~ OCEAN WAVE ~

Mandate and Exhibition Component (Arielle)

Ocean Wave was the name of the boat in which Bas Jan Ader carried out his final performance, In Search of the Miraculous (1975). The artist’s ill-fated voyage from Cape Cod to Amsterdam (Ader never did reach his final destination) echoes those of tragic heroes past. An element of myth is braided with Ader’s actions, just as likely a “sincere” attempt at encountering the sublime as it was a knowing framing of this trope using the methods of Conceptualism. More than thirty years later, the concerns that informed Ader’s practice figure strongly in the work of young artists. Our choice of name acknowledges this historical point of departure, the name of Ader’s boat taken from a centuries-old sea shanty.

The works included in Ocean Wave assess the contemporary moment using various and sometimes-contradictory means; Post-conceptual works take up Romantic concerns (the sublime, the melancholic, the cathartic, the fragmentary); an ambivalent irony is called upon to invoke the sincere, a quality that is supposedly transparent and outside of time; notions of techno-positivism and media-specificity are called into question in critical writing and provisional objects. Such questions are reiterated over three related components; a website, a printed book, and a gallery exhibition.

The group show will mainly feature sculptural works by participating artists. Proposed works include Kate Steciw and Gregoire Delaure’s paper-photocopy-objects Depth Mapping (The Mountain) (2011) and The Almighty Photocopy (2008). We have arranged to get hold of Bunny Rogers' embroidered jackets Long Day's Journey Into Night and Putting Away Childish Things (2012), manufactured objects that distill the themes of the books they refer to. Ethan Buller will also make his take on Bas Jan Ader's I'm Too Sad To Tell You into a physical object - a tissue box. Just as the web component will feature broswer and video works intended for online viewing, our selections for the exhibition are guided by similar concerns of finding the best forum for presenting each work.

Website Component (Mike)

The development of the website took place over the course of the whole term. We began with an idea of clustered articles and contributions on a map-style webpage. Eventually we decided this format was not intuitive to browsing (left/right and up/down scroll made the website clunky for traditional browser viewing) and decided to switch to a standard scroll-style website. Using Javascript, we implemented several codes to optimize viewing, namely a shadowbox code that reveals full articles when links are clicked on, and codes to stretch and shrink videos and images relative to the size of the browser. All links feature the title, author, a small excerpt of the article if possible, and an accompanying image. The top of the page features the tilde, which we have adopted as our logo (it reminds us of a wave) and link for an “INDEX”. This index will feature a list of all the articles, alphabetically by author, a link to the editor’s letter, information and contact information about the publication, and documentation from the IRL elements once they have been completed (print and exhibition.) Beneath the link is a sound piece by Steve Kado created for the publication, featuring the sound of running water, with a low sine-wave sound running underneath. One issue we encountered was the order of articles. We have decided to implement a system of randomized articles, so that each time the page is reloaded, the articles will change position. As always, there is ongoing discussion as we receive contributions as to where they will be best suited, but most of the text and video contributions will be placed on the webpage.

Print Component (David)

Since the grounding component of this project relied heavily on the development of the websit and the collection of content from each contributing artist, beginning the print did not take place until recently. That being said, the impetus for the print version of OCEANWAVE is informed by a critique of post-internet issues from a sincere and justified standpoint. This mostly came out of conversations with a few of the contributing artists including Steve Kado, Paul B. Davis and Jennifer Chan due to their expressions of anxiety stemming from relationships with the internet and online communities. These relationships, for Kado and Davis in particular, have been ongoing for a couple decades. They have witnessed and partook first hand in the ongoing developments of homogenization of the internet, as well was certain narratives of inevitability on the internet. It felt fitting that the print should reflect their issues with these online developments, and so through that we have been playing around with loose mock-ups of what the publication would look like. Firstly, the print will be made on legal document sized paper, so its size will be slightly larger thannormal. Using the folding method that was described by Judith earlier in the term, David has been arranging content from a small group ofr contributing artists over 8 pages. Since two of the pieces included in the print are unfinished writings by Paul B. Davis and Jennifer Chan, David has been using Lorem Ipsum as a dummy text substitute. The centerfold is a drawing by Bunny Rogers and the cover is our Tilde, which stretches over the front and back coves.
The mockup has been pretty minimal and text-heavy thus far, as the written contributions will probably be quite long. The text will be 12pt size and will be kept in 20pt wide margins, which should make it relatively easy to read and allow for an efficient use of space. David has also been considering including an image of each written works contributor. So, in the case of Paul at the bottom of his text will be a portrait that would be requested from the artist. Once the print is ready to be made, David will be getting the prints done by artist Jesjit Gill at his new printing project, Color Code Printing. The plan is to have the prints done with Rhizograph printing techniques using monochromatic color schemes (so, some are blue, some are yellow, red, etc.) These prints will be made and published in conjunction with the revealing of the online publication, as well as the aforementioned exhibition.

