Open Skies 2.0

Installation view of Hachiya Kazuhiko's Open Skies 2.0 exhibition at the NTT Intercommunication Centre, Tokyo. Hachiya is best known for his Air Board series of jet engine powered hoverboards based on the hoverboard from the Back To The Future.

This exhibition itself was a gallery based presentation of the process of planning, building and flying self built aircraft, but unlike the AirBoard you can't fly in a gallery so instead visitors were offered the chance to win a simulated ride by completing various tasks. I'm interested at the moment (as my MA show approaches) in approaches to presenting work which happens outside of the gallery in a gallery context and this impresses me wioth it's effective balancing of sculptural objects natural to a gallery space with process documentation which can come across sometimes as tedious and a bit overly precious if not handled properly. The obvious comparison (flying machines) is of course with Belgian artist Panamarenko except with the (not only) conceptual difference that these flying machines actually left the ground. Of course, me being me, I wondered did they actually fly, would it be better work if they didn't but the artist went to elaborate lengths to convince us that they did, or does it matter?
More images at my flickr page.

Garrett Lynch's Quote Me

Every good artist has at least one quote, aphorism or soundbite attributed to them, yet the new media artist barely has time to keep up with the rapid change of technology let alone spend time thinking of witty aphorisms.
Garrett Lynch's Quote Me is a work, triggered by users to its web page, that reuses quotes and the date they were expressed from various online sources for the busy new media artist who hasn't time. Quotes are relevant comments to current political and social events, both nationally and internationally, taken from the current headlines of a handful of global newspapers via their respective rss / xml feeds, yet placed without context or explanation.
more about the work here

Art Stars vs local artists virtual soccer challenge

As part of the all hawaii eNtrées / luNar reGGae exhibition opening tomorrow at IMMA Pallas studios in the spirit of global and local exchange and by way of introduction to the artists of Dublin City, has invited the international artists from All Hawaii Entrées / Lunar Reggae, to select a Best XI of artists, for a Virtual football challenge, off-site in the Pallas studios. Participants include from the local side Brian Duggan, Mark Cullen, Gavin Murphy, Gillian Lawlor, Vanessa O'Riely, David Beattie, Mark Cullen, Niamh McCann, Seodin O'Sullivan, David Beattie, Vanessa O'Reilly, Conor McGarrigle,Tim Redfern, John Buckley and LIVE commentary from Nevan Lehart and on the art star side Anri Sala, Carsten Höller, Jorge Pardo, Dominique Gonzalez Forester, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Doug Aitken, Douglas Gordon, Liam Gillick, Sarah Lucas, Alighiero e Boetti, Sarah Morris, Cerith Wyn Evans and Michel Majerus. Kick off is 3pm Thursday 30th at Pallas Studios 17 Foley St Dublin 1.

Claude Closky Net Artist

Net art by Claude Closky, I liked Pedagogy, U and his free wallpapers aren't bad either. And he's blogging too.

John Gerrard at the RHA Dublin

John Gerrard's new exhibition Dark Portraits opens at the RHA Dublin this Thursday and includes the sublime (pictured)Smoke Tree III. Highly recommended.

Pinchneck & Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square

From the autumn update at the great UbuWeb Bruce Nauman's Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square available to download. I saw this during the summer at the excellent Mouvement des Images exhibition at the Pompideau in Paris and it really is worth the download.

McCoys in the Washington Post

Feature article about Jennifer and Kevin McCoy( one of the most interesting artistic duos working today) in the Washington Post.

Via Rhizome

Carsten Holler at the Tate

Carsten Holler's installation at the Tate Engine Hall which open tomorrow. The installation consists of five slides including one which falls five stories, and yes you can slide on them.

more photos here

The return of Sparklehorse

After a five year gap Sparklehorse are back with a new album Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain and they're touring with dates in Dublin on the 14th & 15th of October. It's great to see to him back and healthy the last time I saw him in 2002 I wondered if I'd ever see him again.

