The Recent Past

"Early Spring Courtship Dance of the Totally Positive" at Citizen Jane Film Festival

Still from "Early Spring Courtship Dance of the Totally Positive" (16mm B/W film with live performance, 10 min) by Allison Halter. The project was made with assistance from The Archaeology of the Recent Future (planning, cinematography, and editing).
This film shows a traditional courtship dance of the Totally Positive of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The footage represents the typical dance, characterized by a series of stylized flight-and-pursuit movements, often seen in the early months of spring. For the Citizen Jane Film Festival, the film was presented with a mock lecture (as well as a dance demonstration) by Siobahn Burgundy, one of Allison Halter's many alter egos. The film played to a very enthusiastic crowd at a packed theater in the Ragtag Cinema (Columbia, MO) as part of a program of performance art and movies with live soundtracks.
Allison is now back in Portland, continuing graduate study and making hundreds of "bricks" out of cloth for her next project!

"CHINA, Portraits" at ICE Film Festival

On October 9-11, 2008, ICE (Iowa City Experimental) Film Festival brought Deborah Stratman and Vanessa Renwick to Iowa City as jurors of its 2008 festival. From a pool of over 200 entries, they selected 50 for screening over three days of events in and around downtown Iowa City. "CHINA, Portraits (Xi'an, Chenglu, Shanghai, Beijing, Jingdezhen)" - a 16mm film by the Archaeology of the Recent Future Association - was included as part of the closing night program.
Full 2008 festival program available at: www.icefilmfest.org
For more info/questions: icefilmfest@gmail.com

Matthew Rethaber's new photo blog

Work from a dear friend and wonderful photographer:
http://keepyoureyespeeledkid.blogspot.com

Ears inside out and other (un)natural phenomena

The Museum of Jurassic Technology presents...
Jacob Kirkegaard has turned his ears inwards: his new work LABYRINTHITIS is an interactive sound piece that consists entirely of sounds generated in the artist’s auditory organs – and will cause audible responses in those of the audience. LABYRINTHITIS relies on a principle employed both in medical science and musical practice: When two frequencies at a certain ratio are played into the ear, additional vibrations in the inner ear will produce a third frequency. This frequency is generated by the ear itself: a so-called “distortion product otoacoustic emission” (DPOAE), also referred to in musicology as “Tartini tone”. By arranging the tones from his ears in a composition and playing them to an audience, the artist evokes further distortion effects in the ears of his listeners. At first, each new tone can only be perceived "intersubjectively": inside the head of each one in the audience. Kirkegaard artificially reproduces this tone and introduces it, "objectively", into his composition. When combined with another distorting frequency, it will create another tone... until, step by step, a pattern of descending tonal structure emerges whose spiral form mirrors the composition of resonant spectra in the human cochlea. Jacob Kirkegaard is an artist with an interest in the scientific and aesthetic aspects of resonance, time and hearing. His performances, audio/visual installations and compositions deal with acoustic spaces and phenomena that usually remain inaccessible to sense perception. With the use of unorthodox recording tools such as accelerometers, hydrophones or home-built electromagnetic receivers, Kirkegaard manages to capture and explore "secret sounds" - distortions, interferences, vibrations, ambiences - from within a variety of environments: volcanic earth, a nuclear power plant, an empty room, a TV tower, crystals, ice... and the human inner ear itself. During the last ten years, he has been presenting exhibitions and touring festivals and conferences throughout the world. He has released five albums. Among his numerous collaborators are JG Thirlwell, Ann Lislegaard, CM von Hausswolff, Philip Jeck and Lydia Lunch.

Summer Projects

There are a good number of projects simmering and stewing, almost completed and ready to be shared. Among them are:

CHINA, Portraits (Shanghai, Beijing, Chenglu, Jingdezhen, Xian)
Shot over the course of a month's travel in eastern China, the film presents a series of portraits – poignant, funny, confusing, bland, and charming – of people in rapidly changing neighborhoods and towns. Not quite a travelogue, and far from an ethnography, this quiet testament to the power of portraiture asks us to consider the pleasures, discomfort, and dangers of looking.

Animal Portraits: Milwaukee (Pierce St Public School / Woodland Pattern, Milwaukee, WI)
A 3-month art class with a small group of 4th and 5th graders results in an exciting series of different animal personas. Masks, costumes, backdrops, song, and dance (all made by the children) come together in a celebratory collective portrait that also reflects our own
magnetic yet mystifying relationship with other creatures.

Our Dreams Are Waiting For Us Around the Corner: Images from a Photo Booth and Thank-You-Letter-Writing Party at NEIGHBORS (May 2008).
The beautiful B/W medium format images from the Photo Booth are finally in our possession and awaiting a venue in which to be shared. We are exploring different printing options and hope to create a book that contains the images as well as critical writing about the project and its context, as well as about the neighborhood and our community.