Contributor Bios
Jennifer Chan is an artist and curator currently finishing her MFA at Syracuse University. She lives and works in Syracuse and has previously been based in Toronto and Hong Kong.

Paul B. Davis is an artist and lecturer, currently living and working in London, UK.Paul pioneered the use of video game cartridges as an artistic medium and created the first hacked video game artworks. His Nintendo cartridge work was premiered in 2000, he formed the programming collective BEIGE shortly afterwards, and BEIGE members subsequently used his hacked Nintendo concept to create a distinct body of work that has been exhibited internationally. Currently Paul is a lecturer in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College and a PhD candidate at Central St. Martins.

Judith Doyle is an artist and educator based in Toronto. She is a founding member of
Worldpool, an organization of artists exploring early telecommunication
technologies from 1978-1981. Judith completed her masters in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at york University.

Caley Feeney is a Portland based artist and online friend who recently visited Toronto for a week long residency at DoubleDouble Land. Originally from Alaska, she moved to to Oregon and has since become a popular blogger and online presence.

Jamie Felton is an artist currently completing her MFA at the Tyler School of Art’s Rome campus. She recently completed her BFA in painting from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Abbe Findley is an American artist that exhibits work in both offline and online
communities. She is the founding member of artist residency Pequignot-Palace and currently lives in Northern Missouri.

Frieda-raye Green is a Canadian artist currently based in Berlin. Frieda-raye works in
video, web-based pieces, digital collage, sculpture, photography and other media. She actively maintains the internet image search aggregator Refine Your Search. Currently, Frieda-raye is dreadlocking comfort objects out of computer and cell phone cables.
Bethan Moonan Howard
is a British artist currently based in London, UK. She is a student at the University of Arts London where she will be completing her final year in 2012. Lili Huston-Herterich is an artist and curator based in Toronto. Lili completed her BFA in New Media at York University. She runs Butcher Gallery with Brad Tinmouth.

Steve Kado is a Toronto born artist that has lived in LA, Copenhagen, Berlin, and Montreal. He is one of the founding members of the Blocks Recording Club and The Talking Show. Steve currently holds an MFA from CALARTS in LA and currently resides in Toronto Canada.

Sofia Leiby is an artist and writer based in Chicago. She graduated with a BFA (emphasis in print media) from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011, and is a contributing editor of the art and technology journal Pool.

Guillermo Ruiz de Loizaga is a student studying Philosophy at Kings College in London. Guillermo hails from Spain.

Jaakko Pallasvuo is a Finnish artist currently based in Berlin. He is a student of the Kuvataideakatemia in Helsinki, Finland.

Bunny Rogers is a New York based visual artist who is finishing her BFA at Parsons New School in Manhattan. Collaborating frequently with friends and
peers, she has recently completed her Sister Unn’s project that included
the leasing of a flower shop in Queens New York with her partner Filip Olszewski.
Kate Steciw is an artist currently working in New York City. She recently completed her MFA in Photography at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Britta Thie is an artist who works between Berlin and New York and has studied at The University of the Arts in Germany and Cooper Union in New York City.

Brad Tinmouth is an artist and curator based in Toronto. Brad completed his BFA in New Media at York University. He runs Butcher Gallery with Lili Huston-Herterich. Sarah Watson is an artist currently finishing her BFA in Photography at Ontario College of Art and Design. She is based in Toronto but has lived in Scotland.