Never heard of Sparklehorse? Download the live Radio France Black Session from September 25th 2006
via Kwaya Na Kisser

Culture Night

Tonight is Culture Night in Dublin where museums and galleries and cultural institutions stay open until 9pm (some 'till 10).It's a great idea and I welcome it as such but the execution is so disappointing. 9pm is late night shopping, the Tate opens till 10pm every Friday and Saturday so it's hard to get excited about opening an extra 3 hours once a year. Culture Night is based on La Nuit Blanche in Paris which is a 7pm - 7am night of inspired mayhem which takes over the city. While I accept that you've got to start small it would seem to me to that midnight should be the starting point. Still go out and support it, maybe next year...

La Science des rêves

I saw Michel Gondry's brilliant (his best yet and Gael García Bernal's best role) new film La Science des rêves / The Science of Sleep in Paris during the summer. Watching it I thought that the sets belonged in a gallery - turns out I was right and Deitch Projects in New York have an exhibition of the sets. Interestingly Sophie Coppola's Marie Antoinette was also released in France this summer and like The Science of Sleep has still to hit the cinemas here yet.

Hellfire

I was at the launch of newest Irish literary sensation Mia Gallagher's first novel Hellfire last evening. Hellfire is the big autumn Irish book from Penguin Ireland, the weekend papers were full of reviews and interviews, and you can't miss it in all the bookshops. It's great to see books of this calibre get the attention they deserve. IMO this is a major new Irish literary voice and Hellfire is an important novel about where Dublin is now that everyone should read. Recommended.

Vending Machine art

The art vending machine at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin. I attended the opening at Crawdaddy last night where it was an almost complete sell out but there should be still work left in the Project and Connolly Station.
More pictures at my Flickr

The Vending Machine Project

The Fringefest Vending Machine Project launches tomorrow at Crawdaddy 6pm, all are imnvited. The machines will be in the Project Arts Centre, Crawdaddy and Connolly Station and there's a full list of all the works available. Some pretty good stuff there and all for a fiver! Methinks you'll have to move fast to get your hands on some of those. I must mention that my work whereismyart.com - a limited edition of 12 - will be for sale in the Project Arts Centre machine.

Dun Laoghaire Festival of World cultures

Ferris wheel going up for the Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures which is on this weekend . There's so much going on it's practically impossible to give recommendations but check out the schedule here. That said Trans-Global Underground & Trio Bulgarka on Sunday look particularly good.

Turn me on dead man

Turn me on dead man an exhibition by Paul Murnaghan at the Basement Gallery Dundalk open this Friday the 18th 7.30 pm
The title of Paul Murnaghan’s latest exhibition refers to a reversed message embedded in a 1960’s vinyl album, it could also be read as an elastic mantra applicable to varied factions through the ages. This new body of work comprises of drawing, installation, video and sound. The drawing is a necessary device, used only to reference places and people from a past life accessed through hypnotic regression.

Murnaghan acts as documenter, illustrator and guinea-pig whilst exploring elements of cultural phenomena such as glossolalia 1 and reverie. By aligning diverse psychologies, he leads us to a place of obsessive yet common conviction, that allows the seemingly neurotic to be declassified and returned to the norm.

His practice is process-based, it often involves the construction of mnemonic devices and immersive research within disparate environments. The results when gathered, documented and positioned, display an intricate and potent sense of inquiry into the mechanics of memory and belief.

Basement Gallery Town Hall
Crowe St. Dundalk 042 9396437
basementgallery-at-dundalktown.ie
Opening Hours: Monday - Friday 10 - 4:30 Saturday 10 - 1

Memorius at Birr Arts Festival

Paul Murnaghan is restaging his project Memorious (mentioned previously) at the Birr Arts Festival in Co. Offaly this Saturday and Sunday (12th & 13th August) using advertising space to offer for sale, part of his memory capacity. The time and place of meeting is decided by the 'activator'and the chosen memory is then monumentalised' in the artist's brain, sealed in wax and returned to the individual.

