NEW | ArtReview:Digital

Same Magazine, Just Digital

Experience ArtReview: Digital. Since last month’s launch, thousands upon thousands of people from around the world have tuned in to the digital version of ArtReview magazine. Zoomable, searchable, easy to navigate and downloadable, ArtReview:Digital is available anytime, wherever you are in the world. Try out ArtReview:Digital and receive six complimentary issues, including Contemporary Collecting (January 2007) and Future Greats (March 2007).

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ARTICLES | Art Books in Germany

A couple of articles on the Goethe Institute's website discussing art books and art publishing Germany.

A Growing Market – The International Art Book
Initially the international art book market established itself through the western art metropolises and has in the meantime extended as far as China. Martin Zähringer describes this trend in the first part of his article and in the second part presents some art book publishing houses that are playing a leading role in this development.
http://www.goethe.de/wis/buv/thm/dik/en1663415.htm

German Art-Book Publishers Make it on the International Scene
Since the 1990's German art-book publishing has been booming. Digital lay-out processes, the involvement of museums, galleries, art collections and the art-book publishing companies themselves in various scientific-cum-journalistic projects, as well as new global sales strategies using international distribution channels have enabled the art book to become a reasonably priced medium that is available everywhere. Read on to find out about some of the key players on the German scene.
http://www.goethe.de/wis/buv/thm/dik/en1664553.htm

COMMISSION | Writer Provocateur at Chapter Arts Centre

Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff is looking for a Writer who can act as a Provocateur to create writings to be published in a variety of formats: on the internet; the Chapter magazine and website; and across a range of public media including journals and newspapers in Wales and the UK.

Chapter is offering a six month commission of £5,000 to engage a writer on a freelance basis to work with Chapter’s staff, particularly in the Cinema, Theatre, Visual Arts and Marketing departments to create writings in response to the public programme at Chapter in conjunction with developing partnerships for publication of written texts. The stimulation of these publishing opportunities will be partly the responsibility of the writer, to assist in developing a wider public profile through critical review, preview and discussion of events and artists working at Chapter. The opportunity to explore different kinds of writing and publication, from experimental to journalistic to web blog is encouraged as part of the commission.

The commission is due to last between January and June 2007. The appointed writer will be expected to dedicate a minimum of two days per week based at Chapter to work on the commission.

To apply please write a letter with a supporting CV addressed to Carol Jones, Marketing Manager either by post at the address above or by email to carol.jones@chapter.org

Info:
http://www.chapter.org

INTERVIEW | Design Journalism

Having been commissioned to write an essay about a fitout of an office environment, I've taken a slight turn in my writing practice and started to investigate design theory, criticism and journalism.

Here's an interview that addresses some issues associated with design journalism - Frozen Pictures? Can Design Journalism be Reinvented?
Julie Lasky Editor-In-Chief, I.D. Magazine & GK VanPatterCo-Founder, NextDesign Leadership InstituteCo-Founder, HUMANTIFIC / UnderstandingLab, New York

Interview online at:
http://www.nextd.org/02/07/01/index.html

EVENT | The NY Art Book Fair

Printed Matter, Inc. presents The NY Art Book Fair, New York City’s first annual fair devoted to contemporary art books and artists’ books. Over 70 international exhibitors, from major distributors and antiquarian dealers to independent publishers and artists occupy a dual-level 20,000 square foot space. The fair takes place 17 through 19 November, 2006, in the heart of Chelsea’s gallery district at 548 West 22nd Street. A ticketed Benefit Preview on Thursday, 16, 6-9 pm, November benefits Printed Matter, Inc. Admission to the fair and events is free.

Exhibitors and participants from New York City to Reykjavik and Tokyo are convening to share their involvement and activities with contemporary art books. Friendly Fire, a curated zone of artists and independent publishers features artists and art collectives who self-publish in a free-spirited range of forms from books and ‘zines to CDs and DVDs. Events including book launches, signings, performances, and talks take place each day of the fair. Creative Time launches Who Cares, their new book exploring art and social action with performances and presentations by Michael Rakowitz, Seth Tobocman, Dread Scott and Mark Tribe. Matthew Higgs moderates a panel on Printed Matter’s 30th anniversary—Can We Trust An Organization Over 30? Artists present for book signings include Jen DeNike, Silvia Kolbowski, John Lurie, Josephine Meckseper, Paper Rad, Walid Raad, and Tom Sachs, among others. Brooklyn artist/designer j.morrison presents an interactive, performative silkscreening station. PERFORMA presents the fair’s finale with a performance by Clifford Owens, a recent resident at The Studio Museum in Harlem. Afterwards, RoseLee Goldberg will give comments on the relationship between performance art and documentation.

