VISIBLE SOUND at CENTRAL FEATURES

Rubens' Tube demonstration for the opening of VISIBLE SOUND at CENTRAL FEATURES from alyce santoro on Vimeo.

The wonderful VISIBLE SOUND exhibition at Central Features in Albuquerque runs until June 6. In addition to a video of the Rubens' Tube in action, two Sonic Fabric Scroll Scores and the Mode Charts are currently on display.

how flounder metamorphosis metamorphosed me

Flounder Metamorphosis, India ink on scratchboard. Alyce Santoro, 1993

I am now an interdisciplinary conceptual artist (for lack of a better descriptor...), but I began my career as a marine biologist. After receiving a BS degree in Biology in 1990, I moved to Providence, RI to enroll in Rhode Island School of Design's graduate certificate program in Scientific and Technical Illustration. While attending classes at night, I worked by day as a laboratory assistant at URI, first on salmon aquaculture research, then on a multi-year study of microzooplankton for the seagoing GLOBEC project.

In honor of the March 1 - 7, 2015 #SciArt twitter storm, I offer the following excerpt from my book PHILOSOPROPS: A UNIFIED FIELD GUIDE on how a fish was the catalyst for my own metamorphosis from scientist to artist:

One early drawing in particular made it clear that I was indeed headed into territory not charted by formal education in either science or illustration. I was investigating the life cycle of flounder, which, when they are born, seem to have all the skeletal and other characteristics of an ordinary, bilaterally symmetrical fish. I learned that over the course of their first two weeks of life, however, flounder begin listing to one side, swimming increasingly sideways, with their eyes slowly migrating over to what is to become the top of their head. By the time a flounder is about a month old, it is a fully-formed (if a bit skewed-looking) flatfish, with both eyes on the same side of a camouflage-colored body, white-bellied underneath.

I found this metamorphosis completely astounding, and wanted to know how a fish that begins its life in a "regular" body would know that the time had come to begin transforming into an entirely different shape. The scientists studying flounder at URI could tell me that the process is likely triggered by hormones but that, as yet, there had been nothing discovered about the physical or chemical composition of a newborn flounder to indicate the impending change. 

In the process of studying and drawing flounder, I gained a deeper appreciation for the strange beauty and mysterious habits of these creatures. In examining their every scale, their odd gaze, and the velvety, slimy feel of their skin, I developed a sense of respect and empathy for these fellow life forms that I did not see outwardly expressed by my fellow scientists; any feelings we may have had about the fish were not relevant to the research. But the sensation of awe and wonder was part of the science that I craved and felt most compelled to pursue. If I had known then about Goethe's idea of delicate empiricism, I might have felt less like a misfit. 

More information on this illustrated book about life and work at the intersection of art and science, including long excerpts and a link to download the entire text for free, please visit my website.

re:purposed at the ringling museum

I am extremely pleased to have work included in the Re:Purposed exhibition opening this Friday night, February 13, 2015, at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida. In addition to several of the sonic fabric dresses, I've made a new work especially for this show. Introducing the Scroll-Scores, made of sonic fabric and patches of cassette tape:

graphic mode chart

I have created this visual aid for practicing/understanding the modal system used in Western music. For more information and examples with color added to highlight tonal relationships, please visit my website.

2014 was an intense...i might even go so far as to say outrageous...year for advocates of the obvious. i've whipped up this heartfelt rant in lieu of a standard end-of-year missive. here's to a more (post-)humane 2015:The Post-Anthropo-Scene: Reclaim the Humane, Addendum to the Manifesto for the Obvious International 

More on the OBVIOUS INTERNATIONAL page. 

Liberty, Equality, Geography: An Interview with John P. Clark on the Revolutionary Eco-Anarchism of Elisée Reclus

I recently had the opportunity to interview communitarian anarchist philosopher John P. Clark on his new book containing critical analysis and new translations of the works of French geographer Elisee Reclus. The full interview is available at Truth-out.org.

"In reality, we have good reason to ask whether, if another world does not rapidly become possible, any world at all will remain actual. The impossible community, the Reclusian community of love and solidarity, is a practical and dialectical answer to this more than theoretical, more than rhetorical question. In the midst of a world-destroying epoch, the impossible community presents itself as a world-making and world-preserving community. In the midst of egocentric cynicism and moral paralysis, it is a charismatic community of gifts and of the gift. It is an ethos that inspires and reawakens the person, sweeping him or her into a new realm of deeper reality and more compelling truth. It is our ultimate hope for the world."