Grey Gardens

The Maysles brothers cult documentary Grey Gardens is showing tonight on BBC4 for those of you who get the channel. The film tell the story of Big Edie and Little Edie, mother and daughter, lived with a menagerie of cats and racoons in their derelict mansion in the posh Long Island seaside resort of East Hampton. Their genteel squalor became a cause célèbre when Jackie Onassis, Big Edie's niece and Little Eadie's first cousin, tried to help them clean up the house.

James Coleman at IMMA

Don't miss James Coleman's slide-tape installationI N I T I A L S (which I'm glad to say is beautifully installed) at IMMA until the 3rd September. James Coleman is probably the most important and certainly the most influential contemporary living Irish artist whose work is bizarrely rarely seen in the country.

I N I T I A L S Coleman uses a slide-tape format (multiple transparencies projected with synchronised audio tape) in his continuing investigation of the psychological, social and historic conditioning of perception. We see an unusual assortment of people in what could be a hospital setting, but might, with equal relevance, refer to a TV drama studio, with the attendant preparatory rituals for both settings. As the piece progresses, the voice of what appears to be a child spells out words or utters disparate statements, diverging more and more from the sequence of events depicted visually, calling into question photography’s traditional claim to documentary authenticity.

A further element of uncertainty is introduced through the variety of different genres in which the artist chooses to present the images, from popular television soap opera style to the serenity of a 17th-century Dutch portrait. Cocooned in a darkened and carpeted space, the work challenges the viewer to move through the space and find their own vantage point, thereby becoming part of the core experience of deconstruction and reconstruction. Lynne Cooke in a recent essay on Coleman’s work describes the process whereby “weaving references drawn from film, from drama and from painting, Coleman situates his trilogy in a hybrid realm, one that allows him to comment obliquely on these canonical art forms and their traditions without, however, fully subscribing to any.”

dEUS Live

I saw dEUS not once but twice while in Paris, first at the Solidays festival where the picture was taken (there's more if you're interested on my flickr page)I saw them last November in Dublin when this tour kicked off and they rocked then but have since turned it up a few more notches and that in front of a French audience determined to confirm the national stereotype that they can't rock. I also caught another inspired performance on the opening night of the Paris Plage where they where joined by Stef Kamil Carlens (co-founder now in Zita Swoon)which just added to my belief that they're the best live band on the road today. They'll be at the Electric Picnic in September, don't miss them.

Blackletter.ie Irish art portal launched

Blackletter.ie is a new collaborative workspace for Irish contemporary art created by Alan Butler, Cliona Harmey and Niall Flaherty the site features news, articles, an art calender with a self publishing feature but their opening project a google maps mashup showing ephermal, temporary and location based artworks around Dublin shows that this is going to be a lot more clued in then art.ie for example. Of course the success of projects like this rely on users so go sign up now!

Net Art Open 2006 launched

I'm pleased to announce that the Stunned Net Art Open 2006 launched today. Now in it's fourth edition the Net Art Open takes a different approach to the curation of Net Art online. Rather then present a single event based exhibition selected by a curator or panel of selectors the Net Art Open is an ongoing blog based process which will unfold over the next six months. Curatorial bias has been removed by accepting all work which meets the criteria. The result is a true reflection of the state of Net Art now.

The emphasis in this edition will be bringing the exhibition to the audience, taking account of the changing way people access the net. With so much new work being produced all the time even with the best will in the world it's difficult to keep up so the Net Art Open will be blogged one work at a time with RSS feeds for newsfeed readers and blog aggregators, each entry will be tagged for technorati and del.icio.us and a flickr pool will be created. In addition each entry will feature on the front page of Stunned.

The net art open was started in 2002 by Conor McGarrigle and Arthur X. Doyle as part of the Irish Museum of Modern Art.com intervention, subsequent editions were in 2003 and 2004-5..

