Automata 2012

We’re pleased to announce the preliminary schedule for Automata 2012:

*updated 1/21/12* SATURDAY, NOV. 3:  Special preview evening in the Patrick Taylor Library at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, featuring Silver Apples.  (please see following entry for further details)

SATURDAY, NOV. 10: Models and Miniatures opens at Barrister’s Gallery (through Dec. 2).

SATURDAYS, NOV. 17 & 24: Automata at The Ironworks.

Deadlines for proposals and submissions (*UPDATED 1/12*):

General proposals, for any exhibit:  September 1.

Grants and travel funds will have to be worked out in advance of our fundraising efforts, as we need to make a budget projection.  Please contact us by Feb. 5 if you can only participate with financial help and seek it in partnership with our resources and efforts.  We are talking with artists and groups about budget concerns and making plans now.  We intend to apply for a kickstarter fundraising page by the end of February.  We encourage anyone out of state to contact us about coordinating travel expenses with others from your region.

MODELS AND MINIATURES

“A large figure seemed to me false and a small one equally unbearable, and then often they became so tiny that with one touch of my knife they disappeared into dust. But head and figures seemed to me to have a bit of truth only when small.”
-Giacometti

Call for project proposals:
Models and Miniatures centers around the maquettes and miniatures of mechanical sculpture and tiny universes- this is an experimental garden focusing on distortions of perspective, biological material, and the proving ground for the future of Automata in general, in the intersections of science and art. The heart of this exhibition will be the pillars of traditional mechanical and kinetic sculpture in model and miniature form; all other proposals should touch on bio-art and the use of art in science and vice-versa, towards the creation of this garden/universe of miniatures. Barrister’s Gallery is a traditional gallery- the indoors is climate-controlled and we will be making use of the courtyard and grotto for outdoor projects. Project proposals do NOT have to be miniature in a literal sense. The overall effect of a garden means that though each project or work of art will stand on its own, the display will not be traditional, and it will be the decision of the curator how the work will be integrated into the overall exhibition, while maintaining the integrity of each work and artists’ intent.

AUTOMATA at the IRONWORKS – our 3rd year:

Call to artists for the 3rd annual Automata exhibition, once again at the Ironworks warehouse at 612 Piety St. in New Orleans! Bring In the Machines.
Mechanical and kinetic sculpture, indoors and outdoors, from traditional automata to the digital and biological and all creaking and clanking and beeping and atomic things in between. This year, proposals for Rube Goldberg machines are highly encouraged.

We’re happy to say that the Ironworks warehouse is becoming more and more weatherproof, and there is ample indoor and outdoor exhibition space for projects of all sizes and capabilities. There are many architectural elements to the building and grounds that can be taken advantage of.

Depending on our fundraising capabilities and success in coordinating with out of state artists, the goal once again is to arrange for consolidated transport from several regions. If you would like to come to New Orleans to be part of Automata, we will do our best to arrange for free or cheap and comfortable accommodations, and to work out the logistics of transporting your work safely here and back. We will need your participation in fundraising efforts to make this possible!

We will hold a fundraising series this spring, first to secure costs of the show. Our main goal once again is to provide grants to artists for materials and projects, as well as to import artists and work from outside New Orleans. Our priority is with local and regional artists, but we’re looking forward to bringing back artists from Alabama, N. Carolina and Texas as well as artists we’ve had our eyes on from points far north, northeast, and west!  Look for our now annual Cheap Art Auction and BBQ Raffle in the next few months! Automata and Models and Miniatures are open to international artists, but our ability to help ease the costs of participation is very limited- this should not dissuade you or anyone else from contacting us:  automata.nola@gmail.com or in the comments below.

This life is a fine life!

A Technological Terrarium Closes

Ratty Scurvics, solo piano at the Ogden for A Technological Terrarium closing party, 9/12/11

Thank you, to all at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art!
From board members to head curator Bradley Sumrall, PR Director Sue Strachan, and the Kohlmeyer Circle, to the super enthusiastic Melissa who, armed with garbage can and broom, was our favorite appreciator, and the very very patient no-nonsense security staff headed by Monica who kept our show running and available at odd hours- and everyone who is employed at the Ogden, who helped us in every detail- this was a lot of fun. We look forward to more!