2006 Talk as Visiting Artist at the New School's Lang College

Alyce Santoro on The Art of Science, The Science of Art at The New School's Lang College, August 29, 2005 from alyce santoro on Vimeo.

Many of the themes contained in my new book were touched upon during this talk on "the art of science, the science of art" for incoming interdisciplinary students at Lang College.

PHILOSOTOME!!

dear all, as 2013 winds to a close, i'm very pleased to announce that the project i have been excitedly immersed in for most of this year (and which has been in the back of my mind since at least 2001) has at last come to fruition:

http://alycesantoro.com/philosoprops_book.html

as many of you already know, the philosoprops are intended as catalysts for dialog, &/or to illustrate ideas. during my big solo show in nyc back in january, it became amply apparent that the tangible pieces are merely by-products of a process of thought, and that this process is more "the work" than the actual objects themselves. this book is not a catalog that happens to contain images of my work – this is my entire body of work in the form of a book. it takes the objects out of the studio, gallery, or museum and offers the-work-behind-the-work directly to anyone interested.

the 100-page book was beautifully offset printed in an edition of 250 on 100% recycled paper at engelhart printing in wimberley, texas, with over half the edition already spoken for by supporters who secured copies in advance. i'm currently in the process of hand wrapping and addressing over 140 packages – it's such a treat to see so many familiar names, as well as so many whom i have never met. thanks so, so much to each and everyone who helped to make this project possible!!

there are still about 80 print copies available – long excerpts, as well as digital versions, can be found on the philosoprops: a unified field guide dedicated page.

in other news, ecstatic mechanism, my partner julian mock's phenomenal album of unconventional works for solo guitar, was released this fall as well. 

early reports indicate that the book and music work together synergistically.

wishing you and yours a warm and peaceful december,
alyce
alycesantoro.com
@alyceobvious

PHILOSOPROPS: A UNIFIED FIELD GUIDE

dear friends,

i have just launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to print copies of my new book PHILOSOPROPS: A UNFIED FIELD GUIDE.

If a scientist-turned-artist wrote an illustrated guide to philosophical implements used to investigate how thinking shapes culture, this would be it.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/819527322/philosoprops-a-unified-field-guide

the amount of funds i am able to raise will determine whether the book is digitally or offset printed in an edition of 100 or 250. if i can exceed the initial goal, the plan is to invest the additional resources into having the cover letterpress printed. the more i can raise, the more beautiful the book will be as a philosoprop in-and-of itself.

i am crowdsourcing not just the means to print the book, but generous friends are already in the process of helping to edit and proof-read the manuscript. i am also seeking thoughts on publicity, and recommendations on appropriate outlets for distribution (thanks so much to everyone who has already offered ideas!). i am attaching the press release below – please feel free to share it with anyone you feel may be interested!

and please don't hesitate to contact me with any thoughts or questions you may have!

thank you very much to everyone for your ongoing support.

JUNE STUDIO NEWS

"The Impossible Community" by John P. Clark

dear friends, for the past 4+ months solid, since the close of my "solo" * show and associated dialectic revivals at gasser-grunert gallery in nyc, i have been writing. and writing some more. i have something up my sleeve that i look forward to introducing soon...

meanwhile, i'd like to present the obvious international, a sub-work that has emerged from the larger, still-under-wraps project.

"the obvious international" is an imaginary collective - one joins by imagining oneself a part of it.
the manifesto was published this week in article form at truthout - the precepts are being crowdsourced - all are invited to contribute!

i'd also like to invite you to read my interview with social ecologist john p. clark at loyola university on his excellent new book "the impossible community: realizing communitarian anarchism". here's an excerpt:

"We need to stop demanding the impossible and simply do what is impossible. The strongest evidence for the possibility of something, including the impossible, is its actual existence. So, to begin with, we have to do some serious anarchaeology, uncovering the rich history of free community that lies under layers of domination and the ideology of domination." - John P. Clark

in an effort to support my writing habit, i have made available a brand new edition of OM (recorded with 136.1 Hz) ties in the sonic fabric shop, just in time for father's day! on sale now thru the end of june. OM edition yardage in black is also available - special discount for anyone on this list - please inquire.

all best,
alyce
alycesantoro.com
@alyceobvious

*autonomy is an illusion

UTOPIA: you are here

i am attempting the impossible because the possible is entirely unacceptable.

existence precedes essence: the ashtray teacup philosoprop

Ashtray/Teacups, Glass teacups, ceramic paint, letterpress “EXISTENCE essence” tag, open edition begun circa 1995.

