did u notice I didn’t stream for a hot minute aka 2-3 weeks? I was stressed out and kind of depressed- it happens!! but I have blocked some time this week for some stuff that should be chill. come check it out? here’s what’s on the calendar:
today! 3pm EDT/GMT -4! the online Museum of Multiplayer Art is open! idk what that means but I’m gonna live stream it for a few hrs!
tomorrow, 12pm EDT/GMT -4! artist Morehshin Allahyari recently updated ‘She Who Sees The Unknown’ and I’m gonna do a virtual artwalk of it. I was lucky enough to see one of the videos in this work in a screening here in Mexico in February, and was totally hypnotized. looking forward to a deeper dive!
thursday, 1pm EDT/GMT -4! I’m gonna do another live coding stream with friend-of-the-newsletter Reed aka YesOperator. idk what we will make but I’m excited!!!
this weekend! who knows! I have a new VR setup that I am very grateful to be temporarily hosting in my home, and I’d love to do some fun streams. follow me on Twitter or on Twitch if u wanna see when I stream. I also have an idea for a new painting so maybe I will do that. the world is my oyster!
resource roundup!
the Getty Museum has done one of the most institutionally chill things ever by making their open-access collection easy to add to your Animal Crossing home with a web tool. search the collection, crop your fav paintings, sculptures, and photos, and generate QR codes to host priceless art in your island refuge.
are you tired of just swapping out your Zoom background? this Github repo helps you to create deepfake avatars for your Zoom and Skype meetings. maybe your avatar is just a version of you that isn’t trying to deal with childcare/housekeeping/cooking while also being expected to work normal hours during a crisis! you do you!
3D text + CSS! this little tutorial walks you through some ways to push the CSS text-shadow property to the max to make some cute lil text art. luv a tutorial that makes use of nth-child to create alternating effects!
debugging ur attitude is as (more???) important as sussing out a bug imo. I had a moment yesterday where I was having a hardware meltdown, and it was time to walk away for a hot minute. so I went and had a glass of water, walked around a lil bit, and when I came back to the problem with a clear head it was *~ magically possible ~* to think logically and fix the damn thing!
are u tired of the same old yoga videos on YouTube??? yan‘s random.training randomly pairs workout instructions with music from SoundCloud. add some chaotic energy to ur daily routine!
open calls & residencies!
the p5.js community has an open call for a one-year Project Lead position, beginning July 2020. this a 40 hr/week contractor position with a stipend of $50,000, with a possibility to negotiate a part-time role with a prorated stipend. this seems like a great role for someone who wants to help build a community centered around creative expression with technology.
The Revenge of the Real is an open call for papers, projects, and research related to the urgent topics of establishing a viable planetarity through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic and its urban realities. you can submit a proposal by sending an abstract and a brief bio to opencall@strelka.com by April 24. learn more about the call and the thematic prompts here.
the NYU Game Center Incubator is accepting applications for experimental gaming works. the program is a launchpad for commercial games that provides a stipend, free working space, and access to mentors. applications are due by May 4, and you can check out an information session here. learn more here.
Artist Relief is distributing $5000 grants to artists facing dire financial emergencies due to COVID-19 who are able to receive taxable income in the US (citizens, green card holders, permanent residents with an SSN or ITIN). learn more here.
the Jane Love Tiny Fund is hoping to send some much needed funds to artists in need in these trying times. please send a very short (2-3 sentence) email to lovejane183@gmail.com about your work including a Paypal address to request a tiny fund. Tiny funds are $100-$500. people who have great WFH jobs who would like to donate to this fund should email lovejane183@gmail.com to get connected with an artist. I screwed up this email multiple times so feel free to be annoying and send ur message again and be like “that bitch Martha messed up the URL in her newsletter!!!!”
Virtual Worlds Festival has an open call for immersive linear and interactive experiences, including VR, 360º films, AR, games, and multi-media installations. the call is open until April 19, and the festival will hopefully take place in Munich from June 26 – July 4. you can learn more and apply here.
VR Arles Festival is seeking submissions for the 2020 edition of the festival that meet their 3 curation themes. the deadline has been bumped back to April 30, and the festival will now take place in the fall. you can learn more and apply here.
online learning!