(This is sooner than you’d think, as several Automata artists are adjusting their spectacles in preparation for an after school class partnership between the Ogden and Warren Easton High’s STEM Academy. We had a great time last week meeting with the STEM students as they toured A Technological Terrarium and look forward to the start of our educational adventure.)

Congratulations to the artists and thanks to Sue Strachan and reporter Chriss Knight of ABC 26 WGNO New Orleans for putting us on television– that was great early (early early early early early) morning surrealism.

Chriss Knight reports on David Sullivan's "Identity Theft"

Our record of Technological Terrarium is posted on flickr: CLICK FOR LINK

Any further documentation please let us know! Thanks again, everyone- artists and Ogden. Lots more to come.

meetings!

No meeting this week!

However, a piece of news OR TWO: the Models and Miniatures aspect of Automata has a home. Barrister’s Gallery, November 2012.

inside outside upside down

& a brief note before futher elaboration:
Technological Terrarium at the Ogden Museum
closing reception: Monday, Sept. 12, 6-8pm
with Ratty Scurvics and his Invisible Trio!
free! cash bar!

Next open meeting:

Sunday, August 28
1pm
1912 Marais St. (map)

Potluck & BYOB!

come over

Open Meetings!

Everyone interested in Automata is welcome to come to St. Roch Tavern on Sunday, August 21, 1pm. We’ll discuss ideas for the 2012 show and plans for fundraising, teaching, and projects. Until we find a host home for weekly meetings, we should be able to make St. Roch Tavern our regular weekly meeting spot: Sundays at 1pm! The Tavern is 21 & up, pretty quiet in the daytime and plenty of light coming in the windows. Updates will be noted on this blog.

If you arrive here via the Ogden‘s info sheet for Technological Terrarium, please refer to THIS ENTRY for more information, including the list of artists and links to more of their work. Thank you!

Automata 2011 wrap-up; the marathon begins anew.

Let’s make this a straight-forward and practical missive! Automata 2011 went beautifully- we have a full-fledged fledgling society in New Orleans. Automata is another lively forum of ideas and inventions, in practice and imagined, that follows in line with the alchemist’s dictum: as above, so below. Digital hackers, academics, garage tinkerers, auto mechanics, cabaret dancers, blacksmiths, scientists, gardeners, carpenters, bartenders, entrepreneurs and architects are all intrinsic to the spirit of Automata and what it brings to life in New Orleans.

Also, we’re truly delighted to be part of the great exhibitions at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art this summer. The Kohlmeyer Circle is working towards including technology-based artwork in the museum environs, and we reap the benefits of a new friendship with the staff of the Ogden. This includes the opportunity to start connecting skilled artists with students who want to understand the possibilities of technology and science outside the requirements of the classroom. We hope to work with the Ogden and other institutions who have built up solid educational networks to connect our artists with students, young and old, who can learn from our interdisciplinary approach to art and science.

Some press from Automata 2011 at the Ironworks
(click bold type for links)
Times Picayune:
All Automata articles! – from Doug MacCash to NolaVie essays–
AUTOMATA

Walk-through video of the 1st weekend of Automata by Inside Art writer and Gambit Weekly critic D. Eric Bookhardt!

Georgia Kennedy!

Photos:
Nicola Krebill on flickr: Automata 2011
(any others: stories, photos, videos, reviews, please pass them on.)

Thanks to:
Everyone who worked their asses off, to fund-raise, to set up, to finish their pieces in the nick of time, and to keep them running. Also thanks to Simeon Coxe (Silver Apples) and Wynn LeVert (Amphibian Lark) for the icing and flourish and essence of the cake, and vicariously, our first real sponsors: Euclid Records, New Orleans and PRESS STREET and the Allways Lounge.

Special appreciation goes to Gilbert Buras of the Ironworks and the true gears and cogs of 2011: James Goedert, Bob Snead, Leslie Selting, Tallulah Elvis Poodle, Ember Soberman, Kourtney Keller, William Kirchheimer, James Weber, Lefty Parker, Mark Koven and the N. Carolina crew, and others I will edit this entry to add ad infinitum for awhile.