This Way Up

Issue three of the excellent collaborative Dublin Comic This Way Up is now available for download and should be hitting the streets in print format before too long

NCAD Graduate Show

K Bear Koss's robot and friends at the NCAD Graduate exhibition opening last night. The exhibition continues until the 18th, post grads are at the Digital Hub 10-13 Thomas Street and under graduates at NCAD 100 Thomas St.
Opening Hours
Saturday 10.00am to 5.00pm
Sunday 2.00pm - 5.00pm
Monday to Friday 10.00am to 8.00pm

NCAD MA show

Fine Art Postgraduate Exhibition opening Friday June 9, 6 to 8pm at the Digital Hub, 10 to 13 Thomas St. This years exhibtion features a diverse range of artpractices that are socially and politically engaged with aspects of contemporary life. Many of this years graduates have employed participatory and collaborative strategies in their work. There will be three performance taking place on the opening night Friday the 9th June 6 to 8 pm Digital Hub Warehouse Thomas street, Barbara Knezevic, K Bear Koss, and Augustine O’Donoghue. Exhibition runs 10 to 18 June. The exhibition runs 10 to 18 June. The undergraduate show takes place at NCAD at the same time.
As a 1st year MA student at NCAD I'd like to add that it'll be great and that all the cool kids will be there!

The Photography of Richard Mosse

From Beiruit to Pakistan, Srebrenica to Iran Richard Mosse shows the aftermath of war and natural disasters through it's effects on the architecture in his extraordinarily powerful photographic series.

Bande A Part

Nouvelle Vague have a new album Bande à part coming out soon with another great selection of new wave classics including
Echo & The Bunnymen - The Killing Moon
Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead
Blondie - Heart of Glass
Visage - Fade To Grey
Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love
New Order - Blue Monday
Old Kentucky blog have The Killing Moon and Bela Lugosi's Dead available as downloads in original and Nouvelle Vague's reworked versions.

Better then the real thing

Opening tomorrow 6pm at Four Gallery Dublin Better Than the Real Thing? is an exhibition-in-progress featuring Saoirse Higgins & Simon Schiessl, Enda O’Donoghue, Martin Shannon and Jürgen Simpson that enables endless reinterpretation of ideas by sidestepping the creative limitations of copyright, each of four original artworks by the artists explores separate aspects of reproduction and re-telling of a story and each work discloses different information about the mark of authenticity in art of the present day.

The opening clashes with the Dun Laoghaire IADT School of Creative Arts Graduate exhibition opening also at 6pm, the DLIADT exhibition continues 'til the 8th June and the Four Gallery until 22 July both are worth checking out.

Seoul Net Festival

The 2006 Seoul Net Festival kicked off yesterday with lots of good work including my own project Cyclops which is a finalist in international competition in the webwork category

CORRUPT™

CORRUPT™ by Recyclism, upload an image to get it corrupted.

Exhibition Opening Wednesday

I am taking part in an exhibition of work in progress by MA students at the NCAD which opens this Wednesday 6pm at the Backloft Gallery. Augustine St(off Thomas St).. It should be a really interesting show and I'll be showing something quite a bit different from my usual so I hope you'll all make it along. Full details below and please note that it's a short run exhibition ending Sunday the 30th.

You are invited to the opening of
MAPLESS
Backloft Gallery,
7 - 11 Augustine St.
Dublin 8

Wednesday April 26th, 6-8pm
to be opened by
Mick Wilson

Samantha Corcoran,Ed Cunniffe,Shea Dalton,Francis Fay,Barry Foley,John Graham,Rory Greenan,Sarah Kenny,Barbara Knezevic,Katharine Lamb,Aissa Lopez,Jonathan Mayhew,Conor McGarrigle,Grainne Nolan,Aiseling Noone,Emer O Boyle,Sarah O’Brien,Michael O’Hara,Magnhild Opdoel,Dominic Thorpe,Lorraine Walsh

Weds 26th to Sun 30th April 2006
Continues through to 5.00 p.m. Sunday April 30th.
Opening times 11.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. daily.

