyu43'; and then that is the name of the folder. so of course i know where nothing is and nothing gets read or thought about. then i decided i would put all the 35asgyewwm,\[ folders into one big folder that folder is called HELL and now it is the only folder on my desktop and i dunno what the fuck is in there. i wish i could do work or at least start cracking into HELL because god knows i got time. i got time cause i have no job and i amn not in school and live with my mom and my lil sis in california. i don't wanna be busy here though. i wake up everyday and just do want i want to do and that is what the fucking plan is. very selfish but its good relief cuz it is only a matter of time before i gotta go back to the stain on this earth new york city. i truly believe that city brings out a real sickness in people. if i was there right now i would have to answer this question totally different cuz there i am VERY busy but it is not even stuff i want to be busy with it is just trying to deal with so many cocksuckers 24/7 and there are all these problems and i have to be putting out fires all the time. SOMETIMES EVEN LITERALLY. oh god in reality it is so nice to be in california and i am not busy here and all i do is go to the beach and get tan and swim. and the water is so warm now so i like to swim everyday. i gotta go back to nyc soon tho cause i gotta go back to school so that i get a job that pays me money. when i get that money im gonna use it to never be busy, live on some epic land covered in heartbreaking landscape and do what i do best which is hang out and take care of tiny animals. i just want to collect too many of them fill my whole house collect them forever. striving for that "gotta catch em all" / "peasant vacation" style of life, u kno?

JODI

2008-05-18T10:19:00.000-07:00

Jodi is a collective of two artists: Joan Heemskerk and Dirk Paesmans. They are pioneers of browser crashing, game hacking and overloading operating systems. For a list of their online pieces check their wikipedia entry.

"what is the biggest change you've witnessed?"

WYNE VEEN

2007-12-14T06:17:00.001-08:00

Wyne Veen is a still life photographer from Amsterdam who appreciates the beauty of every day life.

Why do you spend so much time in bugetstores?

Because I appreciate the cheap factory effort that has been put into the products. The objects smell, have sharp edges, aren't suited for their function or are just extremely useless in general, they have ugly colors and you can break them in a split-second. All of this makes them quite tragic but also absurd and funny. The products are never really original, always some half baked reproduction of an existing product from a big(ger) brand. Therefore they reflect a small amount of pretence but not a very credible one.

These objects are so poorly produced they often become total failures. Even though these are mass products, their little or huge flaws tell you a lot about the ideas of the people involved in the production process, and that adds something personal. I go to Germany to find the nicest pieces and they make me very happy. The right kind of failure can be so precious. It shows the passing of time and effort, while something flawless only shows you that it is finished.

HARM VAN DEN DORPEL

2007-12-07T04:44:00.000-08:00

Harm van den Dorpel is an internet artist living in amsterdam spending most of his time making ambiguous animations.

How do you imagine your future?

that is a very difficult question.

man should have a plan indeed, but

an artist should not know too exactly where to go in advance.

my artworks will make themselves:

the things i put a lot of time and effort in are generally less appreciated than things i do thoughtlessly and quick, and

often i know what to do by knowing what not to do, so

in the future i will cut off unnecessary parts of myself until the bare Harm is left, and

wait for the apocalypse to never happen

ALEXANDRE POLLAZZON

2007-11-20T06:55:00.001-08:00

Alexandre Pollazzon is a French-born London-based Gallerist/Curator, always keeping his eyes opened for new possibilities.

What do you miss most in the art of today?

If there was something missing, I'm sure an artist would notice it. There are today so many various trends; contemporary artists use any kind of media from traditional oil painting to 35mm film and internet animation. Anything can be shown in galleries and museums. The real question is: how do we know an artwork is relevant enough to be exhibited today?

EXPERIMENTAL JETSET

2007-11-20T02:48:00.000-08:00

Experimental Jetset is an Amsterdam graphic design unit founded in 1997 by Marieke Stolk, Erwin Brinkers and Danny van den Dungen. They use extreme logic, dry humour and bright colours in their posters, books, t-shirts and installations. Check their website and their myspace.

Are you romantic for the past?

No, not at all. We are romantic about nothing. We are very much interested in the past, but this interest is fully driven by our interest in the now. We really like the idea of the present as a place where the past and the future meet. To know the now, we feel as if we have to understand the past. Because we think that every form of progress is motivated by an active interest in history.
We recently came across a piece of text that formulated this perfectly: "The greatest modernizers inaugurate their career with a backward leap, and a renaissance proceeds through a return to the past, a recycling, and hence a revolution. (...) Behind the 're' of reformation, republic or revolution, there is a hand flicking through the pages of a book, from the end back to the beginning. Whereas the finger that pushes a button, fast-forwarding a tape or disc, will never pose a danger to the establishment".
(Quote from 'Print and Socialism', by Régis Debray, published in New Left Review, issue 46, July/Augustus 2007).

STINKING LIZAVETA

2007-11-13T01:25:00.001-08:00

Stinking Lizaveta is an instrumental rock/metal trio from Philadelphia. I saw them play in Amsterdam and it was the most amazing show I've ever seen.

Do you ever get tired of being underground?

The fruit does not fall far from the tree.

MATTHEW STONE

2007-11-12T08:52:00.000-08:00

Matthew Stone is an artist living in London, making huge photos of groups of people in baroque compositions. Check his blog and myspace.

do you feel part of a generation?

I do feel part of a generation. I have been interested for a long time in the idea that this feeling can have a motivational power within and upon a community. I feel we can look at ways to harness the romantic sway that comes from surrounding yourself with those that are desirous of everything at the same time. Maybe we can construct endless contexts and arenas for that sense of belonging to each other and turn the excitement that comes from it into fuller ways of living together and alone. But then of course it can be very dangerous to run too far in one direction.

LAUREN CORNELL

2007-11-11T06:53:00.000-08:00

Lauren Cornell is a NY-based curator floating in the space between art and the great big internet.

What comes after contemporary art?

Contemporary archives and internet cave paintings.

MATTHIEU LAURETTE

2007-11-07T08:31:00.000-08:00

Matthieu Laurette is an artist who deals with subjects like money and power.

are you a yuppie?

No I'm not a yuppie and what about you?