Also thanks to everyone who supported us with our insane and intense fundraisers– raffle donors, artwork donors and labor and flavor (like: really good cooking &/or drink making) and time donors; host bars and houses, and EVERYONE WHO SPENT MONEY. ALSO EVERYONE WHO MADE STUFF AND DONATED IT SO PEOPLE COULD SPEND MONEY THAT WE SPENT MAKING AUTOMATA HAPPEN. Thank you.

Thank you.

I’m amazed at and grateful for the enthusiastic support of Automata at our fundraisers and the show– from businesses willing to donate, to strangers, art lovers, and unexpected people who suprised me constantly by their excitement and willingness to drop a dollar and their 13th hour on this show. We have benefited from the positive lessons that the Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs have taught us about how to live well and truly. For Automata to survive as a beneficial organism, we must live up to this inspiration.

There is a lot to plan on for fall of 2012. We have already begun. The tentative anchor month is November (of 2012! do not panic but don’t delay).

We plan this time to bring in a contingent from the west coast- the excuse being: Return of the Swarm!

Give them full freedom to run autonomously and take over planet Earth, so long as New Orleans remains the Mothership. Expanding from our designs on the geniuses of Louisiana, N. Carolina and Texas, this West Coast contingent will allow us to bring in quite a catch.

I’ll post this again, but here is a basic break-down of 2012 plans:

The show will be tri-parted and display locations diverse.
A Rube Goldberg Machine Competition
Automata, weekend one and two
Models and Miniatures (a Kircherianum)

I’ve long included “bio art” in the description of and calls for Automata, but this year we are going to concentrate on including bio-art as it relates to the spirit of this show. As a diversion, and long necessary, we are duty-bound to introduce and host a Rube Goldberg Machine Competition to this region. The rest follows….

If you are in New Orleans and interested in being part of Automata 2012 please leave your contact information- we are about to begin weekly meetings and are looking for people with all kinds of skills and ideas to come on by.

A Technological Terrarium: Automata artists at the Ogden

Under the auspices of the Kohlmeyer Circle, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and head curator Bradley Sumrall, the work of several Automata artists is now on display in the Ogden’s tunnel, to the back left as you enter, just off the atrium!

The opening night, August 6, was also the massive annual Warehouse/Arts District sweat-fest known as White Linen Night, which brought record crowds to the shows at the Ogden. An audience ordinarily not thought to pay attention to the mechanical rumblings and digital bleepings in the deep hollows of a downtown warehouse were introduced en masse to an intimate selection of the eccentric and sensible talents that make up an Automata exhibition.

The show runs through September 12. We will have a closing reception, TBA, with more artists and live music.

Thanks to Doug MacCash from the Times Picayune for the nods on White Linen Night!
Before
&
After

Click here for the flickr collection (in progress) of the Technological Terrarium exhibition and events in the Ogden’s Tunnel.

ARTIST LIST (names in bold linked to web page):
Bob Snead
“ATM”

David Sullivan
“Identity Theft”

Taylor Lee Shepherd
“Box”

Gumbo Labs
Sirens – Prototype I: August 2011
Mixed Media- CD, thread, foil, feather, electrons

Christopher Deris
Trees: 1, 2 & 3
Word Extractor Machine
” You took the words right out of my mouth”
(see video)
What if words were material? Maybe those perfect words you have always wished to say were just stuck in the back of your throat. Having a conversation would necessitate a unique set of tools.
Word extractors are delicately handmade pliers, reminiscent of antiquated medical instruments, elegant and outmoded. Designed to distill the act of communication down to an absurdly simple act of mechanically retrieving words from the mouth of another.
This is a machine, word extractor machine, that demonstrates the use of these tools by enacting an intimate conversation from the movie “Say Anything”.

James Goedert
Too Tall To Fix Small #3
(ladder)
Drawing Machines: Line and Color
battery-operated animals with ink pen legs take over a tabletop.

Kevin Brown
Stray
kinetic sculpture- dog

H. Cole Wiley
Building Bridges Out of Buildings
(click here to view artist statement)

Samuel Joyce
Observation on the Preponderance or Ponderousness of Modularity in Design
(Cyclops skeleton spy)

Adam Farrington
Trumpet Boats and Snag Boat
They will flap their wings.

With great thanks to Bradley Sumrall, Chris Voigt and the Kohlmeyer Circle, Sue Strachan and Ellen Balkin. Many many thanks to the security staff who turn the show on every morning, and to all who work at the Ogden. We look forward to more!