NEIGHBORS Space/Gallery
There is movement to create an artist residency program at the NEIGHBORS storefront space. Anyone interested in such ventures should send word! citizenandneighbor@gmail.com

The Citizen Jane Film Festival
The new women's film festival - premiering this October in Columbia, Missouri - continues to build momentum, boasting a line up of extraordinary women makers and films.
Please check out the blog: citizenjanefilmfestival.blogspot.com

The Citizen Jane Film Festival

The Archaeology of the Recent Future Association has recently been invited to help curate and organize a new and exciting film festival, the Citizen Jane Film Festival. CJFF celebrates the work of women behind, in front, and near the camera with the hope that more fair representation in media can bring us closer to better understanding and listening to ourselves as well as one another.
For more info on the film festival, please go to: citizenjanefilmfestival.blogspot.com
Or, if you are a myspace nerd, please befriend us out there: www.myspace.com/citizenjanefilmfestival

Photo Documents from May

Photographs from "OUR DREAMS ARE WAITING FOR US AROUND THE CORNER: Photo Booth and Thank-You-Letter-Writing Party" at NEIGHBORS.

For documentation of the entire event, please click here

Actual medium format photographs from the "photo booth" will be up soon and, hopefully, available in the form of a printed book! Above is just a peek - it is one of our favorites (and it includes some of our favorite creatures).

Truckstop

Waiting Out the Rain

Axel Erlandson's Tree Circus

Between 1922 and 1963 a California farmer, surveyor and orchardist named Axel Erlandson designed and trained trees into sculptural and architectural forms unique in horticultural history.

Axel expanded that ancient science to include chairs, towers, ladders, spiral staircases and enclosures that could be grown, rather than built. He eventually displayed his creations in a roadside attraction outside of Santa Cruz, which he named the "Tree Circus".

Mark Primack discovered Erlandon’s neglected and dying trees in 1977, shortly after completing his Masters thesis on ‘Botanic Architecture’ at the Architectural Association of London.

His efforts to document Axel’s work, to write their history, and to protect and preserve the surviving trees were themselves fading into obscurity when his friends at the Museum of Jurassic Technology convinced him to present, in words and images (many for the first time) his remarkable record of a dedicated visionary and a creative genius.

Mark Primack will speak on the genius of Axel Erlandson, founder of the World Famous Tree Circus and visionary pioneer of Botanic Architecture.
SATURDAY, May 24, 2008, 8PM at the Culver City Foshay Lodge No 467 (9635 Venice Blvd, Culver City). A reception will follow at the Museum of Jurassic Technology (9341 Venice Blvd, Culver City). $10 General; $8 Museum members, students & seniors

More images can be seen at: www.arborsmith.com/treecircus.html

Our Dreams Are Waiting For Us Around the Corner: Photo Booth and Thank-You-Letter-Writing Party

A celebration of the ephemeral as well as the documented at NEIGHBORS. Saturday, May 17th, in conjunction with the Milwaukee International Art Fair!

Come draw on the wall, get your portrait taken with someone you love or a stranger from across the street, and write that thank-you-note you have been meaning to write to your 3rd grade art teacher, your neighbor, the author of that amazing book, that awesome hot dog vendor, or whoever else you have been meaning to write to for oh so long! NEIGHBORS is excited to open its doors and provide you with a cozy atmosphere, paper, tables, chairs, arts supplies, a sunny storefront, and maybe even snacks... as well as a chance to help create collective documents of our time here on Earth: photographic portraits to keep close and hand-written letters to send out into the world.

SATURDAY, MAY 17, 2008
12 PM - 6 PM
NEIGHBORS (800 E Clarke St, at the corner of Fratney)
Milwaukee, WI

The Last of Winter / The Start of Summer

(Images from the Archaeology of the Recent Future Association)

"Locally Groan, You Have Homework To Do! Ta Da!"

The Archaeology of the Recent Future Association presents "Locally Groan, You Have Homework To Do! Ta Da!" - an entire evening of new films, videos, and live performance made especially for this event by over 25 local Milwaukee artists.

THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2008 at 7PM
UWM Union Theater (UW-Milwaukee campus in the Union building, 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd, 2nd floor).
Totally FREE and very OPEN to the PUBLIC!

"Locally Grown" is an annual festival dedicated to providing a showcase for Milwaukee film, video, and performance artists. "Locally Grown" screenings, held at the UWM Union Theater, are always free & open to the public. This edition of "Locally Grown" is being specially programmed by The Archaeology of the Recent Future Association which is a loose organization that strives to create experiences & support work that inspires vision & hope for a better world.

This year's festival will be a little different in that local artists were asked to complete an "assignment", and make a new piece especially for the show. So, instead of curating, the curators handed out some homework. Specifically, participants were asked to complete one of two assignments:
#1. Using only one 100-foot roll of 16mm film, create a film and present it with a live soundtrack. Or, #2. Submit 3 minutes of video. Each short clip will be compiled on one
tape & each participant will receive a compilation tape with which they will make one new piece.