Back during my teenage obsession with the existentialists, in an effort to help me understand what Sartre meant by existence precedes essence, my father (a philosophy buff) used the example of a teacup that is used as an ashtray.  A person (or thing) is not necessarily what he or she (or it) purports to be - we are instead defined by our outward function and actions. If the teacup is used as an ashtray, can it really be considered a teacup, or does it take on a new existence as an ashtray?

The Ashtray/Teacup is perhaps my earliest philosoprop.

dialectic revival #4: "really literally literary" with nina katchadourian & elizabeth demaray

dialectic revival #3: wendy osserman's movement score for sonorous sails

Dialectic Revival #3, January 21, 2013: Site-specific movement score by Wendy Osserman performed by dance company members Lauren Ferguson, Emily Vetsch, Cori Kresge, and Wendy Osserman at Gasser-Grunert Gallery for Alyce Santoro's Sonorous Sails.

The Sonorous Sails (Tell-Tail Thangas After Sandy) are a set of 2 sailboat-sail-like shapes (21' x 10' and 17' x 5') made of Sonic Fabric, a textile woven from cassette tape. The sound collages contained in this edition of fabric include samples collected on and under the streets of New York City during the 5 years immediately following 9/11/2001. The "Between Stations" album is available for free download here: soundcloud.com/sonic-disobedience/sets/between_stations

 Tell-Tail Thangas (After Sandy) were created in December of 2012 especially for the cathedral-like lower gallery at Gasser-Grunert, which was entirely submerged during Hurricane Sandy. The sails, pointing to the heavens, are symbols of resurrection, resilience, reverence, and cooperation with nature.

tell-tail thangkas (after sandy) at gasser-grunert

My solo exhibition Philosoprops & Ontological Apparatus from the Center for the Obvious & (Im)Permacultural Research opened at Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert Gallery, 524 W19th St, NYC on January 10, and will remain on view until February 16, 2013.

Tell-Tail Thangas (After Sandy) are a set of 2 sailboat sails (21' x 10' and 17' x 5') made of sonic fabric, a textile woven from cassette tape. The recordings contained in this edition of fabric include sound-samples collected on and under the streets of New York City during the 5 years immediately following 9/11/2001. The "Between Stations" album is available for free download. Tell-Tail Thangas (After Sandy) were created in December of 2012 especially for the cathedral-like lower gallery at Gasser-Grunert, which was entirely submerged during Hurricane Sandy. The sails, pointing to the heavens, are symbols of resurrection, resilience, reverence, and cooperation with nature.

dialectic revival series

WELCOME to the DIALECTIC REVIVAL

This month, as part of the Philosoprops & Onotological Apparatus exhibition in NYC at the gallery of Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert, we will be hosting a series of focused discussions in the spirit of a Dialectic Revival.

The primary goal of the dialectic method is to pool knowledge and compare and contrast differing viewpoints on a matter for the purpose of deepening overall understanding. Unlike forms of debate in which one side attempts to demonstrate the superiority of a singular view over an opposing one by any means available (including emotional persuasion not based in reason), those willing to engage in a new dialectic favor logic, analytical proof, and rational deduction. Those who participate in dialectic discourse recognize that all conditions are in a continuous state of flux, and therefore definitive resolution may not be possible.

We hope you can join us at 523 W 19th St. for the following discussions:

SATURDAY JAN 19

5pm: "Green Hermeticism and Eco Art"
A discussion on art, science, alchemy, and associated apparatus with Eve Andree Laramee, Linda Weintraub, and Dehlia Hannah

SUNDAY JAN 20

3pm: "In Search Of..."
Killing the Buddha editors Brook Wilensky-Lanford, Nathan Schneider, and Meera Subramanian will invite dialog on quests for the divine, using their own experiences as jumping-off points: searches for the Eden of the past, proof for the existence of God, and an Eden of the future, respectively. Click here for Facebook invite.

MONDAY JAN 21

6:30pm "Site-Specific Movement Score in Room Submerged During Sandy" Wendy Osserman with dance company members Lauren Ferguson, Emily Vetsch, and Cori Kresge will cite the specific.

7pm: "Trigger Points After the Storm"
In a post-Sandy environment can we layer bioregionalism, environmental justice and intuition for coastal resilience? We will explore how aesthetic tools can trigger healing. Hosted by Aviva Rahmani, with Wendy Osserman.

