Sunday 29 May 2011

Love Hypnosis Exchange at Taman Budaya, Yogyakarta - Saturday June 4, 19.30

Pusing Kesurupan agar semua orang suka hati
INSTRUKSI

Tolong dengarkan dan ikuti:
1. "Satu, dua, tiga, empat, lima, enam, tujuh, delapan" - Ikuti gerakan saya dengan berputar ke kiri atau ke kanan sebanyak delapan kali selama hitungan disebutkan.
2. "BEEEEEEEP" - Tempelkn stiker ke badan orang lain selama bunyi didengungkan.
3. Lakukan terus sampai tubuh dipenuhi stiker.

as part of M. Lugas Syllabus - opening "Independence -Dead" show, MC by Rachel Saraswati

Performance Photo from Love Hypnosis Exchange (2010) Brisbane

Friday 13 May 2011

Shortlisted for 17th International Contemporary Art Festival SESC_Videobrasil

More News:
I have been shortlisted along with an Aussie who makes skateboarding videos..

There is more academic writing from the Catalogue but looks like I will have to re-type it.. Here is a bit of text about how the videos for Southern Panoramas were grouped..  I am glad I am with Natasha Mendoca and Moran Shavit!!
http://www.videobrasil.org.br/17/2011/paisagens-interiores-cartografias-do-individuo-e-da-cultura/?lang=en

The Catalogue rewrote my bio and video description.. (here is the small web excerpt, more to come later)
Artistic reading of a military experiment conducted to test psychic relations, in which participants must describe the places from where certain objects have been removed, this video probes into the existence of intercommunicating psychic frequencies.

For the amazing psychic collaboration: Remote Viewing Experiment xx
.. Watch the videos in blogger here

How I end capitalism in each of my works

In response to Douglas Leonard, (who doubts my force to end capitalism) http://www.realtimearts.net/article/issue101/10168

The end of capitalism is heralded by new developments in exchange and altruism. What Am
I doing for the revolution? I use touch to develop psychometry (as a new weapon of the love force revolution), exchange intellectual property as experience rather than object (to promote the immaterial) and make fun of capitalist ventures (like everyone else in contemporary art, ref: Carmen Ansaldo in Artlines April 2011)

1) The piece in question: "Love Hypnosis Exchange" (2011) Performance

keywords- gift economy, social interactions (For a nicer review of this performance)

I try to create an economy based on exchange of stickers, that I have provided, a trance like activity (regular measured spinning) is used to make the punter more disoriented with current modes of exchange and freer to exchange this new currency of stickers. This new temporal economy I have created is not just based on a
  • material exchange but also an exchange of:
  • creative expression as the punters deliberate which colour and where on the body they will place a sticker in each 8 second round
  • and also a social interaction, as the punter decides who they will place the sticker on
Touch, experience and parody to declare the end of capitalism. Giving a sticker to someone is a gift, an altruistic emotion conveyed by touch. Gift economies challenge current capitalist non-altruistic virtue. Whilst an experiential creation of art on other's bodies in exchange for the creation of art on your own body peddles ephemeral experience rather than object. Moreover the dizzying effects of the Wall St stock exchange are parodied and taken to a new mystical level by adding Sufi spinning to the equation.


2) Previous works: "$1 A Blow" Performance

Keywords: supply pricing experiment

We all have breath. Due to the tenet of supply pricing, I priced breath for as low as $1. But Nobody opted for just a breath on skin. In fact everyone opted for an option with added intellectual property. I told blow jokes, played songs with breath music apps on my iPhone, blew bubbles. People want experience more than the object. I add my voice to the contemporary art revolt, "we no longer care about beauty, we care about ironic political comment."

3) Previous works: "100 Fortune Cookies" (2010) Performance

Keywords: futures exchange, asia tiger economies

Dressed in my power suit and with the help of my tiger (economy), I offered Asian style futures. Willing participants had to hide a coin in the "sands of destiny" which were in fact the raw dry ingredients to make fortune cookies, after placing the coin, they could finger around in the sands and choose their fortune.