Mapless is independently organised by M.A. students from the National College of Art and Design

Art vending Machines

Here's an interesting call for submissions for art content to be sold via art vending machines during the Dublin Fringe festival, how can you resist?

DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL 2006 VISUAL ART EVENT

'THE VENDING MACHINE PROJECT' (curated by Alan Butler and Lola Rayne Booth) are seeking submissions from artists/designers/musicians to create small works to be sold in vending machines around Dublin for the duration of the Dublin Fringe Festival 2006. As part of the Dublin
Fringe Festival, The Vending Machine Project will offer an alternative space for artists to exhibit, engage with the public and promote their work. Selected artists will be required to make 10 small works under the dimensions of 15cm x 15cm. Proposed artworks can be multiples, editions, originals, photos, CD, DVD, etc.

E-mail submissions:
thevendingmachine -at- gmail.com .

- 3-6 images of previous work (.jpg only)
- current C.V .
- short proposal (no more than 300 words)3-6 images of previous work (on CD or prints – NO SLIDES & DO NOT
SEND ORIGINAL WORKS AS SUBMISSIONS WILL BE KEPT ON FILE FOR FUTURE
REFERENCE)
- current C.V.
- short proposal (no more than 300 words) THE VENDING MACHINE PROJECT c/o Studio 5, Temple Bar Galleries & Studios, 5-9 Temple Bar, Dublin 2, Ireland.
DEADLINE: 31st May 2006.

Beckett centenary

Now that the Beckett Centenary Festival has kicked off a few things around town that caught my eye. Start with I not I, Samuel Beckett, Philip Guston and Bruce Nauman at the RHA gallery which includes the Bruce Naumann's great Clown Torture installation

and the Neil Jordan directed Not I. The exhibition was having a few teething problems at the opening with monitors on the blink and the sound from Not I being drowned out by another piece but I loved the rooms constructed in the main gallery to show the shorts.
Also check out John Minahan's iconic Beckett photographs at the National Photgraphic Archive and I see that Dublin is going to get a Beckett themed series of projections by Jenny Holzer

Dublin Art openings

Get your art shoes on for this week's crop of Dublin openings

PALLAS HEIGHTS
Pallas Heights have four exhibitions opening this Friday 24th 6.00 - 7.30pm which'll also be the last exhibition there before the building is demolished.

Fergus Byrne, Fiction, flat 25
Clodagh Emoe, Metaphysical Longings, flat 28
Vanessa O'Reilly, SWARM, flat 29
Via, flat 30

Pallas Heights, 29 Sean Tracey House, Buckingham St, Dublin 1.
Exhibition continues March 28th - 15th May.

LUMENS
Lumens a light based public art work by Seamus Kennedy based at Newtownsmith in DunLaoghaire is being launched today at 6.30 in the County Hall Marine Rd, Dun Laoghaire.

SAMUEL BECKETT, PHILIP GUSTON & BRUCE NAUMAN AT RHA
To celebrate the centenary of Samuel Beckett the RHA exhibition combines two of America¹s most outstanding artists of the twentieth century together with three recent films of Beckett¹s shorter plays. The three Beckett plays chosen are from the recent productions by Blue Angel Films/ Tyrone Productions. The British artist Damien Hirst directs Breath, Neil Jordan directs I Not I and Karel Reisz directs Act Without Words 1. These plays will be shown as continuous video projections in three separate rooms in the Academy¹s main gallery.

They will be punctuated by six of the late paintings of Philip Guston
(1913-1980). Bruce Nauman (1941) shows Clown Torture, 1987 and Slow Angle Walk (Beckett Walk). Nauman will also be represented by a major sculpture South America Triangle, 1981, where the lexicon of Nauman¹s and Beckett¹s props overlap.