TUESDAY JAN 22

7pm  "Philosoprops & Ontological Apparatus"
Implements as catalysts for discourse with Nathaniel Katz proprietor of the Pacifist Library, Chris Robbins of Ghana Think Tank, and "Really Literally Literary", a special spontaneous action with Nina Katchadourian and Elizabeth Demaray

philosoprops & ontological apparatus at gasser-grunert gallery

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Philosoprops & Ontological Apparatus

from the Center for the Obvious

& (Im)Permacultural Research

by Alyce Santoro,

Delicate Empiricist

All Are Invited to Join the Center for the Obvious & (Im)Permacultural Research, a Semi-Ephemeral Anti-Institution Dedicated to Reverence of Phenomena and Non-Phenomena. Associated Artifacts & Happenings at Gasser-Grunert, 524 W 19^th St., New York, NY from January 10^th through February 16^th, 2013.

On January 10 from 6pm – 8pm Please Gather With Klemens Gasser, Tanja Grunert, and Alyce Santoro (Delicate Empiricist) for the Hoisting of a Sonorous Sail, Woven from Cassette Tape Recorded with Samples Collected On and Under the Streets of New York City.  

ALSO OFFERED:

VARIOUS PHILOSPROPS:

The Homeopathic Remedies for the 5 Ills of Society – based on the premise that like cures like, tinctures to counter VIOLENCE, DETACHMENT, CONSUMERISM, ALIENATION, and GREED were made from dilute solutions of bullet, glue, water from Wal-Mart, emptiness, and money, respectively.

The Upside-down LIFE – silkscreened on newsprint, this enlarged version of the LIFE magazine logo is intended as street art, to be applied upside-down. In a topsy-turvy world, making things right begins with a mental shift.

Goethe’s Game – delicate pieces exist within a closed system, each entity acting on others regardless of physical proximity. Based on 1970’s toy “Booby Trap” and quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "If you would seek comfort in the whole, you must learn to discover the whole in the smallest part," and Buckminster Fuller, “The entire universe is in tension.”

SUBTLE REALITY TECHNOLOGIES:

Assorted wearable apparatus, including a Satellite Dish Hat, a Copper Listening Pillow, and Sonorous Superhero Suits made of fabric woven from cassette tape.

(IM)MATERIALS & HAPPENINGS ASSOCIATED WITH OUR HYPOTHETICAL CAMPAIGNS:

CHOOSE DETERMINISM – Research-in-progress into a “grand unification theory” for philosophy: can free will and determinism operate simultaneously, as do the paradoxical laws of classical and quantum physics?

Dialectic Revival ­­– Ongoing collaborative inquiry and improvisation. TBA.

ABOUT THE CFTO/IPR:

The CFTO/IPR encourages exploration into Joseph Beuys’ postulate, “Before considering the question WHAT CAN WE DO we have to look into the question HOW MUST WE THINK?”

Our inquiries lead to the generation and collection of philosoprops, catalysts for open-ended discussion around a range of social, scientific, and philosophical concepts. In order to effectively communicate about these themes we are working to revive dialectic, an earnest form of information-pooling that acknowledges and embraces paradox, nuance, flux, and interrelationship.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe referred to research based on intuition and empathy derived from prolonged observation as “delicate empiricism”. With a background in science and scientific illustration, CFTO/IPR agent Alyce Santoro uses a delicate empiricist approach to the development of conceptual movements and multimedia catalysts for dialog and social engagement that challenge notions of separateness between seemingly disparate entities.

Santoro is the inventor of Sonic Fabric, an audible textile woven from recorded audiocassette tape, and has initiated several experimental social action campaigns including the Synergetic Omni-Solution, the Dialectic Revival, OCCUPY EVERYWHERE, the USE HALF NOW Campaign, and Collective Democracy. She is a frequent contributor to Truthout.org, where she writes about the social construction of human relationship with the biosphere. She moved from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook seven years ago to experiment with appropriate technologies (including permaculture, rainwater harvesting, small-scale solar, etc.) in the Big Bend region of far west Texas, 90 miles from the Mexican border.

For more information please contact:
website: http://www.gassergrunert.net
email: tanja@gassergrunert.net
phone: 646-944-6197

the structure of a philosophical revolution

Dear All, I’ve recently returned from an inspiring and intense month in the northeast, where I left my heart with friends, family, and everyone who is recovering in the devastating wake of Hurricane Sandy.

During the month of October, as a result of my constructive critiques of Bill McKibben’s article on climate change’s terrifying math, I was invited by 350.org and Blue Mountain Center to spend two weeks cloistered away in upstate New York with 20 other socially/ecologically focused artists/activists. Together we discussed messaging and strategy, shared information and skills, and imbibed the restorative qualities of BMC, brilliant company, and the splendor of autumn in the Adirondacks.

