Lectures NYC | Richard Aldrich on Walter De Maria

We headed to DIA Chelsea last evening to hear Richard Aldrich tell us about Walter De Maria. Expecting to hear a lot about land art, earth art, and other such installations, we focused our thoughts on such works as The Lightning Field, The Broken Kilometer, etc.

However, Richard Aldrich gave us an entirely different perspective. Noting that he wasn’t all that interested in land art, he was drawn to De Maria by his sound art. His pursuit of the land artist work started from his exposure, as a DIA bookstore employee, to the CD of Ocean Music and Cricket Music.

Ocean Music begins with the sound of the ocean which is superseded by De Maria’s drumming. In contrast Cricket Music starts with the drumming and ends with live cricket sounds. Aldrich was attracted to the “feeling” creation in these CDs, a process oriented creation, as opposed to a “thing” creation.

It is the “feltness” of the experience that Aldrich favors in Walter De Maria's work. De Maria as land artist takes a long time to create the final artwork,flattening the its final understanding and fruition. His work is about time; time is his medium and how he utilizes it is its feltness. This slow experience is out of documentation, and even not available by computer viewing: computer images are flat; they can reveal only how art is seen and how it functions, not how it is felt.

camminado NYC | October 6 from Sunrise to Sunset

My walking started with the sun rising on the Central Park lake

 My walking day continued to Chelsea, passing by the Apple store, quite interesting and puzzling to see the "shrine" of candles, apples and sticky notes to Steve Jobs...

I arrived to Chelsea in time to see the sun setting behind the New Jersey skyline from the Hudson river.

My evening continued at the Chelsea Art Museum, opening "Black Zero" by the Italian artist Aldo Tambellini: a retrospective exhibition of paintings, sculpture, lumagrams, videograms, film, video, and television work (1960-1990).

On my way back another monochromatic enigmatic vernissage at the Art Gate Gallery, showing Peter Gregorio "The Many World Interpretations"

Events NYC | Occupy Wall Street

"Occupy Wall Street" continues! Since September 17 thousands have been gathering in Liberty Square in a non-violent protest. Who is "Occupy Wall Street"

The leaders of this movement are the everyday people participating in the occupation. We use a tool called the "General Assembly" to facilitate open, participatory and horizontal organizing between members of the public. We welcome people from all colors, genders and beliefs to participate in our daily assemblies. Visit the NYC General Assembly website to learn how you can become involved, read updates/minutes, or find out how you can adopt NYCGA processes to organize your own community.

To find more info and way to participate visit "Occupy Wall Street" site.

In Memoriam | Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there.And yet death is the destination we all share.No one has ever escaped it.And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.They somehow already know what you truly want to become.Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Steve Jobs

commencement speech at Stanford University ,2005

Exhibitions | Columbia County Contemporary Art

Columbia County is well renown for the  mid-19th century Hudson River School, the art movement focused on the romantic interpretation and representation of the nearby landscapes. But a contemporary visitor can go beyond Olana in the timeline as Columbia County flourishes with contemporary art galleries. While in the recent years Hudson has seen the main galleries concentration, several galleries have recently opened in the town of Chatham.

My Chatham art galleries pick is the Thompson Giroux Gallery located in 57 Main Street. The gallery currently shows “Line and Color” an exhibition of works in different media, ranging from painting to drawings, sculpture and installation and including works by Emily Cheng, Jean Feinberg, Tom Hopes, David Paulson and Michael Tong.

Events | Linking Mind and Brain, lecture at CUNY Graduate Center

Tonight the CUNY Graduate Center hosted a conversation between the theoretical physicist (neurophysicist) William Bialek and the philosopher of psychology, Jesse Prinz ,author of the forthcoming book The Conscious Brain.
The conversation touched several topics ranging from quantitative biology and neuroscience to philosophy, visual illusions, pseudoscience.

Bialek started the conversation introducing that the focus of  theoretical physics as the mathematical analysis of nature, is often taken over by a qualitative description, able to fill the gaps left by quantitative methods. Jesse Prinz then introduced his philosophical investigations, which in opposition to Bialek methods, start from a very large scale  and then narrow down to physical analysis — from abstract generalizations to concrete cases.

Can consciousness  be explained as a series of brain processes? The human brain has over one-hundred billions of  neurons and only a small percentage relates to consciousness. Prinz then narrowed consciousness to visual experiences, more specifically to the retinal representations occurring  in the visual cortex referred to as V1, V2, V3, V4, V5 in the brain mapping.  Brain injuries have also a great role in explaining consciousness.
Another interesting phenomenon in the study of consciousness is in the interpretation of ambiguous such as the Kanizsa triangles. Subliminal advertisement also is based on the connection between perception and conscious interpretation of perception.
The conversation continued with the fascinating numbers involved in the description of the human brain:100 billions of neurons reside in the human brain and 1mm thick of the folded cortex contains 100000 neurons cells each with 5000 connections (axons).The conversation ended with a mention of the pseudoscience often present in writings on neuroscience from mainstream publications such as the recent NY Times article "You Love Your iPhone. Literally".
The conversation dealt with several visual topics and I would have appreciated a more visual presentations. Nevertheless the overall themes were introduced in simple terms to be appreciated by a general audience —simplicity and clarity which are often lacking in the many neuroscience related events which are becoming increasingly popular.

Events | Won Dharma Center Opening

Today the US facilities of the Won Dharma Center opened with an official ceremony and service, attended by almost a thousand of people, including pratictioners as well as
visitors; many practitioners come from this event from Korea, where Won Buddhism originated.

The center is located in the Hudson Valley, in the town of Claverack; it is only five miles from Sun Farm, and less than 100 miles from other main spiritual centers in this area, including Kripalu (Stockbridge, Ma), Tendai, Zen Mountain Monastery (Mount Tremper, NY), Tendai Buddhist Institute (Canaan, NY).
As Robin Andrews, the Claverack town supervisor mentioned in her ceremonial speech, the Claverack name is the contraction of the Dutch word for "Clover Fields" and the clover leaf has a widespread symbolism, welcoming the new center focus on peace.

The name Won Dharma Buddhism comprises the words Won meaning ‘circle’ which symbolizes the ultimate reality or our true nature. From the Won Dharma Center mission:

 The Three Jewels in Buddhism are:  Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.  These are the refuges where practitioners find true peace and freedom.
Buddha means the awakened one, the embodiment of the truth within ourselves.
Dharma is the teaching of the realized one; it is the path to restore our true self or inner light.
Sangha means the spiritual community or an assembly where like-minded people live, study and practice together for a common purpose.

To learn more visit the Won Dharma Center site

Vernissages NYC | Chelsea September 30

 Rico Gatson's "Three Trips Around the Block" @ Exit Art

 Performance by Irvin Morazan @ Asya Geisberg