Specially commissioned for the Fair, artist installations by Joshua Smith and Jan De Cock are on view all weekend. Joshua Smith surrounds the Friendly Fire zone with hundreds of event posters. Jan De Cock debuts a conceptual sculptural installation that forms Thea Westreich and Ethan Wagner’s fair booth to launch his new book, Denkmal ISBN 908042427. D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers exhibits a new poster series by Gerhard Richter. Also on view will be REPLICATION: The Books of Sol LeWitt, an exhibition of over 40 works curated by AA Bronson to honor LeWitt as one of the founders of Printed Matter as well as a seminal conceptual book artist. In honor of Printed Matter’s 30th anniversary, artists Richard Prince, Matthew Brannon, and Chris Johanson have created new limited editions for the fair’s opening night Benefit Preview. Tickets are available at three price tiers and each level of admission is accompanied by a limited edition artwork.

Info:
http://www.nyartbookfair.com

COMMENT | Art and travel ...

Browsing through the email news headlines, I note a story about Salvador Dali's theatre-memorial in Figueres, Spain in the travel section of today's bulletin. Still disappointed by the ABC's decision to axe its Radio National program, The Deep End, as the latest loss of arts coverage in the media (and this blog is full of such reports from around the world), I can't help but wonder if travel sections and writers might gradually pick up the slack. Unlike everyday life (note of sarcasm), travel and tourism seem to go hand in hand with cultural experiences such as visits to 'edgy' cultural precincts or pilgrimages to the great masters in their resting places. While alternative arts and culture seem to garner no interest from the local media, tourism and travel guides highlight them as adding much colour and interest and well worth visiting.

What's particularly notable about this intersection between travel and art is that it seems to hark to an older style of art writing that David Carrier describes in his book Writing About Visual Art and something akin to Alain de Botton's undertaking in The Art of Travel.

EXPERIMENT | Philip ...

Philip
Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland
Source: e-flux

Inspired by the worlds of Philip K. Dick, Philip attempts to look at architecture, ideology and socio-political constructions by bringing together a group of international artists, critics and curators whose common language in this instance is their fascination for the world of science fiction.

For Philip, a group of international artists, curators, designers and writers have been invited to partake in a writing workshop, public talks and film screenings which will conclude with the publication of a limited edition sci-fi novel. Technology, ideology, architecture, political construction and the prospects of global ruin are at the heart of sci-fi narratives and at the heart of Philip (a project in . The invitees share a fascination for alternative realities, postulating the impossible and creating new worldviews. The science fiction writing workshop led by Heman Chong (SG) and Leif Magne Tangen (NO) is developed out of their joint online project "Untitled (Excerpts #01)", a collection of 103 submissions of dialogues taken from sci-fi writings expressing an authoritarian gesture available at http://www.philipville.com.

The workshop participants - Mark Aerial Waller (UK), Cosmin Costinas (RO), Rosemary Heather (CA/DE), Francis McKee (IR), David Reinfurt (USA) and Steve Rushton (UK/NL) along with Chong and Magne Tangen, will endeavour to collectively write a new novel envisioning the last week of the year 2019 in the life of a character that is desperately fighting for time to save his world.Public talks by the workshop participants (organized in cooperation with Critical Voices) will consider “being wrong about the present”, mushrooms and virtual reality, a science fiction library, Benjamin Franklin and the Network Effect, the emergence of a new society of humans as the results of animal experiments, the recurring dream of the destruction of our cities, and other phenomena.

Philip concludes with the publication of a new limited edition novel, produced at the Just-in-Time workshop by Dexter Sinister, New York.

For more information:
http://www.project.ie/

NEWS | Arts lose more media space ...

The end of Radio National's The Deep End ...

Radio National's weekday arts and culture program The Deep End has been axed, leaving no dedicated cultural show on the network. The Deep End featured arts news and events coverage in Australia and overseas across multiple disciplines. Segments such as Deep End Five and the Maker allowed artists and performers to discuss their craft in detail.

Read more about ABC axing online at:
http://www.artshub.com.au/ahau1/news/news.asp?Id=104171&ref=