Preliminary sketches for Cultural Ombudsmanry and Adaptive Equipment.
I am beginning research and development on an ambitious project called Cultural Ombudsmanry and Adaptive Equipment. It's less of a title and more of a description of the project. The R&D will be intensive in the way Institutional Wellbeing was intensive, which is to say, full of interdisciplinary learning curves. In order to sustain focus over the long term on this project, I am happy to have some smaller projects in the works that will punctuate the time and offer the immediate gratification that comes with showing work.
First, I'm collaborating with The Cedar Tavern Singers, aka Les Phonorealistes on an olfactory project that will be in their forthcoming exhibition at the Carlton University Art Gallery in Ottawa. CTS have been called "art history's house band". I think they are two of the most innovative artists working today. My US friends can catch them in the Oh, Canada show at MASS MoCA in May.
I'm working with criminologist and SDSU professor Paul Kaplan. We have developed an Interdisciplinary Honors Seminar called The Cultural Lives of Art and Crime. It's a hybrid course designed as part seminar part experimental arts lab that looks at precedents in which crime and art collide in order to speculate on what cultural factors motivate deviance and why, in certain contexts might such activity be validated. The course is just one outcome of our collaboration. I'll update this post as new developments emerge.
In other news...
In April I will be a visiting artist at Youngstown State University.
When to throw a painting to a drowning man is at the presses and will be released as a PAL and NTSC DVD in April.
The Art Courage Program will go to the presses shortly thereafter, with the outcome of an audio cassette (of course!) containing an MP3 download card.