For me the experience was both affirming and unsettling. It was a privilege to have the opportunity to share ideas with a group of people all working in different ways to foster a culture with a set of new “normals”, a culture within which it usual to think and act with reverence and concern for one another and the world at large, to listen deeply without judgment, to work collaboratively without hierarchy or competition. During the residency I had planned to work on the Dialectic Revival, a paradox- and nuance-embracing dialog project…but it was entirely unnecessary, since every conversation unfolded in precisely the way I’d been imagining. We discussed our simultaneous senses of hope and hopelessness, the balance between independence and interdependence, art and activism. Together, for 17 days, we lived in the changed world we wish to see. Staving off overwhelm at how to best deliver a similar sense of creative cooperation to a wider audience with limited support from established systems was a collective challenge.

It became more obvious than ever to me that we are in the midst of a cultural paradigm shift unlike any since the 16^th century move away from the geocentric model of the universe – there are those who already have a visceral understanding of humanity’s ultimate interconnectedness with the biosphere, and those who are fiercely resisting.  I expound upon this idea further in my latest article Structure of a Philosophical Revolution.

Another profound tidbit reinforced by the BMC experience is that often the most potent illumination devices contain humor (sometimes referred to as “tactical frivolity”), ritual, &/or abstraction. As in sailing, the most direct route is not always the most efficient. Herein lies the socially transformative potential of art. Bill McKibben is inviting us to “do the math”, to understand fully the dire state of Earth’s ecology from a rational, scientific standpoint. In addition, artists can help us to feel the math, to bring meaning and purpose to existences that have been devoid of these vital things since the dawn of the scientific age, when we began to value tangibles over intangibles.

My experiences during the last half of this year (attending the Marfa Dialogs on the Politics and Culture of Climate and Sustainability and participating in ISEA2012, in addition to the focus residency at BMC) have increased my resolve to continue exploring a “middle way”, a separate discipline that Goethe referred to as “delicate empiricism”. I look forward to sharing my research with you.

I leave you with a song taught to the BMC group by a fellow resident, the stunning singer-songwriter Anais Michell:

Woyaya (by British Afro-pop band Osibisa, Sung by Art Garfunkle)

We Are Going
Heaven Knows Where We Are Going
We’ll Know We're There

We Will Get There
Heaven Knows How We Will Get There
We Know We Will

It Will Be Hard We Know
And The Road Will Be Muddy And Rough
But We'll Get There
Heaven Knows How We Will Get There
We Know We Will

We Are Going
Heaven Knows Where We Are Going
We Will Know We're There


Thank you BMC, 350.org, and dear generous friends without whose support this experience would not have been possible. 

studio news: ISEA2012 and new articles at truth-out.org

Dear All, I hope your summer has been replete with meteors, ice pops, and other seasonal delights! Those in or near Albuquerque, I hope to see you at The International Symposium on Electronic Art 2012 where, after more than a decade of existence in only partial form (as a book that can be folded into a box) The Universal Raisin Cake Theory will at long last make its debut as the multi-part installation it was intended to be, complete with giant raisin-galaxies that guests to 516 Arts will be invited to lounge upon while contemplating the text and having a bite of Universal Raisin Cake. The opening is September 20 from 6 to 8pm. Also as part of ISEA, I'm looking forward to doing some field recording/sound-collage-making workshops with high school students.

As the state of our world becomes increasingly tenuous, I find my roots in science playing a more overt roll in my work. I've recently written two pieces (both published in Truth-out) in response to Bill McKibben's feature in Rolling Stone titled "Global Warming's Terrifying New Math"; as dramatic and ubiquitous as the data on our changing environment may be, it is proving difficult to use it to discern what tangible actions we can take to address the problems. I've written this 2-part series in the interest of shifting from fear to action:

"We Have Met the Environment, and it is Us"
"The Multifold Resistance: An Invitation" (or "How to Break Up With Big Oil: a Complex Relationship")

As a result of these two pieces (and the ongoing Synergetic Omni-Solution project in general), I am honored and delighted to have been invited by 350.org and Blue Mountain Center to attend a focus residency during the month of October in upstate New York for artists working to communicate about our planet's delicate ecology.

A third piece, also published this week in Truth-out, serves as an introduction to both the and Dialectic Revival projects: What Does Collective Democracy Look Like? It's Up to Us

As excited as I am about all of these things, none are particularly lucrative. In an effort to generate funds I have opened an on-line PHILOSOPROP SHOP stocked with a range of philosophical sundries & supplies, including sonic fabric accessories and yardage. There's also a DONATE button for those not currently in need of philosoprops, but who feel compelled to support the ongoing work of the Center for the Obvious & (Im)Permacultural Research nonetheless.

Ever-Grateful for Your Support,
Alyce