Again I am using touch, this time it's very sensual as people are touching these raw materials, which are often speculated in the "futures exchange." Punters are encouraged to use their psychometric powers to pick the fortune that is right for them. They receive the experience of search and find, and find a story for their future and dont actually get a cookie. Plus it's all dripping in irony with the costumes and word puns et al and the tiny joke that all the futures written were the same.

4) Previous works: "2010: The End of Capitalism" (2010) 25min video

Keywords: monumentality, post-modernity

An all out attack on monumentality of capitalism, portraits of artists working to "burst the bubble" of capitalism in Berlin. Only one artist chose psychometry to relate to the bubble in these expressionist experiences as these artists add their portrait to a declaration to end capitalism. Dramatic irony is kindly provided by a morphed soundtrack of Richard Wagner.

5) Remote Viewing Experiment (2009) 50min video

Keywords: psychometry, oneness

An experiment in psychometry. As artists are portrayed video journal style blindly trying to describe the room an object came from. All artists experienced a sense of "oneness" that flies in the face of the individual pursuit of capitalism.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sunday 1 May 2011

Artist Interview: Nicola Morton on award of Asialink Grant

Edited by Kim Hirst for NAVA Opportunities E-Bulletin April 2011

Who got the opportunity? Asialink Arts Residency

Printer-friendly versionSend to friendPDF versionAfter seeing the Asialink Arts Residency advertised on the NAVA Notice Board, artist Nicola Morton applied and was awarded $12,000 to cover the cost of travelling to and living in Indonesia for three months.
The Asialink Arts Residency aims to promote the professional development of Australian arts practitioners as well as cultural exchange initiatives between Australia and Asia. The residency is funded by the Australia Indonesia Institute and Arts Queensland and is part of a program managed by the Asialink Centre at the University of Melbourne.
As an artist of half Chinese heritage, Nicola has worked internationally in the musical and contemporary art worlds. The Asialink residency will enable her to add Javanese ketainan (traditional animistic rituals) to her performance repertoire of time travel, hypnosis and artificial intelligence creation.
NAVA asked Nicola to tell us what she hopes to get out of the experience.

NAVA: Why did you decide to apply for the Asialink Arts Residency?
Nicola Morton: The Asialink Residency is a unique opportunity to absorb Asian culture with your contemporary art goggles on. The open approach to residency structure, combined with committed host organisations provides for an enthusiastic free-for-all, which for me, dovetails very nicely into documenting my performance energies and practice in this new Asian environment.
NAVA: What interested you about the project?
NM: I am half experienced in Asia - I am half Chinese and have toured China and Japan but never had time for an immersive exchange. As a contemporary Australian artist, the desire to place myself within Asia has started emerging through themes in my work. I am interested in the ritual involved in traditional performing arts and this three month residency will give me the time to investigate and recontextualise the supernatural nature of Javanese performance, as well as the effects of urbanisation on village practices. 
NAVA: How does the residency compliment your artistic practice?
NM: This residency allows for site-specific work and cultural research. As you can see from my website http://nicolaisgreat.com, my performances concentrate on self-improvement, self-awareness and transformation. These ideas are also central to the narratives and performance of Javanese plays/dance. The meeting of my performance practice and Javanese tradition will culminate in new products/performances that will hopefully educate and enlighten the Australian contemporary art scene as well as locals and artists in Indonesia. Enlightenment = Everyone Happy = My Artistic Practice.
NAVA: What do you hope to get out of the experience?
NM: I hope to get three months of good times, unique learning experiences and performance footage in strange and not so strange locations.
NAVA: What do you have coming up next? 
NM: After Asialink I am looking for opportunities to exhibit and expand on my Javanese performing arts learning and will continue with the concept of cultural displacement. Any potential sponsors are welcome to contact me: nicolaisgreat@gmail.com