*Bits.Atoms.Neurons.Genes* Micro_Gestures at the Edge of Invisibility will be an On/Off line space for MFA artists in the Visual Arts Department at UCSD to explore and present works at the edge of invisibility, at the edge of the digital and biological, at the edge of micro-robotics and nano-art, from in-virtu to in-vivo works and back.
We're a bit late on this story... but Visual Arts professor Ricardo Dominguez (in blue at left) had a unique experience in July, when he portrayed Cesar Chavez in a re-enactment of a landmark speech by the Chicano leader. It was the fourth event of the Port Huron Project, a series of re-enactments organized by artist Mark Tribe, part of Creative Time's 2008 public art initiative, "Democracy in America: The National Campaign". It was held in Exposition Park in South L.A., site of the original speech.
According to LosAngeles Times art critic Christopher Knight, "At the end of Dominguez's second performance of the Chavez speech, the crowd spontaneously erupted into a loud chant of "Si! Se puede! Si! Se puede!" Under the circumstances, it resonated as an Obama moment." Dominguez was also featured in a preview in the LA Times. The event was filmed and should be available shortly on YouTube and blip.tv. The program will also play on the MTV Jumbotron in New York's Times Square in mid-September.
An article by Sophie Le-Phat Ho reflects on the Transborder Immigrant Tool , an audacious and militant project developed by a group of artists from the electronic resistance movement out of the University of California's Calit2 Lab in San Diego...
abstract The Transborder Immigrant Tool is being developed at the Calit2 Lab of UCSD (University of California, San Diego) by a team of electronic disturbance artists composed of Ricardo Dominguez, Brett Stalbaum, Micha Cárdenas and Jason Najarro . The project aims to reduce the number of deaths at the US/Mexico border by providing a device that migrants can use to locate resources, such as water caches and safety beacons, as well as situate themselves in the desert. The author explores the tool's intervention in bringing together questions of artistic value and humanitarian value in the current landscape of mobile and locative media art.
résumé Un groupe d'artistes de résistance électronique du Calit2 Lab à UCSD (University of California, San Diego), composé de Ricardo Dominguez, Brett Stalbaum, Micha Cárdenas et Jason Najarro, développe en ce moment le “Transborder Immigrant Tool”. Ce projet vise à réduire le nombre de morts à la frontière mexico-américaine par le biais d'un appareil que les immigrants pourront utiliser afin de repérer des lieux sécuritaires ou de l'eau, ainsi que d'être en mesure de se situer eux-mêmes dans le désert. L'auteur explore l'intervention que l'outil provoque en rapprochant la question de la valeur artistique avec celle de la valeur humanitaire dans le paysage actuel de l'art médiatique mobile et locatif.
Children's Park Downtown San Diego, Across from the Convention Center
The Biotechnology Industry already has a huge presence in San Diego, but come June 17-20 they plan on taking over. Their international annual convention is being held at the downtown Convention Center on Harbor Dr. They will be discussing the usual BIO subjects: how to commodify the world's food production, genetically modify crops to disrupt sustainability, profit from human and non-human animal illnesses and torture, create weapons and the wars to sell their products, spin their unethical choices and buy public officials to fulfill their agenda. Sound like a good time? Well if you have $2300 I encourage you to attend and learn just how they plan to shape our world! But......
If you don't have that twenty-three hundred laying around to waste on watching scientists and capitalists patting themselves on the back speaking of ways to profit from the destruction of nature visit the free autonomous counter convention in the downtown Children's Park, across the street from the Convention Center, on Thursday, June 19th. Make your way to the trolley orange line and get off at the Convention Center stop (we don't need those pollutin' cars, besides theres no free parking downtown Thursdays anyhow!) From one p.m. to seven p.m. you can enjoy the SD weather outside with the community while enjoying free hot meals provided by Food Not Bombs, share free goods or skills during the Really (really!) Free Market, learn about and embrace a sustainable future at one of the multiple workshops taking place throughout the day and network with the groups in San Diego that are working to make that future possible.
1PM Free Lunch and Share at the Free Market
2-4PM Workshops! Urban and Guerilla Gardening, Biological Weapons, Alternative Energy, Animal Testing, Collective Practice and Womyn's Health
4PM Microbiologist Mike Copass speaks about the risks of genetic manipulation and the corporate industry that profits from it.
5-7PM Entertainment and Games! Make some noise and let the Biotechies hear ya.
Come out and see one of the outcomes of our research group! After 10 weeks of talking to collectives from San Diego and Tijuana about collective practice, online public space and social engagement, we would like to share with you a performance at the intersection of the borderlands of Tijuana and San Diego and the virtual environment of Second Life.
This performance engages with the following questions:
- What are the borders of online public space? how do they relate to the borders of our “first life”? - What are the relationships between borders and prisons? How are these separate but related modern features a part of the infrastructure that separates the global north from the global south? - How do borders produce gender and how are those dynamics affected by the seeming gender freedom online public space inhabited by avatars? How is gender deviance perceived and discussed in online spaces, in prisons, in borders? - Is synchronized dancing as fun in second life as it is in first life?
Where: Lui Velazequez Calle José Maria Larroque #273. 2do Piso, Int. 6, Colonia Federal. Tijuana, Baja California. Mexico, C.P. 22 300
When: Wednesday, June 11th, 7pm
…or join us for the sneak preview live performance in the main auditorium at Atkinson Hall at UCSD, Wednesday, June 4th, at 7pm. Directions at http://atkinsonhall.calit2.net and also in Second Life, the SLURL will be posted at http://sharingissexy.org/wiki/CollectivePracticeClass
Supported by UCIRA, CRCA, UCSD Visual Arts Department
The Collective Art Practice Research Group is Jade Lantana, Matthew Riederer, Adelina Tancioco and Angelica Tolentino, facilitated by Micha Cárdenas.
Dr. Cardenas 
http://www.cityheightsfreeskool.org