School of Machines, Making, and Make-Believe has introduced some new online programs for this spring on the themes of AI and bio-engineering, art and medicine, making personal games, and better worlds through cooperation. they’re also offering a limited number of pay-what-you-can solidarity tickets, with preference given to women, POC, LGBTQ+, and persons from underrepresented communities in tech. you can learn more and sign up here.
Biology Studio has moved some of their spring programming online, including workshops on bio-design and innovation with bio-materials. I’m signed up for a class beginning later this week! you can learn more here.
? upcoming events!
today! Apr 21! Tega Brain and Sam Levigne will be giving a digital lecture tonight on some of their recent work dealing with commodity, data collection and the internet as a contradictory space where practices of surveillance and exploitation sit along side archives of radical generosity, care and solidarity
Fri Apr 24! Empatía Net is the inaugural digital event of CUNA, a new platform for art, science, and technology. starting at 1pm CDT, they’ll be hosting a full afternoon of presentations on topics like surveillance, disinformation, digital activism, self-care, and art therapy. looks good! you can learn more and register here.
also Fri Apr 24! AntiMateria director Doreen Ríos is leading a talk on new materialities and hybrid art spaces as part of the Well Now WTF? online exhibition. the talk will be followed by a screening of audiovisual pieces which seek to blur the borders of materials and become dimensional hybrids, playing with the idea of new materialities themselves. if you can’t make this event, there’s a bunch of stuff on the calendar thru mid May. check it out here.
Hackaday has been collecting a bunch of virtual events on this Google calendar. check it out!
creator featurette! Yvana Samandova – Visual Video Artist, Painter & Photographer
this is a new section starting this week to feature artists and technologists who are currently available for hire, have art works to sell, or are crowd-funding a project. if you’d like to be featured in an upcoming issue of the newsletter, please fill out this form.
as a color obsessive myself, I always appreciate an artist who is fascinated by color to its extremes of visual sensitivity. It’s easy to slip into mental loops in this historic moment, and exploring them in layers of visual stimulation feels like climbing out of a well. with that in mind I’ve enjoyed exploring the work of Yvana Samandova these past few days, and hope you’ll make some time for it! In her own words:
In my approach to video art, I combine two different artistic sensibilities. On the one hand I behave like a colorist, going deep into retinal art, filling the emptiness of our perception with pure sensitivity. On the other hand, I explore the visual presentation of concepts. The dialectic of these two approaches results in an endless process of reciprocal creation, since new technologies, which facilitate versioning, collaboration and forging, fit perfectly with Umberto Eco’s concept of “open work”.
Yvana is available for part or full time work, and you can also contact her about purchasing art works. You can reach her via email at playbyart@gmail.com. You can also follow her work on Instagram, Facebook, or Youtube.
recommendations
what are the nice things you are watching and reading??? I have been watching A Lot of trash, because, secret secret, I love reality TV and now we’re living in a Mad Max world where I am just gonna do what I want, but I have also been trying to fill up my time with nice things that make me enjoy being alive for a hot minute. do you want trashy but also, like, good? I recommend Unhhhhh with Trixie Mattel and Katya. do you want trashy but vaguely educational? check out Mike’s Mic’s recent pivot into science and math themed videos that are also about Dance Moms. how about a hyper specific documentary about a niche creative product that actually made me cry IRL? Bathtubs Over Broadway. do you want to think about death but in a like, wholesome community-oriented way? Casketeers.
also did u see this baby???
cw: COVID-19 shit ahead!
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I am the kind of person who would rather like, pick at and investigate every horrible detail and dark truth about something than lie awake wondering infinitely about things I don’t know better about. if you’re like me, and also feeling overwhelmed by some of the reporting on COVID-19, this week I recommend Ask A Mortician. I would recommend Ask A Mortician in general, but she’s also been doing some good videos on the reality of how deaths are being handled and so on. I would also recommend the podcast Sawbones for measured, thoughtful conversation on related topics with an actual doctor, and seasoned skeptics like Ross Blocher and Carrie Poppy who are doing deep dives into misinformation. also like, h/t to friend-of-the-newsletter Jenna for retweeting just a concise document about what science actually is this week. shit is hard! but it’s less hard if we deal with the reality and trust experts and experience.
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just for lulz!
sorry I am playing a lot of Animal Crossing still!!!
*~housekeeping~*
if you have anything in the works that you are excited about (an event, a workshop, a new project), please send me all the details. the next newsletter will cover the week of April 27 – May 3, but I’m happy to promote events further in the future as well and keep them on the calendar.