Opening Thursday 23rd 6-8pm at the RHA Ely Place

MARIE FALKSTEN AT THE LAB
An exhibition of photographs by Swedish artist Marie Falksten opens at the LAB Foley Street, Dublin 1 on Friday 24 March to 22 Apri at 6pm

RAYMOND WATSON AT THE JAMES JOYCE HOUSE OF THE DEAD
Hands of History opens Thursday 23 March 2006 at 6.30.
Exhibition continues until the 23 April. James Joyce House of the Dead, 15 Usher¹s Island, Dublin 8.

The Net Art Open 2006 call for entries

I have just launched the 2006 call for entries for the Net Art Open. The Net Art Open is an open submission exhibition for internet based artwork which accepts all valid entries. I first created it with Artie Doyle in 2002 as part of the Irish Museum of Modern Art.com intervention subsequent editions took place in 2003 and 2004-5

Click here for more information on how to participate

Nigel Rolfe @ the Graphic Studio

FLOWERS Absence and Loss an exhibition of limited edition digital prints by Nigel Rolfe opens this evening at the Graphic Studio Dublin and continues until March 4th. Nigel will also give a talk on the exhibition on Tuesday 7th at 1pm, book at (dublin) 6798021.

Black Brain Radio opening

Black Brain Radio is a radio artwork created by Garrett Phelan opening at the Temple Bar Gallery and Studios tomorrow at 6pm. It'll also be broadcast on 89.9FM 24 hours a day for 30 days starting on the 19th and online at Garrett's website

Classic Movie downloads

From archive.org a selection of classic movies to download :
Fritz Lang's classic M (pictured)
Luis Buñuel's Un Chien Andalou
F.W. Munarau's 1922 Nosferatu
Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari the sets of which were believed to have been a great influence on Kurt Schwitters Merzbau
Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin
Hitchcock's 1934 The man who knew too much
Bela Lugosi in White Zombie
And finally a 1942 propaganda film for ehh...hemp Hemp for victory

Brian Duggan @ Pallas Heights

More often than most an exhibition by Brian Duggan opens this Friday 6-7pm at Pallas Heights, More information about the exhibition and Pallas Heights here. If you haven't been to Pallas Heights yet go now, it's easily the most interesting alternative exhibition space in Dublin, the block of flats housing it is scheduled to be demolished in the new year and it's very unlikely you'll see it's like again.

dEUS MP3s

As a preview of Deus at the Ambassador here in Dublin tomorrow an MP3 of Bad Timing from the personally highly recommended Pocket Revolution for your downloading pleasure.

Peripheral Visions

Peripheral Visions is an ongoing video art exhibition which started in April and ends with a major symposium in November at the Cork Film Centre Curated by Nigel Rolfe and Cliodhna Shaffrey it features the cream of emerging European video art with the work of one artist being screened each week over 38 weeks.
The project features 28 artists from Britain, Western Europe, Scandinavia, the Baltics, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. A further 11 Irish artists have been selected to participate in the project, creating new works mentored by Nigel Rolfe. Participants in the Irish component have access to shooting and editing facilities at Cork Film Centre.
The climax of the project will be a high profile symposium to be held on 18th – 20th November 2005 in the Granary Theatre, Cork.
More information from Cork 2005 and from Cork Film Centre

Dublin Art College Graduate Shows

It's that time of year again with graduate exhibitions at NCAD, Dun Laoghaire IADT and DIT

Contagious Media Showdown

Eyebeam's contagious media showdown is now open for voting, includes many classics you've heard of already like crying while eating, ringtone dancer and goodbye bitch

Nouvelle Vague The Guns of Brixton

Nouvelle Vague are a French collective with eight chanteuses who do cover versions of late 70s early 80s new wave songs, download this version of the Clash's The Guns of Brixton (direct mp3 link) from Insound sung by the latest French singing sensation Camille , you'll either love it or hate it, I love it.
link via fingertips Music weekly finds

Net Art Open : Bien Commun

David Zérah : Bien Commun

Scream

Scream is a software application to facilitate screaming.
Scream sits quietly in your computer's system tray and automatically springs into action when it detects a scream. Scream can be used in private. Or public. It can be used at home, at work, or on the street; at a Fluxus-style Scream-in; at the mall or at your favorite cafe. When your throat gets tired, Scream can double as an unusual music visualizer - or as a new approach to digital filmmaking. Use Scream to start a meme. Or simply as a random act of deprogramming.

