In Fiery Protest, John Craig Freeman Sets Art Ablaze

In solidarity with Antonio Manfredi, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Casoria, Italy, who burned his artwork to protest deep cuts to the arts, John Craig Freeman set his seminal augmented reality artwork, “Water wARs” ablaze in Venice.

“Water wARs on Fire: Giardini,” by John Craig Freeman, augmented reality public art, Venice Italy, 2011.

“Water wARs on Fire: Piazza San Marco,” by John Craig Freeman, augmented reality public art, Venice Italy, 2011.

Manfredi’s “art war” consists of setting works of art on fire to protest cuts to Italy’s arts budget. He’s pledged to incinerate two or three pieces of art each week from a museum collection housing about 1,000 exhibits.

You can read the full story or listen to the report at NPR.

“So far, he’s received no official reaction. But Manfredi’s bonfires have sent sparks around Europe, garnering solidarity and igniting similar protests in artist colonies in Germany, Wales and England,” and now in the virtual art world.

AR on AR – Occupying Virtual Space – a presentation by GARhodes

“Occupying Virtual Space: AR(t)” With the proliferation of smartphones and free public apps such as Junaio and Layar, channels of virtual space paralleling real locations have become a new architectural space in which to create, exhibit, and distribute art. Though uncurated and uncontrolled, this virtual landscape draws on the aura of the real spaces in which it is anchored, playing at protest, playing at deconstruction, without ever completely manifesting.

Geoffrey Alan Rhodes is a media artist, film- maker, and writer. His works seek out new connections between the real and the virtual, the cinematic and the actual, fine art and popular experience. www.GARhodes.com

ZERO1 Press Release

“From Lewisburg to Silicon Valley,” by John Craig Freeman and Lily & Honglei, 2012.

ManifestAR @ ZERO1 Biennial

Global Plutocracy: arOCCUPY May Day

arOCCUPY May Day is a non-violent action meant to send a message to the 1%. Augmented art works from around the world will take over the financial district on May 1st. The global community will be heard in the heart land of the 1%.

arOCCUPY May Day is being organized by Mark Skwarek US and Warren Armstrong AU from ManifestAR and Augmented Reality Activists.

Global Plutocracy, John Craig Freeman, Red Square, Moscow, May 1, 2012.

Where To?, לאן?

The Israeli Center for Digital Art
המרכז הישראלי לאמנות דיגיטלית

Where To? is an exhibition dealing with historical and contemporary lines of thought concerning the Jewish question. The exhibition returns to the history of Zionism, and through new artworks, asks to explore ideological currents developed and ultimately rejected within the Jewish question. This, while considering the Jewish existence at the present time and its problems.

Effi & Amir | Yochai Avrahami & Doron Tavori | Ariella Azoulay | Ronen Eidelman & Yulie | Khromchenco | Michael Blum | Yael Bartana | Joseph Otmar Hefter | Michael Zupraner | Elad Larom | Avi Pitchon | Nirit Peled & Malkit Shoshan | Chaya Ruckin | Melissa Shiff, Louis Kaplan & John Craig Freeman | Nurit Sharett

Reanimating Ararat

Two Perspectives on Mordecai Noah’s Jewish Homeland

Date: April 16th, 2012
Place: University of Toronto
Time: 4:00 – 6:00 pm

Download Reanimating Ararat Poster

“Noah’s Ark on the Niagara: The Intellectual History of Mordecai Manuel Noah’s Territorialism.”
Adam Rovner, University of Denver

“Mapping Ararat: Envisioning a Virtual Jewish Homeland”
Louis Kaplan, University of Toronto
Melissa Shiff, University of Toronto
John Craig Freeman, Emerson College

In 1825 Mordecai Noah proclaimed Grand Island New York to be a refuge for the Jews. He called it Ararat – the rest is history… and digital Art.

With field testing of Mapping Ararat: An Imaginary Jewish Homelands Project, on location on Grand Island New York.

Adan Rovner reads Mordecai Noah's proclamation on the virtual Ararat cornerstone, Grand Island, NY, April 17, 2012.

(Un)seen Sculptures, 2012

Rozelle, Sydney, Australia

In March this year, the second edition of (Un)seen Sculptures, a mobile 3D augmented reality art show, is being presented by dLux MediaArts as part of Art Month 2012.

"DéchARge de Rebut Toxique," John Craig Freeman, Sydney Australia, 2012.

The exhibition will be staged in locations along Darling Street, Rozelle and throughout the Callan Park precinct, and will feature works by Australian artists and international visitors from as far afield as the USA, China, Portugal, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Augmented Reality Workshop and Public Talk with John Craig Freeman

Upgrade! San Francisco is proud to present two events with Boston-based media artist and activist John Craig Freeman at SOMArts Cultural Center (934 Brannan Street, San Francisco).

2-day Workshop: “Making Art with Augmented Reality” 
Saturday March 31st & Sunday April 1st, 11am–5pm both days.
REGISTER HERE

Learn how to place digital 3D objects in real physical space (virtually) forever. Augments can be created in any scale for any location in the world and viewed through the camera and screen of mobile devices.

This workshop provides a hands-on and in-depth introduction to AR for participants to make giant artworks, public interventions and personal or historical memorials. This is a beginner to advanced workshop. No previous programming or design experience is required.

All participants in John’s workshop will have their finished digital augment and a 17″ x 22″ color print automatically added to the current SOMArts exhibition “I Am Crime: Art On the Edge of Law“.

Free Public Talk: “Emergent Technology as Art Practice and Public Art as Intervention”
Thursday, March 29th, 7-7:30PM meet and greet; 7:30-8:30PM lecture + questions.