Inspired by Dadaist exquisite corpses and madcap collaborations, the hope is that the assignment's "rules" will create a joyful challenge for the makers as well as inspire an unexpected new piece for us all to enjoy. The results will be revealed at a screening on MAY 8, 2008, in a celebration of our community's ingenuity, sweetness, humor, and talent.

Participating Artists:
Jesus Ali, Sam Augustine, Trevor Berman, Jeremy Bessoff, Anne Bisone, Robyn Braun, Ray Chi, Portia Cobb, Brent Coughenour, Jamal Currie, Allison Halter, Kati Katchever, Kelly Kirshtner, Laura Klein, Xav Leplae, Andrea Maio, A. Bill Miller, Erik Peterson, Kate Raney, Mat Rapaport, Joseph Reeves, Ryan Szarnowski, Marc Tasman, Chris Thompson, Renato Umali, Celeste Verhelst, Steve Wetzel

For more information, please write to: citizenandneighbor@gmail.com

"Paradise Remixed" (a neighborhood-wide art show, April 2007)

From “Through a high (snowy) pass and, Who Is This For / What Does It Do” (Multi-media installation by the Archaeology of the Recent Future Association at NEIGHBORS, Milwaukee, WI).

Sun Sets on Empire, Part #____

Humans, Animals

"Animal Portraits" Workshop in Milwaukee, WI.
(Work in progress)

Sample #34 from the "Wondrous Fruits and Vegetables" Archive.

Venice Blvd and Bagley Ave, Culver City, CA

One of those ubiquitous electrical boxes... This one has been taken over by The Archaeology of the Recent Future Association while in Los Angeles.

Please notice (on the left-hand facade) the slightly off-colored green paint near the top: At one point, the LA "graffiti removal" team came by and decided to cover up some tags on the box. They tried to match the paint that was on the box with an even pukier shade of lime green. At the time, We had painted the box lime green, but had only sketched out and painted a few bits of the design. The "anti-graffiti crew" chose to leave all of our work alone and blotted out the tags with their almost-lime-green paint... We decided not to paint over their work as a testament to the odd and complicated nature of public space. Honestly, we don't know how to feel about the fact that the anti-graffiti people accepted ("curated") our work, while erasing that of "taggers". In many ways, part of the hope for the design was to make it look so neat and complete, that it would, in fact, be "convincing"...

The wacky faux-fancy Byzantine-Hare'Krishna-Uzbeki-Victorian design is very fitting considering that the box is outside the Museum of Jurassic Technology (one of the best places on Earth), across the street from India Sweets & Spices (the best .79c samosas), and a few blocks west of the Hare Krishna temple.

Bush Vetoes Anti-Torture Bill

According to the Geneva Convention (1949), torture is explicitly forbidden: "No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted, or exposed to any unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind." (www.unhchr.ch). Yet, this past Saturday, in yet another example of the Bush administration's blatant dismissal of international law, Bush vetoed H.R. 2082, the "Intelligence Authorization" bill, which prevents the CIA and other US agents from torturing detained individuals. The bill explicitly prohibits "waterboarding" (where restrained prisoners are threatened with drowning) as well as other "interrogation methods" such as sexual humiliation, dogs, physical violence, and other techniques that amount to torture.

The Bush administration's condonation and support of torture, detention, surveillance, and secrecy have continuously been the subjects of intense criticism in the US and abroad. As Steven Lee Myers writes in the New York Times on on March 9, 2008 - "Veto of Bill on C.I.A. Tactics Affirms Bush’s Legacy" - the anti-torture veto is another in several moves by the Bush administration to consolidate and expand executive control:

"Bush’s veto — the ninth of his presidency, but the eighth in the past 10 months with Democrats in control of Congress — underscored his determination to preserve many of the executive prerogatives his administration has claimed in the name of fighting terrorism, and to enshrine them into law. ... Mr. Bush is fighting with Congress over the expansion of powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and over the depth of the American security commitments to Iraq once the United Nations mandate for international forces there expires at the end of the year. ... And as he has through most of his presidency, he built his case on the threat of terrorism."

What is ironic and sad is that many US intelligence officials have denounced torture techniques to be ineffective and often dangerous, often leading to misinformation. Further, the US Army field manual on interrogation already prohibits physical force against prisoners and outlines other methods for interrogation. The bill Mr. Bush vetoed would have limited ALL American interrogators to techniques allowed in the manual. According to the same NY Times article, "the debate has left the C.I.A. at odds with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies, whose officials have testified that harsh interrogation methods are either unnecessary or counterproductive. The agency’s director, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, issued a statement to employees after Mr. Bush’s veto defending the program as legal, saying that the Army field manual did not “exhaust the universe of lawful interrogation techniques.”

You can read the cited NY Times article for the full scoop. As for responding, Amnesty International has put a call out for Americans to speak up in order to keep attention on the fight against torture and to show that Bush does not represent all Americans. You can learn more about the issue and opportunities to voice your opinion at Amnesty International

(photo of Guantanamo Bay prisoners from the University of Chicago Chronicle)