Ubu web artist's film downloads

UbuWeb has launched a collection of historic artist's films to download including Luis Buñuel, Yoko Ono, Kenneth Anger, Luis Buñuel, John Cage, Guy Debord, Marcel Duchamp, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Robert Morris & Stan VanDerBeek, Isidore Isou, Nam June Paik, Man Ray, Robert Rauschenberg, Hans Richter, Harry Smith and Jack Smith, George Maciunas, Robert Watts, John Cale.

Friday links

A satellite image of the now adrift B-15A iceberg – the world's largest floating object, the Antarctic iceberg is around 120 kilometres long, with an area exceeding 2500 square kilometres, making it about as large as Luxembourg. You can also check out a webcam of it's movement.

Satanic backtracking of popular songs in particular check out another one bites the dust and hit me baby one more time

Queueing for the Star Wars film, obviously a slow learner. The thing I wonder about is how Darth Vader is going to grow about three feet before he puts on the hat?

A €40 fisheye camera from Lomo

Nice Reuben Bolling cartoon exposes the menace the library system presents to the publishing industry

McLibel

An interview with Franny Armstrong the director of McLibel the documentary about the McLibel case where McDonalds sued a postman and a gardener for libel, the case became the longest running case in British legal history which ended with the judge ruling that McDonalds 'exploit children' with their advertising, produce 'misleading' advertising, are 'culpably responsible' for cruelty to animals, are 'antipathetic' to unionisation and pay their workers low wages. But as the defendents failed to prove all the points the Judge ruled that they HAD libelled McDonald's and should pay £60,000 damages. They refused and McDonald's let it drop.
BBC are showing the documentary this Thursday

Rhizome Commissions finalists

The finalists from the first round of voting for the Rhizome commissions have been announced and my proposal Sirens has made the list. Once again, gentle readers, who are also Rhizome members I humbly ask you to VOTE FOR ME VOTE FOR ME!!!!

This Way Up

This Way Up is a graphic magazine/publication where multiple artists interpret a single story through Dublin's streets. The story follows four separate characters and the Joycean parallels are obvious, 14 artists contributed to the first issue which is free and can be picked up at Anthology Books or Crow Corner comic shop. The entire magazine is also available online. It's highly recommended, I'm certainly looking forward to the next edition.

The Gates

As Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Gates approaches you can follow the preparation with the new The Gates @ Central Park Blog and lots of construction photos

The future of New media art?

I've seen the future of new media art and it's broadbandart.ie , well ehh maybe. Broadband art is a pilot scene where two artists were commissioned under the percent for art scheme as part of the broadband infrastructure rollout. It's uncertain as to whether it will be continued but I certainly hope so as I've long thought that percent for art commissions could be the holy grail of a 'market for digital art'.

French film festival

The French film festival is underway at the IFI in Dublin, I caught some films over the weekend and there's lots of good stuff but I've got to recommend the Belgian film Aaltra, definitely the funniest film I've seen all year. The festival continues until Sunday, full schedule to be found here.

Videoactive: Documentaries From The Edge

The Videoactive Documentary Festival is on this weekend in Dublin. The festival will showcase a series of feature length politically commited documentaries from around the planet, the majority of which have not been screened in Ireland previously, as well as a selection of recently produced documentary shorts.
Full lineup information here

Green energy

I just signed up with Airtricity so from now on all my electricity will be generated by windmills, it's cheaper then the fossil fuel alternative and signing up is as easy as filling in a form.

Outfoxed public screening

A public screening of Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism takes place tomorrow Wednesday 13th October in room 207, Liberty Hall Dublin, starting at 7.30pm