John Craig Freeman is a public artist with over twenty years of experience using emergent technologies to produce large-scale public works at sites where the forces of globalization are impacting the lives of individuals in local communities. John is currently an Associate Professor of New Media, at Emerson College (Boston) in the Department of Visual and Media Arts and a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts, at UC San Diego.

Upgrade! SF, is a regular programming series with speakers and socializing designed to foster community around new media arts in San Francisco

Support for this workshop is provided by Southern Exposure Gallery Alternative Exposure Grant Program.

I Am Crime: Art on the Edge of Law

SOMArts

934 Brannan Street, San Francisco

Opening Reception Thursday, March 8, 6–9pm

Closing Reception Thursday, April 19th 6–9PM

"Goddess of Democracy," 4Gentlemen, 2011.

"Tank Man," 4Gentlemen, 2011.

“I Am Crime: Art on the Edge of Law” is an exhibition of more than 30 artists and collectives that challenge, question or circumvent the law through their work. Curated by Justin Hoover, I Am Crime touches on issues of equity—who gets to break the law, when, and why.

“True Crime,” a collaborative installation conceived by Critical Art Ensemble, invites any visitor to become part of the exhibition– click here for details.

In I Am Crime some artists’ criminal trespasses are virtual or accidental, while others contribute documentation of carefully planned civil disobedience. Still others exhibit the residue of artworks which have actually been intervened upon by the United States legal system.

Dreamers Adrift, a group founded by Jesus Iñiguez and Julio Salgado, approach illegality from a different angle. “Undocumented and Awkward,” a series of skits on video created by and for undocumented youth, highlights social inequalities faced by American immigrants.

Non-anonymous exhibiting artists include:

4Gentlemen	Scott Kildall
E. Clair Acuda Bandersnatch	Stewart Long
Miguel Arzabe	Mark McCloud
Ray Beldner	Ann Messner
Fracis Baker	Julio Cesar Morales
Oscar Brett	Jeremy Novy
Lisa K. Blatt	Nite Owl
Mike Bonanno	Guy Overfelt
Danny Buskirk	PLOTS
Susie Cagle	Favianna Rodriguez
Critical Art Ensemble/Steve Kurtz	Victoria Scott
Marque Cornblatt	Julio Salgado
Dreamers Adrift	Eric Stewart
Corbett Griffith	Sweetooth
John Craig Freeman	Luther Thie
Molly Hankwitz	Zefrey Throwell
Jessica Hess	Hans Winkler
Jesus Iñiguez	The Yes Men
Lily & Honglei	Michael Zheng

Press

Nirmala Nataraj, ‘I Am Crime’: Art explores creativity, resistance, San Francisco Chronicle.

College Art Association 2012

College Art Association, 100th Annual Conference

Public Art in the Virtual Sphere

, sponsored by the Public Art Dialogue

Christiane Paul, Ben Rubin and John Craig Freeman, Photo by Vaneeesa Blaylock.

Thursday, February 23, 2012, Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa St. Los Angeles, CA

Chairs: Mary M. Tinti, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum; John Craig Freeman, Emerson College

John Craig Freeman, Emerson College

Christiane Paul, The New School

Ben Rubin, EAR Studio

Whereas the public square was once the quintessential place to air grievances, display solidarity, express difference, celebrate similarity, remember, mourn, and reinforce shared values of right and wrong, it is no longer the only anchor for interactions in the public realm. That geography has been relocated to a novel terrain, one that encourages exploration of mobile location based public art. Moreover, public space is now truly open, as artworks can be placed anywhere in the world, without prior permission from government or private authorities – with profound implications for art in the public sphere and the discourse that surrounds it.

Browse the Emergent Technology as Art Practice and Public Art as Intervention Presentation.

Please see Vaneeesa Blaylock’s review “Public Art in the Virtual Sphere,” in I Rez Therefore I Am.

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Mobile Art: The Aesthetics of Mobile Network Culture in Place Making

Jenny Marketou, Sarah Drury and John Craig Freeman, Photo by Vaneeesa Blaylock.

February 25, 2012, Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa St. Los Angeles, CA

Chairs: Hana Iverson, Visiting Scholar, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and Dr. Mimi Sheller, Director, Center for Mobilities Research and Policy, Drexel University

I-5_Passing/52 Food Marts Project, Christiane Robbins, Jetztzeit

Narration in Hybrid Mobile Environments, Martha Ladly, Ontario College of Art and Design

Silver (Gateways): Being Here and Everywhere Now, Jenny Marketou, independent artist

Mechanics of Place: Textures of Tophane, Sarah Drury, Temple University

ManifestAR: An Augmented Reality Manifesto, John Craig Freeman, Emerson College

The integration of mobile and locational technology into physical place has broadened the possibilities for the creation of new spaces of interaction and opened the disciplinary boundaries used to define and understand the public arena. When real places are merged with virtual worlds, or augmented with interactive digital media, the result is a completely new “hybrid” environment where physical and digital objects coexist in real time. What are the potentials of mobility spaces as new sites for integrating creative invention, public participation, and social interaction? With presentations from artists, scholars, and interdisciplinary collaborative teams that engage art that incorporates cell phones, GPS, and other mobile technologies, this session focuses on emergent forms of mobile art that engage, subvert, or recombine perceptions of the definable (visible) and indefinable (invisible) aspects of place that simultaneously reveal and construct their stabilities and instabilities, their materiality and nonmateriality.

Browse the ManifestAR: An Augmented Reality Manifesto Presentation.

Please see Vaneeesa Blaylock’s review “Where is Public Space?,” in I Rez Therefore I Am.